Randomly Puffs up

[CactusTheMuncher]

Hello! I was recently given a cute female Bearded Dragon a couple months ago, I named her Cactus and I have no clue of old she is or anything about her other than she wasn't treated well at her previous owners. I recently got her a new heat lamp bulb that lights up red, Cactus has been acting weird since then. She will randomly puff up her beard and her stomach but then will rapidly depuff them to just repuff her beard and stomach but she will maintain her white, brown and orange color, she doesnt turn black when she puffs up. She will also slightly open her mouth while sitting under the lamp. My brother took a look at the previous bulb in the heat lamp and said it wasnt a bulb for heating up, it was just a light bulb. Yes I have other pets that sometime look into Cactus's cage but she's never puffed up at them before. Could Cactus be enjoying her new light bulb and the heat coming from it and thats why she randomly puffs up or is it for a different reason?

 

[j3ss1c4]

she sounds like a beautiful dragon from the colors that you described! and it does sound like she's enjoying her new light-- my beardie Dave did the same when i got his lights. beardies can puff out to stretch their muscles around their face and throat, but they can puff to help loosen their scales in a shed, too (though i suspect they puff out their beards to show off, lol). for the slight mouth gaping, they do that to help regulate their body temperature. mine does that all the time and i always tell him what a beautiful smile he has!!

but the red light worries me a bit. i've heard people say the basking light should be only a yellow(ish) light, while the UVB should have a cool blue tint. i'm not quite sure whether the red light matters or not :?

 

[CooperDragon]

I'm glad you are able to give her a good home. She could just be puffing up to loosen skin for an upcoming shed. Do you see any dull gray or waxy skin around her beard or face? She is probably opening her mouth to regulate temperature a bit. They do that especially while basking so their body can enjoy some heat while keeping their head a bit cooler.

I would avoid using a red basking light. Instead you want a bright white light that also produces heat. I've had good luck using PAR38 halogen flood lights from the store. It should be appropriate wattage so the surface temperature in the basking zone gets to about 100-105 and there is a gradient down to about 75-80 or so on the other side of the tank. Using an IR temp gun or digital thermometers with probes helps get accurate readings for this.

Do you have a good UVB bulb for her as well? A high quality UVB light is important and it should sit over the basking area next to the basking light so she can get plenty of UVB along with bright white light and heat. The goal is to imitate natural sunlight as closely as possible.

 

[EllenD]

Yes, please, no colored bulbs at all. Actually for their basking/heat bulb, you want only a bright white bulb, and no specialty reptile bulb is needed for the basking/heat bulb, but rather as Cooper said a bright white halogen indoor flood bulb, like you buy at Walmart, Lowes, or Home Depot is what most of us use, or a bright white reptile basking bulb, like a ZooMed Intense Basking Spot bulb, usually around 100 watts or so. Beardies see in full color, so colored bulbs cause a host of issues for them, and you need to replicate natural sunlight as closely as possible, do only a bright white basking bulb,no yellow, blue, red, green, etc.

Now you absolutely do need a second bulb, a UVB tube. Without a UVB tube a beardie cannot absorb any nutrition, calcium, cannot manufacture vitamin D3, and will be stunted and develop severe metabolic bone disease (MBD). Most compact UVB bulbs (regular lightbulb shape/size) are not adequate UVB bulbs for beardies, even the ones that say they are, and any coiled UVB bulb is definitely no good. We all recommend a long, flourescent tube UVB light and matching length flourescent tube fixture, usually people use either an 18" or a 24" UVB tube, depending on the length of the enclosure. IT MUST BE A 10.0 UVB TUBE, NOT A 5.0!!! Very important. We recommend the Reptisun 10.0 T5HO UVB tube, or the Arcadia 12% UVB TUBE. There are a lot of cheaper UVB tubes that are not adequate and cause a host of issues, like the Zilla Desert 50 tube, the All Living Things UVB tube, and the Reptile One UVB tube, avoid these. You should have the UVB tube right alongside the bright white basking bulb, both overtop of the main basking spot of your beardie, and the UVB tube needs to be mounted within the correct distance from the basking spot in inches, depending on which UVB tube you buy. But no red bulbs...