My bearded dragon's eyes are always closed, is there something wrong?

Question

I have noticed within the past few days that my bearded dragon has constantly had his eyes closed. He seems to have his eyes closed no matter where he is in his terrarium. However, when I take him out he opens them slightly. When I put crickets in his terrarium he acts as if they aren't there at all, meaning he rarely eats (from what I see anyway). When I took him to have him examined by a veterenarian he was freaking out with his eyes WIDE open because the doctor was touching him. So, the doctor basically looked at me like I was crazy and told me nothing was wrong. So, I go home and his eyes are completely shut. Does anyone possibly know why my beardie would be doing this? Any ideas would be appreciated very much, Thanks in advance. By the way, my beardie is about a month and a half old.

Answer 1

I work at Petsmart. Every now and then we have this problem with bearded dragons. *MOST* of the time, our vet puts them on medicine. To be honest sometimes the make it, others they don't. If you catch any problems ahead of time then they deff. WILL make it. Sometimes this happens because of stress, sometimes because of paracites within the animal itself. Sometimes this will happen if the bearded dragon starts using some it its fat reserves from it's body. Take them to a vet that has experience dealing with reptiles. If you don't know of anyone, then go to your local Petsmart, and ask them who they take their animals to. Most stores have the vet clinic built into the store but some take theirs to other vets. It will NEVER hurt to check. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Mine shuts its eyes a lot as well, must be normal, or he cant stand the sight of you (kidding)

Answer 3

do you use one of the compact UV lamps? if so, then you need to take it out asap and replace it with a linear fluorescent reptisun 10.0, reptiglo 8.0 (NOT 10.0) or  a megaray mercury vapor lamp.

your dragon may have photo-kerato-conjunctivitis

a fantastic light guide, and info on the disease. not a large amount of veterinarians have heard of it, especially if they don't specialize in reptiles.

http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapypho...

the basking lamp would not cause that if  it is just a regular incandescent. if its a reptile mercury vapor than it may indeed be too close. i seriously suggest you check out his uv lamp. dragons like it bright. however certain uv bulbs produce a dangerous uvb wavelength, which may induce those symptoms.

Answer 4

It sounds like the light in your cage may be too bright for him, and his eyes are open when he's out of the cage because it's not so bright.

For your basking light, it should be close enough that he can have a basking spot of 105-110 degrees. Check the temps with a digital thermometer with a probe; don't use one of the stick on ones, they can be up to 20 degrees off! If the temps are 105-110 degrees, then leave the basking bulb as it is.

What type of UVB bulb are you using? If you are using a bad type of bulb, then that could be hurting his eyes. Or, if you are using a good or bad bulb, but have it too close to him, then it's hurting his eyes.

The best type of UVB available in a petstore is the ReptiSUN 10.0 flourescent TUBE. Do NOT get the ReptiGLO 10.0, or any type of compact or coil bulb UV lights; those cause blindness, conjectivitis, seizure, and sometimes, even death. If they don't have the ReptiSUN 10.0 in your local petstore, you can order one here http://www.petmountain.com/product/fluor...    Even if they have that bulb at your local petstore, it is much cheaper online. With the ReptiSun, the light must be 6-8 inches away from the dragon at any point in the cage.

If you continue to have problems, I reccomend you go to http://www.beardeddragon.org/bjive/  The people there are very knowledgeable, and will be glad to help you

Answer 5

Many times their eyes are closed when they're basking.  If your lizard's eyes are closed even when it's not basking then you may need  to start thinking about talking him to the vet.

Answer 6

I'm thinking the basking lamp is too bright and close to him. Try a smaller wattage and see if that helps.