INFORMATION IVE GATHERED FOR NEW DRAGON OWNERS

Okay first off Congrats! on your new dragon.. aren't they so cute? Now, I'm pretty new to raising a dragon myself but have spent hours and hours and hours researching these forums for the best information and am going to list a few helpful tips that'll probably answer alot of your questions and ensure your beardie stays in good health.

My dragon, Ryu is about 5 inches in total length so probably about a month and half old or so. If your dragon is larger then you may need to adjust this information to fit you(such as the size of your viv).

1. Ryu uses a 10 gallon aquarium. The substrate or flooring is paper towels. Paper towels wont harm your dragons toes, are cheap and easy to replace when you clean the cage out. STAY AWAY FROM LOOSE SUBSTRATES such as crush walnut shells or sand. I've heard alot of people say they use sand and it hasnt harmed their dragon however I've also heard stories of dragons being hurt even by sand especially by crushed walnut shells. For a more permanent substrate I would recommend slate tile you can get at a home depot fairly cheap.
2. Ryu uses 2 light fixtures. One is a 75watt basking bulb. The other is a Reptisun 10.0 Florescent -TUBE-.
:arrow: 3. Don't do much to decorate your viv right now as it can be hard to hunt for a baby if the food has alot
of places to hide.
:idea: 4. Use a ruler or measuring tape to make sure your dragon can get to a basking spot no more than 8inches away from the UVB bulb. UVB is vital to dragons and the further from the bulb they are the less UVB they will absorb.
5. Go to walmart and buy a thermometer with a probe. You can get one for about $12. Your cage should have a "warm side" a "cool side" and a "basking spot" After the lights have been on in the cage for a while set the probe on the basking spot it should read 105-110°F. Now set the probe somewhere on the warm side it should register around 90-100°F and the cool side should be around 80°F. IMPORTANT: Check the temps again at night when the lights are off. If it gets lower than 60°F you may want to consider a cyramic heating element
6. Crickets are fine but are a major hassle. Gutloading them, dusting them, or just having them in your house can be a bother. I recommend making Phoenix worms your main bug in the diet. I switched Ryu to Phoenix worms and now (s)he won't really look twice at crickets. I suggest Phoenix worm brand because they have lab results to back up their claims on nutritional value. Reptiworms are slightly cheaper but they don't have any lab results posted to let you know just how good of a food they are for your dragon.*EDIT* Reptiworms is having their food tested and is confident they are every bit as good as phoenix worms. This is awesome since Reptiworms are cheaper! (I have a post about this in the Feeder section of the forums) NEVER FEED YOUR DRAGON ANY FOOD THATS LARGER THAN THE SPACE BETWEEN ITS EYES
:shock: 7. My feeding schedule is as follows: Lights on at 8am. At 10am Ryu gets a dish full of phoenix worms, usually eating 20-30 of them. After that a salad composed mainly of mustard greens is left in the cage as lunch. Spray some water on the salad for extra hydration. at around 6pm Ryu gets another bowl of phoenix worms. at 8 or 9 pm it's lights out. You wanna make sure to give your dragon 2 hours in the morning to warm up before feeding, and at least 2 hours after the last meal of the day for your dragon to digest their food before turning the lights off.
8. If you use phoenix worms then calcium dust isn't needed. But you still need a good multivitamin twice a week. Every Monday and Thursday I put some multivitamin in a small plastic bag. I put the first bowl of phoenix worms of the day in the bag shake and serve. I choose the first meal of the day to do the dusting because Ryu is the most hungry in the morning so there's less of a chance the dusted worms will go uneaten.
8) 9. If it's your first week or two of owning your dragon and it isnt eating much RELAX! don't force it to eat just make sure food is always provided. Ryu didn't eat but maybe 3 crickets a day when (s)he first got here. But if you read up you'll find the dragons get a little stressed over moving to a new home but be patient and most likely after the first week or so the appetite will start growing.
:lol: 10. Bathe your dragon once every other day. Use warm water the temp you would bathe a human baby in. Only fill the swimming container up to the chest of your dragon. KEEP CLOSE EYE ON YOUR DRAGON THEY CAN DROWN plus they will sometimes go potty in the water and you dont want them swimming in that.
:study: 11. There's a neat video on youtube that teaches you how to teach your dragon to drink water from a dish. I've found it works pretty well actually. I'll post a link for that at the bottom of this.
:mrgreen: 12. Once your dragon is used to its new home and seems pretty active you should give them attention atleast once a day. We've had Ryu for about a month now and all I have to do is stick my hand in the cage and (s)he jumps right into my hand excited to come out and play.

Just remember: If you do a little research on these forums(other websites can have misleading or false information) you can usually find the answer to most of your questions. Pay lots of attention to your dragon and in no time you'll be a great pet owner :wink:

If anyone else cares to add good info feel free to do so, like I said I'm kinda new to having a dragon myself but I read up daily on the best care

Teach your dragon to drink youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-9h4hl6PXk
Cheapest Reptisun 10.0 bulbs: http://www.petmountain.com/product/...42-504983/zoo-med-reptisun-10-0-uvb-bulb.html
Phoenix Worms http://www.phoenixworm.com

wolfncoyote":1hni96dt said:

If it gets lower than 60°F you may want to consider a human heat pad for night.

