hi

hi, my name is "casek".
this is the beardie i am currently
taking care of



so, here's the story:

i was in knoxville with my cousin, and we were going to her boyfriends apt.
she stops right in front of his door and steps back and says "oh my god!"
i was several steps behind her so i didn't know what had happened.

i get to the door and see this tail and back leg sticking out. it appears to be a childs toy. upon closer inspection, i found that the toes were seperated.....
so i open the door.....surprise! this 14 inch lizard is staring back at me with his spines all stuck out, mouth open, hissing slightly. whoa!
i had no idea what it was. i'm not much of a lizard person, and only had a few little lizards when i was a kid.
so, naturally, i do what any adult would, get a coat hanger and a bucket and coax this mini monster into a bucket until further time when i can find its owner and whatnot.
well, the owner search failed. however there was a girl being evicted next door who had two guys moving her stuff out. my assumption is that she had it running free in her place and these two guys were unaware of it.
either that or someone let it go because of kids or some other odd situation. who knows?

anyhow, i felt pretty bad about this guy being trapped outside, so i brought him home after buying a temporary 10 gallon tank from wal-mart, i called a local pet store and talked to a guy who had raised beardies for 17 years. really cool guy. i also did some google searches and found out a little more than he told me.

the next day i went to the store and bought $80 worth of supplies to keep this guy comfortable and fed for a bit until i figure out what i need to do with him. i realize it's an expensive pet to keep and i don't want to coup him up in this cage all the time (he does get a couple of hours out of it a day, so please don't think i'm being cruel and keeping him in a lousy 10 gallon tank all day)

any advice or comments are more than welcome.

Oh wow! What a lucky dragon. It will only take a short time for you to become very attached and make you feel like you were the lucky one though :wink:

If you have any questions, just post them here. There are a ton of helpful people here and they are all pretty knowlegable too. Here's a good website that tells about different types of food ....what's best to feed...what's not....and why: http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/home.html

Just for your info....rhubarb and avacados are both toxic....as well as lightning bugs/fireflies.

I realize your new friend has already been quite an expense, but he/she really needs a bigger home. By the sounds of it your dragon is almost an adult. Usually it's recommended to have a 75gallon tank. You can get by with a smaller one....but a 10gallon is only an emergency holder for now...I hope.

Just curious if you have info on temps? You'll need both a UVB light and a basking light or if you use a mercury vapor bulb (mvb) it can sometimes serve the purpose of both depending on how much heat it puts off. Your lights should be on 12-14hrs/day. It's really important to provide UVB light since beardies usually don't have the opportunity to get a lot of natural sunlight. If you use UVB....reptiglo 8.0 or 10.0 is the best...and your dragon should be able to get about 6" from the bulb. If you use a mvb, your dragon should be about 12" from the bulb.

Your tank should have a temperature gradient. This is partly why a 10 gallon is bad. It's just not big enough to accomplish this. Your cool side...which is also where most people keep the salad dish...should be about 85F. The other end should have your basking area which should be between 105F-115F. The stick on thermometer strips are very inacurate....sometimes they are off by as much as 20%. The best thermometers to use are temp guns or the ones with the probe.

It's best to use a non-particulate substrate like tile, slate, or non-adhesive shelf-liner. Though your beardie is big enough that you could use clean, sifted playsand if you like. It does have a mild risk of impaction though.

Crushed walnut, calci sand, and other particulate substrates all carry a substantial risk of impaction and most people here discourage their use.

Beardies like baths often and should have one at least once a week. I give Ozzy one daily. The water should be lukewarm...not hot....and should be about shoulder deep. Be sure not to leave him unattended while in the bath.

What types of live feeders are you going with? Do you use hertivite (vitamins) and repti-cal (calcium supplement)?

I know there's a lot of advice here that wasn't solicited. I apologize now if you're not interested or if you've already got all that info. It just sounds like you may need the extra help since your new buddy just got dropped in your bucket ....hehe The best advice though...is to read everything you can get ahold of and post your questions here.....and ignore the folks at the petstores (unless maybe the salespeople have beardies of their own) since they usually give out the wrong info.

Good luck!

