Meet Spike, pics of viv, advice very welcome :)

Hi everyone, w e got this little guy from petsmart 10 days ago. He was free, because he is ADV positive. They claimed they had him for a while and he was in the back, they state he hasnt shown any issues, and offered him to us as adoption. So instead of purchasing one, i agreed to take him with a promise to not have any other ones as long as he lives. I am a great researcher id say, so ive spent days and nights reading and reading. I am ready to give him te best life possible . He measures 6.5 in and is pretty alert, eats his crickets and will down mealworms like crazy (not a staple, and his poop is great). He has shed his whole head 2 days ago and seems to be doing a whole body shed. His temp was too hot on the hot side so i had to raise his heat lamp yesterday. Temps measures with an infrared gun. We got the zoo med kit, had sand in there for a day only, now tile and carpet. The dragon in the tank you see has to go, getring wood today. Temps measuring on top of dragon wing 123 in a few spots, soo too hot. Will be upgrading to a 3×2×2 tank in a few months with a bigger uvb light. No light used at night. Any advice is welcome. Will be ordering supplements, and coloidal silver for him too. His veggies and live is dusted with calcium. I want this little guy to flourish, he is amazing .

Hi there, it sounds like he's not being affected by the ADV right now + he looks pretty good. You're doing a good job taking care of him/her and the set up looks great. Please do be careful with mealworms, a small dragon can become impacted so use them sparingly + be sure he has plenty of time to digest them. Crickets are fine, bsfl [ Phoenix or calciworms ] are a good larval stage bug to feed him, too.

What type of uvb bulb do you have ? Very important to have a long tube 10.0 rather than a coil or compact. Some of the coil/compacts seem to work O.K in small tanks f close enough but they are never as good as the long tube.

AHBD":34082g6s said:

Hi there, it sounds like he's not being affected by the ADV right now + he looks pretty good. You're doing a good job taking care of him/her and the set up looks great. Please do be careful with mealworms, a small dragon can become impacted so use them sparingly + be sure he has plenty of time to digest them. Crickets are fine, bsfl [ Phoenix or calciworms ] are a good larval stage bug to feed him, too.

What type of uvb bulb do you have ? Very important to have a long tube 10.0 rather than a coil or compact. Some of the coil/compacts seem to work O.K in small tanks f close enough but they are never as good as the long tube.

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Thank you for your input . Right now i have the reptisun 5.0 tube, 10.0 on the way. I know 5.0 is not enough. I did put it directly over tank with nothing inbetween. I did some changing around due to basking temp being too high in a few spots, well i raised the light, changed the basking side completely, multiple levels of heat between 99-115 and (( still a spot directly under bulb that goes to 122. Deffinitely need a smaller wattage,one in there now is 100. They didnt have phoenix worms at store, but had some wax worms. Got some for snack, and will only do meal worm here and there. He took a nice giant poop this morning. I think he may have liked the wax worms a bit too much, he is not that interested in crickets this morning. Here is some new pics )