Help! Beardie Temps/Humidity too high at night

[mushulife]

I got my bearded dragon, Mushu, about 3 weeks ago and I've had some problems with his humidity. So I live in Louisiana where the humidity is 91 on many summer nights. Its been raining a lot due to the tropical strom Cindy, and the humidity is just constantly extremely high. I have a dehumidifier in my room and at night it keeps the humidity down to only 60. So, I bought a heater for him that doesnt emit any light to get rid of the humidity. At night the humidity stays at 40. I try to turn it on and off during the night any time I wake up. His cool side is at 82 with the heater on and the warm side is at 95. I do not mist in his cage and I never put his water bowl inside his tank. I bathe him every day. I have tried using a fan to get rid of humidity as well as even putting socks with rice in them, I've heard it can help get rid of moisture in the air. I know he is losing sleep because his temps are too hot. Any suggestions?

 

[kingofnobbys]

Keep seeing posts where folks have been given poor advise about suitable temperatures and suitable relative humidity in the vivs.

Yes at night when the basking light is turned off , and as things cool , humidity in the viv will increase.
It's perfectly OK if the relative humidity is under 80% .

I rarely see relative humidities outside the range 50% - 80% inside my home in summer even with the aircon running 24/7.

I know folks who successfully keep and breed bearded dragons who live in Cairns (far north coastal)Queensland and Darwin (Northern Territory) where there are only two seasons
- The Wet (very hot and very humid tropical = cyclone/hurricane season and thunderstorms roll in every afternoon and dump inches of rain)
- The Dry (warm and dry , winter).

Is winter here (NSW) and 41% relative humidity in my house now 11:30pm (reverse cycle aircon on 24/7) .... not anything to worry about.

My beardies get night time temps at 24oC , is maybe 10oC outside right now.
In summer I run the aircon 24/7 and try to maintain about 24 - 26oC in the house overnight, might be 36oC and super muggy outside overnight (this happens lots here - subtropical coastal ).

My beardies each have a 7W heatpad in their vivs (which is sandwiched between two layers of ceramic tiles and controlled to hold 36-37oC by a simple switching thermostat and these are under their jumbo hubbahuts , and they love their warm beds.

Daytime - I set my beardies' vivs to get a basking spot at about 40oC, and warm zone about 33-35oC.

May just be relocation stress?
or the storms upsetting him ?
or maybe he's a nightowl/midnight raider - my beardies were both known to wake up and go looking for nibbles or just to watch TV on the sly sometimes as late as 1am as hatchlings .


My suggestions are :
Stop waking him up overnight to turn on the dehumidifier.
Cut back on the baths (unless he really enjoys his baths) , you are bathing way too frequently..

If Mushu is have problems settling it is worth going through your husbandry and setup very thoroughly to determine if there is an issue that can be easily fixed, noobs often get poor advise from the sellers (petshops, prior owners, even some breeders) .

A common mistake is cohabitation (if sharing tank or can see another beardie) , even if he can see another beardie , or a snake or very large lizard ?
Are there other pets (cats, dogs ) in the household ?

And details of your feeding schedule and other husbandry aspects .Might be a very easy fix .

Photos of the tank and showing substrate and lighting and of the beardie will help too. Use XIMG button to upload photos from your computer.

How heavy is he ?
...... recommend weighing him regularly (weekly say)?

Can you give us a good rundown on the setup and schedules (light and feeding) :
Basking light
........ is it a coloured globe ? (BAD)
........ what is it's wattage ?
........ how far from the basking spot ?

TEMPERATURES ?
>>> daytime
.......warm zone
.......basking spot
...... how are you measuring your temperatures ?
TOO COLD = SLEEPY DRAGON
>>> overnight minimum viv temperatures ?

UVA AND UVB ADEQUATE ?
>>> is the uv rated AT LEAST 10%UVB ?
>>> is it a COMPACT (curly globe & WATTAGE ?
>>> or a T8 tube ?
>>> or a T5 tube ?
>>> or an MVB ?
VERY IMPORTANT : what is the brand ?
(not all UVB compacts and tubes are created equal or as well , many shops sell their own brand (Zilla, All Living Things, Reptile-One, Nat Geo , Natural Selections (in green boxes) which are cheap Chinese clones made very cheaply using very poor quality quartz glass and cheap phosphors ==> very poor UV spectrum produced incl UVC band and bad parts of the UVB band)

>>> also is it covered (in a domestic fluorescent light fitting )? == BAD
>>> also is it sitting ontop a mesh top ? == BAD
>>> how far from basking spot ?
too far and the UVA and UVB WILL BE TOO DILUTE.
UVA FLUX TOO LOW where dragon is ==> a very lethargic dragon w/ a very poor apetite just in the short term , and neurological problems if this persists , not to mention MVB if UVB flux too low long enough with inadequate metabolisation of dietary calcium or inadequate intake out calcium

TANK
>>> size (L x W x H) and construction , photos of the setup are often helpful .

