New Owner Of A Beardy

Hi everyone ,
My name is Sean and over the weekend I have inherited a Beardy. Only history I have on him is that he is about 8 years old. Was always handled from an early age. Pretty much been in the same vivarium. I'm told he is male.
Basically my brother in law has had to leave his house and had no one too take care of the as such I offered to adopt him. I have named him Rocky. I purchased new basking bulb Arcadia IVA 100w. I have two new lights ECO TERRA 91cm / 30w. New substrate. And an additional thermometer and hydrometer.

Few questions I have are as follows

1- I feed him daily on mixture of kale, Mint, thyme, Basil, peppers - is this acceptable

2 - 5th hoppers as live food only just this morning and I gave him 6. But he demolished them in seconds ???

3 - I would love to pick him up but after reading various information it appears that this takes time. My brother in law said he hasn't really been handled in about 8 months. Every time I go towards him he just backs off, so o leave it a while and try again but he is more content I think me not trying to handle him. I gently run my finger down his head onto his back and his eyes close so I have stoped as I don't know if I'm hurting him.

4. This afternoon I noticed what looks like snakes skin in his house, only small but clearly from him. On closer inspection of 'Rocky' I can see he is starting to shed. What can I do to help him ?

Sorry for such daft questions

Hope to learn and enjoy

Thanks Sean

Hi Sean, welcome! There are others on here that have had hands-on experience longer than I've been alive (30 years), but I'll answer your questions as best as I can.

1. Everything in the salad looks good, assuming you are talking about bell peppers.

2. Dust your crickets about 5 times per week with a calcium supplement. I've always allowed my adult dragons to eat as much live prey as they want within a 10 minute period.

3. You aren't hurting him by rubbing your fingers along him. Handling, especially if not handled for a long period of time, takes time and trust. I would try to pick him up and see how long he accepts handling (as long as he isn't showing signs of stress, black beard, etc). This may be a process that works from 1 minute of handling time to 15+ minutes of time over the course of a month. You want him to know that your hand is not a threat. I had a difficult dragon, and would pet her first, then offer her dubia roaches by hand.

4. Letting him soak in a warm bath, and/or spraying some water on him once a day will help with his shed. Bearded dragons won't shed their entire body at once, they normally shed certain areas at a time.

Hope some of this helps!

Thank you for the information.

I tried to handle him again and he just runs off to the back so I've left him alone. When I leave him be he then comes to the front of the glass and just looks at me. I soooo want to pick him up !! Haha

As to feeding why does everyone say only feed for 15 mins ?

I have checked my temperature are 38c basking heat with 35% humidity

31c Cooling area

I will pick up a spray bottle tomorrow and give it a go.

Sean

I totally get it. Try hand feeding him some super worms, silk worms, etc. He may associate your hand as "friendly" and become less shy. Your temps looks good. The cool side could go down to as much as 75 degrees F (24C).

As to the reason why 15 minutes is a rule of thumb for feeding, I don't have an exact answer to that question. 9/10 times our bearded dragons eat all that they will eat within the first 8-10 minutes. They'll just stare at the food after that. I think this is for inexperienced owners to ensure that their younger dragons are eating enough food. You'd be surprised what poor information is given to new owners regarding feeding. I see a lot where young dragons are only being offered crickets once per week.......

Well I nearly managed to get him to climb onto my hand but he made a sudden movement and I jumped a little and I think I scared him !!!

I have pulled up his food and I'll try again tomorrow and see what happens.

He is spending a lot of time near the top of the basking lamp is this normal ?

Morpheus1972":fklotpv5 said:

He is spending a lot of time near the top of the basking lamp is this normal ?

Click to expand...

Absolutely!