Fiona and Galileo

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Darkestfallen

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darkestfallen
Two weeks ago I adopted two beardies, well I adopted one and my daughter adopted one. Fiona is mine, well my wife fell in love with her and claims she is hers. They are babies just about 2.5 to 3 inches long. They both live in the same terarrium. I am not new to reptiles, my son has a Russian tortoise and I had an iguana when i was younger, but I am new to owning a beardy. Just saying high. Pictures will come later today.
 

destiny1998

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Hi. Congratulations on your new babies. Where did you get them? Just to let you know they will need to be separated. Pictures are always appreciated :D
 

MarlowAndMe

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Welcome to beardie ownership :) and to the forum of course!
Congratulations on the new additions
As already said they will need to be separated
So jealous about the iguana and Russian tortoise hahah! We have neither where I am
 

Darkestfallen

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darkestfallen
We got them at a pet store. Petsmart, here in northern minnesota. I have already found out that most of the care information given to me by the pet store is incorrect due to topics I have read on here. Question, why do they need to be separated? They were in the same terrarium at the pet store and I have seen some adults in the same terrarium before. Just curious, not doubting anyones knowledge.
 

MarlowAndMe

Juvie Member
One will become dominant and that usually results in one thriving and one getting not enough time in basking light, not enough uvb , not enough food etc and each of those can be very dangerous for the dragon.
Also quite often they will be fine until suddenly they are not - and that results in missing toes, or limbs, or worse (the one that grows bigger can eat the other)

Often pet shops sell the wrong items for beardies - more out to get a sale than make sure the beardie is healthy and happy unfortunately. And when we are starting out of course we believe they are selling us the right stuff- it’s very common and not your fault at all. There are plenty of owners with plenty of knowledge here that can help you learn what items are best for them :)
 

Gormagon

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Darkestfallen":2yxp6edk said:
We got them at a pet store. Petsmart, here in northern minnesota. I have already found out that most of the care information given to me by the pet store is incorrect due to topics I have read on here. Question, why do they need to be separated? They were in the same terrarium at the pet store and I have seen some adults in the same terrarium before. Just curious, not doubting anyones knowledge.
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Because this is the end result of sharing an enclosure, one day they are fine ...the next it's not so good. They are solitary creatures and, very territorial.
 

Darkestfallen

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darkestfallen
I see, I will work on getting individual terrariums for them. We were hoping that perhaps one day they would breed. I guess thats not a good thought at this point in time.
I am trying to figure out how to post pictures in the board, so far no luck. Right now I have them both in a 50 gal teraraium with a sliding screen top. On the cool side there is a heating mat, which at the moment is plugged in because in Minnesota it gets cold. The terarrium came with one of those paper style stick on Thermometers. They have an Exo Terra 160W Solar Glo bulb in a wire/ ceramic fixture and a night bulb, I bought timers and have them on seperate timers for a day/night cycle of 14/10. I feed them crickets when I get up and when I get home. They do not seem interested in veggies or fruit. I have mango, collard greens, sweet potatoe and butternut squash. I once saw Fiona eating a little but never Galileo. They only seem to poop every other day. There is standing water in a reptile dish in the terarrium. I never see them basking in this or drinking from it. Also, weirdly enough they like to lay against the glass on the cool side. This is normaly when I wake up in the monrning I see them looking like they are stretched up on their hind legs pressed against the cold glass. Is this a sign of too much heat?
 

Darkestfallen

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darkestfallen
I should also state, I currently have a dual deep dome light fixture, an 188" UVB/AVU florescent, two dual thermometer/hydrometer gauge (one for each side of the tank) a cricket rock feeder, and a waterfall (just a tiny little one to make the water move) all on order, should be here by friday.
 

Darkestfallen

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darkestfallen
I finally figured out the images thing, I think.

This is my precious baby Fiona
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This is Galileio
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And here is their bedroom
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vrenee1018

Juvie Member
Congrats on the beardies! They look adorable. I remember when Tampico was that young. Time flies and they grow so fast. Sometimes I miss her at that age!

