First beardie!

This is Kronk!




I picked him up from a local petsmart this past Saturday after reading up on reptiles for a while and decided to give him a loving new home.



He currently lives in a 10 gallon tank while he is tiny, with a 100 watt basking bulb on the right temps 90-100) and a RetptiSun 10.0 bulb on the left (temps 75-80). There are three thermometers in the tank, and I know that all of them are kind of wonky, so I will be ordering a really good one from amazon as soon as possible. Humidity reads usually just under 40%. He spends his time either basking or wandering around his enclosure - he likes the edge of his water bowl as well. He seems plenty alert, sometimes glass surfing (which makes me nervous) or chasing his reflection.

Kronk seems to be dealing with some stress due to the move - he often displays stress marks. Do you think I have anything to be worried about? When I give him crickets (ive just ordered dubia roaches so as to ditch the jumping bugs) he eats some, but not as many as I've read he should. I remove the remaining ones or else they will literally walk all over him which I know cannot be pleasant. I make him a salad a few times a day, but he never seems interested - does he know that its food? Ive held greens and fruits in his face and he has even licked them but never seems to want to eat. As I was typing this he actually ate a piece of a blueberry that i placed near his basking spot. Maybe the food is is a bad part of the viv? He poops pretty normally and that provides me with some comfort. Today I gave his viv its first thorough cleaning and let him splash around in some water while I did. Don't know how he felt about that.

He's not necessarily scared of my hand when I try to handle him (from in front and below, of course), but he is a little skiddish. When he is sleepy I have no trouble and he sleeps comfortably on my chest. No bulb at night, his enclosure is completely dark at night to ensure he gets his beauty rest.

I guess thats all, I would love to hear suggestions and tips! Thanks guys!

Welcome to beardie world lol. I, like you am fairly new to parenting a beardie. I just got mine about a month ago. I also started off with the 10G tank but quickly switched to a 40G. My little guy was very skiddish and I'm a decently sized guy, so trying to maneuver the tiny viv without scaring Tom was very difficult. He seems to like his new larger viv much better!
As far as feeding Tom loves crickets to death. And he enjoys his greens. Although when I first got him, just like you, I was worried he wasn't getting enough. The trick is to find a routine that you can comfortably keep. I for instance work at 7 am til around 4 pm. So any routine is to prepare him a salad in the morning before I leave. And then feed him crickets when I get home.
I would originally just leave different veggies scattered throughout his viv but Tom is very picky. I found once I made his salad into a feeding dish he seemed to be more receptive. Another thing you can try to get Kronk to eat more salad is to give a variety. Toms salad usually consist of a mix of dandelion greens, kale, carrots, celery, and occasionally some fruit like mangos or strawberries. I just place that in his tank before I leave, and it's usually only scraps left when I get back home.
Then after that I feed him his dose of crickets. I know they are supposed to be fed crickets several times a day. But that is just not practical for my schedule. I avoid feeding him too late as to avoid messing up his his digestive or sleep schedule.
I hope this helps!

Welcome to the forum! I agree that a 10g tank is too small. I'd get one as large as you can right off the bat, that way you can invest in high quality lighting and only need to upgrade once. It's difficult to maintain the proper heat and UVB gradients in such a small space. I think you'll find that your temp readings are off by quite a bit when you get a good digital thermometer w/probe or IR temp gun. It's not uncommon for young dragons to prefer bugs over veges because they need the protein to support big growth spurts. Just keep offering veges daily so he's used to it as a food source. He will switch over to primarily vegetarian as he approaches full size. You can feed the leftovers to bugs (roaches, crickets etc).

ntschl":3v402ypn said:

This is Kronk!

Click to expand...

I love him immediately.
Welcome to the forum!