Hi! I'm completely new to this forum and this is my first post. We've had our juvenile Beardie for nearly a month and I still have so many questions- this is way more complicated than the cats we're used to! Here are some facts about Tofi:
-Juvenile, ~4 months old(?), ~8", not sure if it's male or female. (sorry for all the "it" references!)
-Purchased at reputable reptile pet store but still got some questionable advice.
-Habitat: 20 gal tank, basking area, cool area, hiding spot, shavings for substrate. (Note: trying to find a bigger tank!)
-Lighting: white heat lamp and UVB (Reptisun 10.0). Black heat bulb for sleeping.
-Diet: started with mixture of crickets and dubia but have switched to dubia only with occasional mealworms. (And always with a mix of lettuce in a food bowl.) It eats 30-40 1/2" dubia per day (dusted with vitamins 1x/day).
-Temp: We keep it 90s-100s during the day and 80s at night.
Sorry if I'm missing some important info. Anyway, here are my questions:
1. Tofi spends all day in its basking spot- often sleeps there too. (Occasionally burrows on the bottom for sleeping.) I'm worried it's depressed- should it be moving around more?
2. Tofi is quite skittish and runs/jumps off of us when we try to hold it. We have a large old house and I'm terrified of losing it in all the nooks and crannies. Because of this we haven't had much luck handling it. One time it jumped off my hand as I was putting it back in the tank and it fell behind on the floor. This was pretty traumatizing for both of us. Should I be trying to take it out daily? How do I do this safely? I pet it all the time and have gotten it to eat dubia and mealworms from my hand.
3. Pooping in the food bowl- is this common? It happens ALL the time- sometimes before it has eaten all the dubia and I'm afraid it's going to accidentally ingest it's own poop. (We keep saying "don't sh*t where ya eat!")
4. Is it okay that we mainly only feed it dubia?
Thanks in advance!
-Juvenile, ~4 months old(?), ~8", not sure if it's male or female. (sorry for all the "it" references!)
-Purchased at reputable reptile pet store but still got some questionable advice.
-Habitat: 20 gal tank, basking area, cool area, hiding spot, shavings for substrate. (Note: trying to find a bigger tank!)
-Lighting: white heat lamp and UVB (Reptisun 10.0). Black heat bulb for sleeping.
-Diet: started with mixture of crickets and dubia but have switched to dubia only with occasional mealworms. (And always with a mix of lettuce in a food bowl.) It eats 30-40 1/2" dubia per day (dusted with vitamins 1x/day).
-Temp: We keep it 90s-100s during the day and 80s at night.
Sorry if I'm missing some important info. Anyway, here are my questions:
1. Tofi spends all day in its basking spot- often sleeps there too. (Occasionally burrows on the bottom for sleeping.) I'm worried it's depressed- should it be moving around more?
2. Tofi is quite skittish and runs/jumps off of us when we try to hold it. We have a large old house and I'm terrified of losing it in all the nooks and crannies. Because of this we haven't had much luck handling it. One time it jumped off my hand as I was putting it back in the tank and it fell behind on the floor. This was pretty traumatizing for both of us. Should I be trying to take it out daily? How do I do this safely? I pet it all the time and have gotten it to eat dubia and mealworms from my hand.
3. Pooping in the food bowl- is this common? It happens ALL the time- sometimes before it has eaten all the dubia and I'm afraid it's going to accidentally ingest it's own poop. (We keep saying "don't sh*t where ya eat!")
4. Is it okay that we mainly only feed it dubia?
Thanks in advance!