*UPDATE- HELP PLEASE* 7 mo old hiding all the time

[anenglish15]

**UPDATE TO POST BELOW**
Our dragon is STILL hiding. I changed her basking spot to more about 100-103*, but she continues to hide under the log, where I think it's about 88*. And I never see her actually sleeping under there, so I don't think she's brumating. Also, under her log, she isn't getting her UVB light so it's really starting to worry me. She's been eating LESS, but still definitely eating. Usually she eats about 20-30 crickets, but yesterday and today she only ate about 12-15 crickets.

The only difference I've noticed is her poop. She poops nearly every day in her bath and it would break apart in the water to where it would go down the drain. Now, her poop is harder (my husband says hard) to where he has to empty the sink and then throw the poop away separately.

We dust with calcium 3x/week for one feeding and dust with vitamins 2x/wk for one feeding. She is bathed daily for usually about 20-30 minutes... sometimes even 45 minutes. My husband says he usually leaves her in there until she poops.

I did move around her cage a lil bit from the picture below. Her wood is now moved to the far left side, the basking light is on the left as well and a regular house light on the right. The middle light is just a CHE that only comes on at night.

Any ideas? PLEASE! I am really worried about her as she doesn't seem happy, but I'm pretty sure she's not brumating. I just don't know what else to do!! Thank you!!!!


*OLD POST*
I feel like I've always fought our dragon on this. Her basking spot is 110*, cool side about 80*. She has the 10.0UVB light (the good kind). We just bought a new humidity gauge and her humidity is about 25%. She is ALWAYS hiding. She crawls under the grey little hiding spot and will stay there for who knows how long. It's about 85* under there and when I pull her out, she feels cooler. Her lights go out at about 730pm and come on about 7am.

She is alone from about 7am until my husband gets home about 4pm. He said 50% of the time, she is under her hiding spot. Any time I see her, she is under there. I just took her out and held her outside for a bit (it's about 80* here today) and then let her walk around inside. I just put her inside her viv and now she's hiding again. I don't understand what's going on. I thought MAYBE she's brumating, but she never looks like she's sleeping under there. Just hiding. And she's still eating, which makes me think she's not brumating.

She eats about 25 crickets a day. We used to feed her in the morning and evening, but she stopped waking up early before I went to work. When I would wake her up and warm her up for about 30 minutes, she simply wouldn't eat. So now she is fed once at about 4pm. We make sure she constantly has greens in her tank, usually she only eats mustard greens but we do give her some chard. She will not eat fruits. We bathe her every day and she poops nearly every day, if not then only skips one day.

Any advice is SO appreciated. I just don't know what we're doing wrong and I feel like she's sad and that's why she's always hiding.

Here's a picture to help:

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. Do you know the temp ON the basking spot? It might be to hot with 3 basking lights in there. I have a 40gallon breeder tank and use a 75 watt halogen flood light and its 105 on the basking spot. What kind of basking lights are they and what wattage? That's all I can think of. What brand is the uvb?

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....your set up looks great, but it may be that she really needs a cooler basking area. Cut it back to 100 F and see if that helps. Also, some dragons don't like the UVB too close, if it's 8" or closer, move it to 10 -12" away. Oh, I see that Destiny had the same idea [ it may be too hot ]

 

[anenglish15]

Hi. Do you know the temp ON the basking spot? It might be to hot with 3 basking lights in there. I have a 40gallon breeder tank and use a 75 watt halogen flood light and its 105 on the basking spot. What kind of basking lights are they and what wattage? That's all I can think of. What brand is the uvb?

The actual spot is about 105-110* depending on the angle of the basking light. I use a laser thermometer to double check the spot. The far left light is actually only a CHE. We were having trouble getting that side hot enough, so there is a 60W CHE heater in it that we keep on all the time. I don't remember the wattage of the middle one. It's a floodlight. And the light on the far right is just a normal 80W light, no soft white light, for additional light. The UVB is ReptiSun and we just bought it.... 3 months ago?

