# Bearded Dragon Stress Marks and Darker Colouration



## Peach01 (May 5, 2015)

Our female has deep black stress mark lines on her tummy and the light blue bar's are grey / black right now. She's clearly stressed from something and I'm doing my best to make sure It's nothing to do with my husbandry.

Would anyone mind offering me some help in identifying what that might be?

I'll start from the top, both dragons are from Where Dragons Dwell, they arrived on the 6th Via courier from Ireland to Kent. Our female Daenerys was deep in shed whilst traveling, upon receipt we bathed both dragons as advised to help re-hydrate them after the long journey. 

Our male was settled in within 2 or 3 days, he's 2months and the female is 3months. The female is a Hypo Het Trans Leatherback, she's just finished most of her shed but still has a portion on her tail.

After a few days she had stress marks on her tummy and the light blue bar's she has are often dark coloured. She's also window surfing quite a bit and hiding more then she ought to. We attributed this to re location stress but at 12 days this seems like quite a lengthy amount of time.

Anyone able to shed some light on this and possibly help me determine the problem if any? I've researched heavily into the husbandry and can't work out why she's stressed....

Many Thanks,

Michael


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## GavinMc (Jan 9, 2013)

There could be a whole host of reasons. To narrow it down you will need to give a whole lot more information. Give details of your set-up and how you heat and light the vivarium. Also what size the vivarium is, whether you are housing it alone or with the male. What sort of opportunities the dragon has to hide, giving a photo of the set-up would be far easier. Give as much detail about everything you do and have done.

It might just be it is taking longer to settle than the male. 11 days really isn't a long time. 

Leave them well alone and only disturb to feed, water and clean. To stop the 'window surfing' place something over the glass. This will help it feel more secure.



Gavin.


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## Peach01 (May 5, 2015)

Ok I'll do my best to give as much information as possible. 

Both dragons are housed separately in two 4Ft x 2Ft x 2Ft Vivariums (One stacked on top). The Vivariums are hand made from White Melamine Kitchen Units.

They both have an arcadia T5 12% UVB 3Ft tube starting from hot side to cool side each with a reflector. The UVB is roughly 12-15 inches from the dragons back to tube at the basking site.

They have a 50W heat bulb each and temperatures of the Females Vivarium are 28-29.5 (Depending on outside temperature) on the cool side and 39.5 - 40.5 degrees under the basking point.

They both have a fresh bowl of salad daily consisting of Kale, Rocket, Carrot, Spring greens and fruit on special occasions. Trying to find somewhere to buy Dandilion greens but finding that difficult.

Female is 3months old and the male is 2months old. They're fed largely on a live food diet and all prey is gut loaded with the same kind of veg used for the salads. The live food diet is mostly crickets, sometimes locusts and I'm soon to try the odd waxworm but very rarely due to the fat content. 

They're meals are dusted 6-7 times a week at different intervals and they are offered water from an eye dropper every few days and bathed once a week. 

They were originally housed on news paper but as of yesterday I've started keeping them on Oatbran, none of the problems with the female are related to substrate because she was showing stress marks and dark colouration a few days after I had her.

Only thing I can think of is that when I was using newspaper I was having to remove each dragon from their vivarium for 10minutes whilst I was maintaining floor and clearing crickets.....Would this cause all that that level of stress? 

When she arrived she was deep in shed and is only just finishing the last bit of her tail today.

They're poop is consistant, white urate and solid poop and they are eating although not quite as much as I had expected - Stress related? 

Any imput welcome, I just want to determine if there's anything wrong with the setup (Not that I think there is) or if she's just taking longer to adjust. 










Cheers,

Michael


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## Peach01 (May 5, 2015)

Bump Anyone?


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## Antw23uk (Jan 12, 2009)

Hi Michael

Firstly congrats on getting two beardies and keeping them separate. Its unlikely they are guaranteed male and female as too young to tell. Also if your plans are to breed them in the future then just don't. There is no demand for the babies and rescues up and down the country are full to bursting with unwanted beardies!

You wont find dandelion leaves in the shops! They are weeds you will find EVERYWHERE .. the ones with the yellow flowers? They like the flowers as well.
At there age they will be relying heavily on a live food diet. You are doing the right thing gut loading them with good food and you can dust them with calcium and a multi vit by putting them in a freezer bag with a tiny amount of powder and giving it a shake (Trap air in the bag to make it easier)
Ideally the UVB strip lights will be lower or at least give them a chance to get closer to it, a good 3-4 inches is ideal but with reflectors you have already increased the UVB so well done.

