New to this world.

[OztheDragon]

Hello Everybody!

I want to say a quick hello and thank you (already) for the help I've gotten just from reading through threads on this site. My family is planning on getting a bearded dragon very soon. We are all very excited and my daughter has already picked the name. We have the enclosure all set up but I have been trying to nail down temps, humidity, and lighting for about a week. I would love to run the setup by you and get any advice before we bring anyone home. Would I do that here or in a different thread? Thanks again and I am looking forward to being apart of this community.

 

[KarrieRee]

Hello Everybody!

I want to say a quick hello and thank you (already) for the help I've gotten just from reading through threads on this site. My family is planning on getting a bearded dragon very soon. We are all very excited and my daughter has already picked the name. We have the enclosure all set up but I have been trying to nail down temps, humidity, and lighting for about a week. I would love to run the setup by you and get any advice before we bring anyone home. Would I do that here or in a different thread? Thanks again and I am looking forward to being apart of this community.

Welcome ---- its good you have done your research its going to help in the long run --- we can help w/ the temps if you want to go over what your using and maybe post a pic of the tank itself --- also your UVB will have certain distance and placement so if you want to tell us what your using and the screen --- that too makes a difference as well -- is it a fine mesh or a wide hole type

 

[OztheDragon]

Welcome ---- its good you have done your research its going to help in the long run --- we can help w/ the temps if you want to go over what your using and maybe post a pic of the tank itself --- also your UVB will have certain distance and placement so if you want to tell us what your using and the screen --- that too makes a difference as well -- is it a fine mesh or a wide hole type

Perfect! I bought a 40 gallon (36x18x18) and have a Zoo Med T5 10.0 and a dome fixture with a 100 watt Zoo Med Repti Basking bulb. The mesh on top looks fine and tight to me but when I took the picture it looks much more open. Currently the UVB is on top of the mesh. I have a couple basking spots. The highest he/she could get would be 9 1/2 inches from the mesh and one of the lower spots would be like 13 1/2 inches.

My first questions is can the dragon get appropriate levels of UVB with that on the mesh? Follow up question would be if mounted inside can he get to much UVB and get hurt? I am also wondering if my heat lamp is to hot? I have to have it on a stand to not get basking temps in the 120's but then the temp of the enclosure lowers. What is the right temp gradient for the enclosure? Last question is about humidity. Right now it's about 48% on the stick on dials. I have a digital one with a probe that will hopefully show up today. It seems to hover between 50% to 60% with the lights off. The basking side gets into the lower 40% sometimes 30% but the cool side doesn't tend to dip much lower than 40% to 50%. I am worried about URI.

Also have a few questions about water conditioning (if it's needed or not) and supplements. If you have a care sheet that give specific direction on these topics please advise and I will look. Thanks so much. We are so anxious to bring home our new little one but I want to get it right.

 

[KarrieRee]

Perfect! I bought a 40 gallon (36x18x18) and have a Zoo Med T5 10.0 and a dome fixture with a 100 watt Zoo Med Repti Basking bulb. The mesh on top looks fine and tight to me but when I took the picture it looks much more open. Currently the UVB is on top of the mesh. I have a couple basking spots. The highest he/she could get would be 9 1/2 inches from the mesh and one of the lower spots would be like 13 1/2 inches.

My first questions is can the dragon get appropriate levels of UVB with that on the mesh? Follow up question would be if mounted inside can he get to much UVB and get hurt? I am also wondering if my heat lamp is to hot? I have to have it on a stand to not get basking temps in the 120's but then the temp of the enclosure lowers. What is the right temp gradient for the enclosure? Last question is about humidity. Right now it's about 48% on the stick on dials. I have a digital one with a probe that will hopefully show up today. It seems to hover between 50% to 60% with the lights off. The basking side gets into the lower 40% sometimes 30% but the cool side doesn't tend to dip much lower than 40% to 50%. I am worried about URI.

Also have a few questions about water conditioning (if it's needed or not) and supplements. If you have a care sheet that give specific direction on these topics please advise and I will look. Thanks so much. We are so anxious to bring home our new little one but I want to get it right.

