Baby beardie advice needed please

Hi I have a few questions about our new baby beardie Nico. Sorry for the long message I wanted to make sure I included everything I could think of. I also answered all the usual questions at the bottom. Thanks for any advice you can give.

We bought Nico home 2 weeks ago and had spent a lot of time trying to make sure his new home would be set up correctly. His appetite has really reduced over the last few days and I wanted to run his enclosure past some experienced people for advice. He is still quite active and alert and sometimes looks as though he’s hungry but then he will just look at the bugs we give him and not eat them. Originally we were only feeding him crickets whilst we awaited our roach delivery and he was eating around 26 a day. Since then we’ve offered him either and both together. The first few roach meals he scoffed them and ate around 25 in a day but wouldn’t touch the crickets (as we expected as roaches are yummier) however for the last few days he has barely eaten anything. Around 10 roaches in the last 3 days, he will come down to hunt but then will only eat 1 and return to his safe branch. He ate 3 roaches yesterday and we were over the moon but today nothing again. We’ve tried feeding him in a separate container but it didn’t make a difference and he just wanted to get out. I don’t think he’s eaten much/any of his veges either. He’s still pooping. He’s happy to be handled and never skittish when we bring him out to be handled. He had a small shed last week that just seemed to be his tail and then his head over about 3 days. We have also noticed that occasionally he will have stress marks when in his enclosure but I can’t understand what’s causing them either. He very rarely has them when he’s out the tank.

He’s in a 4x2x2 and I've been worrying about the temperatures as they are so crucial. I was using a 100w basking bulb but there didn't seem to be much of a gradient. I’ve now switched him to a 75w basking bulb but I'm still worried it's not right. The cool side is always around 86F using a digital probe. The hot side is around 100F using a digital probe. The basking spot which is directly below is around 106/108F using the IR gun. He has a slanted branch and a platform at different heights under the basking bulb. There are built in ventilation vents in there too.

What should I do about the gradient? I can’t lose any temp from the hot side to reduce the cool side temp. I mist the enclosure, especially the cool side twice a day. Am I better off with the 100w or 75w or something else entirely? Could someone please advise me as I’ve read through this site over and over but have I missed something?

I’ve added the regular information that usually gets asked, again thanks for any advice you can give.


How old is your dragon? 10 weeks aprox
How long have you had your dragon? 2 weeks 2 days
What sex is the dragon? Male
Size of enclosure? 4ftx2ftx2ft
Substrate? Sraw bedding (as recommended by seller)
Do you use UV light? Yes. It is a tube. Reptile system eco T5 fergusin zone 3- 12% 870mm 39w.
How old is the UVB bulb? Brand new.
How close can dragon get to UVB? 17cm on average on his branch.
Do you use a separate basking bulb? Yes. Just switched to 75w intense basking spot. White bulb. Exoterra brand.
Does your dragon have another heat source? Yes he has a CHE on a thermostat.
What are the basking temps? 106F on tree branch using IR gun.
What is the hot side temp? 100F using digital probe.
What is the cool side temp? Currently 86F using digital probe.
Do you take temps with probe, gun, stick on? All of these. Use the probes for accuracy of ends/gradient and gun for basking spot and surface temps.
Where are the basking temps taken? Branch directly under basking light and resin platform which sits slightly lower which is always hotter (i think due to material)
Do you use heat rock or pad? No
What do you feed your dragon? Variety of crickets and dubai roaches, mainly roaches for live food. Also collard greens and mix up carrot and cucumber occasionally. But has never seemed to eat his greens.
How often do you feed? Offer food 2 or 3 times a day at 0800, 1300 and 1800.
Do you gutload? Yes.
Do you use vitamin and calcium supplements? Yes. Calcium pro and nutrobal. Mixed as advised by seller and used together for each meal.
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements? Yes
Do you bath your dragon and how often? Yes every 3 days or so (hes still settling in)
Do you mist your dragon or offer water othr than in the bath? Yes. Has water bowl. Drip with syringe and mist daily.
Have you got vet check and fecal done? No. To be scheduled this week.
Does your dragon share with another dragon? No.

