DjangoUnchained
New member
Long post incoming, just skip to the bolded text for my actual question without all of the preface.
Hello everyone! I adopted a fancy bearded dragon about two weeks ago and named him Django. I think he’s a baby still, he’s pretty small but the pet store person and the vet never told me his age. I’m not exactly sure how long he is either. Anyway, I brought him to the vet just yesterday for a checkup (no concerns, just a normal checkup to make sure nothing’s wrong that I haven’t noticed). The exotic specialist told me everything was fine and gave me a pamphlet with some information.
The pamphlet (by ARAV, which stands for Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians) says the ideal humidity for a bearded dragon is 40-60%. This confused me because on google searches I’ve done the ideal humidity varies between 20-40% or 30-40% and around 55% at night depending on which website I look at. I have 3 thermometers/hydrometers in the tank (two on the warm side and one on the cool side). The Zoo Med hydrometers say that it is currently 25% humidity on the warm side and 32% on the cool side with the basking light and UVB on. The other hydrometer I have on the warm side says that it is 22%, so either way it should be in the 20s on the warm side.
I did buy a humidifier (by Repti Zoo) weeks ago but didn’t actually use it until tonight. I turned it on the lowest setting and it made the warm side of the tank reach in the high 50s. Django seemed to absolutely hate it and started to claw at the side of the tank. I turned it off right after this and now it’s back to the 20s and he decided to sleep. At night without the lights on the humidity is currently is sitting at 37%.
MY MAIN QUESTION is this: what is the true ideal humidity for a bearded dragon? It seemed to bother my dragon in the 50s but I’m not sure if the 20s is too low. Do I even need a humidifier at all?
Some additional stuff: I have a timer for his basking light and UVB bulb which is from 10am to 10:45pm. My tank is 10 gallons. The UVB bulb is 26 watts (placed on top of the middle of the tank in a 8.5” dome lamp so it covers most of the tank) and the basking light is 75 watts in a 5/12 inch “mini deep dome lamp fixture” which I have hanging slightly above the tank on a lamp stand. The temperature on the warm side is usually in the low 90s according to the Zoo Med thermometer. The cool side is usually around 88 degrees. At night I usually keep both lights off since it is has always been 60-75 degrees at night but since it’ll be in the 50s tonight I decided to use use a 60 watt ceramic infrared heat emitter in a 8 1/2 clamp lamp which currently has the warm side at 86 and the cool side at at 82 (unsure why it’s this high right now, if it doesn’t cool down later I may have to get a thinner dome. He’s currently sleeping on the warmer side though so I don’t know if he cares). I also have a 75 watt red light infrared bulb for night time but I haven’t used it yet since apparently this can still disturb my dragon’s sleep. I think everything I’m doing on the heating end is fine with the exception of this night time heating.
One last thing, I told the vet that I feed Django mainly kale for a vegetable (crickets for live food) and she told me that I should stop feeding him kale and feed him spinach and collard greens instead. This confuses me because all research I’ve done and even the pamphlet she gave me says that bearded dragons shouldn’t eat spinach very often due to calcium binding with the spinach. The vet does have her own adult bearded dragon so I would expect her to be giving me advice that she has researched. He’s not eating the spinach anyway so I will probably switch back to kale and get some collard greens later. Should I keep feeding him spinach and maybe that calcium binding thing has been debunked or something (if it has I haven’t seen anyone saying that at all), should I feed him kale again, or should I switch to different vegetables completely?
My main question is just about the humidity but if there is anything I could improve in my tank I would love to know.
Sorry that this is so long, I just want to make sure that Django has a happy and healthy life. Thank you very much!
Hello everyone! I adopted a fancy bearded dragon about two weeks ago and named him Django. I think he’s a baby still, he’s pretty small but the pet store person and the vet never told me his age. I’m not exactly sure how long he is either. Anyway, I brought him to the vet just yesterday for a checkup (no concerns, just a normal checkup to make sure nothing’s wrong that I haven’t noticed). The exotic specialist told me everything was fine and gave me a pamphlet with some information.
The pamphlet (by ARAV, which stands for Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians) says the ideal humidity for a bearded dragon is 40-60%. This confused me because on google searches I’ve done the ideal humidity varies between 20-40% or 30-40% and around 55% at night depending on which website I look at. I have 3 thermometers/hydrometers in the tank (two on the warm side and one on the cool side). The Zoo Med hydrometers say that it is currently 25% humidity on the warm side and 32% on the cool side with the basking light and UVB on. The other hydrometer I have on the warm side says that it is 22%, so either way it should be in the 20s on the warm side.
I did buy a humidifier (by Repti Zoo) weeks ago but didn’t actually use it until tonight. I turned it on the lowest setting and it made the warm side of the tank reach in the high 50s. Django seemed to absolutely hate it and started to claw at the side of the tank. I turned it off right after this and now it’s back to the 20s and he decided to sleep. At night without the lights on the humidity is currently is sitting at 37%.
MY MAIN QUESTION is this: what is the true ideal humidity for a bearded dragon? It seemed to bother my dragon in the 50s but I’m not sure if the 20s is too low. Do I even need a humidifier at all?
Some additional stuff: I have a timer for his basking light and UVB bulb which is from 10am to 10:45pm. My tank is 10 gallons. The UVB bulb is 26 watts (placed on top of the middle of the tank in a 8.5” dome lamp so it covers most of the tank) and the basking light is 75 watts in a 5/12 inch “mini deep dome lamp fixture” which I have hanging slightly above the tank on a lamp stand. The temperature on the warm side is usually in the low 90s according to the Zoo Med thermometer. The cool side is usually around 88 degrees. At night I usually keep both lights off since it is has always been 60-75 degrees at night but since it’ll be in the 50s tonight I decided to use use a 60 watt ceramic infrared heat emitter in a 8 1/2 clamp lamp which currently has the warm side at 86 and the cool side at at 82 (unsure why it’s this high right now, if it doesn’t cool down later I may have to get a thinner dome. He’s currently sleeping on the warmer side though so I don’t know if he cares). I also have a 75 watt red light infrared bulb for night time but I haven’t used it yet since apparently this can still disturb my dragon’s sleep. I think everything I’m doing on the heating end is fine with the exception of this night time heating.
One last thing, I told the vet that I feed Django mainly kale for a vegetable (crickets for live food) and she told me that I should stop feeding him kale and feed him spinach and collard greens instead. This confuses me because all research I’ve done and even the pamphlet she gave me says that bearded dragons shouldn’t eat spinach very often due to calcium binding with the spinach. The vet does have her own adult bearded dragon so I would expect her to be giving me advice that she has researched. He’s not eating the spinach anyway so I will probably switch back to kale and get some collard greens later. Should I keep feeding him spinach and maybe that calcium binding thing has been debunked or something (if it has I haven’t seen anyone saying that at all), should I feed him kale again, or should I switch to different vegetables completely?
My main question is just about the humidity but if there is anything I could improve in my tank I would love to know.
Sorry that this is so long, I just want to make sure that Django has a happy and healthy life. Thank you very much!