First Time Beardie Parent

Hello, everyone!

When I was in elementary school, we had a bearded dragon as a class pet. I was instantly in love and would stay in during recess to play with him. However, my parents were against the idea of getting one after I moved up to the next grade. Now, I'm a graduate student in Louisiana and finally got a bearded dragon. His name is Wilson and I'm already in love! He's a juvenile beardie and he loves to take naps in my hand.

I''m just worried that I'm not doing everything right. I bought a bearded dragon kit (20 gallon tank). It came with food, calcium dust, sand, thermometer, water and food bowls, heating light, basking ligh, UVB light, and the fixtures for them. I bought him a basking log and have a hammock and reptile disinfectant on its way. I got him from Petsmart and asked what they've been feeding him. They said crickets, lettuce, and carrots. I even got him some mustard greens and strawberries from our own garden. I wash all the fruit before hand and try to get it from organic stores. I've given him all of that with food pellets also. I try to feed him three times a day just to be safe. He eats 6-8 crickets a day with the calcium dust and im worried that's not enough. I've read that it depends on their appetite but I just want to be sure he's eating enough. Also, my apartment isn't insulated very well and gets cold easily. So I put him in an empty closet in my bedroom with the door open to try and contain some of the heat. However, his thermometer shows that it's over 100F. Is that too hot for him? He hasn't been opening his month but he stays toward the edges of the tank. I don't know if he's just looking out or he's too warm.

Basically my questions are: Is he eating enough crickets? Am I slowly cooking him? And is there anything else I need to be doing?

Welcome to the forum! I'm glad you are finally able to get a bearded dragon to enjoy. Unfortunately, the marketing behind those kits is misleading and a number of things included can be either useless or harmful. I advise reading through some of the general care articles on the right side of the page to get an overview of the best practices we've come up with so far. I'll try to address the items listed in your initial post to try and help you get everything set up just right for your new buddy.

A 20g tank is pretty small, even to begin with, but it should be OK for a couple of months until he really starts growing. I suggest planning on moving him to at least a 40g breeder soon or better yet, a custom built 4x2x2' enclosure like this https://beardies.dreamwidth.org/2145.html

For the time being, I suggest removing the sand as that is tough to keep sanitary and can harbor bacteria. It's better to go with a solid substrate that is easy to clean. I'd go with some non adhesive shelf liner for now because you can easily wipe that down and sanitize it or replace it cheaply as needed.

It's also very important to get accurate temperature readings of the surfaces around the tank. I suggest getting a digital thermometer (or two) so you have a probe monitoring the basking surface and another monitoring the surface on the cool side of the tank. You can also pick up an IR temp gun like this that will work very well https://www.amazon.com/Nubee-Temperature-Non-contact-Infrared-Thermometer/dp/B00CVHIJDK You want to create a nice temperature gradient that runs from about 100-110 in the basking area down to about 75-80 on the cool side of the tank. This is tougher to do with smaller tanks but if you can raise/lower the basking light on an adjustable stand or hook it up to a dimmer it should be achievable. You only want to use a bright white basking light that produces heat. Colored lights can cause disorientation and vision issues. The goal is to imitate sunlight as closely as possible.

The other important component of lighting is UVB output. For a 20g tank I recommend getting a ReptiSun 10.0 T8 tube (18'') and a reflective fixture like the Zilla Slimline 18''. If the Zilla comes with a Zilla Desert 50 bulb, that is OK too, otherwise I'd replace what it comes with using the ReptiSun 10.0. Remove the clear plastic cover from the fixture as that will intercept all of the UVB. You can put the fixture right on top of the tank so it shines over the basking area. Build the basking area up to within about 6-8'' of the UVB light for best results. Once you get a larger enclosure, you may want to upgrade to a T5 tube (22'') which will provide excellent UVB coverage at a greater distance (about 12-14'').

Crickets are fine as a staple bug. You'll find it's cheaper to order them in bulk online rather than picking them up at the store. Armstrong crickets is Louisiana based I believe and may be the best option for you. You should offer 2 meals of dusted crickets per day. Give him all he wants within a 10 min window or until he loses interest. The actual number he eats will fluctuate from day to day and that's OK. You want to offer small crickets that are no wider than the space between his eyes in order to make digestion easier. I've found it easiest to offer the bugs in small batches at a time so they're easier to track. You want to remove any leftover crickets from the tank after meal time. You may want to order some black soldier fly larvae as well. They are a good, healthy feeder to supplement the crickets. It's good to offer a salad every day although he may ignore it in favor of bugs but that's OK. It's helpful to make salads familiar as a food source to aid in transition to primarily salad diet between about 12-18 months old. There is a good list of items to put in a salad here http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html You can put the leftovers in the bin with the crickets for them to eat.

If your apartment gets cold at night, you may want to pick up a ceramic heat emitter and dome fixture. You can hook that up to a lamp dimmer or adjustable lamp stand in order to boost the temps overnight without creating visible light which can interrupt sleep. You don't need this if the temperature in the tank stays above about 65. If it goes below that, use a low wattage CHE to bump the temps into the low 70s overnight. A bit of a cooldown is natural for them so don't bump the temps too much.

I hope that helps to answer some of your questions. I'm sorry if it's a bit much all at once but once you have everything dialed in correctly it's not as much as it sounds at first. I'd love to see photos of WIlson. You can upload photos here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you! I figured I would have to get a bigger tank soon. I have another question. I noticed that he really likes to sleep in corners of his cage. Is that a bearded dragon thing?

This is Wilson!

He is adorable!!! And yes, sleeping in corners seems to be a dragon thing.

Is that calci-sand? You should really switch to a solid substrate(even paper towels work). Calci sand is especially bad.

Yes, he is adorable!!!
Calci-sand when ingested basicly turns to concrete in the digestive tract and can kill them.

I want to say it is but I'm not sure. But I'll definitely change it ASAP!!

Thats good. You can use tile or non-adhesive shelf liner if you want. Even newspaper or paper towels work and are easy when you have a little one.

Here's him with his new floor! Cleaned everything off everything to make sure there's no sand. Also, I'm getting him some more things to climb on today. And his hammock is coming in today! ?

He is absolutely darling!
I used to have sand, but soon realized how awful it is- it can cause inaction, not sanitary, stinks easily, and it turned by beardie' s tail and feet a different color! SAND IS BAD!!!

Since I change it, I soon noticed how much more active he is! That is until I put his hammock in there. Now he won't leave it. ?