Basking spot problems

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brooksnk

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Hi guys,

picked up my beardie yesterday - 8 weeks old.
Im trying to set up a nice basking spot for him - but he seems to always run up to his own sort of basking spot towards the side of the bulb.

I have a 100w zoomed heat lamp.
note: reptisun uvb 10.0 is going in today - he has only been a day without uvb.

I have tried setting up different heights directly below it - but each time, no matter how close or far from the bulb his basking spot is, he always runs up to the same spot towards the side of the bulb.

I cant get surface temps yet as im waiting for the temp gun in the mail - only have a thermostat that can tell me the temp digitally. I believe the air temp around his favourite spot is 30.5 degrees celcius / 87 farenheight.

EDIT: this has reached 32 celcius/89.5 farenheight after 2 hours since measuring.

Should I just leave him be in his preferred spot? No matter what I do he always climbs up to the same spot. Also, he has refused to eat anything today, crickets,veg,fruit. His first day yesterday though he happily ate a bunch of crickets.

Here are the pics for reference

90415-2864743667.jpg

90415-7670128196.jpg

90415-7681705234.jpg
 

brooksnk

Member
Original Poster
To make matter worse - just set up the sunblaster + reptisun 10.0 combo and the sublaster unit blew after one minute. Tested the original daylight tube that came with the unit and that didnt work either.

Contacted amazon and they are sending me a replacement to be here by Friday. Is it okay to wait that long - that means he would go 4 - 5 days without uvb.

Perhaps I should take him outside for those days for a few hours when the sun is out?
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Hi Brook.... that is a great big beautiful enclosure, what are the dimensions and where did you get it ? It's O.K if your baby finds a certain spot it prefers, but I will tell you that for right now the tank is much too big. Several things can occur, 1) He can really get hurt jumping or falling in there. 2) He will be overwhelmed by the size and this may cause him to not eat [ Although it IS normal for new beardies to not eat well for the first week or 2 ] You might consider getting a medium clear plastic tote and make a simple set up with a small basking log and you can take it out in the sun for an hour or two if the temp. is between 70 -82. The plastic heats up in the sun so the baby will be much warmer but you will have to stay with him to be sure he's O.K and safe from roaming animals + birds.

When you give him crickets [ they MUST be smaller than the space between his eyes ] try shaking a few in a jar with a pinch of calcium powder to stun them so they are weak + wobbly, then drop 1-2 right near him....that will often get a baby to eat.
 

brooksnk

Member
Original Poster
Thank you for the reply.

I purchased it off ebay - it was a custom built enclosure built for a water dragon. It actually has a inbuilt filtration system at the bottom to context tubes to a filter; so it was designed to hold water about a third of the way up (until the ventilation holes on the side as you can see). It is 4' long x 2' wide x 3' high.

I read conflicting opinions on such a large tank size for a baby dragon. Some said to temporarily close of some of it to make it smaller but others said its not necessary.

I set up a mini enclosure in a semi-large tupperware container with a makeshift cardboard cave and a basking spot which i put outside today for 2 hours with him. It was about 90 farenheight and sunny today but i made sure to spray him a few times while he was outside to keep him hydrated and kept half of it in shade.

The crickets i got are defiantly smaller than the space between his eyes and have been dousing them in calcium powder. He has never fed from my hand or tweezers, but as you said i dropped them in front of him and he would eat them (on the first day I had him). Yesterday he seemed completely disinterested in them no matter how I tried to feed him and didnt eat at all. Today I managed to feed him in the same way twice - one cricket each time.

I wont be getting my replacement sunblaster for another 36-48 hours as well, hopefully that makes a difference. He is sleeping well (I beleive). After 10 minutes of turning the lights off, he will have found a spot to sleep and 12 hours later when i put the lights back on he wouldn't have moved - so i assume thats good.

Here is a better pic of the tank itself for your interest.

90415-7426121267.jpg
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
It's a beautiful + spacious cage, but very dangerous for a baby. They can + do jump from heights at random, lacking judgement as to where they land. In the wild a baby would be staying close to the ground and close to hiding areas even though they'd spend some time climbing + basking. His being way up high gives a good chance that he'll jump and or fall, and it would be very difficult for him to find food. He's much better off in the plastic tote, I raised all my babies that way [ I'll include a pic of some of my baby's set up ]

https://www.beardeddragon.org/media/29895/full

But even an adult could get hurt in there , it may be best to raise the florr about a foot or else build shelving type basking areas somehow. It would also be hard for any uvb bulb to reach the florr very well.
 
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