Try leaving the UVB on top and make sure the basking decor piece is directly under it 8-10 inches --- the cave/ rock platforms always seem to me to get so hot -- you want a surface basking temp of 105-110- place the probe where hes going to sit what wattage are you using? - the ambient temps should be around 90's and the cool side in the 80's during the day -- nite time temps 65-75 --- the humidity is fine - when you get the digital probe one place it on the back center wall it will read the whole tank - 40-50 is optimal - nothing below 20 and nothing above 70-- you dont need water conditioner unless you cant drink the water yourself --

Ask The Vet - Vitamins

Animal Veterinary Hospital of Orlando (407) 855-PETS (407) 855-7387 1320 Oak Ridge Road, Orlando, Fl. 32809 Written by Dr. Bruce Bogoslavsky ASK THE VET Central Florida Herp Society Vitamin and mineral supplements are often added to many reptile diets. However, as with many other products, too...

www.beardeddragon.org

I dont know if this will answer your questions about supplements but when they are babies up to a year they need calcium D3 5 x per week lightly coated on the insects ONCE per feeding --- vitamins w/ beta carotene 2 x per week lightly coated on the insects ONCE per feeding --

 

[OztheDragon]

Thanks for the quick response. I adjusted a couple things with the lights and got correct temps. We picked up our little guy last night. Quick question about crickets. He seems to only want about 4 at a time. I thought he'd eat more in a sitting. He is pretty small but should I offer more frequent meals if he is only going to eat a few at a time?

Both times I offered more than that and had to fish a couple out. I don't want them to bother him.

 

[OztheDragon]

Pics for fun

 

[KarrieRee]

Thanks for the quick response. I adjusted a couple things with the lights and got correct temps. We picked up our little guy last night. Quick question about crickets. He seems to only want about 4 at a time. I thought he'd eat more in a sitting. He is pretty small but should I offer more frequent meals if he is only going to eat a few at a time?

Both times I offered more than that and had to fish a couple out. I don't want them to bother him.

Never leave crickets in the tank --- hes going to go thru relocation stress which is very common at least hes eating something if he quits all together that is a problem -- please feed salads first thing in the morning - you can get some BSFL order the size no bigger than the space between his eyes length wise -- DO NOT dust them -- dust your crickets tho--- and yes feed more than once a day but you want him started on salads -- add those BSFL www.symtonbsf.com to the tops of his salads feed as many as you want then feed the crickets like a hr later or so but you want him eating some salad - his main diet is the crickets / protein-- only dust the crickets ONCE per feeding not every feeding - try feeding him 3 times per day see of he will eat -- but offer the salad first thing in the morning then just crickets or BSFL in the second and third feeding - did you get the UVB correctly placed and distanced? This is extremely important so he keeps eating --- oh my he is little

 

[OztheDragon]

I believe so. I have the uvb on top of the mesh directly behind the basking bulb. Its a T5 10.0. He does seem to sit on the little log more than the rock/hide. The rock/hide is more under the uvb. I had imagined he would sit more on that than the log. He does sit on it just not as often as the log. The rock temp is in the high 90's and the log is more 105. Can he still get uvb if he spends more time on the log? Is that clear? Tips/thoughts?

 

[KarrieRee]

I believe so. I have the uvb on top of the mesh directly behind the basking bulb. Its a T5 10.0. He does seem to sit on the little log more than the rock/hide. The rock/hide is more under the uvb. I had imagined he would sit more on that than the log. He does sit on it just not as often as the log. The rock temp is in the high 90's and the log is more 105. Can he still get uvb if he spends more time on the log? Is that clear? Tips/thoughts?

If he has options to sit under both hes going to go to the light he needs --- dont worry if he has those options -- watch his behavior -- he needs time to acclimate to his tank and surroundings --- go about your business w/ your hand in the tank cleaning etc pet him -- do less holding for now -- but definitely get your hands in his tank so he gets used to you --- if you order some BSFL you can use those as lures to the salad bowel and hand feed them to him -- start hand taming him

 

[OztheDragon]

Ok. Thats good to know. My family is already in love with him and want to do whats best. I want to get bsfl and dubia roaches but am not sure which website or place to order from. None of my local places carry them. Do any of you have favorites? Also how hard is it to start your own colony (correct term?) of dubia roaches? Anyone done it?

