Rehomed a beardie, HELP

I recently rehomed a 2 year old boy whom I've now owned for a little over a week. He came with his full vivarium set up (I had to replace the UV bulb, rewire the UV plug, and insert tacks at the very top of the vivarium to hold up the bulb because the plastic hook snapped one day).

The woman who previously owned him did not look after him well at all. She fed him a box full of hoppers once every two weeks (our local pet store only sells about 6 or 7 of the larger hoppers/crickets/roaches per box) and for veggies only ever gave him plain lettuce. I've been planning for a beardie for two years, so I knew I had to change up his diet in order for him to be healthy. He's really picky with his greens to the point where he'll barely eat anything, so my vet advised me to stick with one thing at a time to slowly introduce him to new stuff. The problem is, he doesn't eat that many insects either. I've been feeding him Dubia roaches, Morio worms, waxworms as a treat, and also tried him on calci worms. He loved the roaches to begin with, and polished off a whole box, but now he only eats three, four if I'm lucky, before he just ignores them. I fed him on the tongs (she handfed him so I have more luck that way) and also tipped three out into his viv. He'll ate another one or two when he saw them wriggling, but I ended up taking the other one out. I dust his veg with calcium powder every week (or I will do, I've only had him for a week) but I'm worried he won't be getting any of the calcium because he barely eats. I took him to get his nails cut two days ago, and the vet weighed him and said he's a good weight, but I'm still concerned. When I put his veggie bowl in the vivarium, I leave it in until the following day/evening when I replace it- but he has a habit of tipping the stuff out when he climbs over the bowl, so I can never really tell how much of it he's eaten or not.

I know I should be feeding him insects once or twice a week, and everything I've read advises feeding him between 10-20 bugs per meal, but I don't see how I can possibly get him to do that when he can't even finish off a box of 7 roaches. I put veggies in every day and every other day, I give him a small mixture of roaches, morio worms, etc. He never really eats more than 4 morio worms and 3/4 roaches, but he can eat quite a few waxworms, probably because they're tasty.

Side note: he was shedding when I got him- he's lost a bit of skin from his tail, and he has a loose scale on his nose and one below his lip. I bathed him yesterday which he seemed to enjoy, despite his previous owner claiming he hated it. She only bathed him once a year!!

Thank you for giving him a good home. I'm glad you were able to get him to a vet to have a checkup as well. If he doesn't seem to be in critical shape, the best advice I can give is to be patient with him. Especially since he's an adult, it may take quite a while to get him to change his habits. If he's a good weight (what did he weigh?) then offering him rotating veges to try and find something that catches his interest is a good idea. You might even hold off on bugs for a while and try to get him more interested in salad items. I've had good luck cutting squash into worm shapes and feeding them by hand. Keep in mind that this is a new environment for him too, so it may take him a few weeks (or longer) to really settle in and want to eat etc.

Can you post some photos of him and his setup? You can upload photos here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button when you reply. If you'd like to provide details about his setup, we'll be glad to review it to make sure everything is just right for him as well.

Thank you for replying so quickly!

His vivarium is 4ft x 2ft x 2ft with a 22" UV bulb (already installed when we bought the vivarium along with him, we just switched out the bulb for a new one). The UV light is on a 12 hour cycle: goes on at 9:30am and turns off at 9:30pm. As of yet, I don't have a timer, but I set alarms so I never miss it. I'm going to invest in one as soon as possible. The substrate is bird sand, which she said she was advised to use because he kept ingesting whatever substrate she was using before. I spot clean it every day, and use a sieve to deep clean it every week.

He weighed 0.42g, which the vet said was a good weight for him. He seems to like kale and other greens like spring greens, which he eats more than other things- it's like he just doesn't know what anything else is. He'll wander his vivarium and stick his tongue out at pieces of veg he's flicked out of the bowl, but doesn't really eat them. I'm yet to see him actually eat a piece of veg, even though I know he does have a few pieces.

Below are two pictures of him and one of his vivarium, which is pretty much exactly as it was when I first got it, except for the replaced bulb. I was planning on adding more plants for him, but was waiting until he's a bit more settled in. In the picture of him in his viv, he's a bit flattened out- I made him jump a little because he was asleep, so apologies in advance.

He seems to be quite settled in already. He's been handled by both me, my mum, and my little brother. His previous owner had her nieces and nephews handle him, so he seems really at ease with my little brother, who's 4. He's very calm and tolerates being handled- he'll fall asleep on my brother and fell asleep on my mum after we bathed him (that picture is included also). He used to hide under my bed when I let him out but now he roams my bedroom fine- he roams around the room and then settles under the bed and naps on the carpet. Sometimes I have to crawl under and pick him up to put him back in his vivarium, and he'll still be asleep.

CooperDragon":ahii2mjd said:

Thank you for giving him a good home. I'm glad you were able to get him to a vet to have a checkup as well. If he doesn't seem to be in critical shape, the best advice I can give is to be patient with him. Especially since he's an adult, it may take quite a while to get him to change his habits. If he's a good weight (what did he weigh?) then offering him rotating veges to try and find something that catches his interest is a good idea. You might even hold off on bugs for a while and try to get him more interested in salad items. I've had good luck cutting squash into worm shapes and feeding them by hand. Keep in mind that this is a new environment for him too, so it may take him a few weeks (or longer) to really settle in and want to eat etc.

Can you post some photos of him and his setup? You can upload photos here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button when you reply. If you'd like to provide details about his setup, we'll be glad to review it to make sure everything is just right for him as well.

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He looks pretty good! Nice bright orange beard shows that he's happy. He does look like he's at a good weight. .42g sounds off though. Maybe 420g? Hopefully he will learn more of what he likes and expand his diet, but that may take a while so just keep offering new stuff to him along with his greens. A timer is a good idea. A basic mechanical outlet timer with two outlets should do the trick. They aren't too expensive and you don't need one that is too complex. I'd probably replace the sand. Partly since it's not good for him if he starts eating it again, and partly because it's difficult to keep clean and sanitary. Especially if he is pooping in the tank and leaving food around. I prefer solid substrates for a basic setup. Ceramic tile and non adhesive shelf liner tend to be cheap and easy to clean/sanitize. The tile can be hard on their feet after a while though. Putting some fleece down (scraps or small blankets) helps let them burrow a bit and it's easy to clean and won't get caught up in their nails.