Joining the community, recently was adopted by Yoshi!

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We welcomed Yoshi into our home on February 3rd, completely spontaneously. We've been hardcore researching and learning ever since then, and I finally decided to go ahead and register here since we've learned so much from this place!

Teaser Image (more below):
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So, the story:
Cait and I were walking through the local Home Depot looking for parts for a project I was working on (long story, not related) - and in the half-hour that we were there we saw no less than 12 doggos getting walked through the store.

We jokingly discussed the possibility that there must be a puppy sale at the next-door Petsmart, and that we should go check it out. We got semi-serious, and actually discussed the potential of "accidentally" walking out of there with a new puppy, and decided that we had space in the home for a new family member if it came to that.

There was not a puppy sale. To this day, we have no idea what was going on that caused so many dog owners to decide to invade Home Depot, but it had nothing to do with Petsmart.

Now, after the fact, I've read so many bad things about purchasing exotics/reptiles from chain stores, but at the time, we had no idea, and no plan in the first place. As we were kinda just cruising through the store, we saw Yoshi bumping his nose against stuff, and Cait stopped us and wondered out loud if I thought the store attendants would let us hold "that derpy little guy".

They would.

He blepped her hand, and she fell in love, and we dropped $350 in beardie + supplies within 45 minutes. (most supplies were inadequate, and have since been replaced - thanks in large part to all the advice here!).

We were told he was a month old when we got him, so we have decided that his Hatch-Day is Jan 1st, New Year's Day.

He likes snuggling:
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Has gone through a shed (he was quite grumpy here)
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Loves to take exploration opportunities whenever possible:
This was right before he jumped off my footrest onto the carpet to see what that whole "livingroom thing" is all about
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Definitely has a... unique... personality
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You'll also notice pretty significant size differences in these photos. I didn't realize till just now how much he's grown in the past 23 days!! Although right now his appetite has slowed down a bit, so maybe we're through the growth spurt for the moment.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Welcome to the forum---------- Petsmart? Oh dear please tell us what you bought for the $350 you spent--- can you post pics of your tank and lighting set up please.
Karrie
 

NewHerpAddict

Member
Original Poster
KarrieRee":3hg9ys4p said:
Welcome to the forum---------- Petsmart? Oh dear please tell us what you bought for the $350 you spent--- can you post pics of your tank and lighting set up please.
Karrie

Yeah... So we bought the "Al Living Things Starter Kit" 20Gal tank which came with crap feeder bowls, crap light bulbs, and crap light hoods. it's taller than the other 20gals, which makes things weird for maintaining lights. We also bought a basking-rock/hide (I think it's too big, he didn't use the hide at all, and it consumed a large portion of the tank's floorspace, as you'll see in the pics below. and the branch that he likes to hang out on. We bought calcium powder and crickets, cricket keeper, cricket food, water pillows.... uhm, maybe some other stuff too. Along with Yoshi, that totalled around 245. then we went back and dropped another 100 on getting a non-coil UVB bulb, Repti-Sun 10.0 (the not bar fluorescent one), lamp stand, and more powerful heat lamp, because we were only able to get 85 deg f from the one that came in the kit (with the mesh on), as well as a full mesh lid, instead of the one that came with the tank that had 2/3 of it solid plastic, so you could only put the lights in the direct middle.

So. replacements happened over the course of the past month, as we experiment trying to get to the best specs possible.

So first, total tank setup, excuse the mess... 3 things happened pretty much simultaneously here.
1: I dropped calcium dust while feeding... ugh...
2: I discovered this morning that all the crickets were hiding in the cave we bought for him, and had almost all chosen to climb in there and die... over the course of a few weeks, we probably lost about 30-40 crickets into that stupid cave. That's the imprint you see on the ground.
3: skin pieces from the recent shed
It's certainly tank-cleaning time.
103533-9766746121.jpg

Next: probe location
103533-5071357130.jpg

Probe temp hits 105~ish within about a couple hours of on-time. slooooowly climbs throughout the day by like .1 every so often. He's chilling on my shoulder before bed right now, so I left the lights on overlong and they climbed up to here. I know it's a bit high, but I don't want to raise the lamp stand up anymore and bring the UVB further away than it is (about 12-13 inches or so, 28W Repti-sun 10.0 UVB, no mesh in between). he doesn't usually chill at the top towards the end of the day, and instead basks about halfway up the branch, which I kinda feel like he's finding his optimal temp zone. We don't get any gaping, so I don't think he's overheating.
heat bulb is from zoo-med as well... don't remember the exact model, but it's the 100W basking bulb. purchased because of the tank height, and at the time we had a screen that was blocking the 75W from heating the basking spot, even much lower than this one is.... now without the screen, we are not having problems achieving basking temps... now keep trying to edge the basking spot away from the bulb
103533-9872787329.jpg

Also, I know this is a stick-on, which is suboptimal - but I keep it for the hygrometer and to measure the ambient temp in the low-zone. I feel like it's fairly accurate, used like that. it shows a decent gradient from hot zone to low zone, so Yoshi should have the freedom to move where he needs for temp.
103533-3734539924.jpg

