My new friend Charlie

Hey there,
Just purchased my first Bearded Dragon (and reptile in general) yesterday. I must say I'm already in love, I did research on many different small animals (as I live in NYC in an apartment) and was fully ready to purchase a Corn Snake, but I walked into the store and saw Charlie and I couldn't resist, little guy was adorable.

I set up his vivarium yesterday and he seems to be adapting pretty well, he ate about 10 crickets today and some kale but I think he's still a bit stressed from the relocation. He did his first poop at home today in the bath after I stroked his tummy and he let me hold him for about 15 minutes at which point his stress marks started fading drastically. I tried feeding him again closer to lights out but he wasn't really interested.

I didn't purchase a heat mat but his basking spot is about 103-108 during the day and the viv cools down to around 70-77 during the night time which as I understand is ample.

I did manage to lose a couple crickets in the viv today but left out some food for them so they dont resort to nipping at Charlie and I've decided not to feed him in his home anymore until I can get some Phoenix worms that cant hide.

He much prefers climbing than roaming on flat ground and I have been wondering if this is normal.

Otherwise I am stoked with my new friend and cant wait for many long years together

Update: I posted this yesterday on another forum before I found this one.

Today has been good, he ate about 10-12 crickets this morning and is currently picking at his kale and collared greens, he had a little fall before due to his obsessive climbing and he did another poop which was solid with a chalky white end. He's not at all fond of hiding spots and prefers to just sleep on his branch or on the fake cactus the viv came with. But he's been running about all day since the fall so I think he's fine.

 

[ChrisAndCharlie]

Hahaha, that photo is my favorite too It's my phone background and pretty much my go to pic when I wanna show him off.

I got lucky, I guess my petsmart had introduced him to greens pretty early but he goes to town on his salads now. I did hand feed him for the first week but now as soon as I put them in there he's eyeing them off. He's mainly been eating collards but today i picked up Mustards, Dandelions and Bok Choy and he's been loving them.

He legit brightens my day, every day. Always gives me something to look forward to when I come home from work.

I've seen a couple petsmart beardies on other forums grow into these spectacular colours so I guess knowing that's coming is going to make me less upset when he's not my little baby boy anymore haha.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

My two came from pet smart and I'm assuming that they too were introduced to green early on, since they recognized them the moment I placed them in the tank. But they were getting more crickets from me than they were at pet smart so they ignored the salad and went for the crickets. Fiz and KD were like "Yay! My own crickets! No more sharing with my 10 other siblings!".

I suggest you try butternut squash. KD, my bigger boy, goes CRAZY for his butternut. You just cut the butternut in half, scrape out the seeds, place it cut-side-down in a microwave safe dish of water (about an inch of water) microwave for 8 minutes, and then microwave for another 9 minutes. Then just take it out and use a spoon to get the squash out. I like to scrape all of it out and then smash it until it's like baby food consistency (Fiz and KD love it when it's really squishy and sloppy like baby food). Be careful though if you feed it to him with your finger, because if Charlie likes it enough... well... let's just say Fiz liked his squash a little too much... and my finger... :shock: LOL

Fiz and KD make my day everyday too! The first thing I do when I get home is say Hi to my dog and give him a treat, and then go upstairs to see Fiz and KD. They're delightful little dudes, I love Beardies!

MORE PICTURES OF CHARLIE. HE'S TOO CUTE.

And I know what you mean about your "Bragging-Wallpaper-Picture". On my phone's background it's a picture of Fiz sitting weird with his leg stuck out all cute, and I always show him off to people :wink:

 

[ChrisAndCharlie]

So the past few days I've noticed Charlie getting darker than usual and showing his stress marks more than usual.
His temps and lighting are fine and he's eating and pooping well. I did notice he's been shedding on his legs and tail the last week or so, could this be the reason for his dark colour?

