Ok so my bearded dragon turns black when hes under his heat lamp, but when hes sleeping or running around he is home s orange red colour. Hes eating perfectly and pooing properly, daily. Hes starting to shed now so could that have something to do with it? I use a 100watt infarred heat light during rhe night and the temp usually fall to around 25. During the day i use a intense 100watt basking light, but i only started using it during the day a couple days ago. Hes really acive always runnig around my bed to my window, loves seeing outside, he is only a year old.
Hopefully at least one of your lights is giving him a good source of UVB as well as warm enough temperatures in the daytime.
Otherwise, one of the reasons they turn black when they're basking is so they can absorb more heat when they're cold. It can also happen because of stress, pain, or hormones, but since yours turns his "normal" color at other times, he's probably just turning black to warm up.
Skin that's about to shed will also turn more whitish or greyish than its normal color.
Maggie does that on occasion too when she's been running around the house and I put her up or even sometimes just randomly under her light. Think about how a black shirt will abdsorb more heat than a white one. They darken up to soak up all the rays
The UVB light I use is a ReptileOne 18Watt UVB 10.0 24 inch tube. The basking spot sits around 30˚, we were told to keep it close to there, from sites, reptile person from where we got him from aswell as from a friend who has had beardies for many years now. The thermometer I use is one with a prob, the heat lamp turns off when it reaches a certain temp, so its electrical, and starts beeping once it drops below 22˚. Hope thats helpfull
The ReptileOne should sit about 15-20cm above the basking area for optimal UVB output. The basking temperature is much too low which may be why the darkening. The basking area should stay between about 38-42 with a gradient down to about 24-26 on the cool side during the day. This will provide an adequate basking area as well as a cooler area he can move to if he wishes to do so.
The ReptileOne should sit about 15-20cm above the basking area for optimal UVB output. The basking temperature is much too low which may be why the darkening. The basking area should stay between about 38-42 with a gradient down to about 24-26 on the cool side during the day. This will provide an adequate basking area as well as a cooler area he can move to if he wishes to do so.
There are a few ways. I suggest using a higher wattage bulb. You can either adjust the height or dim it as needed. It sounds like you have a dimmer in place already which is great. I've found that a halogen bulb with a nice wide beam works really well. You can pick them up at a hardware store relatively cheaply.
Ok so my bearded dragon turns black when hes under his heat lamp, but when hes sleeping or running around he is home s orange red colour. Hes eating perfectly and pooing properly, daily. Hes starting to shed now so could that have something to do with it? I use a 100watt infarred heat light during rhe night and the temp usually fall to around 25. You shouldn't use any type of light emitting bulb at night because it disturbs their sleep, they prefer it cool and DARK, temps at night can be brought down to 70 +/- a few degrees. You will need to get a ceramic heat emitter if your house temps drop below 65 at night.
During the day i use a intense 100watt basking light, but i only started using it during the day a couple days ago. Hes really acive always runnig around my bed to my window, loves seeing outside, he is only a year old.