New to me Beardie, help please?

My name is Mike and I just rescued a Beardie from a friend of mine. He tells me he got it from a breeder for his wife because she wanted one. About 6 months ago she got a cat and he's been neglected. I'm told he's about 9 months old give or take.

When I went to pick him up he was in a tank, No Water. No food, their were some Darkling Beetles in his substrate (Newspaper). This tells me that he hasn't been eating all the worms she was giving him. They gave me a bowl of crickets that I threw out because quite frankly 50 dead crickets with mold on them didn't seem like something this little guy should be eating. He also didn't have any type of heater, Their was a light but it had fallen behind his cage at some point and my friend told me that he never got around to fishing it out.

At this time, I have the little guy in a 20G long, Dual light system with a 75w reptile bulb and a 10.0 Coiled UVB in the other. Under tank heater. Cave, Water bowl, 1 bowl with Super worms, 1 bowl with Repcal Juvenile Bearded Dragon food. He hasn't touched any of it. I also put some Collards and kale in their and he didn't touch it either. If I move him near any of the bowls he just lays their for a bit then wanders back up on top of the cave under the basking light.

His weight and color seem good, but he doesn't put up any fuss about being handled, doesn't really grip on when you maneuver him or pick him up. I am thinking maybe he needs a shallow warm bath to get some liquids in him and warm him up a bit. My Herp guy at the LFS told me that he might be in need of a small force feed. I'm not quite ready to do that yet. I'm going to dig through the basement to find my digital scale and get his weight tomorrow that way I can be sure he's not losing any weight.

Any ideas I should try? I've never had a Beardie before and quite frankly need some tips...

Mike

K well I will help with what I can Get rid of the coil if ur coil and get a reptisun 10.0 18" now price will vary

USA reptisun 10.0 will be around 25-30$ (on amazon fixture 10$ Walmart and he has to be able to get 6-8 inchs away

Canada reptisun 10.0 45$ u can get from Bigalspets.com free shipping for Canadians fixture home depot 12$

For your tank you will want an 18" and make sure u get A digital thermometer with a probe about 10$ to 15$ get him some crickets hes probably not eating greens befor so he will have to get used to them give him some time and u will need to give him about 10-20 crickets 2x a day provide greens all day bath 1x a week and u wil need calcium and vitamin powder calcium on 1 meal once a day 5x a week and vitamin same thing but 2x a week do u got any pics btw

I went back to the pet store and was basically told all of my concerns about the Reptisun 10.0 coiled bulb are hog wash. He'd be happy to refund me but want to show me something first. Took me to the back room in the store and proceded to show me some I the est looking Beardies I've ever seen. Every tank had a Reptisun 10.0 coil bulb. He went on to tell me how many successful breeding each pair had, ages, etc. he said that when the compact coils fire came out their were a lot of mistakes onhow to use them and damages were reported. However many changes have been made since 2010 and he swears by them.

I picked up some crickets and the new fixture and bulb anyway. Came home and found that "Toothless" went to the bathroom. I dusted the crickets and tossed them in and he went wild after them. Gobbled down 8 and climbed back up under the basking light.

Any comments or suggestions?

Mike

The reptisun 10.0 is a tube not.a coil btw u did get the tube right there is no coil for the reptisun 10.0 only 5.0 and repti glo 10.0

Zeusmybeardie":2z15nqfv said:

The reptisun 10.0 is a tube not.a coil btw u did get the tube right there is no coil for the reptisun 10.0 only 5.0 and repti glo 10.0

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I'm sorry, your right. Originally I got the ReptiGlo 10.0 Coiled CFL


Zoo Med 75W. Basking Light


And this fixture


I now have this,


And I am hard wiring this into the enclosure I am building.


I figure I can run the UVB and a Standard Flourescent across the entire enclosure, then have the 75W Basking light positioned the top corner pointing down on top of the cave I have for him. Then put an Under Tank heater under the cave.

Mike

That sounds really good u don't really need an under the tank heater unless ur temps drop below 70 at night and if u want yours to eat more veggies this is what I am doing feeding veggies in the morning crickets around 2-1:30 hours befor bed i suggest u do it so he gets used to veggies cause I'm guessing who ever u got Him from did not supply veggies and they should be
Eating around 80% veggies and 20% crickets
So give him veggies at night give around 20 crickets dusted it works make sure no later
Then an hour befor bed they need to be able to have an hour after they eat and how long is he ??? And any pics if dont know how to uplOad I will
Tell u and btw u r doing a great job for a first time owner

It's roughly 46* in NJ. I have no heat in my room and I keep the window open. Toothless enclosure is in my room. In addition to the undertank heater, basking light, UVB, and 24" fluorescent tube I also have a 60w CHE goin in their. I will get my heating zones dialed in before toothless moves from the 20l into this enclusure. Pics to come soon.

Mike

Zoo Med does make a reptiSUN 10.0 compact. I have never used it, but I have heard some not so great things about it.

Great that you have the tube though!!

If you haven't done so already, an accurate thermometer with a probe or a temperature gun should be the next things on your list. Make sure you are measuring the surface temperature of the basking spot.

How big/long is the little guy?

Try to take it easy on the protein for a little bit, just offer a few appropriately sized cickets 3-4 times a day so he gets his metabolism going again. Also, definitely make sure you are offering fresh veggies and greens. http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition is a great reference guide for what to feed.

