HELP My BAbY has his eyes closed

[jscott]

good morning. bright light is good for bearded dragons. it keeps their pupils from dialating and letting in excessive amounts of UV light. right now you dont have a UV-B so thats not an issue but rest assured, your brightness is probably fine.

its the heat thats important. ive always wondered about putting a blanket on a reptile, i always assumed it wouldnt do anything for them. reptiles are cold blooded so if theres no internal heat being created, what is the blanket bottling in?

you have that ceramic heat emmiter so you should be ok with nightime temps.

i gotta go to work now but ill be on around 8-9 tonight :wink: .

 

[sunkist]

I think it's more that it keeps the cold air from getting too them as much. I know with Lindy on the nights he stays in his burrito he doesn't have as many stress marks as the nights he doesn't stay in it.

 

[aperson150]

Thanks to everyone who wrote help me through my "dark night" of worry. My little guy is looking a lot better today without the coil UVB lights, and he has his eyes fully open and they are bright and alert. I still am going to be checking on him and also checking out where to buy a Zoo Med Repti Sun 10.0 flourescent TUBE!
Here's a question though: it was recommended that you have a 10.0 AND 5.0 uvb in together. Thats what I have (had!) in my compact top with the two exo terra spiral lights. Any thoughts?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Good your dragon is doing better. So you did get rid of the coil light then? What type of UVB light are you using now? We usually recommend the Reptisun 10 flourescent tube bulb, not the compact or coil though.
Also, what are you measuring the temps with?
What are you using as your basking light? The basking light needs to be placed directly beside the UVB light for a focused spot where he can get heat & UVB at the same time. A ceramic heat emitter has no light, just heat so that is not an appropriate heat source for the daytime as a basking light.
You can use the ceramic heat emitter overnight if needed, but they can safely go to the 60's overnight with no problem.

Tracie

 

[aperson150]

Hello, thanks to everyone who has helped. My beardie is doing quite a bit better. I returned the coil lights, and I am looking EVERYWHERE for repti-sun 10 by zoo-med. I live in Canada, so does anyone know where I could get the zoo-med reptisun 10 uvb? I will order it off the internet if I have to but I would like to try some more stores first. I have tried all the major commercial stores but they only have the coil lights, and I have tried a ton of local stores as well. Does the exotera repti-glow 10 floresant tube (not coil) work? I am looking everywhere for zoo-med but all I can find is exo-terra. Oh and his temp is 40 degrees celsius which i believe is 110 Fahrenheit.


Re the basking light, I do have a basking light as well as a ceramic heat emitter. His basking light is right under his basking rock

I am measuring his temps with a digital thermometer

 

[beardie parents]

The digital thermometer has a probe attached?

The reptiglo 10 is not a very good one. It's not as bad as the coils but it needs to be at least 10 inches away from your beardie WITH a bright white light as a basking bulb right next to it and at that distance it doesn't give our good uvb. I'm sorry you can't find one. If you lived in my area, I could tell you where to go, but Tucson, AZ is a little to far for you to drive.

I recommed trying to find a reptisun 10. I will warn you, I recently saw a Rept A sun at a pet store in Tucson (I live 85+ miles south of Tucson). I don't know anything about it as I've never seen or heard of one until I was in that store.

 

[aperson150]

My digital thermometer does not really have a probe attached. I guess I am going to have to order my uvb online then. I did though find the zoo med power sun mercury vapor bulbs. I phoned the zoo med company and they said that it was better then the reptisun. Because it contains BOTH uvb and uva do I have to get a uvb as well? Is the mercury vapor better. I put it on hold and will pick it up tomorrow if it is a good light. I just need to know if I had to get a separate uvb light as well as the mercury vapor bulb.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Yes, the Powersun mercury vapor bulb is a low output mercury vapor bulb, but, it will work fine. Remember, it needs a 250rated wattage ceramic light fixture, & should be 10-12 inches from your dragon.
There is another mercury vapor lamp that should easily be found in Canada, called the Solar Glo made by Hagen/Exoterra company. That one is a little stronger.
So since you have the Powersun on hold then go ahead & get that. You will not need another UVB source in conjunction with the Powersun. You can get a non uvb coil bulb to use with a basic clamp light fixture just to brighten up the tank a little bit more & even out the light spectrum for him. You can find those at Lowe's or Home depot & they don't put out much if any heat.
You can order a digital probe from http://www.reptilesupply.com

Tracie

 

[aperson150]

Thank you, Tracie. That is exactly my plan, happily supported by a fellow beardie-keeper.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Great, good luck then. Let us know how things go tomorrow. You can post some pictures of your new setup as well, so we can see them. Thanks!


Tracie

 

[jscott]

oh good, everything is looking better.

i cant wait to see pics :wink: .

 

[aperson150]

I got the MVB by powersun today and is now hooked up in my little guys tank!!! Was very excited when I got it. Anyway now i have 1 ceramic, and one mvb I hope that sounds good. It seems to be heating the tank well at 39-40 degrees celsius.

 

[jscott]

very cool. ill be getting one of those shortly, i just moved from a 40 to a 100 gallon so now im not afraid of it getting to hot on the cool side.

glad things are working out for you :wink: .

 

[aperson150]

thanks very much for your help jscott! Since I have removed the coil lights he has been up and zipping around, and eating a lot more crickets. I have one question still and that is: I just got a new thermometer one of the zilla ones which has the wire and the probe, are they good thermometers?

 

[jscott]

yes, as long as it is the digital kind with a long wire and probe at the end it really shouldnt matter who makes it.

its the dial ones that are no good, i dont know if youd call them "analog" or what...