Your setup sounds pretty good. You may want to replace the straw substrate with something solid and easy to clean if you find that it smells at all or if he starts eating any of it. Based on his behavior it sounds like he is OK. Sometimes they go through phases in which they eat less or become picky. Keep offering food and let him take what he wants. It won't always be a lot and that's OK as long as he remains active and alert. Do you see any signs of him starting a shed? Dull waxy or gray patches of skin anywhere are usually the main sign. Shedding can put them in a bad mood for a while. Also keep track of his weight. If you keep a log it will help you track his weight trends over time which can help you to identify underlying illness and check his growth progress.

For the temperatures, it partly depends on how he uses the space. Is he basking a lot in the hottest area? Or do you see him trying to move to cooler spots? If he is mostly in the hot area then he is probably OK for now the way it is. If he appears to be trying to cool off then adjusting the temps may be more urgent. Sometimes you can reduce the cool side temperatures by increasing airflow. Running air in on the low cool side and out of the high warm side can help to reduce the heat buildup from insulation.

If you want to post photos of him or your setup you can upload them here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button.

CooperDragon":14w85ujd said:

Your setup sounds pretty good. You may want to replace the straw substrate with something solid and easy to clean if you find that it smells at all or if he starts eating any of it. Based on his behavior it sounds like he is OK. Sometimes they go through phases in which they eat less or become picky. Keep offering food and let him take what he wants. It won't always be a lot and that's OK as long as he remains active and alert. Do you see any signs of him starting a shed? Dull waxy or gray patches of skin anywhere are usually the main sign. Shedding can put them in a bad mood for a while. Also keep track of his weight. If you keep a log it will help you track his weight trends over time which can help you to identify underlying illness and check his growth progress.

For the temperatures, it partly depends on how he uses the space. Is he basking a lot in the hottest area? Or do you see him trying to move to cooler spots? If he is mostly in the hot area then he is probably OK for now the way it is. If he appears to be trying to cool off then adjusting the temps may be more urgent. Sometimes you can reduce the cool side temperatures by increasing airflow. Running air in on the low cool side and out of the high warm side can help to reduce the heat buildup from insulation.

If you want to post photos of him or your setup you can upload them here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your reply. He's just eaten 4 roaches, I think he really enjoys us stressing about him. It feels as worrying as a newborn human baby!
He's still alert and active. How long should a shed take? He hasn't started to shed his back yet but his tail and head shed separately earlier in the week. Is it normal for it to happen in stages?
We measured his length when he came home but I didn't think to weigh him too, i'll do that tomorrow during his time out with us and add it to his records.

As for the temperatures he varies and moves during the day. He has a few favourite branches on his tree that he goes between but he doesn't really bask on his platform yet, i'm not sure if he still feels a bit vulnerable there. When he's on the cool side he tends to go up in the leaves and hide. I think i'll look into an air flow solution as i don't want to cook the little dude. Would you suggest small desk type fans?
Another question i have is that he likes to hang off the protective cage that houses the CHE do you think this is ok? The only way I could stop him would be to either remove the cage or lower the basking branch.

I'll attach some pictures of him and his enclosure in case you spot anything else. We're trialing the substrate as the seller recommended it but we'll see how we go.
Thanks again.

This is Nico posing yesterday :lol:

He looks pretty healthy to me. If he is avoiding being right under the basking light you might be able to bring the temp down a little bit. A CHE can get very hot and cause burns so you may want to remove that and go with something that burns a bit cooler like the Arcadia heat projector. Double check this by touching the cage around the bulb. If it feels too hot for you to touch, then it can be dangerous for him.

For airflow you might want to mount a computer case fan near the hot side facing outward to draw warm air up and out forcing cooler air in through the other side. Ability to do that really kind of depends on the way the enclosure is built. If he isn't avoiding the basking area or hiding on the cool side or in the shade I wouldn't fuss with it too much.

A shed can really vary quite a bit. Sometimes they are quick and done with in a few days. Some times they can drag on for weeks. As they get older their sheds tend to be less frequent and more patchy.