Best of luck!! Keep us updated and post some pictured when you get a chance.

Update, He ate a dozen Crickets today so that's good. New enclosure is built and seems to be holding up well with temps using my Laser temp gun.

PICS!!!

Looks really good 1.how long is he 2.idk if u want to but in a few months I will be switching to tile because if
U look
Sometimes his nail will get caught in the carpet and it can rip it off from pulling when after a cricket it's not a ASAP thing and it personal choice if u don't see it happining then don't worry

Zeusmybeardie":20tn5vr5 said:

Looks really good 1.how long is he 2.idk if u want to but in a few months I will be switching to tile because if
U look
Sometimes his nail will get caught in the carpet and it can rip it off from pulling when after a cricket it's not a ASAP thing and it personal choice if u don't see it happining then don't worry

Click to expand...

Thanks! I have the UVB, Basking, and DayGlo bulb set on a timer. On @ 7:15AM, off at 10:00PM. The under tank pad is on 24/7. I am going to be watching temps throughout the night and if I don't like what I see tonight I will have the CHE in their real quick.

That's a damn fine idea with the tile! The G/F was already telling me she doesn't like the carpet... This might just be the Ticket!


I thought I had posted it, He's 10 7/8" from tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. I used a piece of butchers twine to run it down his back then I measured the twine.

Mike

He's a cute beardie. He's rather small though at about 11" for a 9 mo old, hopefully he'll catch up.

I noticed in most of the pictures that his eyes look irritated and he has them closed a lot. Are you using the Repti-Sun fluorescent tube now? If not, I would recommend that you turn the coil UVB off right away and not use it again. If you ARE using the fluorescent tube now and he is still closing his eyes quite a bit, it would be a good idea to give his eyes a rest for a few days without any UVB light on.

As far as the under tank heater goes, we don't recommend them because beardies sense heat from their 3rd eye on top of their heads so if the heater gets too hot, he could get burned very badly before realizing it is over heating. It would be much safer to use the CHE for night if the room temp goes below 65 degrees.

Please be sure to keep us updated on him.

diamc":15p60t3h said:

He's a cute beardie. He's rather small though at about 11" for a 9 mo old, hopefully he'll catch up.

I noticed in most of the pictures that his eyes look irritated and he has them closed a lot. Are you using the Repti-Sun fluorescent tube now? If not, I would recommend that you turn the coil UVB off right away and not use it again. If you ARE using the fluorescent tube now and he is still closing his eyes quite a bit, it would be a good idea to give his eyes a rest for a few days without any UVB light on.

As far as the under tank heater goes, we don't recommend them because beardies sense heat from their 3rd eye on top of their heads so if the heater gets too hot, he could get burned very badly before realizing it is over heating. It would be much safer to use the CHE for night if the room temp goes below 65 degrees.

Please be sure to keep us updated on him.

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Well, I don't know his exact age. This is a rough estimate based on what was told to me. As for the coil No, I discontinued using it. This is the Repti-Sun 10.0 Tube, an Ordinary Dayglo 17W 24" T18 from Lowes. and his Basking light. I did some thermals on the area that the Undertank is at, With everything else on the bottom of the enclosure is 99.2*F I'm certain that once the other 3 lights go off the bottom of the enclosure is going to drop down to around 80*F I will monitor it through the night but my gut tells me I am going to end up needing the CHE and the Undertank. I was doing reading of the outside of the enclosure and I am getting temps of 69*F with everything on.

Mike

Edit: and yes I noticed the eye thing the day I brought him home before any lights were ever on him. He keeps one eye or the other closed at all time and only looks around with one eye at a time.

Hello again Mike. Since he is keeping at least one of his eyes closed just about constantly, I really would recommend that you give his eyes a break from any UVB at all. It won't do them any harm to go without any for a few days and even a wk. Seems to me that his eyes need time to adjust and heal. Do you have any idea what UVB was used before you got him? Here's something you may want to read, also has pictures showing eyes that were under bad UVB bulbs: http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm The woman (Frances Baines) that wrote the article is updating her whole site, she tests each & every UVB then writes up a report on them.

When you check with the temp gun, make sure you hold the gun so that it is 2" from the area you are checking. Also, you can't get a good reading outside of the tank.

diamc":3mlxkh6j said:

Hello again Mike. Since he is keeping at least one of his eyes closed just about constantly, I really would recommend that you give his eyes a break from any UVB at all. It won't do them any harm to go without any for a few days and even a wk. Seems to me that his eyes need time to adjust and heal. Do you have any idea what UVB was used before you got him? Here's something you may want to read, also has pictures showing eyes that were under bad UVB bulbs: http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm The woman (Frances Baines) that wrote the article is updating her whole site, she tests each & every UVB then writes up a report on them.

When you check with the temp gun, make sure you hold the gun so that it is 2" from the area you are checking. Also, you can't get a good reading outside of the tank.

Click to expand...

He had no lighting or heating for at least the last 7 months. He is just over a year old says my friend, Not nine months like I thought. He's a sliver under 11" long. I am going to say he's been neglected terribly. And being that he's been without ANY lighting for so long could that be the reason for the eyes closed thing?

Also, we have new behavior! I misted him down as per the recommendation of another member and this is what he did when I put him back in.

Can anyone tell me what this is all about?




Lastly, I'm aware of the temp gun. I used to race High End R/C cars and this is a top of the line Infrared Temp Gun for tuning Nitro Motors.

Mike