*In need of dire help*

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Jershkerr

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I just got a beardie from petsmart a couple days ago and I have never owned one before and I am worried something is wrong with him (or her). It is a young one, maybe only a 2-3 months old, and about 6-7 inches long. I read somewhere that the move from pet store to new home stresses them out so I was not overly concerned when he did not eat for the first day or so, but I am worried as today I tried reintroducing crickets to him again, as the last time he did not seem to be hungry, and not only did he not want to eat them, he actually moved away from them. He shows no real interest in any food I put in front of him and seemed a little dehydrated so I gave him a couple warm water baths. I am not sure what to do now, as I hope it was just the move, but then I read elsewere that some beardies still do eat, just not as much.

For his set up, he is currently in a 20 gal tank, but I just recently bought a 40 gal, and plan on moving him when he grows a bit more, he has a basking light, UVB, and a night light which I try to keep on for about 12 hours a day. The temperatures normally stay between 90 and 100 degrees during the day and about 80 at night.

Any help or tips on what to do would be greatly appreciated.
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
Probably just relocation stress, sometimes it can take a few weeks before their good to go. Especially if you don't have a correct setup which you most likely dont if you didn't do any real research and listened to the store employees. Not your fault though as you SHOULD be able to listen to petstore's and get correct info but sadly they don't even know one thing about what they sell.

2-3 months sound about right, lights should be on for 14 hours at the very least not 12. Thats to little for a growing beardie and even then adults should only have it on for 12 if their burmating or your trying to get them to burmate and then breed them.

No lights on at night, or anything on at night unless temps drop below 65, in that case you need a CHE/Ceramic heater. Bearded dragons see in full color, and a bit more than we do so any light at night will disrupt sleep.

What is his temps monitored with? (Temp gun, digital thermometer with a probe, ect)
What are all his temperatures? (Basking, warm, and cool)
What is his substrate?
What is his UVB? (coil/compact/tube/mvb?)
What brand is the UVB?
Is it a 10.0 or a 5.0, or a 12%-14% bulb?
If a tube is it a T8 or a T5?
how big is the tube light?

A small basic care sheet for lighting, tank size and substrate so you can get correct info.
Enclosure size for baby less than 6 months - 20 gallon.
Enclosure size for 6-12 months - 40 or 50 gallon.
Enclosure size for 12+ months or right when you get it - 75 gallons (48"x18"x20") or 120 gallon (4x2x2).

UVB lighting - Reptisun T5 HO 10.0 UVB Tube Light with a fitting reflective fixture.
20-50 gallons 22" or 34", 75+ gallons 34" or 46".
Replace every 6-12 months.
This should sit right over the basking spot, either behind the basking light or in front.
Basking bulb - Bright white light, either regular reptile bulb or a halogen bulb. Wattage depends on temps inside house and tank height.
You can also go with Powersun, Arcadia or Megaray MVB's for heat. These produce both UVB and heat but you'll still need a UVB tube light beside it.

Temperatures -
Basking temp 100-110, no less no more. Prefered is 105.
Warm side temps (areas around the direct basking spot) 88-95.
Cool side temps 70-85 and no more.
Night time temps 65-85 and no more.
If it goes below 65 you need a Ceramic heat emitter or a CHE. This produces no light so it wont disturb your reptiles sleep as they can see most colors that we can if not more.

Substrate - Paper towels, tile, possibly newspaper, non adhesive shelf liner, AstroTurf possibly or repti-carpet.

Do not use particle substrates, they will cause impaction, prolapses (this can cost 1,000 dollars to fix), stained scales, joint issues, bacterial infections, fungal infections, mold possibly, high humidity, eye infections and much more.

A little feeding guide for you.
All life stages eat 10-20 bugs a feeding.
1-4 months 3x a day.
4-12 months 2x a day.
12-20 months once a day.
20+ months twice a week at the least, every other day at the most.

Staple feeders - Crickets, locusts, grasshoppers, silkworms, black soldier fly larvae, dubia roaches, turkish roaches, possibly earthworms.

Treat feeders - Waxworms, hornworms, superworms, mealworms, butterworms.
Wax worms - once a week, 4-5 max.
Hornworms - every other day to every two days, 4-6 max.
Mealworms - every other day to every two days, 5-10 max. Only for beardies above 6 months.
Superworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max. Only for beardies above 12 months.
Butterworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max.

Daily greens- Turnip/collard/mustard greens, endive, and kale if added to a mixture of the other staple greens mentioned.
Fruit once or twice a week - Banana, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, red raspberries.
For more food items -
http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/bearded ... ta.php#veg
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

You should have two supplements at the very least, a calcium without D3 and Multivitamin.

For beardies less than 2 years old - 5x a week for calcium, 2x a week for Multivitamins.
For beardies at or more than 2 years - 1-4x a week for calcium, 1-2x a week for multivitamins.

