New and need Help

Were a new dragon family. He is my 8 year olds friend with mom, dad and big sister helping take care of him, We want to make sure were doing the best we can for him. I will break it down and let you know our set up and let me know anything we need to change!

Dragon : About 6in long baby ( we got him from a mom and pop pet shop but he seems very active and healthy)

Tank: 50 gallon breeder tank with wire top

Light/ Heat: Warm side we have a 160 Watt mercury light , with a long uvb bulb in the middle. for night we have a no light infrared bulb to give heat but no light. Top of perch reads 105 with a temp gun
Cool side has a 75Watt mercury bulb

inside tank: Vinyl floor in a sand color, a shallow water bowl with water depth about to bottom of his belly. shallow food dish. tall wood perch on warm side, and 1/2 log den for cool side .

Food : dragon salad with few types of greens ( no lettuce) Shredded squash, apple, carrots, squash, and bell peppers.
tiny crickets ( ordered on line and feed them same fresh salad as the dragon gets along with water crystals they are in a 40 gallon tote with home made mesh top ) dusted in vits and cals. Butterworms, Dubia Roaches, He gets about 15-20 3 times a day.
dry baby dragon pellets in his bowl offered all day

M/W/F he gets a bath and other days he gets misted
Held every day for about 15-20 min
no lights on at night but has the heat bulb on


What else do we need or do different, We want to make sure he stays healthy and happy to make a good friend for my son.

It sounds like you're off to a good start. Those MVBs can be strong so it's important to keep them at a safe distance. Which brand MVBs are you using? The 160w usually needs to stay 12-16'' away from the basking area in a lot of cases. Which UVB tube do you have? You might be better off using the MVBs as portable basking lights for outside of the tank and relying on the UVB tube over the basking area for proper UVB along with a halogen flood light for heat and bright light. A T5 should be used in a tank that size though (instead of a T8).

Your basking surface temps are good. What are the surface temps on the cool side of the tank?

Have you picked out a name for your new buddy yet? I'd love to see photos of him. You can upload photos here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button when you reply.

Sounds like everything is going well. Don’t use any heat on his cool side and make sure you are gutloading insects. And get that 10.0 uvb