Young Beardie doing well, a couple of questions though.

[Jenn_Tigercat]

My young Beardie Devlin is doing well eats like a pig and is growing well. I had a couple of questions that are about different things so I didn't want to make multiple posts. If this is in the wrong place please feel free to move it.

First one is about how high the log is in his enclosure. Should it go all the way to the top of his enclosure or only be about half way up. He always sleeps at the top of his branch, occasionally I will find him sitting there with his mouth open. I have read that this is how they thermo-regulate and he doesn't do it all the time. Should I leave his branch how I have it or move it down a little. I am looking at making a shelf in there so that he can get to different levels if he wants since it is a tall tank.

Second I have managed to get him to eat his greens but only if i hand feed them to him and he only seems to like the curly mustard greens. Is it ok for him to get these regularly without any other greens or should I mix it up a bit for him?

And last any ideas on the morph. He is a pet store beardie so I know more then likely he is a hinzes 57 as they call them but I am just curious. His stripes down his back are very red in color especially after he sheds and on either side of the stripes is more green in color. He is gorgeous no matter what but I am just curious. this is probably the best one of his coloring i could get.

here is a face shot as well.

 

[Germ]

1: This question could be more easily answered if you show a daytime pic that shows your lighting. What is the daytime temp at the point that it sits with it's mouth open?

2: Mustard Greens are a good staple green, some variety is generally better, but if it is not into other greens, this is fine.

3: I think you are confusing Morph with Color line. He is a 'Normal' morph. This may help to clarify things Morphs as I Understand Them There is no way to determine color line if you do not know its lineage. He is a very handsome Dragon. Color lines are nothing more than fancy names, that individual breeders tag their personal breeding line with. There are just about as many names as there are breeders these days. You have a gorgeous Dragon.

 

[Jenn_Tigercat]

Thanks for that. That was very helpful I am used to snakes where the different colors and patterns are considered morphs. Here are a couple of pics of his tank. He has a black heat bulb that just produces heat and no light. The light is a repti-glow 10.0 bulb that goes the entire length of the tank. His heat on the basking side is between 100 and 103 degrees Fahrenheit. I do have a digital thermometer that is on the highest point of the log so that the top is at the right temp and not to hot if the prob for the thermometer were lower. the temp where I see his mouth usually open is around the 101 degree point. He seems to like to sit right under his heat lamp. I just cleaned recently and have moved the log a little bit lower so that he isn't able to get so high up. I have also adjusted the thermostat so that his temp stays the same.

 

[Pat B]

Your beardie is beautiful. I love the color lines....I hope he keeps them as he grows!

 

[drgnfly2265]

Can't wait to see how he looks when he is full grown. He's got some really pretty colors!

 

[Jenn_Tigercat]

thank you. he does and I hope they stay but i know colors change.

 

[drgnfly2265]

It's funny how they do change. Yaddle had a lot of yellow on her when she was little. Now that she is older, the hypo in her has taken over and she is really light. The only time I can see yellow is when she is in the sun and the yellow looks like a "highlighter" yellow, lol. Midna on the other hand is a normal brown and as she got older the area around her eyes got bright orange.

Did they tell you what colors your dragon is and the age?

 

[Jenn_Tigercat]

no they didn't and I am not sure if there is a way to tell age by how long he is. I got him from petsmart and they never really know. The snake I got there two years ago the called a hypo when he really was a ghost. Luckily for me I have never had a problem with petsmarts animals where petco I won't buy from.

 

[drgnfly2265]

Where I am, Petco is actually pretty good. It's a lot better than the Petsupermarket, ugh... that place..... I swear, I /facepalm everytime I go in there The closest Petsmart is about an hour away so we never make it in there.

I guess you can estimate his age by his size. What kind of snake do you have?

 

[Jenn_Tigercat]

I have 8 corn snakes. My oldest is about 3 years and my youngest is under a year.

 

[Josh]

Beautiful dragon! If the log at the highest point is 103 and he's laying on top of the log, he's going to be getting pretty warm. I would either lower the log or the temp...

 

[Jenn_Tigercat]

thanks Josh. I did in fact lower the log so that he cant get that close to the screen top.

 

[Germ]

Thanks for that. That was very helpful I am used to snakes where the different colors and patterns are considered morphs. Here are a couple of pics of his tank. He has a black heat bulb that just produces heat and no light. The light is a repti-glow 10.0 bulb that goes the entire length of the tank. His heat on the basking side is between 100 and 103 degrees Fahrenheit. I do have a digital thermometer that is on the highest point of the log so that the top is at the right temp and not to hot if the prob for the thermometer were lower. the temp where I see his mouth usually open is around the 101 degree point. He seems to like to sit right under his heat lamp. I just cleaned recently and have moved the log a little bit lower so that he isn't able to get so high up. I have also adjusted the thermostat so that his temp stays the same.

The gaping is quite normal.

A few suggestions\recommendations. BDs thrive on bright white light, so a white light emitting heat bulb would be much better than the Black one. The basking temp for a young BD should be in the vicinity of 110F. I would not lower the log because that is the only place that it is any where near enough to the UVB to be receiving any benefits from it. Filtered through the screen there will be very little, if any, effective UVB reaching any of the rest of the enclosure because of the height. Tall enclosures are not really recommended for this reason. When it comes to enclosures for BDs, floor area is much more desirable than height. What are the dimensions of the enclosure? It appears to possibly be a 20 gal high. What is the temp of the floor area on the cool side? It will need a much larger enclosure as it ages. If you do not see it drinking from the water dish, I would remove it.

 

[ThDude]

^i agree with germ on all counts. a bigger tank is needed as soon as you can get one. a 40gallon or a 40 gallon breeder tank would work great(breeder being better as it has sooo much room in it)