The offending rock
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Notes:
I love my beardie. We're fixing things for him as we can. I hate that his living space is boring, and I try to provide him engagement time in the office a couple times throughout the day to liven things up (without stunting his UV exposure). I'm finishing up a project that is consuming all of my workspace in the shop, but then I'm going to build him some appropriately sized hides and terrain features too. I don't want to commit too much financially to this viv, as I know he'll grow out of it shortly - so I'm kinda thinking about just going ahead and building that, before building a hide and terrain features and walls and such. Tax returns just came in ... soo.... maybe sooner rather than later.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
okay--- the bugs cannot stay in tank -- they will bite and cause injury-- please do not listen to anything pet store tells you --- you have come to the right place for advice --- so first you will need to invest in a bigger tank for him - for now he is fine --- but you will want him in a 75 gallon or 120 gallon eventually-- you are going to need a Infrared heat gun to get accurate temps of basking spot- he needs a hide and it looks like the one you have the platform / cave is the one I have Hiccup uses it and his basking rock as well that has a cave --- the UVB is a Reptisun 10 T5, or the Arcadia D3 12% or 14% T5 tube, both of which are very good. You will need a T5 light fixture also. This is crucial for him -- this will help digest food and prevent MBD--- you can also get a T 8 bulb that would need to go inside the tank - those need to be changed out every 6 months whereas the T 5 once a year -- the Reptisun you have now is a bulb and I am not sure on those I have always been told they need a tube for UVB-- maybe someone else can weigh in on this bulb thing-- you can get some ideas for tanks on the DIY board--- he needs to be as close to the UVB as he can -- like if its in the tank it and depending on the T 5 or T 8 bulb you have will determine how close -- for a T 8 like 6 inches or so T 5 can be farther away as it is a stronger bulb - the screen mesh filters out the rays so that too can be a factor-- I suggest you switch him to dubia roaches -- they are better for him and easier to care for than the crickets -- plus they dont give parasites/ worms dont stink and dont chirp! You can order them on line from Amazon.com search dubia roaches - suppliers offer free shipping - they can be kept in the tank he is in now and fed carrots apples sweet potato squash-- after you get Yoshi out of it of course--- 1 dubia = 6 crickets-- please ask more questions
Karrie
 

NewHerpAddict

Member
Original Poster
KarrieRee":3a7lc635 said:
okay--- the bugs cannot stay in tank -- they will bite and cause injury-- please do not listen to anything pet store tells you --- you have come to the right place for advice --- so first you will need to invest in a bigger tank for him - for now he is fine --- but you will want him in a 75 gallon or 120 gallon eventually-- you are going to need a Infrared heat gun to get accurate temps of basking spot- he needs a hide and it looks like the one you have the platform / cave is the one I have Hiccup uses it and his basking rock as well that has a cave --- the UVB is a Reptisun 10 T5, or the Arcadia D3 12% or 14% T5 tube, both of which are very good. You will need a T5 light fixture also. This is crucial for him -- this will help digest food and prevent MBD--- you can also get a T 8 bulb that would need to go inside the tank - those need to be changed out every 6 months whereas the T 5 once a year -- the Reptisun you have now is a bulb and I am not sure on those I have always been told they need a tube for UVB-- maybe someone else can weigh in on this bulb thing-- you can get some ideas for tanks on the DIY board--- he needs to be as close to the UVB as he can -- like if its in the tank it and depending on the T 5 or T 8 bulb you have will determine how close -- for a T 8 like 6 inches or so T 5 can be farther away as it is a stronger bulb - the screen mesh filters out the rays so that too can be a factor-- I suggest you switch him to dubia roaches -- they are better for him and easier to care for than the crickets -- plus they dont give parasites/ worms dont stink and dont chirp! You can order them on line from Amazon.com search dubia roaches - suppliers offer free shipping - they can be kept in the tank he is in now and fed carrots apples sweet potato squash-- after you get Yoshi out of it of course--- 1 dubia = 6 crickets-- please ask more questions
Karrie

You are not wrong! I thought he was being a good dragon and eating all but one or two of the crickets per feeding, which I was cleaning up every time! Little did I know that Yoshi and I both missed the ones that escaped into the cave. Fortunately for him, they seem to have stayed there, and died - and Yoshi seems none the worse for wear.

We're waiting for our order of BSFL to arrive - I have a .... thing.... about roaches.... can do maggots, worms, whatever you wanna call them no problem, but can't do roaches. So we're gonna work with BSFL, which I've read are incredibly more valuable than crickets as well.

And that's a good idea! maybe I can incorporate the current tank into a BSFL breeder as soon as I get the new one built!

UVB bulb: I'll probably have to swap this out too. it's the Reptisun 10.0 26W compact bulb, and I've been reading people talking badly about the compacts, not sure if this is included in that list as a lot of what I've read was from 2016 possibly earlier.... but I know the UVB T5/T8 are good, so I'll be working on getting some of those.... waiting to see how finances play out, hoping to start building the forever viv here very soon... but for now, it's focused down directly at him, at 12 inches, with a focused reflective dome, without a mesh in the way - so I'm hoping that that should be good for now. https://www.thatpetplace.com/reptisun-10-uvb-compact-fluorescent-lamp-26w

forever viv dimensions: we're planning on custom-building one at about 4'Lx2.5'Wx2'H - that's pretty close to 120 gallons if my math holds up =D.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
The bsfl are good staple feeder they r full of calcium- ok - well good luck- if you have anymore questions plz ask
Karrie
 
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