Bearded dragon skin

Question

Luna   My beareded dragon is about a year old. She went through a shed about 2 weeks ago but only around her nose and ears and front legs. In the past couple of days she has gotten dark greyish black. From the tip of her tail to just behind her eyes is greyish dark colour. Her scales kinda look bubbly. (Except there is part of her back that is normal colour) her chin belly and bottom half of her legs are normal too. She always has water & greens in her bed. And we feed her gut loaded cricks. Ocational pinkies, every week she gets a treat such as hornworms, silk worms, etc. Her tank temps are 85-95 on cool side and 100-115 on hot side. Its been like that since she was small.  She is active, still eats like a pig, friendly. There is no mouth discolouration.

Answer
Hi Samantha,

It sounds like you take great care of Luna. The only things I wonder about are what type of UV light you are using? You should be using a Reptisun 10.0 18" light and calcium supplementation so that she can absorb calcium and vit D correctly. Also, it's not a great idea to leave water in the tank at all times. Bearded dragons are a desert lizard and high humidity can be bad for them. The hot side of her tank shouldn't go above 110.

It sounds to me like she is getting ready for a big full body shed. I recommend giving her daily baths warm (not hot) water. The same temperature that you'd like for a bath, will work for Luna. The older scales will soak up water and she might look grey-ish, but it will help her shed her skin. At a year old she is probably growing  fast.  Sometimes they will go off food for a few days before a shed, but if she's eating and active; you are doing a great job. I hope you and Luna have a long happy life together. Feel free to ask me a question any time.

Happy New Year
Jennifer