Head turning pale

[rkdkp]

My Beardie's head is turning pale. She is already a snow, but her head is literally almost white! This has been like that since she shed a couple weeks ago. I know it's not remaining shed, because I pulled it all off when she did shed. The rest of her color is normal, she seems to be acting fine, eating salad and crickets, etc...

Her viv, lighting, and heat are all normal...(already went through the viv another time)

Any ideas?

The only issue we have ever seen with her is that when we rescued her the week of Christmas, she had a sneeze (guessing due to being in temps of about 55 most of the time), but that subsided after a couple weeks. She's also very, very fat. The guy we got her from only fed her superworms and pinky mice. We immediately stopped the pinky mice and we have weaned her down to about a worm a week. The boy she is with hasn't really eaten anything since we got him because he was so fat and picky, but is slowly starting to eat... I am hand feeding him salad and he has now eaten 1 superworm I think. He is still soooo fat. They always have an abundant supply of salad and leave a few extra crickets in their tank, so he will start eating them at some point....

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Can you post a picture of your dragon? That would be helpful.
So her entire body shed just recently? Are you sure that her head is not shedding again?
What is the humidity in the tank?
So she is that fat? I am glad that you cut out the pinky's & have cut down on the superworms. If you don't mind, I do have a suggestion about the food intake though. When trying to slim a dragon down it is important to cut back on the food gradually. The reason is that puts her at risk for fatty liver disease due to a large influx of fat being released into the body & having to be broken down & metabolized by the liver. When they go from a large intake of food to hardly any intake of food, the liver can't handle large amounts of fat being released in that manner making it very hard on the liver.
So I suggest that you add some lean protein sources back in such as silkworms, hornworms, butterworms, or phoenix worms, & you can stick with supers too, if you want. They are very good but if you feed just supers as a sole staple, for her 15-20 per week along with greens & veggies would be good.

Tracie

 

[rkdkp]

Hi Tracie,

If you go to the Popcorn and Tatty thread under breeding, there is a pic of her on page 3. She's the one on the red towel. This isn't the most recent, but it will if you a good idea of how FAT she is! We will take another picture on Saturday.

Yes, her entire body shed, including her head, right around the time of that post as a matter of fact. I don't know for sure that she isnt' shedding again. Humidity in the tank is pretty low, probably about 30% (give or take).

We did cut it down gradually. As a matter of fact, we gave her 1 pinky a week for the first three weeks and dwindled down the Superworms. Last week, she got 2/week and now she doesn't get any. But, she has more crickets than she will eat in her tank. I have definitely not deprived them of food. She is also eating her veggies on a regular basis.

For adult dragons and being as big as she is, she is not lethargic by any means. They poo about 2 times a week. We have given her 1 bath a week since we have had her. The boy that is with her is the one that played dead on us when we gave him a bath. The guy that we rescued them from said that they mated the week before we got them, however we haven't ever felt any eggs on palpation of her. They haven't mated since we have had them. I am fairly certain that they are about 3-4 years old.

Let me know what you think and we will get another pic on here as soon as we can.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Good that you gradually decreased her food, I am happy to hear you went about it that way.
A current picture would be good.
Sometimes, they can go through pigmentation changes with age, which is a possibility. Also, there are ocassions when after they shed, their coloring looks different after their shed.
Is she done laying eggs then I presume? Hopefully so.
Yes, adults can be lazy can't they so it is hard to know if they are lethargic or lazy! :lol: Good that she is alert though. Is she eating well?

Tracie