IS he stressing himself out?

[MrHM1020]

Okay well shadow has been with me for around a month now. He is very friendly, and he does eat sort of. He is now 2 months old. He barely eats any crickets for breakfast, like 6 and only around 3 for dinner... Now my set up is not the problem ive reviewed it constantly (reptisun 10.0, sun glo 150 watt basking light, dehumidifier, tile substrate, hide, branch, stones, food dish, water dish, herptivite, and repcal. Everything is correct). So i was wondering if he is not eating because he sees his reflection? Maybe idk since beardies are solitary, seeing his reflection is causing him to challenge himself to assert dominance? ANd since it is his reflection he cant dominate himself, so he barely eats? Idk just a weird thought. Also he has massive stress marks, and darkened underside when he is in his tank, but when i take him out to play he lightens up and after like 30 minutes outside he is completely white underside, with no stress marks... So i was wondering is seeing his reflection causing him to stress himself out? If so, should i go get background for his viv, to cover the glass, to prevent reflections? Answer asap please. Im worried :?

 

[MrHM1020]

? No one has ever experienced this b4? Please anyone help

 

[buzz1130]

From my own experience..I think a background may help with your problem..but as I was told u can spoil ur beardie to death and those darn stress marks will still appear

 

[beardiesrock123]

My bearide used to do this when he just moved into his viv. I eventually put up a background and things went back to normal, though now he doesn't needit to cover his reflection. Also, my beardie gets very dark when he basks, but any other time, he's white and bright. I read smewhere on this forum that this was how they absorbed more heat? I'm not sure, though.

 

[MrHM1020]

O thx!

 

[boxerLvr]

My baby suzuki does the same as yours. I put a desert background on 3 sides of the tank (she tries to climb onto the fake rocks tho) and also stopped feeding her crickets inside her enclosure. I now feed in a 10 gal aquarium. Put her in, then the crickets and take her out when she's done eating. She got more of an appetitie this way and ate alot more. She did however stop eating for a couple days during her most recent shed, think it was really hard on her, and since she's not eating much salad yet as she's young, just used some chicken babyfood til she started woofin down those crickets again. My other beardie Lizzy tho refuses crickets.. will only eat dubias (can ya say picky?). So maybe if you try a seperate feeding area and it doesnt work, get a few dubias and see if yours likes those better maybe?