I second removing one of them and keeping each in a separate tank. They're so young, it is hard to tell if they are male and or female, so you good potentially have two males and not know it yet. As far as the tank setup, a light at night is not necessary for them. It can disrupt their sleep and if you want it more for warmth because your house drops below 65 degrees at night or the humidity in the tank goes up at night, I suggest buying a ceramic heat emitter. This gives off heat, but no light. Since they are diurnal creatures, they will most likely fall asleep when it gets dark, just like us. As far as the rest of the lighting goes, I will give my opinion on how I setup my tank and advice I've gotten from other beardie owners and the reptile store I bought my beardie from. I believe that you need to separate lights that are on during the day. One light that is strictly UVB light,like the florescent tube lights. A lot of people recommend the T5 HO ReptiSun 10.0 UVB to mimic the benefits of natural sunlight. The basking bulbs mostly give off heat that they absorb through the top of the bodies and a heating pad is not needed (I cannot recall if you said you had one). But I would keep the basking light at one end of the tank and the UV tube light that kinda overlaps the basking light so they are getting the best of both worlds, then when they've had enough basking light, they can migrate to the cooler end of the tank. Because most of the tank would be lit up, putting small things for them to hide in is always nice. They don't ALWAYS want or need to be in both lights all the time, at least that's what I've learned from my beardie. I had a 55 gallon tank for her and this is the best pic of the first set up I had for her. Hammock under the basking light and then the rest of the tank had the tube UVB light towards the back.
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This was the way her tank was setup when she was older and before I moved her to her bigger tank. But still the same type of setup.
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And currently. The setup is still the same.
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This is all my opinion and I've only had mine for almost a year, but I've learned a lot from her and have done my own research and have talked to a beardie owners at the reptile stores, in public, and also have read tons of beardie responses in this forum as well. Your beardies look like they love their new mama/papa and new home, so you're doing something right!!! :D :D :D :D
 

Darkestfallen

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Thank you for all the great information. I will work on getting them in seperate homes. For now I will have to keep them together because we only have the one heat lamp/UVB. Curious, will the dual bulb work for now? that thing was expensive. So the red light for night time is useless as well? It gives off heat but bth Fiona and Galileo seem to hide away from it when they sleep at night. I have also seen alot of people talking about buying fleece blankies for their babies. Is that something that would go well in the tank or something for them outside of it? So much to really knowing my new baby.
 

vrenee1018

Juvie Member
Darkestfallen":1j8duy8k said:
Thank you for all the great information. I will work on getting them in seperate homes. For now I will have to keep them together because we only have the one heat lamp/UVB. Curious, will the dual bulb work for now? that thing was expensive. So the red light for night time is useless as well? It gives off heat but bth Fiona and Galileo seem to hide away from it when they sleep at night. I have also seen alot of people talking about buying fleece blankies for their babies. Is that something that would go well in the tank or something for them outside of it? So much to really knowing my new baby.

I think the dual bulb will work well, but I personally would have another small UVB light to make sure they get the full amount needed. The red light doesn't really do much since they thrive on bright light during the day and at night, they can see the red light through their eyes when they sleep (much like we can when we fall asleep with the lights on). I have a fleece blanket for my baby when she falls asleep on me out of her tank. I keep her wrapped up in it when I'm ready for bed and either put her back in the tank or sometimes I let her sleep out with me, depending on the humidity and temperature in the house. But if you do want to give the babes blankies, I think fleece are the best at keeping OUR body heat in. Since they are cold blooded creatures, they rely on warmth from other places. So basically you'll make little baby lizard taquitos/burritos out of them when you want them to fall asleep on you. It is the cutest thing ever. :):):)
 

Darkestfallen

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darkestfallen
I have an 18 inch uvb/uva bulb coming tomorrow, along with the dual dome and thermostat. I got the thermostat for the under the tank heater that is currently on. This is for their cool side because the house is about 60 degrees in the winter. I want to keep the cool side at 80 for my babies. With the thermostat it will help me regulate this, I think.
 

vrenee1018

Juvie Member
Darkestfallen":4b89t0ts said:
I have an 18 inch uvb/uva bulb coming tomorrow, along with the dual dome and thermostat. I got the thermostat for the under the tank heater that is currently on. This is for their cool side because the house is about 60 degrees in the winter. I want to keep the cool side at 80 for my babies. With the thermostat it will help me regulate this, I think.

That's good. If you find the under tank heater doesn't help much, a ceramic heat emitter is the best way to go. If you're using it strictly for heat at night, I'm curious as to how much it heats up the tank while they're sleeping. Hopefully it works :)

What are you feeding the little buggers right now? Crickets and worms? Just a curious beardie owner :)
 

Darkestfallen

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darkestfallen
vrenee1018":2w2cdhu6 said:
That's good. If you find the under tank heater doesn't help much, a ceramic heat emitter is the best way to go. If you're using it strictly for heat at night, I'm curious as to how much it heats up the tank while they're sleeping. Hopefully it works :)

What are you feeding the little buggers right now? Crickets and worms? Just a curious beardie owner :)

Right now their primary diet is crickets. I am having a hard time finding worms up here. My primary shopping is fargo ND or Detroit Lakes Minnesota. I am worried that shopping online I will get dead worms from how cold it is outside. I got the thermostat on the pad now, not sure how well it's going to do.
 
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I miss you so much, Amaris 💔
What is a quick way to warm up a cold beardie? His heating element went out overnight and now he's very cold.
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i feel so sad reading your about me 😢
Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

Things to do:
Buy calcium powder
Material to raise surface for basking spot
Scenery decals for back of tank

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