New Beardie Owner - Want to Make Sure I Am Doing This Right

Got my first, actually two, beardies on Wednesday. I am in love...my herp experience is with my frogs, this is my first with lizards. This website is amazing and much appreciated for newbies like myself. I have been on here for hours admiring other bearded dragons and soaking up info. Would anyone care to look over my answers and offer advice/suggestions to things I can do better on and maybe answer some of my questions?

Thanks so much!


How old is your dragon? Sorry, forgot the exact date, but I believe September.
How long have you had your dragon? 2 days
How long is your dragon? About 7 inches, including tails
What is the sex of your dragon? Breeders believe, one male, one female
What size enclosure do you have your dragon in? 36" long, 30 gallon?
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank? paper towel
Do you use UVB lights? yesIf so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb? fluorescent tube
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)? Repti sun 5.0 (should this be 10.0?)
How old is your UVB bulb? 2 days old
How close can your dragon get to the UVB? 5 inches
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage? yes, Exo Terra tight bean sun glo 150W
What are the basking temps? 100
What is the cool side temp? 81
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun? digital with probe
Where exactly are you taking your basking temps? probe is stuck to tank next to tallest basking area
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad? no
What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific. veggies/fruit, crickets twice daily
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)? 45 minutes after lights on in morning (crickets), then veggies/fruit during the afternoon, early evening crickets again
Do you gutload (feed) your crickets, worms, etc? yes
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them? Calcium once daily, (need to purchase vitamins) Zoo med Repti Calcium with D3
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)? regular? Ha! how about quite a bit! LOL!
Do you bath your dragon? How often? Yes, first bath tonight in sink. Is every 4 days good?
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath? Yes, shallow water dish. Is misting a good idea? If so, how often?
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon? Unfortunately right now yes. Was told by pet store that many can be housed together if they have room. Learned within 20 minutes on this site that that is NOT right. These two will be housed seperately as soon as I can get another tank. I am so happy that they seem to really like each other right now.
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done? No I have not.

Whew! Thanks if you made it this far! One last question. I understand these beauties all have unique personalities. However, if I would like to have a possibly cuddly baby how should I go about handling them? I am trying to let them adjust to their new home, but after the adjustment, is handling them multiple times a day ok as long as they show no signs of stress? When I pet them, they basically fall asleep; it's adorable! Any advice on this would be great. I will be trying to find the cute little sleeping bags I have seen in some pictures on here. They are too cute!

Hey SoVerySheri! Welcome to the site! Everything looks pretty good. I don't know if you have come across the link to the recommended nutrition but here it is: http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html
As with any animal, your beardies will have behavioral tendencies. If you already notice that they relax and close their eyes when you pet them, then you shouldn't have any problems. You should handle them everyday. Although they don't always get along with other beardies, they do enjoy people.

You asked about misting. You should mist them everyday. Some beardies will lick the water off of their noses when you do this and it helps keep them hydrated. As far as bathing, you will probably read that people do it differently. It would be okay to do it every 4 days. Your beardies will probably thank you if you do it more often while they are shedding. I think they get itchy. My beardie scratches his head like a dog when he sheds, so I bathe him more frequently during that time.

I see that you already know about housing them together. You will aslo getting differing opinions on this one too, but the safest thing is to keep them apart unless its breeding time.

Great! Thanks for the welcome and information. I am fascinated by these babies and would love to make them as happy as possible. I will start misting them. I have already seen them rub their heads on the wood in their tank. I am not taking any chances on aggression and will be separating them soon. I have to start thinking reptile instead of mammal here, lol! Off to check out nutrition...

Since you have two dragons, you might want to think about raising your own feeders too. One of the discussion forums on this site is specifically for raising feeders. If it is a possibility for you, it will be a lot cheaper for you to raise your own. It's fun too!

I just may do that as I have 3 large tree frogs and 5 small toads to feed as well. I have been researching if they can eat the same type of live food and it looks to be so. Only thing is...I am afraid of bugs...sad, I know. I only tolerate the bugs through much preparing because I love the animals I feed them to.

We just got my daughter 2 leopard frog tadpoles. I am supposed to feed them crickets once they are frogs, but I may try a baby dubia roach and see how that goes. BTW, that is the feeder insect I breed.

Oh, good luck with your tads. Leopard frogs are active and excellent jumpers. They should love some dubias. This roach sounds best for me also. I like their nature and easy of maintaining/breeding. I understand they are better feeders than crickets because of the meat to shell ratio? Also the different sizes you have access to when doing your own feeder breeding would work for me. It would take much courage for me to give it a try, but after reading the amount of crickets baby beardies eat, I might have to give in. Pet store did not inform me of their appetites and mine ate a couple dozen yesterday between the two but not even a dozen today. Hoping their appetites pick up in the next couple of days.

Yeah, the amount of food babies go through is mind boggling, isn't it? I've only got one dragon on crickets and have to buy 1000 every week. Thank goodness for online ordering since currently raising my own feeders is outside the realm of possibility.

Their appetite may be questionable due to relocation stress. This may last a few days to a couple of weeks. You may also notice that they gorge themselves one day and eat a little less the next day. As long as they are eating consistently, they will do great. As far as the amount that they eat... :shock: you may be surprised. I would anticipate them eating anywhere between 30-100 appropriately sized insects each day. This is spread out over 2-3 feedings. The roaches are more filling so the dragons tend to eat fewer of them, but they would still eat at least 20 or 30 a day. My beardie is 5 months old, 12 inches long (I think he is small) and he averages about 40-50 roaches a day plus his veggies.