Sick Beardie - Constant Cage Rage

[MrPixel]

He was moved into the new vivarium a little over a week ago, it was a must as the old vivarium was quality, it was a wooden vivarium, it had a hole in the top for the light fitting, but the fitting badly burnt the rim of the hole. And as mentioned above, with the move I also changed his substrate from repti bark to play sand.

The temps in his vivarium right now are:

Basking spot - 109°F
Cool side - 81°F

Humidity - 42%

I had considered changing his heat/light source from the 150w Sunglo to a 60w Spot with a 60w Ceramic heat emitter and regular blub for additional light, or something like that. But in saying that, if the temps were an issue, it would have been worse in his older smaller vivarium where I also used the 150w Sunglo.

As much as I hate repti-bark, I think it might be worth reconsidering.

@ SARBEAR - I've learnt not to trust any pet shops, or at least none of the ones I've had dealings with.

 

[MrPixel]

Should also note, that he has been calm for the past hour and a half, for the first while, he was moving between his basking spot and cool spot as and when he needed to, and now he is on his cool spot having a bit of a nap.

 

[SARBEAR]

Okay, well other then that everything looks okay to me.
I asked about the change of viv because that could be a factor in why he's acting weird.
I would not switch back to reptibark. I would choose papertowels over reptibark. You can try shelf liners, linoleum I've heard also works, but sand and reptibark are no good. The play sand is better then calci sand though.

 

[SARBEAR]

And that's good to hear!
Maybe the right UVB bulb is already starting to change him into a new dragon?!
As far as the heat bulb, I use sunglo 100 watt and I have no problems..I can't imagine it would be the bulb that's doing it...or is it??

 

[MrPixel]

Yeah, I've read about the risks with sand, but he doesn't feed from the substrate, live prey are feed from a tub where I also dust them, and veggies from a bowl. But mainly, I like how sand looks... but his health comes first though.

I might give this spot & emitter a try, monitor the temps and see how he is with them tomorrow.

 

[MrPixel]

And that's good to hear!
As far as the heat bulb, I use sunglo 100 watt and I have no problems..I can't imagine it would be the bulb that's doing it...or is it??

What size is your viv? I'm on the 250w

Only have the 60w spot and 60w emitter in about 10 mins, but he's liking being under the spot, nice temp too; 105 (so far).

 

[SARBEAR]

I have a 40 gal.

Oh great!!
Is he less anxious?

 

[MrPixel]

I have a 40 gal.

Oh great!!
Is he less anxious?

Yeah, completely relaxed right now, hes basking... Though theres still the chance its just because he's worn out from all his cage rage today, true test will be tomorrow morning when he's refreshed. Here's hoping he'll be ok.

 

[SARBEAR]

Keep us posted, maybe in the mean time some of those experts may stumble upon your post and maybe have a better idea at what was going on.

 

[MrPixel]

Lets hope so.... thanks for the help.

 

[MrPixel]

Just wanted to give an update on my bearded dragon; Itchy.

All this time, I had been noticing something, but never really paid much attention to it - air quality. Every time I open the viv, I would get a blast of dead heat (stagnant air). The vivarium only had a few circle vents on the top and bottom. As a test, I got 2 old PC fans, wired them up to a battery, and used one for cold air in and the other for hot air out. It made a huge difference right away; the air seemed a whole lot fresher and Itchy seemed a whole lot happier in his vivarium. I am now working on a more permanent and safer solution, and have also gotten him a dimmer thermostat to have greater control over temps while I'm not around.

Also, on the medical issues there has been progress too. I took him to the vet after completing his course of antibiotics, they kept him in that day in order to perform a biopsy, swab test and so on. However during the work, the vet was able to remove the tumor from his mouth. They have said that the tumor could return as they're not sure exactly what it was or how it was caused, but lab tests should give them a better idea when the results come back. Ever since then I have noticed an even bigger change him, he seems so much happier, more alert, less stressed, sleeping better, eating better. I was even shocked at how calm he was in his pet carrier on his way home from the vet, didn't try to get out once, and he normally hates it in there.

So yeah, all in all everything has been great these past few days. I am so happy to see him happy and comfortable.

Thank you so much to everyone here for your advice and help.

Darren

 

[SARBEAR]

I'm glad he's doing better!!
Sounds like he'll be back to normal in no time!