First-Time Beardie Owners: We Love Our Furiosa

Hello all,

I'm so happy to have found a supportive community for bearded dragon owners, we have a LOT of questions...

Furiosa (Fury) belongs to my brother, he brought her home from an installation job a few weeks ago. He saw Fury (then called Rexy) in her enclosure and expressed an interest in her and they said that they were looking to get rid of her--they sold her to him along with all her gear and food for about $75. Apparently her caretaker had got her when she was little and gradually lost interest, and when they got a new puppy they figured they couldn't give her the attention she needed. So that's the story of how my bro adopted a bearded dragon. It was unexpected but my family has grown pretty fond of the little critter and we'd like to take care of her properly, it's the least she deserves.

She's fully grown, probably about two years old but we can't know for certain. She's 17 inches (or 43.18cm) long and quite docile, it seems like she was well socialized when she was younger and by all appearance seems pretty healthy. Right now she's in a standard 40 gallon terrarium (18x36x17 inches/46x91.5x43cm) with a wire mesh top (the owners gave us that tank and a smaller one as a backup). We know we need to get her a bigger tank, I believe a 50-75 gallon tank is customary for a dragon her size, but until then we laid down an imitation sand reptile carpet and she has logs and hammocks to bask on. She has a heat lamp, UV lamp, and I just bought a ceramic heat emitter (CHE) bulb to replace the red nighttime bulb her owners had used.

My primary concern right now is finding out if our local vet clinic can see/treat beardies and getting her on a routine feeding schedule. She came with a short list of various fruits/veg that she would eat, broccoli and spinach were listed under "do not feed". Since we got her she's been fed bits of sweet potato, celery, banana, strawberry, blueberry, carrot, "superworm", and some sort of premium beardie food mix. We've been regularly dusting some of the bits with calcium powder but I know she's probably getting overfed certain types of these foods by my family, who are well-meaning but know nothing about reptile nutrition. I've found lists of safe foods online, but they neglect to mention how much an adult beardie should be fed daily and at this point I would prefer, given how easy it is for these lizards to develop a vitamin imbalance, to settle into a balanced diet plan as soon as possible--would any of you happen to have a list of foods (and the amount of each food) that you include in your daily salads? On a related note, her leavings are pretty nasty...they're a bit runny. I know that a lot of that is probably to do with the stress of leaving home and the foods that she's been eating, but do you think we should have it tested for parasites? Right now her tank is sitting on our kitchen table in front of a big window, is this an okay spot? I don't think she's in danger of overheating, and we thought she might like the natural light and being able to look outside, but if you all think she might get stressed by all of us passing by in the area or something like that we can look into relocating her into a different spot. Otherwise I think we've been doing all that we need to do, occasional bath in slightly warm, shallow water, being held and regular visits out to the backyard with us to take in the sunlight, access to clean water in a dish and misting with dechlorinated/distilled water but if there's anything else you think we need to know I'd welcome any and all advice!

Thank you so very much,

FuryIsADragon