killerkarra
New member
Hello all, I brought home a baby beardie from work (Petsmart) about a week and a half ago, and I've been noticing that he has pronounced stress marks all over his belly most of the time he's in his cage, and they usually fade when he comes out of his cage. He also spends a lot of time with his eyes closed, which is strange to me because my other bearded dragon never has her eyes closed unless she's sleeping. He sometimes seems like he has trouble seeing crickets, too. I've had to feed him in a separate container because he doesn't ever seem interested in hunting when he's in his cage. The last I measured him, he was 5 1/2 inches long, and he's currently in a 10 gallon tank. Unfortunately I don't have the equipment yet to properly take the temperature of his basking spot, but I do know that he has access to a spot that should be at or above 100 degrees. I have used 2-3 different UVB bulbs with him trying to see if that makes any difference. He never basks though, he's always down lower in the tank. It almost seems like he purposefully avoids temperatures above 85 degrees. Could his tank be too big? Too small? Or could there be something else wrong? Please, any advice is welcome!