Friend got her first beardie

A few of you guys may know me, I stalk the forums' when I have time. Alot probably don't, but I'm not talking about me and my cutie today. Two days ago, my friend got her baby boy, he has a lame foot, but from what I am told he seems fine with it. My friend is worried that he isn't eatting, she syringe fed him a little today today to make sure he got some vitamins and calcium in him.

I told her that he is probably going through an adjustment period being with her. Her response was, she was told he didn't eat much when he was in the store.

Now her baby boy is only 6 inches long. So he really is a baby, anythoughts on why he may not be eatting? Could it be the adjustment period or something else? I don't know how long the store had him either. She got him for free, since they technically can't sell him with his bad foot. Either way, we'd both love some help eatting him to eat.

Also, she is using a redlight heat light. I've tried told I'm not sure that is a good idea, I have a none light heat projector. That I've heard, redlights can keep some dragons up during the night and bother them. She said, but he sleeps just fine during the day with his normal light on.

But dragons aren't supposed to sleep during the day right? They are Dinural animals, could the red light be keeping him up all night, making him too tired to stay awake during the day? What do you guys think and do you guys think I should keep trying to convince her to get a non-red light heat lamp? And if so, how do you guys think I could convince her?

This is her first scaley baby and I know she wants to make sure he is taken care of.

P.s. gave her the link to this post, so she will probanly be checking it frequently

Said friend here, I guess I'll upload some pictures. He's been lethargic and slow, seeming to sleep during the day since he was at the store. He doesn't eat much, I put him in a bowl with crickets to feed and he's completely uninterested, even when I have one with tongs right in his face. I managed to syringe feed him but even then I had to gently open his mouth with the syringe. He ate very little at the store as well, but we all thought it was just because he has a lame foot/leg but he can move around. He came to the store like that, so it wasn't an injury while he was here.


Him exploring on top of his cave (somewhere I hadn't seen him go before, this was this morning)


How he usually is, on his usual perching area



The lame foot/leg

His temp is around 75-80, right now I'm having issues with higher himidity (70-80) but I'm trying to get a dehumidifier. But again he was lethargic at the store, where he had more appropriate terrarium conditions.

I never asked, have you thought of a name for him?

NinaAmbroshia":1sucnott said:

I never asked, have you thought of a name for him?

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None yet, was going to wait a week to see what his personality would transform into

Hi. Does he have a uvb light? If so what brand ? Is it coil/tube? How do you take the temps?

It's a bulb, the night one is a 50w infrared from exo terra, the day bulb is a 60w daytime heat lamp from exoterra. I have a thermometer on the cooler side of the tank and that's where I'm reading the temp from. I don't have a second one for the basking side yet

They need a bright white basking light and a good uvb. You want a reptisun 10.0 t5 long tube. Also you need a better thermometer. A temp gun or digital with a wire probe.

You need to check the basking spot temperatures. If they are not 105-110 he may not want to eat and he wouldn't be able to digest well if he did. Also if the temps are too low it can cause the humidity to be high. Do you keep a water bowl in the enclosure? If so I would take it out and just drip water on his nose to see if he'll drink. The most important now is to check those basking temps. He also needs to have close access to uvb at his basking site. I don't know what uvb you are using (need exact specifics, name, brand, type) so I can't give good advice on the distance it should be. It could be anywhere from 6-9 inches. I suggest getting either the gun type of thermometer or another digital with probe. If you want to upgrade to a better uvb let us know what dimensions of your enclosure are, if you are using a screen top or not and we can point you in the right direction.

The red light you should throw out. If night time temps stay above 65 you do not need any heat. If they get below that you will want to get a low watt ceramic heat emitter/CHE.

Make sure you are calcium dusting insects 5x week and vitamins the other two days.

Does his foot have any open wounds or does it look healed now?

I think you got some very bad advice at the store...the most important thing he needs is an adequate UVB tube, which you don't have any UVB light. Without a UVB tube he will not eat, not grow, not process any nutrition or calcium, and not live...and please ditch the red light, no colored bulbs at all.

Here's what you need: #1) Only need 2 lights total, a long Reptisun 10.0 (never a 5.0) T8 or better T5HO UVB tube and matching long tube fixture. No compact or coil UVB lights, and no Zilla, All Living Things, Reptile One, etc. brands. Arcadia and Reptisun 10.0 are the only 2 UVB tubes that are adequate for a bearded dragon. This is not optional, he cannot live without a UVB tube. Either and 18" or a 24" long UVB tube will do. Then you need a bright white basking bulb, probably a 100 watt if you have a 40 gallon tank. You can either buy a reptile specific bright white basking bulb like a ZooMed Intense Basking spot or just a regular halogen indoor flood bulb like you buy at Walmart, Lowes, or Home Depot, and a matching deep dome or clamp lamp for it. That's it for lights, just the long UVB and the bright white basking bulb, 100 watt most likely. They need to be right alongside each other and both over top of his main basking spot so he gets both at the same time. The UVB will need to be mouted correctly according to whether you buy the Reptisun 10.0 T8 (mounted under the mesh lid, inside the enclosure, and 6-8" away from his basking spot) or the T5HO (can sit on top of a mesh lid, but must be within 11" of his basking spot).

Your second major issue is his temperatures...way too low. He needs a 40 gallon breeder tank at a minimum because he needs to have 3 distinct temperature zones: His main Basking Spot under both lights (between 105-110 degrees for a baby/juvenile, never over 110 degrees), his Hot Side Ambient (side of tank that the basking spot is in and surrounding the basking spot; between 88-93 degrees), and the Cool Side Ambient (side opposite the Hot Side/Basking Spot) between 75-80 degrees max.