The temps sound good.
Personally I think keeping them on oatbran is a crap idea! Pop to a local hardware store and buy some (or ask for broken stock for free) slate tiles and tile the bottom of the vivs. This is not only more suitable as a substrate (or atleast 2/3 of the viv floor if you must use oatbran!) and will help keep their claws nice and trim as they run up and down the hard rough floor.

Pipet of water? put a water bowl in the cool end, change it for fresh water either daily or every other day. It doesn't have to be a big bowl.
Bathing is pointless and they don't need it unless they are covered in crap then give them a wash, lol!

Stress marks? do you have pictures? To be honest I think you are mistaking this for her natural colouration and over thinking it. If a beardies temps are correct, they have enough food and are left to settle for as long as possible you are always going to be on to a winner with this tough little lizards.

Personally I would put more décor in the viv as well. By creating platforms you are increasing the surface of the viv so in effect doubling the size and creating enrichment for them to move about in.

Anthony.


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## Peach01 (May 5, 2015)

Hi,

Thank you for your response. Sorry I hadn't got back sooner, It's been a busy day. 

The dragons were bought as male and female just to allow me the option should I want to breed in the future. Sexing at younger ages isn't as you said not full proof but with the massive amount of choice It was just something I wanted to do. 

Please rest assured they have been bought as a pet.
Yes they It was intentional they are male and female but only to give me the option way down the line should I decide I'd like to try breeding them. 
I have no dilutions of grandeur or exceptions of profit should I decide to breed them in the future - I would fully expect to make a significant loss. 

Even with slim outside chance I decided to breed in the future it would only be as a labor of love only with perhaps the only perk being I could hold back a particularly nice dragon or two to keep for myself.

There is however slightly more of a market for the dragons I've purchased because they are high quality high colour morphed bearded dragons from Where Dragons Dwell over in Ireland, so they're really are not just your average dragon's. Even with that in mind I'm still aware I would be lucky to break even at best and there is still no money in the breeding of dragons currently. I've read many many many guides (Probably almost all of them) which all echo just what I've just said 

Do you feel that picking wild dandelions would be safe? I know a few places near us where there are a bunch but If I could just buy a bundle from somewhere it would save me worrying if they've been blasted with weed killer. Not quite sure where I'd go though or if perhaps I'm being a bit anal with my worry lol

As for the UVB Arcadia do not recommend using a T5 12% UVB with reflector any closer then 12inches away from your dragon's back to UVB at the basking point. I asked this question to Arcadia on facebook and that was their direct advise. T5's are significantly stronger then T8 lightning as I'm sure you know and at 12-15inches away from your basking point your offering the dragon the recommend UVB. Maybe if i can lower the basking point height this might be possible though I guess.

Right now I'm offering the dragons water via an eye dropper as I've been advised offering a water bowl increases the chance of respiratory problems. Unsure how much stoke to put into a water bowl causing respiratory disease problems, does anyone have some further advise to shed on this?

As for the stress marks, I can't get a picture right now because lights just went out and I'm trying my best not to disturb the dragons. They're grey - Black curved lines on the belly of the dragon. Her colour has started to come back on her back which is good news but she's still having lose stools. 

Thinking perhaps she may need a fecal test done, parasites are a possibility?....I really don't know. Spent a small fortune on my dragons and their setups and I of course want the best for them - Love them to bits. I'd like to think I've really done my research regarding the dragons, so much so that I know many of the hot topics for bearded dragons.

Substrate wise I'm definitely looking to get some slate tiles in the very very near future, I'm unsure if I'll be offering part oatbran or not...I'll decide that later. For the moment I just needed a substrate that didn't involve me having to change newspaper every day just to make sure crickets were not remaining in the vivariums....It was getting so very very frustrating. Checking for crickets now is much easier, mostly need to check the objects in the viv's and scan over the oatbran.

I understand that there are many different opinions on dragon husbandry - Doing my best to use all the research and suggestions to make an informed decision that I feel is right for me and right for the dragons  Thank you for all your suggestions, don't want you to feel like I haven't read your post properly - I'm just very informed of the options people use - I didn't enter into the hobby lightly as I hope you can tell.
Thank you very much for your post, I'd love to hear if your suggestions on some of my questions in this reply if you have the time 

Many Thanks,

Michael


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