New Owner / Adopted Beardie

Hi everyone, a quick intro: new beardie owner - never owned one before, answered an sos from a local exotic pet shop to re home a Beardie who was brought to them due to a change in the owners circumstances. Beardie in question we were told was 3yo female standard (not morph), she came with 4 foot by 2.5 viv,uv and heatlamp, shop changed all bulbs for new and we bought decoration and substrate along with a thermostat and an extra digital thermometer.

She was very stressed the first day but 3 days later she seems to be calming down, feeding mix of salad leaves,bell peppers, meal worms and locust on different days covered in vitamin powder.

I’m wondering whether someone could help a newbie out and just glance over the viv and make sure I’ve got everything right for her.

Under her basking spot on the log temp was 104-110
Middle of tank ranges from 90-93
Cool end 85-90

The temps above are a work in progress adjusting the probe placement to get the temp gradient to smooth out to desired temps

tonight I’ve bent the light arm bracket to more of a right angle than the previous owner had set it( previous angle shown in photo) to try and reduce heat transfer to the cooler side by focusing light down rather than across

Red circle : thermostat probe
Yellow circle : thermometer (ambient?)

Any other help greatly appreciated

Try putting your hand in the tank so that she can get used to your scent. Try handling her next week.

And also, maybe switch mealworms to something else? Mealworms can cause impaction because of their hard skin/shell/it's just not very good for them. Try Phoenix worms, reptiworms, silkworms(make sure to give the silk mulberry leaves.) or just regular black soldier fly larvae.

She seems pretty healthy but make sure to massage her belly in case and if you feel a hard spot.. Impaction..

Also give her a bath once a week if she's okay with that because that can help her poo a lot better,

The viv also looks really nice for her. Big and spacey. How many gallons is it?

Brilliant - cheers, we’ll give meal worms a miss from now on.
we’ve had her out on the floor and held her a bit, probably around 30 mins per day - she is feeding from hand and we have been letting her loose in the room to explore,

I’ve just been on an aquarium site to try and convert the viv to gallons and it’s coming out at around 50US gallons?

One more quick question before she poops she tends to pace up and down the viv and sometimes scratch at the glass - then poops - then calms down, is this normal?

Welshbeardie1":3vkcrsjf said:

Brilliant - cheers, we’ll give meal worms a miss from now on.
we’ve had her out on the floor and held her a bit, probably around 30 mins per day - she is feeding from hand and we have been letting her loose in the room to explore,

I’ve just been on an aquarium site to try and convert the viv to gallons and it’s coming out at around 50US gallons?

One more quick question before she poops she tends to pace up and down the viv and sometimes scratch at the glass - then poops - then calms down, is this normal?

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Most likely stressed? I don't know but if she scratched the glass, maybe she's a bit stressed because she can see the reflection. Eventually, she'll understand it's just her.. But keep watching her and if she charges or bites or continues scratching the glass then just put something there to cover up the glass. Running around the gig before pooping is pretty normal since they want to find a spot to poo

Brilliant thanks for the help!!

i have also heard that some owners try and train their beardies to poop in the bath so when she is scratching the glass she maybe trying to tell you she has to go potty in the bath instead. just a thought i am no expert.