Spanners80
New member
Our son has been begging us for a bearded dragon for nearly a year. After proving he'd researched & was willing to handle the bugs etc. we agreed but decided to re-home a beardie instead of going to petsathome (we're in the UK).
Tad Cooper (nickname is already Nugget because he's dinky) arrived with his tank last weekend and I've retracted everything I say about lizards. He's gorgeous.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like he's been thriving. We're told that he is 9 months old, but he's quite small compared to some posts here (he's roughly 15cm head to bum & another 15cm of tail) and wasn't really fussed about eating for a few days. We were given a tub of locusts as food which seemed way too big, so we now have a tank of crickets & hoppers chowing down on salad & fish food as their last meal, and are being both dusted & fed calcium. He's now eating around 15 each day and has clearly put on weight and has a proper belly on him
He eats peas, but seems utterly disinterested in any real vegetation (which makes me wonder if he's really 9 months, or just really flipping fussy).
Since arriving, we've thoroughly cleaned his tank - it's a 5ft wooden vivarium with glass front. It did have sand as substrate and stank to high heaven. He now has paper towels and my son & I have washed everything with pet safe disinfectant.
We're not sure what his temperatures were previously as he didn't have thermometers, but we're now at 27c in the cool bit & 35c at the basking end. We think that might be a bit cool, so have replaced his basking lamp today for a 100w bulb (it was 75w, but my son was able to touch it). He also has an Arcadia UV lamp (direct, no mesh) although we don't know it's age.
Tad is gradually getting used to us & now let's Charlie stroke his back and had his first bath this morning which he thoroughly enjoyed for 5 minutes before realising that he's meant to be grumpy and stomping off. He's nowhere near being picked up territory, but Charlie has taken to doing his homework next to the tank so Nugget can watch and get used to him.
If anyone knows anything else that we can be doing to help him settle and encourage healthy growth (& eating greens!) I'm open to advice
Tad Cooper (nickname is already Nugget because he's dinky) arrived with his tank last weekend and I've retracted everything I say about lizards. He's gorgeous.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like he's been thriving. We're told that he is 9 months old, but he's quite small compared to some posts here (he's roughly 15cm head to bum & another 15cm of tail) and wasn't really fussed about eating for a few days. We were given a tub of locusts as food which seemed way too big, so we now have a tank of crickets & hoppers chowing down on salad & fish food as their last meal, and are being both dusted & fed calcium. He's now eating around 15 each day and has clearly put on weight and has a proper belly on him
He eats peas, but seems utterly disinterested in any real vegetation (which makes me wonder if he's really 9 months, or just really flipping fussy).
Since arriving, we've thoroughly cleaned his tank - it's a 5ft wooden vivarium with glass front. It did have sand as substrate and stank to high heaven. He now has paper towels and my son & I have washed everything with pet safe disinfectant.
We're not sure what his temperatures were previously as he didn't have thermometers, but we're now at 27c in the cool bit & 35c at the basking end. We think that might be a bit cool, so have replaced his basking lamp today for a 100w bulb (it was 75w, but my son was able to touch it). He also has an Arcadia UV lamp (direct, no mesh) although we don't know it's age.
Tad is gradually getting used to us & now let's Charlie stroke his back and had his first bath this morning which he thoroughly enjoyed for 5 minutes before realising that he's meant to be grumpy and stomping off. He's nowhere near being picked up territory, but Charlie has taken to doing his homework next to the tank so Nugget can watch and get used to him.
If anyone knows anything else that we can be doing to help him settle and encourage healthy growth (& eating greens!) I'm open to advice