Meet the chubster and lets help raise him together!

Hi I am a new beardy owner,theonly other reptile i owned in the past was a dog tame 7 foot iguana. I bought my first bearded dragon from... petsmart.... And you can guess how that went... I had the baby for nearly a month and nothing seemed wrong then it started to eat less and just lay around allot the baby showed signed of brumation wich was odd and my hot side was left at 90 plus degrees. and I was feeding him everything he should have gotten. and 3 days before it died he would go into deep sleeps but still breathing there was nothing i could do and the only conclusion i have is that Petsmart sold me a sick animal, I looked for better well-known breeders and I really loved what underground reptiles were doing with tegu's and everyone gave them awesome reviews and that is when I bought my fire beardy. Out of the box I could tell he was different he was so plump and full of energy that the Petsmart lizard did not have. Sometimes I don't see my new dragon eat and im taking him for a vet visit after what happened im paranoid and it hasn't even been a month, this is m cage set up. and yeah i know there is the dreaded sand inside but I plan to change this out for the reptile sand mat, So what advice do you have for me and what can I do to improve? Also im looking for a staple commercial diet right now im trying nat geo's juvenile diet but he wont eat it

Hi. Sorry about the first little one. What kinds of lights are you using? Any coil/ compact? How do you take the temps and what are they? Those commercial diet foods should not be fed as a staple. He needs live bugs crickets, Phoenix worms, silk worms and dubia roaches are all excellent feeders. He needs to be fed 2x a day at his age right now as he's just a little guy. Also he needs calcium 5x a week and vitamins 2x a week. Glad the sand will be gone. I use ceramic tile and its easy to clean and keeps the nails filed.

.

Thank you for reading, I have 3 bulbs one is a night time red bulb. the other bulbs are a basking bulb and uvb bulb also in the day time there is 2 windows that let in the sun for him so I believe he gets the prop nutrients to digest calcium maybe I should try roaches because he does not really go for the live crickets though i am able to hand feed him freeze dried ones some times and i make sure to dust them with calcium and reptile vitamins. maybe he would go for roaches... I bought some pin head crickies and put them in the bath tub so he wouldnt eat sand and he just spent most of his time staring at me over his shoulders, maybe the bath tub was cold? I can however get him to eat meal worms live in his bowl but there is so much controversy about feeding beardies meal worms out there and im just scared they will kill him or something as I said the last beardie has made me very paranoid on my choices. also I take temps using a round generic reptile thermometer. and yeah I know those can be off sometmes >_<

madamadam14":i8oegux3 said:

Thank you for reading, I have 3 bulbs one is a night time red bulb. the other bulbs are a basking bulb and uvb bulb also in the day time there is 2 windows that let in the sun for him so I believe he gets the prop nutrients to digest calcium maybe I should try roaches because he does not really go for the live crickets though i am able to hand feed him freeze dried ones some times and i make sure to dust them with calcium and reptile vitamins. maybe he would go for roaches... I bought some pin head crickies and put them in the bath tub so he wouldnt eat sand and he just spent most of his time staring at me over his shoulders, maybe the bath tub was cold? I can however get him to eat meal worms live in his bowl but there is so much controversy about feeding beardies meal worms out there and im just scared they will kill him or something as I said the last beardie has made me very paranoid on my choices. also I take temps using a round generic reptile thermometer. and yeah I know those can be off sometmes >_<

Click to expand...

You don't need a red globe at night; it might disturb his sleep. And keep in mind that window glass blocks UV so you do need a good UV light--one for desert animals. Here in Australia at least the name brand coils are good but the longer tubes spread the UV out more. Mealworms can be a problem for little ones in particular, as the chitin in their exoskeleton doesn't digest well. The little crickets or roaches would be better. Silkworms are really good but really expensive. And I'm sure you'll get comments about sand; I don't want to get into a flame war as in the US people avoid it, but in Australia it's the most common substrate (I use fake grass). But if you do have sand, be sure it's play sand like you'd get at a big-box hardware store and not the "calci-sand", which can cause big problems.

So best of luck this time with your little one!

Let me start by saying Little Chubster is a cutie and welcome to our community! We will be glad to help with any questions you might have now or in the future.

As for his UVB issue, those coil/compact bulbs can cause, eye infections and, blindness, loss of appetite, lethargy and, MBD. They don't put out the proper uvb frequency and won't allow Chubster to absorb the nutrients from his meals. I suggest you go with a long tube type bulb like the Reptisun 10.0 T5HO or an Arcadia 12%D3 . these are the closest they make to what they actually need.
As for heat at night, use no light emitting heat source, it disturbs their sleep patterns and, doesn't allow them to slow their metabolism so they can actually rest.... they like it cool and dark. If the temperature in your home drops below 65° at night you can get a CHE "ceramic heat emitter" to bring it up a little, they like it between 65° and 75° at night.
Those sand mats look nice and all but, given they curious nature of dragons, they might manage to pick the beads off and eat them. I thought about doing the mat too but, upon inspecting them at the store I saw a lot of loose beads in the bottom of the box and decided against it and, went with tile.

thank you guys for the advice i was so confused because there are so many different opinions amongst keepers some say never to feed crickets and just use roaches. i was sketchy on using the red dome light as well because some say use a night time heater and some will say just let the lights go off... i will take pics of the lights i use but i do know that the tube lights are ideal. i also heard that the red light could nto be seen by reptiles and of all the times i accidently left on the day light he has stayed wide awake this was when i didnt have my tera timer, and of all the times the red light was on he was fast asleep. i fugured it isnt as hot as the basking bulb but still nice and cozy warm for him as during this season it has been colder in nola, as to the sand mat i had this concern as well but my plan would be to bang it up on something letting all loose material fall off only leaving the difficult to remove material intact

update- CHUBSTER NOW HAS HIS BRAND NEW SAND MAT! I got back from the petsmart tonight with a new sand mat. I was surprised to see their reptiles actually looked healthy. but im still scared to get a python from them and they do look cute... im getting a 70 gallon terrarium for 80 bucks and i dont know what to put in it!

Also per suggestion I will be leaving his red light off during night time hours and insted plugged in the small heat pad to aid the ambient air temps so the terra will heat up faster in the morning when his lights are on

Hello- I would personally put your beardie in the 70 gallon, and maybe use the smaller one for another animal- although yes, they can technically live in a 40gallon, I still think bigger is better :mrgreen: