Honestly, I'm not sure how urgent this is, because I'm a complete newbie. My son has a new baby dragon, for just over a week (bought at petsmart on 2/9/20). He and I both did several hours of research prior to bringing "Alex" home. I firmly believed we had our bases covered.
I have been making him salad every morning (zoo med's "dragon food," swiss chard, and apples, carrots, or celery alternating, and 2-3 mealworms) (I live in upstate NY, in a very rural area, there are NO greens other than lettuce, spinach, kale and chard in any store near us; and its Feburary, so no garden) We started by soaking the "dragon food" as recommended, and mixing it with the salad, today I just misted it. The crickets are fed "cricket food" and dusted with calcium/vitamin powder alternate days. He is put in a separate container with the crickets 3-4x/day so he has greater success catching them, and stays in for a few minutes, or until he obviously wants out. He is molting, so we are soaking him daily, which he seems to enjoy and does drink some water at each soak. There is a water bowl on the cool side of his cage. He eats maybe every other day, has gone 2-3 without eating, so far no more than 4 crickets in a single day. I have yet to observe any consumption of salad. Initially, I thought maybe my son had handled him too often (he is extremely gentle, but super excited as it took him a year to "earn" this pet). I have been the only one handling him for 3 days now. This morning, he did eat 3 crickets.
He is in a 40gal "Thrive" dragon kit, has a hammock about 4" down from his basking light (where he ALWAYS is), a UVB strip on top of the screen cover. Humidity is ~32%, Warm side temp is 80, just below the hammock, and cool side is 70-75. I use a reptile warming mat stuck to the side of the cage on the warm side, with a temperature control thermostat to maintain no lower than 70 for overnight when the lights are off.
I would welcome any insight as to where we are missing the mark on care... before we cause any needless suffering. I am a lifetime cow, horse, cat, dog, goat, and chicken caretaker... I'm out of my league.
Thanks in advance.
Charity
I have been making him salad every morning (zoo med's "dragon food," swiss chard, and apples, carrots, or celery alternating, and 2-3 mealworms) (I live in upstate NY, in a very rural area, there are NO greens other than lettuce, spinach, kale and chard in any store near us; and its Feburary, so no garden) We started by soaking the "dragon food" as recommended, and mixing it with the salad, today I just misted it. The crickets are fed "cricket food" and dusted with calcium/vitamin powder alternate days. He is put in a separate container with the crickets 3-4x/day so he has greater success catching them, and stays in for a few minutes, or until he obviously wants out. He is molting, so we are soaking him daily, which he seems to enjoy and does drink some water at each soak. There is a water bowl on the cool side of his cage. He eats maybe every other day, has gone 2-3 without eating, so far no more than 4 crickets in a single day. I have yet to observe any consumption of salad. Initially, I thought maybe my son had handled him too often (he is extremely gentle, but super excited as it took him a year to "earn" this pet). I have been the only one handling him for 3 days now. This morning, he did eat 3 crickets.
He is in a 40gal "Thrive" dragon kit, has a hammock about 4" down from his basking light (where he ALWAYS is), a UVB strip on top of the screen cover. Humidity is ~32%, Warm side temp is 80, just below the hammock, and cool side is 70-75. I use a reptile warming mat stuck to the side of the cage on the warm side, with a temperature control thermostat to maintain no lower than 70 for overnight when the lights are off.
I would welcome any insight as to where we are missing the mark on care... before we cause any needless suffering. I am a lifetime cow, horse, cat, dog, goat, and chicken caretaker... I'm out of my league.
Thanks in advance.
Charity