 

[anenglish15]

Hi there....your set up looks great, but it may be that she really needs a cooler basking area. Cut it back to 100 F and see if that helps. Also, some dragons don't like the UVB too close, if it's 8" or closer, move it to 10 -12" away. Oh, I see that Destiny had the same idea [ it may be too hot ]

I've thought that maybe she needs a cooler basking spot, but if I turn off the CHE heater (far right light holder), the basking spot drops to about 95*. Is that okay? Everything I read says it MUST be light at least 100* to properly digest food, especially since she's still a juvenile. My husband says she's just regulating her body temperature, but I RARELY see her basking any more! She's always hiding.

 

[diamc]

[I moved your thread here as it does make more sense having it here. I deleted the duplicate post with the exact same info.]

How old do you think your beardie is, 6 to 9 months perhaps? Is your tank a 40 gallon breeder? When you ck the temps with the gun, how far away are you holding it from the area you're checking?

I do have to agree with the others that the basking temp is too high and that's why she is avoiding it and hiding from it. Little babies only need a basking temp as high as 110 and beardies older than that prefer 103 to 105 so I would suggest lowering it to see if you can get her to bask more. Since she's eating about 25 crickets a day and she isn't basking, she's not digesting properly which can cause some major stomach issues and even impaction.

A floodlight alone throws off powerful heat so then with another 140 watts of heat, that is an awful lot.

 

[anenglish15]

[I moved your thread here as it does make more sense having it here. I deleted the duplicate post with the exact same info.]

How old do you think your beardie is, 6 to 9 months perhaps? Is your tank a 40 gallon breeder? When you ck the temps with the gun, how far away are you holding it from the area you're checking?

I do have to agree with the others that the basking temp is too high and that's why she is avoiding it and hiding from it. Little babies only need a basking temp as high as 110 and beardies older than that prefer 103 to 105 so I would suggest lowering it to see if you can get her to bask more. Since she's eating about 25 crickets a day and she isn't basking, she's not digesting properly which can cause some major stomach issues and even impaction.

A floodlight alone throws off powerful heat so then with another 140 watts of heat, that is an awful lot.

Hi there I would say it's about a 40 gallon tank. And yes I believe she's about 6-9 months or so. When I check the tmeps with a gun, I hold it about 2-3 inches away from the area. I check the entire spot.

My trouble is that if I turn the CHE off and only use the floodlight, the basking temp drops to like 95-98*, is that okay? If I turn the CHE on, that's when the basking spot is like 105-110*. I've tried a dimmer, but that didn't help with the heat and made her tank much darker. Is there something else you would suggest?

Thanks for your help!

 

[diamc]

Did you try a dimmer on the flood light? Are you able to point the flood light so that it's completely flat? That may help raise the temp so that you don't have to use one of the other heat sources.

They can digest at 95 to 98 degrees although I would try for about 100 or so.

 

[anenglish15]

Did you try a dimmer on the flood light? Are you able to point the flood light so that it's completely flat? That may help raise the temp so that you don't have to use one of the other heat sources.

They can digest at 95 to 98 degrees although I would try for about 100 or so.

I did try a dimmer and it just wouldn't work. It would still be very hot and then not bright in her tank. I have not tried pointing the flood light flat. Usually I angle it so it's directly on the basking area. Do you think it's better if I dont it right at the ground? Her ceiling is wood so we have cut little divits in it and the divits are cut right above the ground, not the basking area. If that makes sense. Which is why if I angled in flat, it'd be pointing at the ground, not the basking spot.

 

[diamc]

What if you tried using the log as the basking spot, sounds like the rock hide is getting too hot. Would suggest pointing the basking light straight down so that you can get a reading right on top of the log & see what that temp is.

In the picture, he has most of his body closer to the 60 watt CHE with the lowest part of his body under the actual basking light which to me, means that it is too hot under the basking bulb even for a little while.

 

[anenglish15]

What if you tried using the log as the basking spot, sounds like the rock hide is getting too hot. Would suggest pointing the basking light straight down so that you can get a reading right on top of the log & see what that temp is.

In the picture, he has most of his body closer to the 60 watt CHE with the lowest part of his body under the actual basking light which to me, means that it is too hot under the basking bulb even for a little while.

Her log was her basking spot up until a few weeks ago. Maybe i'll put it back to how it was. So put the log on the left side and keep the basking light in the middle, or should I switch that to the left side as well?

 

[diamc]

I would say to try different things to try to get a basking temp of 100 to 103 or 104. See what he likes.

 

[anenglish15]

Bump Updated. Please help!