So right now he has no UVB tube light at all, and his tank is only as warm as the Cool Side Ambient should be. These are the two major reasons he has no appetite. Without a basking spot between 105-110 degrees he cannot digest anything you're getting him to eat or force feeding, and he'll absorb no nutrition or vitamins. So you need to go out and immediately buy a Reptisun 10.0 UVB TUBE (do not buy the Reptisun 10.0 compact bulb, only the long tube, the compact version is only 13 watts and not even half the UVB light he needs), the matching length long tube fixture for the UVB tube, either 18" OR 24", a bright white basking bulb, a 100 watt will put a 40 gallon breeder within the correct temps, and you also need to buy a $10 digital probe thermometer instead of using any stick-on or round gauge thermometers, they're junk and are usually off by up to 20 degrees, plus you cannot measure his basking spot with one. Once you get his long UVB tube and his bright white basking lights set up correctly then you can measure you 3 temperature zones with the digital probe thermometer and adjust the basking bulb height and/or possibly wattage to get his temp ranges correct. But until his temps are up to proper ranges and he's under an adequate UVB tube that is strong enough, he's not going to have an appetite and will probably be very lethargic.

Also, don't worry about your humidity at all right now, his temperature gradient/basking spot temp and getting under proper UVB lighting are what is important, humidity has little impact on bearded dragons at all, they are completely different than tropical reptiles.

You also need to be dusting his live insects in calcium powder every single day from now until 6-8 months, then you can scale back to 4-5 times a week, and now he needs his live insects dusted in a multivitamin powder 3-4 days a week in addition to the calcium. This is extremely important for a baby beardie in combination with UVB light, this is how they make vitamin D3 themselves, and keep from developing metabolic bone disease, stunted growth, vitamin b1 deficiency disease, etc.

What live feeder insect are you planning on feeding him? This is extremely important in his first year of life, because he'll eat little to no fresh greens. Gut-loaded crickets. roaches, Phoenix Worms/Reptiworms/Calciworms/BSFL, or Silkworms are your choices pretty much. Please do not feed any mealworms! They contain no nutrition, little protein, and a ton of fat, and their shells cannot be digested properly and usually cause impactions. He will not be able to eat any size of superworms until he's at least 14-16" long. Wax worms, horn worms, butterworms, these are all only occasion treats, a few a week at the most. Once you get him a proper UVB tube and his temps are within correct ranges, he'll be eating tons of live bugs. He needs at least 2 live insect feeding sessions every single day (3 sessions per day is ideal for a baby up to 8 months old, then scale back to 2 live sessions per day), each session lasting 10-15 minutes, where he is allowed to eat as many live bugs as he wants to.

Offer fresh greens every single day, NO KALE OR SPINACH!!! They both contain calcium, but also have very high oxalate levels that bind the calcium and block your beardie from absorbing any calcium at all. Only fresh veggies and greens, and live insects, nothing freeze-dried or dead. Good greens include collard greens, turnip green, dandelion greens, turnip greens, escarole, endive, chard, bok choy, and arugula.

Hi there, sorry if some of this was covered, too much to read sometimes. Is his foot swollen, and can you post a pic of the other one to compare ? Any way you can post a videp of him walking ?

To try to get him to est, crush a cricket until the guts come out [ I know it's gross but it often works ] and then rub it lightly on his snout. Try that a couple times a day if you're not squeamish.

Also, drip some water on his snout, he may be dehydrated.

-ignore, didn't mean to post twice! Sorry!-

Ok, I'm going to cover a couple of the things I spotted for her

First her foot, in the series of pictures she included in her first post. The last 2 I believe was the foot, it doesn't look swollen or cut or any of that stuff. She can correct if I am wrong, but has told me, he is moving around and walking on it.

I have a picture of a back foot (one of the 3 good ones,) I can post for you to compare too?



Nit the best picture sorry, what I had ^^;

She has been making a cricket, calcium&vitamin, water solution and dripping that into his mouth. So I don't think she is too squeemish thanks for the tip!

As for the temperatures, the other side of the tank is hotter than the ambient cool temperatures. She stated she only has 1 set of thermometer and humidity things. They are on the cool side of the tank, so while the hot side is hotter than 80. She doesn't know how hot it is, but she plans on getting another thermometer as soon as she can.

And also he drank some water from his morning bath this morning. She was so happy he did that!

The rest, I'm not sure I can answer. Think she is at work now, but she'll see all of these when she gets back!

I didn't see if there was any mention on what kind of thermometer was being used to take temps with but if she can't move it to see what the basking site is then it's probably a stick on type which are not reliable. Need a digital with probe or temp gun.

O.K, so you can try the smashed cricket trick, it works pretty well at times. And the foot in question has a shed on it, is that what the concern is , the greyish color ? If the dragon is using it O.K then it may just LOOK injured but not actually be.

AHBD":1nnpxouu said:

O.K, so you can try the smashed cricket trick, it works pretty well at times. And the foot in question has a shed on it, is that what the concern is , the greyish color ? If the dragon is using it O.K then it may just LOOK injured but not actually be.

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No, no, the picture I posted was of a good foot, one of the back ones. I don't have a picture of the bad foot. However, the second post on this thread has pictures of my friends' dragon. The last two pictures, i believe, are pictures of its bad foot. From what, I can tell on the pictures, it may just be missing a couple claws or a couple of joints. So the store labeled it a lame foot, because tonme at least the foot didn't seem that bad.

Let me see if i can use

to steal thebpictures from her post.

I do agree though, that I'm not too concerned about the foot in question, since I'm tokd the dragon is walking on it.

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