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Great job on the information - however I don't think I'd go with a human heat pad for use at night, I'd suggest a CHE (Ceramic Heating Element) to be used instead. You can get a power strip that has a timer built in (petmountain has them I believe) and that has a night/day option. I have the CHE plugged into the night side so that when Angie's lights go out, the CHE comes on. This is of course only for the cooler times of the year, otherwise I unplug it.

Awesome kimmie ty for the info! Where might I get one of those and is there one in specific you'd suggest for a beginner 10gal viv with a baby beardie? It'll give me an idea of where to start as far as maybe wattage goes(if it uses watts like a lamp i mean), don't wanna cook Ryu

bump, bump, bump

With a 10 gal, unless temps go below 65 degrees, I'd probably not bother. I'd be more interested in getting them into a LARGER VIV pronto! They grow really fast - and I DO MEAN fast! I kept Angie in a 10 gal for maybe 2wks at the most and made my own viv using the Crossfire plans that are located in the enclosure forums. (or you could google it)

I think my CHE is 75 watts (not sure) and you can get them from petmountain.com relatively cheap! I just ordered another one from there for less than $29 for my sugar glider, since he's using Angie's for now (Angie has the bestus personalized blanket keeping her toasting thanks to Dawn here)

Remember a 10 gal isn't all that large of a tank, especially for a beardie. Add a CHE to that and it will get warm & toasty quick! If you did require one, I'd say a lower wattage just because of the size of tank, but then you'd want a higher wattage for a larger tank - so save your $$$ by not getting the smaller one for now.

Also - under NO CIRCUMSTANCES - do NOT put one of those infrared lights in their vivs for nighttime! (I was steered wrong as many others have been by pet stores).

yeh it's extremely sad how pet stores give such wrong information.. I'd be willing to bet pet stores misleading info cause more deaths of great herps than anything else

i gotta try to get stewie to drink out of his water dish

Sarth is in a 10 gallon tank atm (left over from my ball python). I bought a 40gal about a month ago and am finally ready to move him into it this weekend hopefully! In his 10 gal though, I have a repti sun 18" and a 50w basking bulb, and those both seem to work well for that size tank with the cool side around 80 and his basking spot between 105-110 depending on temp in that room. His furniture is a wood hide and a tree which serves as his basking area and where he can sit under his uvb.

He is getting big enough now that I feel comfortable moving him into his big tank (he was 5 inches when we got him, now he is 9). The digital temp reader w/ probe I actually got at petsmart and it was $10, now I'm guessing I might have to get a higher watt light and maybe a CHE for his bigger tank!

Just a note, I was looking at CHEs last night at Petsmart - ugh they are expensive. However it looks like petmountain.com is having a heater sale, and all of the lights are 40% off!

Great informative info! A+!

bumpity bump

Oh also stay away from heat rocks or rock heaters.. i've never heard of a situation where these can be good for a pet

Why is it bad to use an infrared light at night? Is ip ok for the daytime? And also, what is the difference between the reptiglo and reptisun bulbs. I am new and want the best for my beardies. Thanks in advance.

your dragon can see the light the 'nite time' bulb lets off so it gets stressed bc it doesnt truely have a 'day and night' cycle bc the lights are on all night.. a night time bulb being used for extra heat during the day isnt bad but be sure to turn it off at night. the difference between the UV tubes is the amount of uvb they put off... the reptisun 10.0 has been tested to put out better amounts of uvb for your dragon to keep it healthier

wolfncoyote":t5uuhhmg said:

your dragon can see the light the 'nite time' bulb lets off so it gets stressed bc it doesnt truely have a 'day and night' cycle bc the lights are on all night.. a night time bulb being used for extra heat during the day isnt bad but be sure to turn it off at night. the difference between the UV tubes is the amount of uvb they put off... the reptisun 10.0 has been tested to put out better amounts of uvb for your dragon to keep it healthier

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Thank You. I Have a Large aquarium (6 ft. long) Divided in half with two adult beardies. I have basking lights for both sides and one side has a blacklight, the other has a infrared (we were using for night) Is the blacklight bulbs a good choice? Also have a 4ft. flourescent fixture which I am ordering bulbs for (no idea how old the ones in it are (just aquired entire set-up). My male just had slightly "runny poop" and I was wondering if the lighting may have to do with it? He also is not as active as when I first seen him (about a week ago). I have a reptiglo 10.0 on the way. My fixture is a two bulb fixture, would it be crazy to put two uvb bulbs in it, or is one enough. The fixture is only about 13 inches away...... can they get "too much" UVB. Thanks again for any advict, this site is great so far!!!