This is for regular healthy beardies, depending on health state it may need more calcium or less calcium.

Dust at least one insect meal when dusting, lightly dust. For beardies more than two years old on non insect days you can dust the salad..
 

Jershkerr

New member
Original Poster
I did do some research but could never find out the specifics for some things, such as which type of UVB would work best; coiled or strip. And the guy at petsmart helped us pick out everything Sugar (my beardie) would need. I was informed on the cricket dusting, so I ordered a bunch of them and the calcium dust but I am still not sure what to do if he won't actually eat the crickets. I did, however, go back to petsmart and asked the same employee if there was anything else I needed to know about how they were kept and he said that they were fed only crickets and mealworms so I would have to train him to eat vegetables. I bought mealworms and he did eat about 5 of those but still won't touch the crickets or anything else.
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
Well I would avoid feeding mealworms entirely until he's 6 months old and eating normally. You can look at the feeding portion the care guide to see exactly how much to feed along with what else are treat feeders.

This is because of the very hard chitin that mealworms have making it an impaction risk for young beardies who aren't fully developed like adults are. They can also be quite addictive (this goes for most treat feeders) and beardies can ignore all food in favor of only eating the treat feeder. For me this lasted 10 months with my two oldest beardies until I could get them to eat anything else other than superworms.

Hornworms and butterworms are the only two treats that don't have an unhealthy amount of fat. However butterworms go through radiation so its best to rarely/occasionally feed those, and hornworms have a lot of moisture so if given too much it can cause pretty bad diarrhea.

Can you answer the questions I asked before,

What is his temps monitored with? (Temp gun, digital thermometer with a probe, ect)
What are all his temperatures? (Basking, warm, and cool)
What is his substrate?
What is his UVB? (coil/compact/tube/mvb?)
What brand is the UVB?
Is it a 10.0 or a 5.0, or a 12%-14% bulb?
If a tube is it a T8 or a T5?
how big is the tube light?
 

Jershkerr

New member
Original Poster
Sorry I missed the questions. I have a digital thermometer. His basking temperature is usually around 110, warm is around 90ish and cool is around 80. His substrate is the reptile carpet. The UVB is coiled for now but I plan on ordering a strip on. The brand for the UVB is Exo Terra and it is 10.0.

What happens if the mealworms are the only thing he will eat? I certainly do not want to risk it but that is the only thing he even showed interest in.
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
He'll probably never show interest in anything else, or at least thats one of the possibilities. Impaction is another, and then because it'll be a pretty unhealthy diet he wont be the healthiest beardie, it could cause fatty liver disease probably as they do have quite a bit of fat.

The first possibility is the most likely one, along with the second to an extent. And of course a diet of mealworms is barely healthy.

Just remember these are reptiles so they can go a bit without eating as long as their healthy. I'm sure once settled he'll start eating actual healthy food, just keep offering crickets.

Is both UVB's Exo Terras?
Can you give me info on the coil bulb you have, wattage, 100UVB, 200UVB ect.
As for the tube light/strip one is it going to be a T5 or T8.

Exo terra is pretty good with their compact/coil bulbs but don't do well with strip lights.
They are pretty much the opposite of zoomed in a way.

Exo terra is good for compact/coils, bad for MVB's and strip lights.
While zoomed is good for MVB's and strip lights but bad for compact/coil bulbs.
 

Jershkerr

New member
Original Poster
Ok, I will keep the mealworms at a bare minimum and keep trying other foods. And I actually just have the coiled UVB, which is 100w. Sorry for the confusion but I was wondering if it matters if I just have one or the other or both.

Also, does it help if I continue to put him in warm water and make sure he stays hydrated if he doesn't want to eat?
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
Can you send the link of the coil bulb?
Along with the basking bulb you have and the tube light your getting.

Whether you have a correct UVB bulb actually is basically life and death, with correct UVB your beardie will live a healthy 15-20 years, without it your beardie will have a hard, painful life and may have to be put down at a very young age if not fixed before it gets too bad.

Tubes/strip lights are generally better than coil/compact bulbs and MVB's as they can go over the entire enclosure offering options and correct UVB if you get the type you need. Which in most cases is a T5 10.0 or higher percentage of UVB bulb. A T5 10.0 is the least amount you can put on a screen and provide correct UVB tube light wise. T5's are stronger than T8's of course. UVB can not go through hard solid objects like glass, so screen blocks out about 40-50% of all UVB.

Only type of Coil bulb that can go on top of screen is a Exo-Terra 25 watt 200UVB bulb mounted within 6-8 inches of the basking spot. And even then its best for a tube light to be used rather than that.


It may stress him out if you put him in water and make it worse. Wait till he's settled to do any sort of bathing, even then bathes are unneeded unless the beardie ACTUALLY DRINKS from the bath water. As they can only get water orally (from their mouth), not from their feet, vent, skin etc.

Use a eye dropper and slowly drip water onto his nose for hydration.
 
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