New baby beardie and lots of questions!

Volt":ohlpwd1w said:

Hello, everyone! I got a baby bearded dragon from a family on craigslist last week, and I have a lot of newbie questions. I named him Bowser, and he is very small and cute. I'm not actually sure if he's a male, though! The family I got him from said they got him only a few months ago from petco. I will measure him tomorrow when he is awake and see if someone can take a guess at his age and if he is able to be sexed accurately yet.

Alright, so about lighting. When I got him he was on a Zilla Tropical UVB coil bulb, a Zilla Day Blue bulb, and a regular halogen bulb (for extra heat). I replaced the coil (after reading disturbing things about coils) with a ZooMed "Repti Basking Spot Lamp" and kept the Day Blue. I see that the ReptiSun 10.0 tube is very highly recommended, and plan to get one this coming week. Could anyone explain to me or provide suggestions on how I might go about setting the tube up for him? The hot end of his tank never seems to surpass 95 degrees, and the other end is 80. He is in a 40gal tank. Any other lighting recommendations will be appreciated. <<<< can't comment on Zilla brand compact UVB coils, I use UVB200s for my beardies and these are excellent.
You should probably have kept the uvb coil and ditched the blue light globe.

Now a bit about his behavior and eating habits. When I received him from the previous owners, they were feeding live crickets along with some greens and moist bearded dragon food. <<<< toss the moist dragon bites - they are useless and off little to no nutritious benefit.
Crickets up to a size (length) similar to the distance between Bowser's eyes will be fine.
ONCE HE SETTLES IN
He will likely be able to 1/3 sized crickets if he's about 100g and 4 months old say (I am going on what my two youngest (Peppa and Toothless were doing at 4 months old).
He'll probably polish off up 30 medium-small (about 1/3 size) crickets per day, plus a bit of greens.
or 20 crickets + up to 4 medium sized (1.5-2in long) silkworms per day.
I found if I left the uneaten greens in the tank overnight, any rogue uneaten crickets would come out after the lights were turned off (my lighting schedule is on 6am , off 10pm) and I'd soon hear action in the rearing tanks - either Peppa or Toothless would be up stalking the food bowl and snapping up the crickets as they came out to nibble on the greens .... didn't take long for them learn this behaviour once they discovered the crickets when they got up to nibble in their greens (they'd find a cricket or 2 already there and make quick work of them). I rarely found more than 2 or 3 crickets in their tanks next morning when I did the tank cleanout and went looking for remaining rogue crickets. They never bothered Peppa or Toothless overnight - they'd go to the greens instead.

Thing is, a lot of the crickets were pretty big, and the uneaten ones were left to run free in his tank. I caught and put aside the crickets that were in the tank, and have tried supplying phoenix worms along with greens and his moist food. So far he has showed zero interest in eating those things. I chalked it up to stress from moving, but I started to get worried when he did not eat after a few days, so I got him some squash and chicken baby foods and he eats a little at a time, but not much. He does seem to like the chicken the best lol

At first, he'd just stay in his basking spot all day and do little else, and sometimes he would do a strange head-twitching thing. It's been a week and he seems to have stopped the creepy twitching completely, and just yesterday he started to have a little more energy and has been moving around his tank more. He is also starting to shed. I'm happy about it, but I still wish he would start eating! His poops are small and don't seem... substantial? They are mostly just white. Yesterday during his bath I noticed quite a lump in his tummy, and now I'm kinda worried that he's backed up in there.
<<< if you are worried he may be a little impacted - I find about 0.2ml of olive oil given orally by syringe (I used a crop needle made from SSteel to help get the medicine past the lips and teeth, only needs to get past them , he'll do the rest as I think lizards find olive quite tasty and nice) given once a day will help shift things along.
Though I suspect in your case it's just a matter of no / not much poos because he's not been eating well (the Bites wont be helping) and he's not been eating many crickets due to relocation stress and now he's in dumps because he's not feeling comfortable as he's due to shed or is shedding (some will go of the tucker while in shed).
The more insects he eats the more often he'll poo , when he's up to speed he'll likely be pooing every day (big poos - you'll wonder where he fit all that poo) , and you'll likely think he's become an eating-pooing machine.
At his age, and for a few more months you can expect sheds very frequently, and for Bowser to grow like a weed , they GROW FAST in their first 12 months. DON"T restrict his food intake , especially not the HIGH QUALITY insects, he'll need all that insect protein and calcium to grow and develop.
It's also a good idea IMO to make a predictable routine of lights on/off, feeding, snuggles, and to include a brief bonding session each day (I gave Peppa and Toothless their first 3 or 4 crickets each day by hand as my bonding routine).

That's all I can think to ask for now! I am hoping that a combination of new lighting and just getting used to his new home will improve his mood and his appetite! Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated!



<<<< This depends a lot on the actual dimensions and construction of Bowsers' tank. I had/still have Peppa and Toothless in 100L rearing tubs.

Here is an excellent guide http://www.arcadia-reptile.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/guide-bearded-dragon.jpg

The wattage of basking light will be governed by
--- the volume of the tank and it's height
--- the aim basking temperature (aim for about 40degreesCelsius)
--- the ambient room temperature (if the room is cold , you'll need more wattage)
--- if the tank has a solid lid on it or a mesh screen (get rid of the screen and replace it with a piece of precut plywood - this will hold the warmed air in , and you'll get a much more stable thermal gradient and require less wattage to warm things up.)
UV lighting
best = a mercury vapour globe (like an Arcadia http://arcadia-reptile.com/d3-uv-basking-lamp/)
next best = t5 10-14% UVB tube in a slimline luminaire with reflector (like http://arcadia-reptile.com/t5-slimline-luminaire/)
alternatively = t8 10-14%UVB tube in a luminaire with reflector
best if space is limited is a 26W UVB200 in a NanoHood

(Here is Bowser during his bath today!)

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Volt":20qpkehe said:

Thanks everyone so much for your replies!

Bowser is on reptile carpet, so there's no risk of him eating any of it. I think the temp issue may also come from the fact that my room is quite cold (remodeled garage), I never even thought of that before. But I did go out and get him some stronger bulbs a bit ago along with the reptisun, and he's chilling (warming?) under those now. It's already up to 100 degrees in his spot now.

I will definitely try the olive oil thing. He seems to be trying to go but only a little comes out. Hopefully the more appropriate temps, food, and uvb will help him feel better soon. I guess I didn't realize just HOW important having correct lighting and heating is for reptiles!

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Volt":32nldush said:

He definitely has a nighttime heater, it would be wayyy too cold otherwise! In winter it can get chilly even for me and the ferrets sometimes, but we can just use blankets lol. His tank stays 75-80ish at night.

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