dumpsterdan
New member
Hi all,
This seems like the place to share my story and ask the questions that need answering! I have done a lot of research, mostly on this website, but a lot of what I have learned seems to be opinion, and there's always someone conflicting everything!
About two weeks ago, a friend of mine who is moving to L.A posted on Facebook that he could not take his various lizards with him, one of which included the bearded dragon that (you guessed it) I have adopted. I had always wanted a bearded dragon, and was excited at the prospect of getting one and all of the required equipment for free.
This bearded dragon was found by HIS friend abandoned in Philadelphia near a pile of garbage in 2014, which puts him somewhere in the range of 3-4 years old. His tail is a little messed up, though I am not sure if this is from his dumpster days or an improper shed. My friend named him "Trash Lizard" to honor his origin story, which I abbreviate to TL when talking about him to friends or begging him to eat his salad.
My friend told me he was pretty low maintenance. Oh boy was that a lie. He came in a dirty 20g breeder with a dual light overhead fixture (one side had an incandescent bulb and the other a heat bulb) on newspaper, with a log, and was fed iceberg lettuce every day and crickets once or twice a week. I was told that the Nat Geo bulb was his daytime light (it also blew the day I got him) and that the other one was his nighttime bulb. I was told he has watery poops (yep) that I have to clean up but newspaper makes it easy. I was not given his UV bulb. I started to do my research and quickly learned that none of this was optimal and that I would have to start really researching and purchasing the things he needs!
I'm going to try to organize this by topic:
ENCLOSURE
Petco coincidentally is running their dollar-a-gallon sale, so I picked up a 40g breeder for $40! A much needed upgrade for an adult!
SUBSTRATE
When he arrived, I immediately cleaned the tank and swapped out the newspaper for crushed walnut substrate, because so many people had said not to use sand and this seemed a better option. I now know that this is the ABSOLUTE WORST thing that you can put a bearded dragon on, due to its impaction and injury potential. After much research, I have decided to put him on tile, for a clean-up that fits my schedule and for the fact that it will keep his nails trim. He is very socialized to people and has no problem being handled, but he is quite pointy! Home Depot no longer cuts tile, so I will be going to Lowe's this week. My only questions for anyone who has experience: I know to get either slate or ceramic. Does slate need to be sealed? Is ceramic rough enough? I cannot seem to find a concrete (pun not intended) answer.
LIGHTING
In the old tank, I accidentally replaced the heating bulb with the coiled reptisun 10.0 UV because I was misinformed. I was only getting his tank up to about 85 during the day. Once I bought the new enclosure, I mostly followed the advice of Jess' post. I purchased an 18" Reptisun T8, and bought the walmart fixture and mounted it under the screen. I bought a 5.5" Fluker's clamp lamp and put a philips 50W halogen in. I cannot find the acurite thermometer that everyone recommended, so I am still not sure how hot his basking area is getting. I will suck it up and buy an overpriced petstore reptile thermometer because I know this is very important, and I probably need to purchase a more powerful bulb.
HEALTH AND DIET
I know this is very subjective due to every lizard being different, but he is approximately 15" long and weighed 6.21oz (176g) when I weighed him about 8 hours after a meal. This seems very stunted and underweight to me, but I hoped someone could weigh in (pun very intended). I have attached a few pictures of him. I have been letting him eat as much as he can in the hopes of bulking him up. I started off feeding him carrots and arugula, but read through a lot of the articles that I was linked to after signing up on this site and will be following the Beautiful Dragons nutrition guide, and switching his greens up and cutting back on the carrots. I’ve been giving him a few superworms a day, and am still researching what else I should be feeding him. Buying bulk feeders seems economical and easy (since you don’t have to go out and buy them all the time) but I’m not sure that I can do that because I have housemates who might not like that, and a landlord who definitely won’t.
Yes I know it’s a long post and I even left a lot of things out, but I have a feeling you guys enjoy reading about newcomers and helping newbies out. Thank you very much!
Let me know if you can't see the pictures, I'm using Dropbox:
This seems like the place to share my story and ask the questions that need answering! I have done a lot of research, mostly on this website, but a lot of what I have learned seems to be opinion, and there's always someone conflicting everything!
