UVB Lighting

I bought a 40gal front opening aquarium with a "bearded dragon kit" before bring home a baby beardie from PetSmart (apparently a mistake). He was fine the first evening not super active but at least seemed alert. Now fast forward to today, 3 full days of having him here, and he is not eating anything and only drank a little water when in a bath yesterday, and he's had his eyes closed for 2 days. I did some looking around post in here and have seen others say horrible things about PetSmart dragons (which has me scared for my beardie) and have said coil uvb bulbs hurt the dragons eye sight. The kit I bought came with a coil uvb bulb so that's what I have been using. After seeing enough stories about it I decided to turn off my uvb and he seemed to improve. He started squinting his eyes open, was moving around his basking spot and is sleeping in the corner of the tank last I checked 15 minutes ago. While I did see improvements after turning off the coil bulb, he also then got dark and his pattern was showing so he was unhappy. I just want to help him and I'm not positive where to go from here. What's actually a best practice for UVB lighting in a 36" length tank?

Go here and order this www.pangeareptiles.com
Order a 24" fixture w/ reflector and a Reptisun 10.0 bulb T 5 or a Arcadia 12% bulb --- he's going to go thru relocation stress so he will be slow on eating but not eating anything is not good - keep him hydrated either by bathing but I would rather you not it's going to stress him out more-- so get a syringe and slowly give water that way or drop water on his nose- for UVB Ray's take him outside in a plastic tote set in direct sunlight/ partial.shade for 15 minutes---- no glass containers no longer than 15 minutes totes get hot and you don't want to burn him up - temps outside need to be 65+ degrees- 15 minutes will eqaul out to 4 hrs of UVB- do that till you get your UVB- let us know when you get it we can help set it up
Karrie

KarrieRee":3j81dbfm said:

Go here and order this http://www.pangeareptiles.com
Order a 24" fixture w/ reflector and a Reptisun 10.0 bulb T 5 or a Arcadia 12% bulb --- he's going to go thru relocation stress so he will be slow on eating but not eating anything is not good - keep him hydrated either by bathing but I would rather you not it's going to stress him out more-- so get a syringe and slowly give water that way or drop water on his nose- for UVB Ray's take him outside in a plastic tote set in direct sunlight/ partial.shade for 15 minutes---- no glass containers no longer than 15 minutes totes get hot and you don't want to burn him up - temps outside need to be 65+ degrees- 15 minutes will eqaul out to 4 hrs of UVB- do that till you get your UVB- let us know when you get it we can help set it up
Karrie

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Thank you. Unfortunately he passed away just shortly ago. The past 3 days with him has been so bizzare. My last bearded dragon I had as a baby until he was full grown and while I didn't become some kind of "beardie master" I seemed to have managed. When I rehomed my beardie (I was getting ready to have my first kid and was scared I could not give him the time/attention needed for proper care) I rehomed him to an assistant at my vet's office who fell in love with Remy - so it's not like I'm some kind of serial pet owner. But wow I am so bummed right now, I am glad the beardie is not in pain but I feel for him and am glad I was at least there with him as he passed. Basically I went to put something away in my office, which is where I have my tank and my wife noticed the beardie rubbing oddly on the repti carepet as if he couldn't lift his head and so we stuck around figuring out if we could get him in to the tomorrow and the beardie literally started seizing, it was so horrible. I just can't fathom that I created this much damage in 3 days I feel horrible, what a sad evening.

Hello,

I am so sorry you lost your dragon, that seemed like it was pretty sudden!
Sorry for your loss, I know how traumatic that is.
My condolences.

Tracie

That is terrible ----these chains sell sick dragons so I am sure he was sick when you got him ---- if and when you get another one just make sure you have all the right husbandry when bringing him / she home- we can help you do that and dont believe anything a petstore tells you -- sometimes even breeders and vets are not correct- we've had vets tell people to use colored bulbs etc and that is a NO NO -- if you need help please ask --- and again I am sorry for the loss of your baby
Karrie

Thank you Kerrie. I think you are right that he was sick before I got him. Not that beardies are simple to care for but I remember my first juvenile beardie coming home going straight into the enclosure (of course refusing salad lol) but eating pinhead crickets. I knew there was a risk and am just sad that these situations happen. After giving everything a nice soak, scrubbing, rinsing and drying the day after he passed I set everything up and visited another pet store where I found an active little beardie who came home ready to eat greens, crickets, and is accepting some bits of water from a syringe when offered. (Where I live there is high humidity this time of year so I don't leave water sitting in the enclosure but offer drinks from a syringe and tomorrow he will get a nice soak!) I still feel sad and a bit defeated about poor Frizzle, and on the one hand feel like these box pet stores should NOT be allowed to sell any kind of exotic pet but I also feel guilty about where they will end up if I had a beardie shipped to me by an individual breeder. I wish people would be more willing to ask questions than to be too afraid to be wrong.

I hope you have better luck w/ this one-- just remember hes going to go thru relocation stress so his eating may slow down and not eat as much here in the next few days -- but he should not quit eating all together -- please ask if you have any questions
Karrie

Thank you.