Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a bd thats over a year and a half. just recently like a few weeks ago, i got an active uv heat 160 watt flood for a 4x2x2 cage and it runs 14 hrs a day. well just now i ahve noticed white caps on the tips of my bds scales on his head. I isn't a resdiue it is just the peaks of the scales have discolored to a whitish color. he isn't lethargic and everything else appears normal. i was just wondering if it might be a precursor to vit d3 toxicity. he could just be shedding but i have never seen it happen like this before. thanx

-bryan
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I Love my beardie

Pretty sure that if you are using a good calcium that is proportioned calcium to d3 correctly and then you give loads of uvb the dragon will not go toxic. If blood levels of d3 are high enough the body will not overproduce. If this were the case beardies in the wild or kept outside would be dropping like flies. In FL for most of the day UVB intentity is over 100 uw / cm / cm peaking out over 250 uw / cm / cm. This is alot more than what the merc vapor bulbs claim to produce, they probably all produce lessthan what they claim also.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

From what I've read, the 160 watt flood bulbs are for large cages. And the 160 watt bulb should be at least 18 inches away from the beardie. The white tips on his head could be thermal burns or he could just be getting ready to shed. If the bulb is already 18 inches away then he's probably shedding and I wouldn't worry. If it's closer than 18 inches I'd get the light further away or get the 100 watt which is meant to be as close as 12 inches. I use the 100 watt bulbs without any problems.

Veronica
Beautiful Dragons