Hi there
The first thing I’d like to discuss is your
lighting fixtures; to begin, what
basking bulb do you use? Make sure the one you are using is
not a coloured bulb, coloured bulbs will cause eye irritation and/or other issues.
The bulb you need will have a
white light, sometimes it comes in shades of
light yellow as well. Make sure it is not a deep heat projector, those will dry out your bearded dragon. Best to use
halogen or reptile bulbs.
Your basking spot should be between
105-110 degrees Fahrenheit, since a bearded dragon’s preferred core tempura tire is
97 degrees which can be achieved by a basking spot of roughly
107 degrees.
Make sure you are measuring the temperature and humidity with a
digital probe thermometer and hydrometer,
stick-ons and temp guns are
inaccurate 90% of the time. Temperatures are incredibly important.
The cool side (the side without the basking bulb) should be around
70-75 degrees, with an ambient of
85-90 degrees. Night temps shouldn’t be below
50 degrees. The humidity in the tank should be
30-48%.
Onto
UVB; what type of fixture do you use? Please
no coils! They are super inadequate, and provide minimally no UV for a reptile. If it’s a tube fixture, what brand is it? You want either a
Reptisun or
Arcadia bulb.
Other brands like
Zilla or
Zoomed are
inferior and aren’t recommended. Make sure if it’s placed
above the mesh it is
14% or if it’s placed
below the mesh it’s a
12%, KarrieRae can help you with distance.
The labels you’re looking for on a UVB fixture is T5, HO, D3+ (if Arcadia), 12-14%. It should cover 3/4 of the enclosure with a variety of different UV levels on higher and lower areas in the tank.
With that out of the way, what is your bearded dragon’s
diet? Absolutely
don’t listen to anyone who says feed as much as he wants, he will become overweight. An
overweight beardie doesn’t need protein.
You say he’s 3 years old? He should be eating
mainly greens and vegetables,
no fruit please as it attracts
fungal life and causes
tooth rot. Live feeders should be fed
2-3x a week,
5-6 appropriately sized feeder insects.
Good staple insects are crickets, roaches, superworms, mealworms, pheonix worms, and silkworms.
Avoid bugs like
Waxworms or
butterworms, they are very,
very fatty, they are meant to be used as a
rare treat.
Make sure you are supplementing
calcium at least
5x a week, adult beardies don’t need multivitamin as much though as yours won’t eat salad I’d suggest using some
2x a week to provide additional vitamins.
Calcium doesn’t need vitamin D (D3) if you have the
proper UVB fixture, since it acts as the sun which provides us vitamin D. Vitamin D toxicity can occur if your bearded dragon is getting too much of it.
If you have plain calcium without D3 you can mix it with the multivitamin or get a premix to provide calcium
7x a week, since bugs don’t have bones but instead exoskeletons they have phosphorus.
Wild bearded dragons need a ratio of
2:1 for calcium but bearded dragons in
captivity nowadays will need a
much higher ratio as they were grown too quickly. In the wild it would take
2 years to fully grow.
Bearded dragons can be
VERY picky animals, salad is commonly dejected by many from time to time. Try and get him to eat it by
spraying it with
water, sometimes they like their food
shiny.
You could try sprinkling
plain bee pollen on top, my boy loves it. You could try adding some
food toppers (I like flower food toppers) or you could put some
worms in the salad as a
lure of the sorts.
Most importantly, give him a
variety. Do
trial and error to see what he likes. Make sure you
don’t use calcium binders though, like spinach or broccoli. My boy loves collard greens and bell peppers.
Bearded dragons
don’t need a
water bowl, most won’t drink from it and it can be a hazard for
drowning (rarely) and it will
increase the
humidity. Take it away immediately and mist his salads.
Don’t move him back to his old enclosure, the enclosure you have now (120 gallons) is the bare minimum for adults. Also ABSOLUTELY no sand, ever, unless it’s mixed with reptisoil/topsoil. Tile is fine.
Bearded dragons go through something called relocation stress which may be the cause for dejecting salads, it will take a few days, weeks or even months for him to fully adjust. It varies depending on the dragon.
Also, I thought I’d mention baths. They are completely unnecessary unless he visibly soils himself. The idea that they intake water through their skin or cloaca is a myth, mist his salads or food instead.
Hope this helped, if you have any questions feel free to ask.