 

[dragonlover3]

Hi,
First let me say....Wow! Your little one is a real cutie!
I just want to share a great site with you. It has a color coded,
easy to use nutritional list of vegetation for your beardie.
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html
You've mentioned kale a few times, Kale has oxalates which
bind with calcium making it unable to be absorbed and utilized
by your beardie. Kale should only be fed very occasionally.
Also it's not good to feed your beardie for 2 hours before lights out
since he will not be able to digest that food properly.
Do you use a calcium supplement dust on 1 feeder meal a day for 5
days a week and vitamin dust on 1 feeder meal a day for 2 days a
week? This helps ensure they meet their requirements.
1 more link for you on why never to use any loose substrate including
sand on bearded dragons, even adults.
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=132151
I hope you don't mind the info, we all try to help each other when we
notice something cause we all love our beardies so much!
Amanda

 

[ChrisAndCharlie]

Yeah I cut the kale out a while ago and switched to Bok Coy. He eats fine now, like 50-80 phoenix worms a day so I don't dust with calcium although I do with vitamins once a week.

He's on eco-carpet so no loose substrate.

I'm more concerned about his recent colouring and wondering if it's due to the shedding.

 

[AtlasStrike]

Bok Choy really should not be fed as a staple either. It is too high in vitamin A and is mostly water. Really the best staple greens are collards, turnip greens and dandelion greens. Mustard greens are also a good staple, though beardies sometimes dislike them. I also feed butternut squash, cactus pear and kale occasionally for variety. Variety is the spice of life, but it is important that your little one get the healthiest greens possible. That link provided above is a very good, color coded guide to beardie diets. Definitely check it out.

 

[dangit12]

hes awsome.

 

[ChrisAndCharlie]

I should rephrase. He gets Bok Coy instead of Kale like twice a week, his regular greens are Dandelion, Mustard and Collards. He also gets butternut squash on tuesdays and fridays but he isn't all that fond of it.
His live feeders are Crickets and Pheonix/Reptiworms.

I was more concerned about the recent lethargy and darkening of colour but I've since read that it is attributed to his current shedding so I'm no longer concerned. He's still happy, just eating less but still pooping every day.

Cheers guys.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Charlie's got a nice diet going on there I know what you mean about the squash. Fiz doesn't really like it, but KD eats it like there's no tomorrow. But now that I think about it, he eats everything in his salad bowl no matter what it is. I could put dirt in there and he'd probably eat every last bite, and even lick the dish clean!!


It is probably just the shedding, like you siad, that's causing his abnormal colors. It shouldn't be anything to worry about. Charlie is the cutest!

Feel free to upload all the pictures you want, we're all looking forward to see more pictures of baby Charlie!

 

[ChrisAndCharlie]

he's such a little bugger when i hold him, he has this huge fascination with crawling down my back where i cant reach him.

I'll post some new pics probably tomorrow.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Fiz does that to me too, so I go downstairs and I'm like "Mom, can you get Fiz off of my back?" LOL. I know this sounds weird, but my room is always messy and I always have to clean it. There's always stuff on my floor that needs to be thrown away but is too big to be sucked up by a vacuum. So I have to get down on my hands and knees to pick it up. Well, recently I discovered that I can put Fiz on my back when I crawl around cleaning my floor. He just runs up and down my back, onto my head, on my shoulder... LOL! I'm so weird, but hey, I have to clean my room, why not have some fun with it? LOL!

 

[ChrisAndCharlie]

Got bored and took a couple pics anyway:

Poor little guy looking all dark

and one nuzzling with daddy

quality is average, i know.

 

[ChrisAndCharlie]

Reptisun bulb came yesterday so i've taken the coil out and mountain the new one in his cage. He already seems more alert.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Love the pictures!

The reptisuns work magic, seriously. I had Fiz & KD under a coil for about a month, and then ordered the reptisun. By the next day, Fiz was actually running around. He usually just sat on his basking spot. He was happy! Hope it does the same for Charlie!

 

[ChrisAndCharlie]

Been a while since I've been on here, had to take a break the last month has been pretty hectic. Just thought I'd post a photo update of Charlie. He's doing great, just completed a full shed which I could tell was driving him nuts. He's grown about 4-5 inches since my last post.

Made him a hammock out of an old shirt but I think I need to work on another one cause it's getting a little small for him.

Master of his domain.

Thats all for now, hope you all are doing well.