Hello from me and my little guy

My name is Kate, I've had little Scooter for around 3 weeks now. He seems to be thriving and I couldnt be happier with him! (I hope it's a him...dont know yet. But Scooter works for both anyways)

I came here because I was getting a lit of info here when foing research on getting him. Now I have 2 quick questions that I hope are too much of an issue.
First of all heres my special little guy:


My 2 questions are how can you tell the amount of UV that hes actually getting? I have a reptisun light but I heard the screen filters a lot of it out. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem? I am dusting his food every day.

The other question is pretty straight forward, does he look over weight? Hes laying on his belly here so it's a little bigger than it would normally look but I'm not sure how heft he should look right now. I dont know how old he is, I've estimated his age when we got him cause he was pretty underfed and I didnt know how old he was when he got to the store. But I think he was between 2 and 3 months when I got him.

Thanks so much! And hello again to everyone from us. <3

Welcome ---------- Scooter looks good --- as long as your feeding a balance diet of staple feeders like dubia roaches or crickets I prefer dubias less hassle than w/ crickets -- and a good balance of worms like butter worms super worms horn worms and silk worms along w/ salad and his vitamins and calcium D3 he will do good --- for the UVB tell me what your using is it a coil or tube and is it a T 5 or a T 8 we can help you get it placed correctly
Karrie

Welcome to you and Scooter! He's very handsome. ? Doesn't look like anything but healthy to me. ?
Karrie is the best with lighting and temps and I'm sure will have you all set in no time.
Glad you found the forums. Anything you need don't hesitate to ask, many experienced and helpful people here. I'm still pretty new myself but all the help I got made things so much easier for me and my Petey. ?
-Dee

For measuring uvb they have uvb meters that measure it precisely but these can be pricey and make sure they can measure artificial uvb or you can get those uvb card testers you put under the light and it turns a different color and let's you know its it's too low or correct and the same card can be used over 100s of times

https://www.amazon.com/REPTI-ZOO-Tester-Reptile-Fluorescent/dp/B07TJHQ2JR only 12$ save you the hundreds youd spend on a uvb meter. The card is not a precision instrument like the uvb meter though the card let's you know when your bulb needs replaced or is still emitting uvb

Hi Kate,
Welcome to the site!

Hope you stick around and post more pictures of your little guy

-Brandon

KarrieRee":3h9tiosk said:

Welcome ---------- Scooter looks good --- as long as your feeding a balance diet of staple feeders like dubia roaches or crickets I prefer dubias less hassle than w/ crickets -- and a good balance of worms like butter worms super worms horn worms and silk worms along w/ salad and his vitamins and calcium D3 he will do good --- for the UVB tell me what your using is it a coil or tube and is it a T 5 or a T 8 we can help you get it placed correctly
Karrie

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Hey so sorry it took so long to get back to you, I didnt seem to receive notice of these posts even though I checked it ^^ I'll have to double check next time. I've been feeding him his salad and crickets with wax worms for the most part. I want to try different bugs to see what he likes best and I think soon I'm going to try some roaches. I definitely want to try some other worms too as he loves them. As for the light, it's a tube and I'm fairly sure its T8, I have to double check but I remember being at the store and saying I'm getting the T8.

Do you have your T 8 inside the tank? It works best in the tank and no cover over the bulb and approx 8-10 inches from basking decor--- I would lay off the wax worms they are like candy and too fattening - I recommend the dubias as a staple feeder -- they are way more nutritional than crickets --- you can order silk worms as well for a staple feeder - I will post some websites for you
www.dubiaroaches.com great for dubias horn worms butter worms - they are out of Kansas and ship very quickly --- if you order horn worms beware they grow really fast so order a small amount
www.reptilianarts.com -- good silk worms - you can order by the cup w/ food or bulk - if you get bulk make sure you get food for them as they need to be fed every day pretty much and the sass or poop cleaned out w/ old food removed if they dont eat it all
www.mulberryfarms.com -- last I checked they were out of stock for the silkworms
https://www.coastalsilkworms.com/ check this website too for silks
Karrie

KarrieRee":ke072t9x said:

Do you have your T 8 inside the tank? It works best in the tank and no cover over the bulb and approx 8-10 inches from basking decor--- I would lay off the wax worms they are like candy and too fattening - I recommend the dubias as a staple feeder -- they are way more nutritional than crickets --- you can order silk worms as well for a staple feeder - I will post some websites for you
http://www.dubiaroaches.com great for dubias horn worms butter worms - they are out of Kansas and ship very quickly --- if you order horn worms beware they grow really fast so order a small amount
http://www.reptilianarts.com -- good silk worms - you can order by the cup w/ food or bulk - if you get bulk make sure you get food for them as they need to be fed every day pretty much and the sass or poop cleaned out w/ old food removed if they dont eat it all
http://www.mulberryfarms.com -- last I checked they were out of stock for the silkworms
https://www.coastalsilkworms.com/ check this website too for silks
Karrie

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It's about that far from the basking spots with no cover, but its sitting on the screen top. I know it's not ideal, do you have any suggestions on how to afix it safely to the inside? And I dont give him wax worms more than three times a week so I'll cut down to a once in a while thing. I want to try out horn worms cause I know they are really good. What size would you say he should be before getting them? I know they start out kinda small but I heard they can bite smaller dragons. I'll definitely check into the roaches as well since I've heard a lot of good things about them. When I'm in a bit better of a financial situation I'll definitely get some silk worms as I've heard they are fantastic for them. Thank you so much.

You can use these things to hang the fixture--- as of this time w/ it being on top of the screen its filtering out 30% of those rays
command Velcro fasteners- picture hanging wire – long plastic zip ties-- fishing line --- hangers used to hang potted plants -- shoe laces --
Karrie

KarrieRee":xxzrwhw4 said:

You can use these things to hang the fixture--- as of this time w/ it being on top of the screen its filtering out 30% of those rays
command Velcro fasteners- picture hanging wire – long plastic zip ties-- fishing line --- hangers used to hang potted plants -- shoe laces --
Karrie

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Thanks for the tip. I'm gonna try and get something set up. My only concern is it not being secure enough to not fall. I will check home depot for some supplies, I'm thinking of just cutting out a section of the screen whee the light sits and then affixing it to the lid itself. Not sure how good that will work but Ill definitely try and come up with some sort of plan. Thank you so much for the advice! <3

The zip ties would not let it fall and if you haft to take them off for some reason just cut them -- zip ties are cheap enough to replace
Karrie

thank you all so much for your help!