new to dragons

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kuffs9855

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Hello,

I fell into fostering a dragon. she is 1-2 years old and missing half her tail. she has an attitude but I've really enjoyed having her here.
However when I got her I told the lady i didn't know ANYTHING about them, and I didn't have ANYTHING for her. However, she told me that feeding Gerty was easy, a handful of greens in the morning and meal worms every other day was enough. she would toss in 3 dozen crickets everyone once in awhile.

I have since learned that is not a proper diet, spinach is a bad idea and gerty needs calcium and I guess multivitamin powder. that many crickets is a bad idea and worms area daily thing. I was given a ceramic heat light as well as a blue bulb that was supposed to be the UV. but I guess it isn't UV, so I ordered a new one.

Anyways, I'm hoping not to screw this up and I know I should have said no but she is here with me now and any advice would be appreciated.
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traildrifterphalanx

Sub-Adult Member
Welcome to the forums and congratulations on your new friend!

Like you, I was also drawn to the forum in need of information and this site has been so extremely helpful that I made an account and now try to assist others with where I was about a year ago.

Firstly, you'll want to make sure your husbandry is the priority. No UVB is basically death to a dragon, and they need a good basking spot to absorb heat from another bulb. Basically, you'll want 2 lights on at the same time: heat and UVB.

UVB bulbs, they do make coil/compact versions of, but I would definitely recommend going for the tube style light as soon as you financially can afford to do so. I raised my adult off of a coil UVB bulb with no obvious issues, but so many veteran keepers recommend the tube light that I felt I was doing a disservice to my guys by not having the better one.. so now I do.

Heat bulbs you can buy at a pet store, but I actually use a halogen flood light for my adult that I got at a home improvement store and it hits perfect temperatures where I have his basking spot, about 95-105 depending on his position. For my baby I do use a 100w pet store bulb meant for basking as he does need more heat while growing, however I can likely get the same halogen bulb once this one burns out and have him positioned at a nice 110.

For substrate (flooring) it's easy to assume that sand type particle is acceptable. Some people have used it with success but for me it's not worth the trouble. Sand can harbor bacteria, get into their eyes, nose, mouth, and can be ingested and cause impaction, creating a hard cement like substance that the lizard has trouble or plain cannot pass. EDIT~ For substrate I would recommend paper towel, news paper, non-adhesive shelf liners, repticarpet, or tile.

For food many steer away from mealworms due to their hard exterior. This cannot be digested properly for the dragon and can also lead to impaction. I greatly recommend dubia roaches, calc-worms (BSFL, or pheonix worms) for their high calcium, and some occassional crickets. Collard greens and bok choy are good greens, and you can add in some color with peppers, carrots, etc.

If you have questions you can always ask or mindlessly scout the forum like I do :D
 

kuffs9855

Member
Original Poster
I bought zoomed light in one of the articles recommended. Roaches are really hard to find here. I found her the superworms from Petco. The substrate is paper grocery bags
But I'll be looking into tile. Thank you for the info.
 

traildrifterphalanx

Sub-Adult Member
No problem at all. As you go, more and more will likely change (as it did with me)

I honestly buy all my feeders online in bulk. They're a lot cheaper and come from better/more trustworthy sources than pet stores. I only feed crickets in an emergency and even then it feels "dirty" ...

I can recommend ABDragons for dubia, who usually runs promotions, and I use Amazon a lot. They will usually ship live feeders early in the week to guarantee they arrive alive.

Other feeders, like BSFL, they seem to ship whenever, but generally all feeders arrive within 2 days
 

Rankins

Gray-bearded Member
I for one am glad you didn't say "no". Your researching and trying to find the best way to care for your new dragon. So thank you for saying "yes".
You have gotten some good advice so far. I'm one of the long time sand users for subadults and adults. Some of the fears of using sand are not valid, but I'll probably try tile soon. The roaches keep bury themselves down into the sand...
As for roaches ABdragons does have good prices on them. I like the orange head roaches much better....but roaches are a good food item.
 

kuffs9855

Member
Original Poster
I appreciate the information. I hadn't seen the other replies until now. I'm hoping I'm not still messing up her diet. she has had runny poo the last couple of days. but it doesn't have a smell to it so from what i've read it can be a result of being really hydrated. is there such thing as too hydrated and what can i do to help firm it up a bit?

Her "salad" is currenty, (everything is diced into small pieces) celery leaves, bok choy, yellow squash, yellow bell pepper, little bit of actual celery, blueberries (just a few), shredded carrots, and pealed cucumber.

if there is anything I can change I'm all ears. also what do you order on Amazon? I have Amazon Prime so ordering isn't an issue. thank you so much for all your help.
 

traildrifterphalanx

Sub-Adult Member
The salad sounds like a great variety! My dragons personally love raspberries

From Amazon I will watch for good deals on dubia roaches, and just recently purchased some wax worms as a nice treat for my beardies. The sellers are often not Prime compatible but shipping is usually free and fast regardless
 
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Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

Things to do:
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