Tame bearded closes eye and suddenly VERY aggressive!

[ReptiEpIc]

Hey everyone!

Please help! My 1 year and 8 month old beardie is suddenly very aggressive and keeps closing his eyes after his new home!

I have the same brand lighting in there
2 basking lights
and a 10.0 reptisun running the length of the cage

He was okay in there the first 3 days, the cage is 1.8 m long, 60cm W and 55 H
His previous cage was 90cm L , 35 W and 60 H

PLEASE HELP! He was NEVER this aggressive towards me!

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Hmm! He could be a bit stressed over the move and the new enclosure. Some beardies don't take too kindly to change.
Is there anything new in the enclosure that could be bothering him?
What temps are you getting in the basking and coolside?
What are you measuring the temps with?
How close can he get to his basking light and the Reptisun?
What type and watt basking light are you using?
I'm just trying to cover all bases with your lighting to figure out why he is closing his eyes. Something is definitely bothering him.

 

[ReptiEpIc]

Hmm! He could be a bit stressed over the move and the new enclosure. Some beardies don't take too kindly to change.
Is there anything new in the enclosure that could be bothering him?
What temps are you getting in the basking and coolside?
What are you measuring the temps with?
How close can he get to his basking light and the Reptisun?
What type and watt basking light are you using?
I'm just trying to cover all bases with your lighting to figure out why he is closing his eyes. Something is definitely bothering him.

Hi!

At the moment there's only two rocks he had in his older cage, the rest is new
The Reptisun is placed at 55cm as the Height of the cage
I'm using 2 normal spot 75 watt bulbs for the warmer side, the reading on the thermometer (with probe) is 106F for each spot, and 90 - 100 for the overall warm area.

The cage is actually veryyy dull at the moment, I think I should go shopping and get him some stuff to make him feel at home

*UPDATE*

I place him in his previous cage about 2 hours ago, he's very calm now, and doesn't close his eyes now
He is not as aggressive as he was this morning, so I think it's the new cage stressing him out
But something has to be wrong as you said with the lighting in the new cage!

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

It could be possible that the new enclosure, being so much larger, is overwhelming to him.
Do you remember what his basking temps were in his old enclosure? Was it 106 degrees in his basking spot in that enclosure as well?
Just trying to figure out if the temps are maybe higher in the new enclosure. What temp are you getting in the coolside of the new enclosure?
You mentioned the Reptisun was at 55cm. How close can your beardie get to that uvb? Your beardie should be able to get within 6-8" or 15-20cm of the Reptisun uvb.
If he is fine in his old enclosure, then it has to be the size, heat/lighting that is bothering him. We just need to figure out which it is.
Have you thought of possibly putting a divider in the new viv(to make it smaller), to see how he reacts?

 

[ReptiEpIc]

It could be possible that the new enclosure, being so much larger, is overwhelming to him.
Do you remember what his basking temps were in his old enclosure? Was it 106 degrees in his basking spot in that enclosure as well?
Just trying to figure out if the temps are maybe higher in the new enclosure. What temp are you getting in the coolside of the new enclosure?
You mentioned the Reptisun was at 55cm. How close can your beardie get to that uvb? Your beardie should be able to get within 6-8" or 15-20cm of the Reptisun uvb.
If he is fine in his old enclosure, then it has to be the size, heat/lighting that is bothering him. We just need to figure out which it is.
Have you thought of possibly putting a divider in the new viv(to make it smaller), to see how he reacts?

Hi, I figured it's the uvb!

His basking spot is placed far at the back of the cage, and the uvb tube infront, the distance between it there is around 35cm so I'm going to move the tube AND basking lamp to the middle

I think I found the problem with his eyes
The cage was painted with three layers of poly wax to seal it since its chipboard
The cage was outside for 2 weeks to get rid of the smell, the smell is still there, I thought it wasnt so bad and rigged the cage up to put him in, but when the cage is closed for more than 5 hours....whooo
My poor beardie, that must've droven him crazy, what can I do before i can put him in again

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Other then letting it air out some more, I am not sure. What type of polyurethane did you use?
Beardies can be very sensitive to chemicals. Good thing you figured that out now and not later. I am sure this is what is bothering your beardie.
Definitely do not put him back in that enclosure until there is absolutely no fumes left in it.

 

[ReptiEpIc]

The smell is worse than I thought!

Well I used Woodoc polywax sealer or something like that.
Before I placed him in there about 5 days ago I placed some chopped onions in there, didn't help at all but i figured since it was gone for 2 days, it was gone forever, but now came back, I dont know what to do! The smell won't go away!

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Just in case you do not already know this, onions are not a good food for beardies. In fact, they can be quite toxic. Here is a great food chart that is color coded as to what to feed and what not to feed your beardie http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

As far as the polyurethane goes... maybe you could post a thread in the enclosure section about this. You may get some opinions on there as far as how long to wait or if that specific kind is not good to use. Wish I could help you with that, but am not sure. There are a great many people here who have built and sealed their own vivs that may have some suggestions on that matter.

 

[ReptiEpIc]

Just in case you do not already know this, onions are not a good food for beardies. In fact, they can be quite toxic. Here is a great food chart that is color coded as to what to feed and what not to feed your beardie http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

As far as the polyurethane goes... maybe you could post a thread in the enclosure section about this. You may get some opinions on there as far as how long to wait or if that specific kind is not good to use. Wish I could help you with that, but am not sure. There are a great many people here who have built and sealed their own vivs that may have some suggestions on that matter.

sorry I didn't explain quite well, I didn't feed him onions, I placed the onions inside the cage when it was empty, because I heard that onions absorb the smell of fumes, but it didn't work

 

[ReptiEpIc]

Just in case you do not already know this, onions are not a good food for beardies. In fact, they can be quite toxic. Here is a great food chart that is color coded as to what to feed and what not to feed your beardie http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

As far as the polyurethane goes... maybe you could post a thread in the enclosure section about this. You may get some opinions on there as far as how long to wait or if that specific kind is not good to use. Wish I could help you with that, but am not sure. There are a great many people here who have built and sealed their own vivs that may have some suggestions on that matter.

sorry I didn't explain quite well, I didn't feed him onions, I placed the onions inside the cage when it was empty, because I heard that onions absorb the smell of fumes, but it didn't work

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

LOL, glad to hear you weren't feeding the onions to your beardie. :wink: