First post ~ new bearded dragon

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Beardie515

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Hello,
I have spent hours reading posts on this site, to prepare for my first dragon, which I purchased 6 days ago. Here is my setup.

40 gallon with mesh lid, repti carpet, soon to be tile, once my tile setter buddy gets them cut. I have an 18" reptisun 10.0 t8 uvb, and a 75 watt basking bulb. Zoo med remote probe thermometer. 111 degree basking area, and 82 degree cold side.

Here come the questions...

First thing is my little baby beardie is not eating much. The first day I got him/her(six days ago), he only ate 2 medium crickets, and one superworm. Since then it will only eat one cricket a day. After the one cricket, he doesn't even notice crickets. They can even walk on him, and nothing. I have tried carrots, strawberries, kale, and he doesn't even notice it. Every time he eats anything I cheer, but I am getting worried. Is that because he is stressed from the new environment?

When I first set everything up, I had both light fixtures on top of the wire mesh lid. Today, I hung both fixtures under the mesh lid, to fine tune the basking temperature, and to get the uvb lower. Right now the uvb is 8" from the beardie, and the fixture does not have a reflector. Should I make a foil reflector?

Today has been a much better day though. After moving the light fixtures under the mesh cover, he has eaten three crickets, and he actually licked squash baby food, like three times. I'm happy that he even noticed it!

Now on to water. I have never seen him take a drink. I have seen him walk through the water dish, but it seemed like that was not intentional. It's almost like he can't see. I was worried that he was dehydrated, so I gave him a bath on Tuesday, and dripped water on his mouth, and he drank like three water drops. Oh, and his poops are runny too. Should I give him another bath?

What do you think, should I take him to the vet?
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Hi there, your baby is still settling in so just give it a little time. :) How big is he/she , and can you post a few pics of the baby as well as the set up ? Here's how :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to attach pics.

Avoid superworms for now and feed him only crickets that are smaller than the space between his eyes. You can hydrate him by a short, gentle spay on his snout every day. The veg. + fruit you offered is not the best, but many babies don't eat much greenery [ mine always did because I raised them with greens ] but try tiny shredded pieces of greens like turnip, mustard, ollard, dandelion and butternut squash.

It sounds like he's doing better already, so no need for a vet. See how he does in the next few weeks. :)
 
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