6 month old beardie

Question
Hi Tracie,

To start off with I have grown up around animals my whole life and some of my first pets were reptiles. My dad is a wildlife vet and we always had a plethora of animals in the house. My dad can't tell me much about lizards as he has only rely delt with crocodiles and snakes so I thought i'd try asking someone else abour my beardie Ryuuk as i have never owned a lizard before.

I got her (we'll call Ryuuk that for now as understand it is too early to tell) when she was about six weeks in March she was the smallest one of her brothers and sisters. I chose her because, besides being small, she looked the healthiest out of the tank and i figured that i she would grow more if she had her own tank and didn't have to compete for dinner.

Lately I've been wondering if she is the right size for her age and if she has enough fat on her. Like the subject line says she is 6 months old give or take. I didn't have a ruler so i put her next to a key board for a size reference on tge attached picture. I'm worried she might be too thin, how can I tell?

She is fed about 20- 25 crickets a day with a bowl of veggies which she seems to eat consitantly. I dust the crickets and veggies with a calcium and  D3 supplement every day

She gets misted twice a day and gets a bath twice a week. I heard that they can get hyrated from baths, is this true?

Her tank is about a meter long and the substrate is ground peach and apricote kernel.

She gets eight to twelve hours of uv light a day with a 50 watt basking bulb and has a 50 watt black light for  night. How cold can a beardie get before its bad for them? Doesn't the australian desert get very cold at night? I only ask because the power goes out sometimes in winter here because of poor infrastructure.

Also I have noticed that she curves her back in the same direction and i worry that this might be a sign of metabolic bone disease or is it normal? I have attached a photo of this posture thing too.

I also wanted to ask if you can tell from a beardies appearance whether it is male or female? A friend told me that the males have bigger heads with more spines but I read an article online that said that females can also look this way.  What do you think? The base of her tale is flat but again may be too soon to tell.

Thanks for your help!

Answer
Hello Caitlyn,

I think you forgot to attach the picture!  If she has a curve on her back, it is most likely metabolic bone disease.
Which UVB light are you using?  Is it a tube bulb or a compact/coil light?  
How old is the UVB light?  
What are the temperatures in the tank?  
Do you use a temp gun or a digital probe?
Is the ground peach & apricot kernel a loose substrate?  She could be impacted from the substrate.  Do you feed her in her tank or outside  of it?
A dragon can get into the 50-60 range at night, but most keep them in the 70-80 range, for comfort in captivity.  The australian desert can get quite cold at night, though.  
I will wait to see pictures of her.  Do her hipbones protrude?

Females can have pretty large heads like males.  It is not always the male who has a larger head.  The spines & spikes are the same whether they are a female or a male.

Do you see any femoral pores on the underneath side of her legs?  


How is her appetite?  Let me know how she is doing.  I love Ryuuk, that is a great name.  

Tracie