My new baby!

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Annemariepg94

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I purchased a bearded dragon when I went to PetSmart for dogfood. I know you should never buy a pet as an impulse buy but when I saw that little face I had to pick her up. As soon as they put her on me she started licking me.
I have had her for a couple days now but she doesn't want to be in her tank. She loves to just stay on my hand and fall asleep or run around on my bed.
I purchased a 20 gallon kit from PetSmart (I know I'll have to get a bigger tank for her later on but I will have her here until I can make a custom stand for a 55 gallon) the temp is at 92 and the humidity is 40%.

She hasn't eaten much and like I said she only wants to be on me. As soon as I put her in the tank she starts "glass surfing" I leave her in there so she can start getting used to her new tank but she is persistent and it breaks my heart so I take her out. Is there something wrong with my setup?
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*FYI. I named her Kaya even though she is too young to know if it's a girl or boy.
 

ChristinaMike

Hatchling Member
I have the bigger version of that tank... from experience I can tell you the lights are crap and need to be replaced by better lights. Currently mine is running a T5 HO 10.0 tube light and a Par38 flood light for basking... on the cool side I also have a regular bulb that I use in my house that just gives more light.

I also had to buy probe thermometers since the stick on dial ones were way off. I have gotten everything off amazon.

You will have to work on keeping the temps good since it is smaller.... that will take some playing with.
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
The little ones are quite curious and it's OK to let them roam around and explore as long as you supervise them closely and they are in a safe area with no other animals and nothing harmful they can ingest (they lick EVERYTHING to learn).

The 20g tank is a bit small and the kits don't come with very good equipment as was mentioned. The UVB light and analog thermometer in particular are useless for a bearded dragon. I would plan on building or buying a full size adult enclosure (4'x2'x2' at least) and get the ball rolling on that. It doesn't hurt to move him to the larger enclosure before adulthood.

In the meantime, you can make some improvements to your current setup. I would get either an 18'' T8 ReptiSun 10.0 tube for UVB or if you want to use the existing fixture you could go with a 26w Exo Terra UVB200 which produces similar UVB output to the T8 tube. The 13w UVB coil is not nearly powerful enough for a bearded dragon.

Your basking light may be fine but it really comes down to the temperatures it's putting out. You'll want to measure the surface temps in the tank using an IR temp gun like this https://www.amazon.com/Nubee-Temperature-Non-contact-Infrared-Thermometer/dp/B00CVHIJDK or a digital thermometer with a probe like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0017N8W90/. Adjust the basking light (different height, different wattage, etc) so you get a reading of about 100-110f on the basking surface and about 75-80 or so away from the basking site. That gradient will provide options for him to move about. The UVB light should sit over the basking site.
 
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