Also I was just at a couple shops looking for a vitamin that doesn't have d3. I have calcuim with d3 already but was trying go find a multi vitamin without it. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought I understood that the multi vitamin shouldn't have d3?

 

[OztheDragon]

Also we did do salad for first meal and he didn't touch it. I also dumped a few crickets in it and he came over to it to eat them but promptly spit out the leaf he grabbed instead of a cricket. He walked away from it as soon as the crickets were gone. Have any of you had success adding bee pollen to salad?

 

[KarrieRee]

Ok. Thats good to know. My family is already in love with him and want to do whats best. I want to get bsfl and dubia roaches but am not sure which website or place to order from. None of my local places carry them. Do any of you have favorites? Also how hard is it to start your own colony (correct term?) of dubia roaches? Anyone done it?

Also I was just at a couple shops looking for a vitamin that doesn't have d3. I have calcuim with d3 already but was trying go find a multi vitamin without it. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought I understood that the multi vitamin shouldn't have d3?

A low dose of calcium D3 is fine -- I dont think any of the vitamins have no calcium D3 in it ---
www.dubiaroaches.com they have great roaches and how to start a colony --- look at getting him some small super worms feed every few days 1-3 on top of his salads
www.symtonbsf.com order small / mediums look at the size hes pretty little so maybe smalls for now - they will be a pain to feed cuz they are so small by the time hes 3 months old he should be eating large - the larvae are pretty small -- I never actually stared a colony but ended up w/ babies in the tank -- I just let them grow out and kept feeding the way I normally do--- as he gets older the less roaches he will eat especially w/ the size of the roach -- you want to keep feeding him the correct size so keep track of the size of his head so you can order the appropriate size - by the time hes a year old his insect consumption should slow down as they will only need insects 2-3 times per week -- also you can add worms to the diet like super horn butter and meal worms -- small supers for now NO meal worms horn worms can be fed but his size I would hold off they grow really fast and dubia has nice ones butter worms are extremely expensive now and hard to get

 

[OztheDragon]

Thank you. I'll look into those websites.

A low dose of calcium D3 is fine -- I dont think any of the vitamins have no calcium D3 in it ---
www.dubiaroaches.com they have great roaches and how to start a colony --- look at getting him some small super worms feed every few days 1-3 on top of his salads
www.symtonbsf.com order small / mediums look at the size hes pretty little so maybe smalls for now - they will be a pain to feed cuz they are so small by the time hes 3 months old he should be eating large - the larvae are pretty small -- I never actually stared a colony but ended up w/ babies in the tank -- I just let them grow out and kept feeding the way I normally do--- as he gets older the less roaches he will eat especially w/ the size of the roach -- you want to keep feeding him the correct size so keep track of the size of his head so you can order the appropriate size - by the time hes a year old his insect consumption should slow down as they will only need insects 2-3 times per week -- also you can add worms to the diet like super horn butter and meal worms -- small supers for now NO meal worms horn worms can be fed but his size I would hold off they grow really fast and dubia has nice ones butter worms are extremely expensive now and hard to get

 

[KarrieRee]

Also we did do salad for first meal and he didn't touch it. I also dumped a few crickets in it and he came over to it to eat them but promptly spit out the leaf he grabbed instead of a cricket. He walked away from it as soon as the crickets were gone. Have any of you had success adding bee pollen to salad?

LOL that is too funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go figure get some BSFL and yes I tried bee pollen my two wouldnt touch it --- Blaze was not hard to get to eat the salads I used medium super worms BSFL and silk worms --- he had a great diet and looks great now and over weight -- he is currently semi brumating -- Hiccup was a different story he was the first one so I learned from him --- he still wont eat hardly any salads at all - I have used silk worms w/ him as they stick to everything horn worms too they get his attention to the salad bowel every time -- but still wont eat salad if he does get the leaves in his mouth he will eat it and not spit it out ---- goofy dragon --- get your BSFL and go from there