So you've got a beautiful dragon now! Congratulation!

ok, i did get a uvb light and (unfortunately) a stick on thermometer.
it stays at about 77 fahrenheit on the cool side of the cage.

i have read through alot of info posted by herpetologists on bearded dragons.
knew about the lightening bugs, not the avocado...so, thank you. i'll stay away from such things.

his diet consists of romaine lettuce, dragon food (which he doesn't seem to care for, nor does he care for the can 'o crickets, or can o' worms.....he's been eating super worms like they are going out of style. i bought a can of 25 and he went through them in a few days. i made the mistake of keeping them near hsi cage and he watched them like a hawk. i gave in and probably gave him a few too many. he also had some live crickets in his cage...may still hav a few hiding out somewhere. anyhow, back to his diet and nutritional supplements....he does have calci-sand in his cage, along with black desert sand. his water dish is cleaned once a day and i add the reptile conditioner to it as directed on the container.

so, basically, he's got everything that is recommended (i even dust his bugs with the reptivite once every few days...which reminds me, today is the day). he also gets a bath today. he had one a couple of days ago, so i guess it's time.

so, i have checked into his nutrition and well being. making sure he's well kept. but the advice given was good advice, and it helps me get it stuck in my memory to re-read. so, thank you.

a 75 gallon tank, huh? wow. i'm not sure i can afford that. i'll look in the classifieds and see if there are any being given away or sold cheaply. perhaps free-cycle?


so, do you guys recommened giving him a pinky mouse? one of the guys at the pet store said they really do like them, being omniverous and all, it doesn't sound all that far from the truth.

speaking of the pet store guys, the one that i talked to mostly had an iguana and a good bit of experience with them, the other guy had raised beardies for 17 years. i felt in good company with both of them.


more later. take care.

i forgot to tell you guys one more thing:

the beardie gets a little while a couple of
hours a day outside. i take him out and let him rest on my arm,
or set him on the little table outside with me.
i would let him roam around my room, but
i sprayed some bug spray a couple of weeks ago
and don't want him getting into anything that he
shouldn't. perhaps i'll get the carpet cleaner out and
clean up any residue.

Sounds like you pretty much have everything covered.

Just one note....since you mentioned the canned food. It's kinda strange he didn't like it since most beardies do, but this was probably a good thing. I fed Ozzy some canned crickets for the first time a few weeks ago. He loved them....then within a day he got horribly sick! I rushed him....comatose....to the vet along with the leftover can of food. The vet said it's very common for canned food to make beardies sick or kill them. If it's stored in a hot warehouse of if bacteria gets in during the canning it will spoil.

After a lot of $$ and 2 weeks of daily medications, Ozzy recovered. Which from what I understand, doesn't happen a lot of the time.

I know a lot of people still use this food....usually without any problems. I just like to tell everyone what happened with Ozzy so they are aware of the risks if they choose to use the stuff.

holy crap! thank you.
one thing i've noticed is that this
beardie like swatching things struggle and wiggle,
that gets him extremely excited about eating.
well, except for the salad stuff. he just eats that.
but as for bugs and whatnot, i think since they don't
struggle, he has no interest in them.

sadistic lizard?

Not sure, but if so, Ozzy is too.

Sometimes a couple of the crickets will die on the way home from the store. Ozzy won't touch them or give them a 2nd glance. I think most days he really wished his butternut squash had legs...lol

haha. yeah, i just found a few escapee crickets in his
cage hiding under the heat rock.

Heat rock?

Most people don't recommend them because you can't regulate the rock's temp, and often beardies can get some pretty nasty thermal burns from them.

As long as you have a basking light with temps of 105-115F you should be good.

Just thought I'd give you a heads up.

ahh, cool. ok. it seems to stay only slightly warm.
he doesn't sleep on it. in fact, as i type this, he's in the sand next to it
under his light.

pinkies can be fed once every 2 weeks max. Feeding them any more will cause liver problems.

Akeath":63bd9 said:

pinkies can be fed once every 2 weeks max. Feeding them any more will cause liver problems.

Click to expand...

Usually feeding pinkies is not recommended. Sometimes if you have a gravid female needing extra nutrients or an adult beardie recovering from malnutrion, it can be helpful though.

In feeding pinkies you run the risk of impaction. Also, they are high in fat, and can cause fatty liver disease and liver failure later in life if fed too often. If you do choose to feed pinkies, everything I've read says feed them no more than once every 4-6weeks.

If it's something you want to try, there are things you can do to help your beardie digest the pinkie easier. I think Mike's Dad could help you out with those questions....I've seen some of his post about pinkies on here before.
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great! thank you. now, if i do give him a pinkie,
should i decrease his diet in bugs? would that
be a given if he had such a large meal?

I have no experience with that since I've never fed pinkies. Someone else please.....