New Bearded Dragon, Some New Owner Stress

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KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
If its yellow on the ends of the urate that would be calcium--- so it sounds like hes coming around and doing better --- keep working w/ the salads - and its good hes pooping it will slow down so dont be alarmed -- as they get older they tend to poop less --- as long as hes eating and basking he will poop -- unless you feed him something to big for him to pass which we dont want you to do like insects too big is usually the issue -- rule of thumb only feed the size between the eyes length wise--
Karrie
 

erodred

Member
Original Poster
Got it.

He does a violent twitch of his head when I offer him the dandelion leaves. He really does not want to eat those greens. He seems to be okay with fruit so far though. We gave him a bit of papaya. The next thing to try will be squash. Still looking for Endives and Escarole and Mustard Greens. Do they happen to go by other names? :? I am sticking with the cheaper stuff til he gets more used to it though. Also tried some apple but he didnt care for it either. He is just a 2 month old baby (aged him by length) though so maybe that will have the influence on what he prefers. Although videos on youtube have all the cute little babies chewing on greens and apple slices.
 

erodred

Member
Original Poster
So I got a container with about 3 mature black soldier flies. Sort of spooked me in the morning. But I am wondering if its safe to give to my baby? I feel like they will have too had of a shell right now for him. But I also feel like he would love chasing them. They do fly in the air though right which means he wont be able to get them?
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Yes he can eat them take the wings off of them and let him chase them :lol: Try collard greens and turnip greens they are not expensive --- fruit is occasional -- a lot of sugar they dont need
Karrie
 

erodred

Member
Original Poster
Would the adult flies need to be dusted with calcium?

I sort of just threw them in their plain to see if he would even go for them.

They buzz quite a bit. Seems I am more keen on handling crickets and worms than flies... haha.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
They usually take weeks to turn to flies so they must of been older when sent --- you can keep them on the door of your fridge that will make them go dormant take them out about 10 minutes before feeding and then they are moving -- and no dont dust them ---
Karrie
 

erodred

Member
Original Poster
KarrieRee":mqou2l2r said:
They usually take weeks to turn to flies so they must of been older when sent --- you can keep them on the door of your fridge that will make them go dormant take them out about 10 minutes before feeding and then they are moving -- and no dont dust them ---
Karrie

Thank you for the tip!
 

erodred

Member
Original Poster
A new update.

He is eating a lot now. Much more regularly. We try and offer a mixed diet of crickets and phoenix worms everyday so he won't get bored with his meals. I am presently dusting the crickets with multivitamin for two mornings of the week. I also will dust them with the Calcium w/D3 two mornings during the week as well to aid his calcium intake since I know the phoenix worms are already giving him some calcium. Both of the supplements are Rep-cal brand.

I have won a victory with a chunk of apple, some papaya and the past two days, he has eaten kale. Still no luck with dandelion green.

He will not eat it when dropped in the bowl, but he will eat it when we wave it in front of his face. He will take two bites and then refuse with an aggressive head twitch. I feel like he is slowly starting to relax. I am also taking him out of the tank to run around my desk with supervision to stretch his legs and explore. He likes to sit on my lap while I work as well it seems or climb up to my shoulders. I will admit I am afraid of him sitting there because I am afraid of him jumping off or falling off and hurting himself.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
If he is on your shoulder make sure your hand is over his back --- he will do a superman and fly off your shoulder -- I am glad to hear he is eating more -- the more he adjust the more he will eat -- sounds like he is a dragon that doesnt like dandelion greens -- I would try some other greens like collard and turnip -- but at least you have him eating some you can also try yellow and zucchini squash as well --- different stuff in your fridge - gr pepper red pepper once in awhile celery once in awhile -- basil - cilantro -- it is trial and error w/ stuff to see what they like --
Karrie
 

erodred

Member
Original Poster
Hello,

It has been awhile. I would like to post an update and maybe share some extra concerns.

So since the last time I posted, my baby has grown to be almost 20 inches now. I am estimating he is around 9 to 10 months old now. He loves hanging out with us and watching TV or hanging out with us while we work. He loves to cuddle with us.

We fed him a diet of BSFL for awhile, but it looked like got bored of them. He got more excited over crickets. Much of our worms turned into flies though (and partly invaded our house for some time). We caught them and he actually enjoyed being fed from our hands for them. He would stand up to snatch them from our fingers. We eventually stopped ordering the worms as they are expensive and also on the small size. So he had a diet only of crickets. I would alternate a bit and occasionally give him some apple chunks, some kale, and bok choy. He also really likes collard greens, and butternut squash. Sphaggetti squash seemed to be okay.

Our first concern was his poop suddenly had more water content which my wife said was because of the vegetables. She did not think that was good but I had to be insistent that he needs to get the greens. So we just decreased it a bit because maybe I was overloading him with the veggies too soon. But once we were more moderate with it, his poop went from daily to every other day and sometimes every third day. It still had the water content in it. Google seems to show that was fine though. Guess its just the water of vegetables and cant be helped. His poop was still solid though.

As of a couple of weeks ago, he started not gobbling up crickets. He would maybe eat 3-4 a day. Would go nuts for squash but I did not want to only feed him that and get him addicted/picky with me. I deduced that its because we went to a straight cricket diet with the occasional kale/bok choy/squash treat. We then switched to a meal of vegetables so he would do two feedings of crickets and veggies but the crickets were not going so well. I invested in mealworms, superworms, butterworms, hornworms and silkworms (with the latter three being VERY EXPENSIVE) and he liked them. And on the days we had the worms he would do a solid 2 feedings of worms + kale/squash/bok choy salad. His poops was good. But I am aware that mealworms are very fattening. But his appetite for crickets is constantly decreasing. We luckily got 3. And he wont even touch the greens now. If we put in a cricket he will rush down for it and eat it, but then get tired of it. He is just bored with them so easily.

