First beardie

Ignealandjill":3ow1xwip said:

Hello! Igneal is my first bearded dragon and I am "his" first human. He is I think a few months old we bought him from petco, very spontaneously. So we just got a kit... so far I have almost replaced everything. Yeah, those kits are almost all junk. It had a hid/basking rock that igneal never went on so I took it out and replaced it with natural rocKS. And it came with two lights I believe mini halogen day and night, Don't use the night one at all ( I am assuming it is some sort of blue or red colored bulb, yes?)and it seems to be doing OK for now I was reading that it doesn't disperse heat very well. So to problem solve (while we have the small tank for him) I made "layers" I have made a branch running higher through the light zone and a flat basking rock lower. He will layout everywhere in the tank so I am assuming it's working for now. And we have no air conditioning and it has been well into the 100s lately so I was more nervous about making a uv areas that and "cooler" and warmer. I did get today a different light for a when we upgrade his enclosure. I think the name was something rapun, rapsun, rap something. Was it ReptiSun? If so, that is awesome! Is it a tube (Long style) light, or a coil/compact type light?(It's back to school this week my brain is not functioning on high lol)

I have a few questions on behavior that I cant seem to find an exact answer in scanning other posts ... one is that igneal licks me alot, where ever he sits on me he just licks and licks. This is how they test their surroundings, nothing to worry abouut.and a few times nipped my finger (had I not actually saw it I would have never thought he did, it's so soft,he is so tiny) but I was hand feedin him so I thought it was more that he thought my finger had food but then he gaped at me the next day. yep, just thought your hand was food, my Loki has done the same thing :lol: I just put my finger under his chin and shut his mouth, lol I said nope that's rude, and he hasn't done it again. I also stopped hand feeding him, thinking he needed finger boundaries. But today I was giving him a bath and when he was done he sat and just licked my fingers. It was soo sweet. So I guess my question is did I make the right decision with stopping haND feeding or was I over cautious? Hand feeding can be a good bonding experience, but beware, they can be very demanding lol! They might not eat on their own if you hand feed EVERYTHING. So I would maybe hand feed him one meal (he should be getting 2-3 every day), and then let him hunt for the others.

Also he is quite frisky during the day, he doesn't just chill he runs all over. @ first I didn't think of it as distress just looking around but as I have read online people put their dragons away if they are not wanting to stay with u. Does the running mean he is nervous? They are curious, and want to explore. By just handling him everyday, he should get more and more used to you handling him.

And last the "stress lines" ? Some times my baby dragon has them sometimes not. He will have them and look totally chill and other times seams uncomfortable (still and rigid tail) and his tummy is clear.... can they mean something else? "Stress lines" is a very misinterpreted thing. They can turn darker to help absorb heat, too, which is most likely what he is doing. What are your temperatures, and what do you take them with?

Holy moly that was long ... sorry. I usually am good with reading dogs, cats and chicken behavior, and have good instincts with them but I feel lost with a dragon, when do I back down when do I "push", is he being chill or is he terrified? Lol thanks for reading through all that !

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