greenbeanette
Member
Hi everyone,
Please bear with me, I know this is a bit long and full of questions. I've been researching extensively for the last few days, getting ready to adopt the bearded dragon my family has. I bought one for my (older) brother about 5 years ago, without doing much research, but it was his responsibility to take care of him/her. My parents took took over his/her care presumably after he got tired of it. During the power outage on the east coast they brought her to my dad's apartment since the house was very cold, and purchased a small temporary tank. Well I went to visit last week, and the tank probably around a 15g and it has a sand substrate. She's now been in there all winter and it seems they only feed her crickets and have some red pellet food in her tank. There is one dome (?) light shining into the tank through the mesh, and I'm pretty sure that it only a basking light/no uvb.The vet told them at one point that she was a female, but I'm not sure considering she has never laid eggs.
I offered to take her in after seeing that the tank was so small and that they don't give her veggies. I'm wondering what health issues I'll be looking at since she has probably seen very little other than crickets in her life and probably is uvb deprived?
I'm planning on buying a T10 from animal plastics (48"x24"x15") with three dome circle screens cut out of the top. I know it is a bit short, but the 18" and 24" high ones are 135 dollars and 144 dollars more respectively, for some odd reason. I figure I'll mount the uvb fixture on the back wall at the top, and set the basking light on top of the mesh. Accounting for a 2in for the fixture's height and mounting 1in away from the ceiling, should still keep the floor 11"-12" from the uvb. With a basking rock, s/he should be in 6-8". Right? Is this ok?
I plan on getting either the reptisun 10 or the Arcadia 12%, and the Lights of America 24" fixture here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004WA4D/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1N1HYMNTFQ2YK
I'm also concerned about getting him/her on a proper diet. I'm guessing vitamins/calcium will be in order here, but I not sure which ones to use and how much/often. I know there is some controversy about vitamin A and D in supplements, so that's also making confused about what to do there. For feeders, she's been living mainly on crickets her whole life, so I'm wondering if maybe holding off on high protein foods such as feeders would be a good idea at first. I read that too much protein can cause kidney damage? When I do give feeders, I'm thinking silkworms and hornworms? Both are caterpillars, which honestly I'll tolerate a lot better than more wormy/grubby looking critters. I'm also ok with crickets, but I wouldn't want to house them, just buy as needed as serve immediately.
The last big issue at the moment is shipping her over here. I looked at the guide on lllreptile.com. http://lllreptile.com/gallery/educational-and-how-to-videos/-/1/-/how-to-pack-and-ship-a-reptile-properly/
She would be getting shipped once the tank gets here (ordering it Friday), and from what I have read animal plastics can take a little while to complete an order. Would I have my parents use a heat pack or not since it will be pretty far along into summertime? Would they put her in a cloth bag, or is that only for snakes?
Thanks guys. This site has been great fun researching on
Please bear with me, I know this is a bit long and full of questions. I've been researching extensively for the last few days, getting ready to adopt the bearded dragon my family has. I bought one for my (older) brother about 5 years ago, without doing much research, but it was his responsibility to take care of him/her. My parents took took over his/her care presumably after he got tired of it. During the power outage on the east coast they brought her to my dad's apartment since the house was very cold, and purchased a small temporary tank. Well I went to visit last week, and the tank probably around a 15g and it has a sand substrate. She's now been in there all winter and it seems they only feed her crickets and have some red pellet food in her tank. There is one dome (?) light shining into the tank through the mesh, and I'm pretty sure that it only a basking light/no uvb.The vet told them at one point that she was a female, but I'm not sure considering she has never laid eggs.
I offered to take her in after seeing that the tank was so small and that they don't give her veggies. I'm wondering what health issues I'll be looking at since she has probably seen very little other than crickets in her life and probably is uvb deprived?
I'm planning on buying a T10 from animal plastics (48"x24"x15") with three dome circle screens cut out of the top. I know it is a bit short, but the 18" and 24" high ones are 135 dollars and 144 dollars more respectively, for some odd reason. I figure I'll mount the uvb fixture on the back wall at the top, and set the basking light on top of the mesh. Accounting for a 2in for the fixture's height and mounting 1in away from the ceiling, should still keep the floor 11"-12" from the uvb. With a basking rock, s/he should be in 6-8". Right? Is this ok?
I plan on getting either the reptisun 10 or the Arcadia 12%, and the Lights of America 24" fixture here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004WA4D/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1N1HYMNTFQ2YK
I'm also concerned about getting him/her on a proper diet. I'm guessing vitamins/calcium will be in order here, but I not sure which ones to use and how much/often. I know there is some controversy about vitamin A and D in supplements, so that's also making confused about what to do there. For feeders, she's been living mainly on crickets her whole life, so I'm wondering if maybe holding off on high protein foods such as feeders would be a good idea at first. I read that too much protein can cause kidney damage? When I do give feeders, I'm thinking silkworms and hornworms? Both are caterpillars, which honestly I'll tolerate a lot better than more wormy/grubby looking critters. I'm also ok with crickets, but I wouldn't want to house them, just buy as needed as serve immediately.
The last big issue at the moment is shipping her over here. I looked at the guide on lllreptile.com. http://lllreptile.com/gallery/educational-and-how-to-videos/-/1/-/how-to-pack-and-ship-a-reptile-properly/
She would be getting shipped once the tank gets here (ordering it Friday), and from what I have read animal plastics can take a little while to complete an order. Would I have my parents use a heat pack or not since it will be pretty far along into summertime? Would they put her in a cloth bag, or is that only for snakes?
Thanks guys. This site has been great fun researching on