The next concern is he suddenly has begun attacking his reflection. We got black construction paper on 3 sides of the tank and on the lower half of the front glass. That has helped but the upper half he will go for when he stands up. We opted for leaving the glass doors open, (the drop is not so bad because we have a pullout drawer and chairs at the table so he can easily and safely hop down) but he still sees the reflection in the open doors. His beard gets very dark so he is clearly stressed and angry. And I guess this is mating season or something and males are a no go for him?

I am worried about his dusting schedule with multivitamin and calcium since we cant dust crickets if he is not eating them, worms are hard to dust, and I am only trying to dust the veggies now.

Is mealworms safe for him to eat as a staple at this time? 1 serving of 20-30 mealworms for brunch and a cup of veggies for dinner? I also have the packaged food to use in a pinch (stocked up in case we get snowed in for winter)


Our T8 reptisun 10.0 UVB is 5 months old right now and I got a T5 hood and replacement ready for next month for the switch out. He has an exo terra intense basking bulb.
Hot side is 95-110F, cold side is around 80-85F. With his age, I opted for a 1 day multivitamin dusting, 3 days of calc with D3, 2 days calc without D3 and 1 day no dust.

Sorry for long read, hopefully people will read.

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KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Please no meal worms for a staple too much risk for impaction especially since hes 9-10 months - I would recommend getting him dubia roaches--- you can get them from here www.dubiaroaches.com keep offering the variety of worms -- super butter and horn switch them out --- they do get tired of eating the same ole thing --- I dont know what your paying for silk worms but I get mine mostly from here www.reptilianarts.com -- the lots of water in the poop is good - means hes hydrated and whatever extra he has will poop out thats good --
The UVB you can change out now -- usually all bulbs I will change out a month prior to expiration date -- they are starting to get weak --
Karrie
 

erodred

Member
Original Poster
KarrieRee":2llo5p67 said:
Please no meal worms for a staple too much risk for impaction especially since hes 9-10 months - I would recommend getting him dubia roaches--- you can get them from here http://www.dubiaroaches.com keep offering the variety of worms -- super butter and horn switch them out --- they do get tired of eating the same ole thing --- I dont know what your paying for silk worms but I get mine mostly from here http://www.reptilianarts.com -- the lots of water in the poop is good - means hes hydrated and whatever extra he has will poop out thats good --
The UVB you can change out now -- usually all bulbs I will change out a month prior to expiration date -- they are starting to get weak --
Karrie

No roaches in Canada.

The phoenix worms he seems to not be interested in because they are too small. I guess we made the lazy mistake of just feeding crickets. And now he is bored of it. We only have access to worms as alternative. So it is more of a matter of superworms, mealworms or butterworms. All of them seem to be crazy with the fat content though. I do not plan to make them staples and only supplementary, but given our mistake of giving him crickets, I feel like I have to power through until crickets are new and exciting again and continue forward with variety?

I also only have access to kale and bok choy. For some reason mustard greens and collards and dandelions are hard to come by at my local grocery stores. Is there another green that is safe? We have frozen berries (strawberry, blueberry, blackberry) that we can thaw out as well to add something exciting to his salads. Can squash be frozen to preserve it?

I will change out the UVB after work. I recall T5 can sit on the mesh now?
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Hi there, he looks very healthy, nice + big but still lean and not fat like so many are. Blackbearding at his reflection is normal and nothing to be concerned about. Mealworms are fine and not an impaction risk unless the dragon is small, doesn't have enough heat or is already sickly. But they should definitely not be used as the only feeder insect, just let him get hungry enough for the crickets or other insects that Karrie mentioned. They won't starve themselves. Calcium with D3 no more than 2 X a week, plain calcium 2 days. Keep offering his veggies as you were and when he's hungry enough he should eat them again. :)
 

erodred

Member
Original Poster
AHBD":1nu0u0tv said:
Hi there, he looks very healthy, nice + big but still lean and not fat like so many are. Blackbearding at his reflection is normal and nothing to be concerned about. Mealworms are fine and not an impaction risk unless the dragon is small, doesn't have enough heat or is already sickly. But they should definitely not be used as the only feeder insect, just let him get hungry enough for the crickets or other insects that Karrie mentioned. They won't starve themselves. Calcium with D3 no more than 2 X a week, plain calcium 2 days. Keep offering his veggies as you were and when he's hungry enough he should eat them again. :)

The problem is he attacks the glass so often. But thanks for giving me confidence. We moved him into our living room so that hopefully he will be distracted by us working and not his reflection. He does usually spend a fair bit of time around us. We got a heater set up that he will stop in front of for a bit before going off to explore or resting against us.

I did not give him dinner last night, so let's see how the crickets will fair tomorrow. A lot of our 500 died because he was refusing them and they just sat there.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Turnip greens and prickly pear are good staple feeders- I order prickly pear cactus off of Amazon - I get the pads - the T 5 should be in the tank if the screen is a fine mesh like a screen door if its a wide hole type screen it can sit on top but distance plays a role between the two - you can order silk worms as a staple feeder -- have you tried the wormlady in CA? www.thewormlady.ca/ if you google insect feeders in Canada you can find other places as well -- I dont know where your getting your feeders from
Karrie
 
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