Vacation Planning - Food and Care Questions

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Hello, We have had our beardie, Stewart for a month today. He's a juvenile-ish, we were told around a year old, but he's almost 14.5 inches snout to tail tip so perhaps a little younger. he grew about an inch in about a month. We have a friend willing to check in on him while we are on a 6 day vacation, she has no experience with reptiles, but is very reliable and cares for rats, cats, fish etc. I wanted to set my friend up for success and make it easy on all (including the beardie) and minimize cricket handling.

Looking to see what I should have my friend to do. Suggestions welcome.

Facts
- I have lights on a timer (currently 8am-9pm), CHE on 24/7 ('cause it's still frickin cold here in New England).
- currently, Stewart gets fed once a day, salad and insects. I have rotated types of greens, fruits and veggies over the past few weeks to see what he likes. I ave also tried a few types of insects. superworms, crickets and waxworms. I have also tried him on commercial food (Flukers buffet juvenile) as a supplement, again mainly to see what he goes for, if it causes any digestive issues and to have on hand in the case of no insects. Insects get dusted with Repashy combo most days. He seems pretty good on the different types of food I have tried. Stool runny for a few days after he came home, but pretty solid after transition.

-supers - When he got these, he gobbled up 2-3 smaller sized ones easily in a feeding, chews them nicely, even the bigger ones.
-crickets - He happily hunts down and eats half dozen in one feeding.
-salad he's had - loves orange stuff and his coloring starting to show it (carrots, squash, cantaloupe (gets as treat only); collard greens, mustard greens, romaine (infrequently). peppers, cucumbers, blueberries, zucchini,
-poops every other day-ish

Questions
-Can I leave pre-bagged salad in fridge for my friend? what veggies work best for this type of feeding?
-can I pre-dust anything?
-What veggies good for leaving out in food bowl? i.e., friend can load up dish?
-Can my friend put out the commercial food daily, maybe with a few supers every other day or something like that?
-suggested schedule?
-tweak light schedule?
-anything else?

Thanks!
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
It's good that you have someone to stop by and check in on him. 6 days isn't too long and he should be fine. You can pack salads in a ziploc with a fold of paper towel and put it in the fridge. Greens do especially well this way. You might want to leave the veges whole and have your friend cut them up into small pieces on demand so it's a bit fresher. Just send an example photo of a typical salad and make it all easy to find in the fridge. Since the lights are on a timer you won't need to worry about that. Just keep the same schedule. Keep cleaning supplies out and ready to go. It might be easier to put down some paper towel substrate temporarily but that's up to you. I wouldn't worry as much about live bugs or supplements but if your friend is up to it that's fine. As long as his tank is cleaned and he has some fresh food available he should be just fine.
 

QuinnF

Hatchling Member
Any veggies that are good for beardies will work. You can moisten them before putting them in the bowl so they don’t shrivel as much but don’t let them sit in water because they will mold. You can probably just put insects in the salad and it should be fine to pre dust them although they might wipe a bit off 1 week without calcium should be ok. Lighting schedule sounds fine.
 
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