SUBSTRATE ?
>>> is it sand ? == BAD AND IF CALCISAND this is EXTREMELY BAD/LETHAL when ingested
>>> is it particulate ? == BAD

SHARING TANK ? == BAD

TOO SHORT A PHOTOPERIOD (lights are not kept on long enough each day , will make beardie think it is winter , recommend at least 14 HRS PER DAY)

FEEDING SCHEDULE (I recommend at least 2 hrs lights/heat on before first live feed and after last feed of the day)
>>> when are you offering live feeder insects ? what are they ? how big are they ?
>>> when are you offering greens and other veg ? what are you offering ?
good guide is here : http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutritionframeset.html

 

[mushulife]

Thank you so much for your suggestions! I agree it probably is the storms keeping him up! I don't believe it is relocation stress anymore.
Here is a rundown of my setup for you. I can't post any pics because I am not at my house at the moment. I can post them later if need be.
He doesn't share his tank with anyone. He has a 20 Gal tank right now. There are other pets in our house but they rarely ever come into my room.
I dont know how much he weighs because I dont have a scale small enough. What kind of scale should I buy? My electronic one does not recognize him :/ But here is a pic of him so you can get an idea of how much he weighs

He has a 100 W basking bulb not colored and his basking spot is about 8 inches away
His warm spot runs about 100 degrees to 105 not sure what his basking spot is but I am hoping to order a temp gun soon currently I measure his temp with two thermometers that stick on the side of his tank which I know can be innaccurate at times. His lowest temps at night are 72 degrees

This is his UVB bulb hopefully that answers your questions about his lighting
His UVB is about 7 inches away from his other high spot on the cool side. I do have it sitting on top of his cage which I believe is mesh. Would you recommend the strips that go inside the cage. Hopefully I can save up enough money to buy him one of those if so.
He has reptile carpeting in his viv and I have his lights on for about 13 hours a day
I feed him twice-three times a day. He wakes up around 8 and I feed him at 9:00, but now I will wait longer to feed him since you said at least 2 hours. I try feed him his greens first, but as you know that is kind of a challenge with babies. Then I feed him his dubia roaches. He eats an average of 7 dubia roaches per feeding. Around lunch time He also eats phoenix worms. I give him about 10 of those twice a day. He also gets fed kale, collard greens, and turnip greens. I have tried other things such as squash, and as a treat berries, bananas, but so far he only likes his greens. I know I should be feeding him more of his veggies but it is such a challenge! Then I feed him again at around 7.
Thank you for all your help!!

 

[mushulife]

I forgot to mention I dust all of his food with calcium powder!

 

[kingofnobbys]

Thank you so much for your suggestions! I agree it probably is the storms keeping him up! I don't believe it is relocation stress anymore.
Here is a rundown of my setup for you. I can't post any pics because I am not at my house at the moment. I can post them later if need be.
He doesn't share his tank with anyone. He has a 20 Gal tank right now. There are other pets in our house but they rarely ever come into my room.
I dont know how much he weighs because I dont have a scale small enough. What kind of scale should I buy? My electronic one does not recognize him :/ But here is a pic of him so you can get an idea of how much he weighs

He has a 100 W basking bulb not colored and his basking spot is about 8 inches away
His warm spot runs about 100 degrees to 105 not sure what his basking spot is but I am hoping to order a temp gun soon currently I measure his temp with two thermometers that stick on the side of his tank which I know can be innaccurate at times. His lowest temps at night are 72 degrees

<<< appears to be the 26W version of their 10%UVB compact, definitely needs
<< to be MOUNTED HORIZONTALLY in a mini or nano - reflector hood
<< to be moved so it is UNDER the mesh screen lid
<< to be located so he can get inside 8 inches from the bulb (else he will NOT receive adequate UVA and UVB).

This is his UVB bulb hopefully that answers your questions about his lighting
His UVB is about 7 inches away from his other high spot on the cool side
<<< needs to be located so he gets highest UVA and UVB while basking , ie adjacent to or very close to the hot spot where he basks

I do have it sitting on top of his cage which I believe is mesh. Would you recommend the strips that go inside the cage.
<<< YES - T5HO 10%UVB to 12%UVB in a reflector hood , set up as shown in Arcadia graphics provided.

Hopefully I can save up enough money to buy him one of those if so.
He has reptile carpeting in his viv and I have his lights on for about 13 hours a day <<< bit on the short (wintery side) , I recommend bumping up the photoperiod to 15-16 hr per day.
My lights are on a domestic digital programmable timer , set to come on at 6am , off at 10pm.
First feed for my dragons as hatchlings was at about 10am.


I feed him twice-three times a day. He wakes up around 8 and I feed him at 9:00, but now I will wait longer to feed him since you said at least 2 hours. I try feed him his greens first, but as you know that is kind of a challenge with babies. Then I feed him his dubia roaches. He eats an average of 7 dubia roaches per feeding. Around lunch time He also eats phoenix worms. I give him about 10 of those twice a day. He also gets fed kale, collard greens, and turnip greens. I have tried other things such as squash, and as a treat berries, bananas, but so far he only likes his greens. I know I should be feeding him more of his veggies but it is such a challenge!
<<< at his age , greens are a bonus .... don't worry too much if he is currently ignoring them, he's better off getting very well gutloaded (with high calcium greens and vitamin fortified lizard pellets) insects as he needs the insect proteins and fats and dietary calcium and UVB to thrive and grow and develop properly.

Then I feed him again at around 7.
Thank you for all your help!!