Sleeping under paper towels to keep cool???

[Poopdog]

Hi freinds!

So our boy Elliot is 16 weeks old today and has been a very healthy kid with normal sleeping, eating, pooping patterns since we've had him. He gains weight like a beast on a weekly basis and is super active and tame. Up until this weekend he has slept up on his log higher up and on the hot side of his viv every almost ever single night since the day we brought him home as a hatchling, and has completely ignored using his hide.

Oddly, for the last 2 nights he's crawled under the paper towels in his cage to sleep! Now I've read that they might do this in order to keep warm, but I'm a little perplexed bc his viv has been naturally warmer than normal due to weather here and it seems like he might be trying to cool off. I'm a little worried bc his sleeping on the glass floor and under the towels resulted in him waking up really cold this morning despite the ambient viv temp on that side of the tank being 75. I had to wrap him in a burrito for 20minutes this morning to get him going! I feel pretty confident that his temps are good based on his normal behavior and routines leading up to yesterday. He wakes up in the morning active and ready for breakfast within about 5 minutes and uses his cool side during the day if he's warm.

Has anyone experienced their dragon sleeping under the paper towels in order to keep cool???
Also wondering if this could some weird behavior associated with helping him shed his head...

Here's his Viv info in any case:
His viv is 100/85 during the day using a 100w heat emitter on the hot side and a small lamp on the cool. At night we drop it to 85/70 by shutting down the lamp. He gets his UVB basking 5" below a Reptisun 5.0HO with daily d3 and herpvites, and his vet says he is in great health.

Thanks beardie fam!

 

[Mysty]

It's not unusual for beardies to dig about in substrate. Could be that. I've found that sleeping locations change each night. About half the time my beardies choose to sleep under something.

 

[kingofnobbys]

All my gang do that on a regular basis , especially the skinks and Toothless (he pulls his sheets of paper towel over himself like a blanket .... especially the ones on his heated tiles under his hide, he's discovered he gets really toasty if he covers himself with the paper sheets.

The water skinks all did that , including working their way into the paper sheet between the top and lower layers , and the bluetongues.

 

[Poopdog]

Thanks gang. He's sort of figured out that his hide is a good sleeping place over the past few nights so I'm a little less weirded out. Every day with these tiny dinosaurs is a strange new adventure. They are weird, hilarious little creatures.

 

[Ancline]

My bearded dragon has always loved to dig when trying to sleep. When my beardie was younger I didn't have anything in the vivarium except a link n logs house, he would go in the house at night and scratch at the tile floor for a good hour before sleeping. Eventually I put a hand towel in the house and he slept underneath that with less scratching. I think they instinctively like to burrow to sleep. Now I provide a nice large pile of hand towels in the corner of my viv which he buries himself under sometimes. :lol: I made him a tiny pillow to go under his favorite plant and he curls up on top of the pillow an hour before I go to bed and I have to stick a blanket over him or he'll be bearding me like mad in the morning. Right now he's actually sitting with his chin on the corner of the pillow and his butt in the basking spot. lol, strange little dinos indeed.