My sons first Beardie Rocko

My son just got his first bearded dragon and has named him Rocko. He is very friendly and doesn’t mind him handling him so far. Is it normal for them to not eat much at first? We are feeding him baby crickets and leave shredded carrots and kale out for him. He has had the dragon since Saturday. We are looking forward to reading about all of your bearded! Alex

Hi Alex,

Welcome to the site!

How exciting! I bet your son is super excited for his beardie. I know I was for my first one. Shoot, I still get excited LOL

It is normal for their appetites to be a bit low for the first week or two due to relocation stress. As long as your setup is proper and temps and lighting are good, he should settle in just fine!
We can go over your setup with you to make sure if you'd like to?

[EDIT: For some reason two of these threads were posted, so I removed the second one ]

-Brandon

That would be great! We bought the thrive 40 gallon front access terrarium with a 100W basking lamp, UV lamp, basking rock, two thermometers with humidity meter. We also bought a center basking stone, food and water bowls.

Be gentle, this is our first run at this. I plan on using a temperature Gun to verify how hot his basking spot is tomorrow. It was also suggested to let him soak tomorrow since who knows when or if the pet store had done it.

I appreciate any advice. Thank you!

CarrCarr":sg8f497e said:

Be gentle, this is our first run at this.

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Hey, we are here to help, not scold! All we want is for you and your dragon to have a long healthy life together and that's what our advice stems from. And then all we want is pictures and stories and to watch your little dude grow up also! LOL

Great that you will be picking up a good thermometer. Temperatures are the most crucial part of your husbandry. Nothing is more important IMO. Once you get your temp gun (or digital with probe ends are great too) let us know what your temps are at your basking surface and we can advise you from there

Unfortunately a lot of the times the kits come with things you don't need, or aren't very useful. The biggest being the UVB bulb usually. Almost all of the CFL uvb bulbs (the ones that will screw into a standard bulb socket) aren't suitable. And you will definitely want to upgrade to the reptisun 10.0 or arcadia florescent tube bulbs.
We see it time and time again where people use the uvb bulbs that come in the kits, and a few months later they come here with health issues, and end up wishing they had just started off with the right bulb.

Luckily though, once you get everything set up right, it's all a breeze and you really get to enjoy and bond with your new buddy

-Brandon

Sounds good. I will take pictures and temperature readings tomorrow and post them. I appreciate the help!

Hello,

Congratulations on your new baby, I'm sure you are going to love him.
They grow super fast so take lots of pictures.

Definitely post more pictures if you would like & start more threads in other forums with
your questions. We will help as much as we can.

Tracie

So Rocko is now “Hunter”. As of Tuesday he finally started eating his crickets. Every morning he waits for the cup and runs up to it. He has also started eating his carrots and kale. I verified the basking light was working by buying a decent infrared and digital thermometer from Amazon that was suggested on a site. His hot area stays at 104 or above. He seems very content and likes being handled.