puffy eyes on water dragon? *Pic

worldeater · Respected Member Joined: Mar 06, 2008 Posts: 595

my water dragon spyro's eyes look puffy sometimes. look:

Click To Enlarge
think it's normal? i don't remember if they were allways like that.
sometimes they look normal when he's wide awake:

Click To Enlarge
What do you think?
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1.1.0 Arg B/W Tegu Joker n Groxy
1.0.0 Australian Water Dragon "Spyro"
1.0.0 Red Eared Slider "Turdy"
0.1.0 White Dwarf Hamster "MiMi"
1.1.0 Black&Albino Kingsnakes "Pearl & Hannibal"

laurarfl · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:22 am Post subject:

I couldn't tell from your pic, but does he do it when he's sleeping or with closed eyes? I don't know why, but sometimes Beardies (and I've seen my ig) puff their eyes out and it looks like they're big balls that are going to pop out of their heads. I have a big male beardie that does it every night when he's asleep. Weird!
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Laura R (FL)
0.1.0 Colombian Tegu
0.2.0 Argentine B&W Tegu
1.0.0 Red Tegu
1.0.0 Green Amevia (yet another teiid)
8 other lizards
1 little gator
13 snakes
4 frogs
some bugs
and a partridge in a pear tree

worldeater · Respected Member Joined: Mar 06, 2008 Posts: 595

yea, the more i look at him the more i see that when he's sleepy and he's looking up at me his eyes bulge, it seems normal cause they only do it when he's sleepy.
_________________
1.1.0 Arg B/W Tegu Joker n Groxy
1.0.0 Australian Water Dragon "Spyro"
1.0.0 Red Eared Slider "Turdy"
0.1.0 White Dwarf Hamster "MiMi"
1.1.0 Black&Albino Kingsnakes "Pearl & Hannibal"

HernandosMom · Member Joined: Sep 08, 2007 Posts: 37

Hi Worldeater, I just saw this post. I couldn't tell exactly from the picture, but I think I know what you're describing. It has to do with the shedding process. Many reptiles, when their bodies are preparing to shed, release an enzyme between the old and new skin that helps them get the old skin off. I've seen different species do this eye puff that seems to be related to a stage of shedding. Watch to see if he does a sort of swallowing thing after the eyes are puffed out. Maybe someone out there knows more detail, but I think it has to do with distributing this enzyme. Also, when they're shedding the skin around their eyes, they might feel compelled to bug out their closed eyes to stretch the skin and break open the old layer in the eylid and under the eye. It's been a while since your post -- has he shed since then?

worldeater · Respected Member Joined: Mar 06, 2008 Posts: 595

yea, i figured it out, it was just as i changed his diet, and he was preparing for a shed. clever that you figured that out though, took me a long while to get ahold of that usefull tidbit.
_________________
1.1.0 Arg B/W Tegu Joker n Groxy
1.0.0 Australian Water Dragon "Spyro"
1.0.0 Red Eared Slider "Turdy"
0.1.0 White Dwarf Hamster "MiMi"
1.1.0 Black&Albino Kingsnakes "Pearl & Hannibal"