About two weeks ago, a friend of mine who is moving to L.A posted on Facebook that he could not take his various lizards with him, one of which included the bearded dragon that (you guessed it) I have adopted. I had always wanted a bearded dragon, and was excited at the prospect of getting one and all of the required equipment for free.
This bearded dragon was found by HIS friend abandoned in Philadelphia near a pile of garbage in 2014, which puts him somewhere in the range of 3-4 years old. His tail is a little messed up, though I am not sure if this is from his dumpster days or an improper shed. My friend named him "Trash Lizard" to honor his origin story, which I abbreviate to TL when talking about him to friends or begging him to eat his salad.
My friend told me he was pretty low maintenance. Oh boy was that a lie. He came in a dirty 20g breeder with a dual light overhead fixture (one side had an incandescent bulb and the other a heat bulb) on newspaper, with a log, and was fed iceberg lettuce every day and crickets once or twice a week. I was told that the Nat Geo bulb was his daytime light (it also blew the day I got him) and that the other one was his nighttime bulb. I was told he has watery poops (yep) that I have to clean up but newspaper makes it easy. I was not given his UV bulb. I started to do my research and quickly learned that none of this was optimal and that I would have to start really researching and purchasing the things he needs!
I'm going to try to organize this by topic:
ENCLOSURE
Petco coincidentally is running their dollar-a-gallon sale, so I picked up a 40g breeder for $40! A much needed upgrade for an adult!
SUBSTRATE
When he arrived, I immediately cleaned the tank and swapped out the newspaper for crushed walnut substrate, because so many people had said not to use sand and this seemed a better option. I now know that this is the ABSOLUTE WORST thing that you can put a bearded dragon on, due to its impaction and injury potential. After much research, I have decided to put him on tile, for a clean-up that fits my schedule and for the fact that it will keep his nails trim. He is very socialized to people and has no problem being handled, but he is quite pointy! Home Depot no longer cuts tile, so I will be going to Lowe's this week. My only questions for anyone who has experience: I know to get either slate or ceramic. Does slate need to be sealed? Is ceramic rough enough? I cannot seem to find a concrete (pun not intended) answer.
LIGHTING
In the old tank, I accidentally replaced the heating bulb with the coiled reptisun 10.0 UV because I was misinformed. I was only getting his tank up to about 85 during the day. Once I bought the new enclosure, I mostly followed the advice of Jess' post. I purchased an 18" Reptisun T8, and bought the walmart fixture and mounted it under the screen. I bought a 5.5" Fluker's clamp lamp and put a philips 50W halogen in. I cannot find the acurite thermometer that everyone recommended, so I am still not sure how hot his basking area is getting. I will suck it up and buy an overpriced petstore reptile thermometer because I know this is very important, and I probably need to purchase a more powerful bulb.
HEALTH AND DIET
I know this is very subjective due to every lizard being different, but he is approximately 15" long and weighed 6.21oz (176g) when I weighed him about 8 hours after a meal. This seems very stunted and underweight to me, but I hoped someone could weigh in (pun very intended). I have attached a few pictures of him. I have been letting him eat as much as he can in the hopes of bulking him up. I started off feeding him carrots and arugula, but read through a lot of the articles that I was linked to after signing up on this site and will be following the Beautiful Dragons nutrition guide, and switching his greens up and cutting back on the carrots. I’ve been giving him a few superworms a day, and am still researching what else I should be feeding him. Buying bulk feeders seems economical and easy (since you don’t have to go out and buy them all the time) but I’m not sure that I can do that because I have housemates who might not like that, and a landlord who definitely won’t.
Yes I know it’s a long post and I even left a lot of things out, but I have a feeling you guys enjoy reading about newcomers and helping newbies out. Thank you very much!
Let me know if you can't see the pictures, I'm using Dropbox:
if your landlords worried about bugs getting out you could feed roaches, as he's an adult you won't need too many at a time, but they're practically incapable of getting out of a plastic tub with a lid, and if it's coloured plastic your flatmate needn't know they're 
