stressed out baby beardie!!!!

[sandybeardedd]

hi I'm a new owner of an approximately 2 month old bearded dragon. I got him from a local pet store about a month ago, he lives in a 20 gallon tank and is roughly 5 inches in length. his "cold" side is temping at 79, his warm side is temping at 90 and his basking temp is 105. his tank has a log, a fake cactus and two different hides for him to bask/go in and for the first couple weeks he was so alert and ate like a champ. In the beginning i've fed him almost entirely crickets, but I started to notice he wasnt eating as often and I thought a little variety might help so I got him baby dubia roaches and black fly larvae off mullberry farms and the first day he LOVED the roaches and went after them like crazy. but today I noticed that he's gone back to hiding under his tree branches, he has really dark stress marks and sometimes his whole body turns a dark grey color. when I first got him i did give him quite a few meal worms as treats and I'm wondering if these are signs of impaction or possibly a parasite? I'm 100% able to go to the vet if its necessary its just quite expensive and I want to make sure there isnt anything I could do to help him first. I've been taking him out quite often and he seems to really enjoy being out. but when he's in his tank he seems to only sit and bask. I'm sorry if I'm rambling or anything I just want to make sure he's happy and healthy. Any advice would be much appreciated!! thank you

 

[AHBD]

Hi Sandy, has he been pooping regularly ? And when you say he went crazy for the dubias, how many did he eat ? If he's having normal poos he's almost certainly not impacted, but if he ate a huge amount of dubias that he's not used to eating he may just be too full. What size are the dubias BTW ? Can you post pics of one next to him ? Also pics of his entire set up, including the uvb lights ? Here's how to post pics :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them

 

[sandybeardedd]

Hi Sandy, has he been pooping regularly ? And when you say he went crazy for the dubias, how many did he eat ? If he's having normal poos he's almost certainly not impacted, but if he ate a huge amount of dubias that he's not used to eating he may just be too full. What size are the dubias BTW ? Can you post pics of one next to him ? Also pics of his entire set up, including the uvb lights ? Here's how to post pics :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them

this is a picture of his set up, he's sleeping right now though so its not the best picture and I can't yet get any pictures of the dubias next to him. theyre pretty small though, most of them are no bigger than my pinky nail and definitely no bigger than the space between his eyes. there was one cockroach he ate today though that took him a little while to chew, it looked a little big but he still went after it. could that possibly be the cause of him being stressed out? or could it be that I changed his diet too quickly? once I got the dubias I havent really fed him any crickets since he seemed to be sick of them. but he's been going to the bathroom seemingly fine. once or twice a day, just as he has since I got him. the first day I got the dubias he ate about 5 of them and I fed them to him 2 times a day and then the black fly larvae once a day. today I tried feeding him the roaches but he ate two and then went back under the tree branch and started showing stress marks again. he did eat that bigger cockroach when he went back to his tree though, so i'm wondering if that's what caused him all the stress today.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

He may have gotten an upset tummy from eating too large of prey. Is his beard darkened this
evening?
Which UVB are you using? It looks like you are using a compact/coil type of light, along with
a basking light but no long tube bulb?
Are you using a temp gun to measure the temperatures with?
Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie

 

[sandybeardedd]

Hello,

He may have gotten an upset tummy from eating too large of prey. Is his beard darkened this
evening?
Which UVB are you using? It looks like you are using a compact/coil type of light, along with
a basking light but no long tube bulb?
Are you using a temp gun to measure the temperatures with?
Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie

hi Tracie!! I'm pretty sure it was an upset stomach, because he hasnt gotten as dark as he was the other day since then! I do feel like something is off in his viv though. it could be him seeing his reflection or something. I'm not entirely sure what kind of uvb light I'm using but I got one that my friend Carter picked one out for me (he's very knowlagble on beardies and reptiles) so i trust it. I'm using a point and shoot thermometer that was also reccomended by my friend Carter. he only seems to have dark stress marks/skin when he's in his viv and he's still not eating as much as he was when I first got him. I did switch him to dubies though, do you think 2-3 small dubias a sitting is normal for a beardie at about 6 inches? He's still eating hes just not eating as much

 

[sandybeardedd]

this is what he looks like when he basks. I'm wondering if its just because hes regulating his temperature?

 

[CooperDragon]

That looks normal for basking. Notice how he has pancaked out. He is doing that to increase surface area on his back to take in light as efficiently as possible.