The Adventures of Oliver(first shed)

I picked up a beardie from my local reptile store on Saturday and i want to make a progression thread about him. Here are some pics of Oliver right now:

 

[dementedlullaby]

So cute ^^ makes me want a baby again lol.

 

[Pogshmog]

Oliver is very strange. Whenever his basking light is off or he comes out of his terrarium he shows little to no stress mark(as you can see above). When he is basking, however he has a very black beard and a ton of stress marks. I don't think it's the heat because I saw him thermoregulating the other day. I suspect it is the light because his home at the pet store doesn't have as many lighting elements. I just wanted to see if anyone else has had this happen or has an idea about why this is happening. Oliver is kept in a 50 gallon reptile terrarium with a 150 watt neodymium bulb about 5 inches away from his basking spot. His hammock is about 102 degrees and the top of his stick is around 105. He also has a 75 watt on the cool side to keep the temps around 75 to 80. He has a reptisun 10.0 near his basking spot. He also has a 100 watt ceramic heat emitter to keep him warm at night. Please tell me what you think. Sorry for the long post so here are some more pics of Oliver:

^olivers setup

^oliver covered in stress marks while basking.

^hunting for crickets.

^your supposed to eat the hornworms Oliver, not sit on them!

^no Oliver, you can't come out.

^oliver the explorer.

^oliver doing what he does best: climbing

^Dubia hunting in action.

 

[Pogshmog]

I'm afraid Oliver is getting too fat. He eats a crap ton of good everyday because I just feed him until he stops eating. I swear he is about 1/8 bigger than when I got him. Does any one know what i should do?

 

[CooperDragon]

With a young one, just keep feeding him to fuel his growth. He will likely just grow into his body. It's different with adults, but I'd just keep providing food a couple times a day for 10 min at a time or so. Based on the photos he looks healthy to me and the appetite is a good sign.

 

[BlueDragon09]

He doesn't look that fat to me hun.

My dragon isn't fat and he's my second beardie.
Lost my 1st beardie to old age of 10 years old.


Hopefully someone can shine some light on this because to me he looks fine.

 

[Taterbug]

Little ones like Oliver turn most of that food straight into more dragon, you don't need to worry so much about being too fat until, he slows down growing I used to worry about my guy when he was little and would eat himself round. They are little machines!

For the colors, Pepper is sort of like that too. He brightens right up when I take him out. I haven't been able to figure out what, if anything, is bothering him.

Have you tried replacing the lightbulb? Neodynium filters out yellow light, making them look brighter to us but maybe strange to reptiles or other animals. I've read some people claim it can be bothersome.

Oliver is really cute

 

[Pogshmog]

I'm just really suprised at how fast he's growing. The little guy eats like 30 crickets and 20 dubias a day. Plus I like to feed him the occasional hornworm. By the way, does anyone know how to get those hornworms to stop growing? Most of mine have gotten too big to feed. Is there any way to feed a huge hornworm? Can you cut them up or something? Oliver looks like he is going into a shed. As you can see, the base of his tail looks really bright compared to his back. Here is Oliver now:

^can someone confirm that he's shedding? It looks like he is to me.

^compare his size in this image to when I first got him.

 

[Pogshmog]

I haven't updated you guys on Oliver for a while, so here goes. Oliver is doing very well! He has been with me for about a week and is starting to eat a lot more, so I have been ordering cricets from flukers cricket farm. No more constant trips to the petsmart. Anyway, Oliver has almost finished his shed. Most of his head and all of his tail and back legs are done. The parts of the new skin that I can see are very bright and pretty I will update everyone when the shed is done!

^olivers beautiful head

^side image of Oliver's head after shed

^the lion king! Now with mane!

 

[CooperDragon]

Hehe that last shed looks like he's got his bib on ready for lobster dinner =)

 

[Pennyjomi]

He's so cute! Mine does that too under the basking light gets so dark and when shes out she brightens right up