A Concerned Beardie Parent

[fattonyisfat]

My girlfriend got me a very early Christmas present (the Dragon) yesterday and I am scrambling to make sure we got everything he needs. He is pretty young and only about 5 inches long( The poor guy got the end of his tail nipped off). I have him in the 10 gallon tank for now but I am thinking about just buying him his big beardie cage here soon since I don't know when he will hit his growth spurt. I am thinking that the cage is fine for now because I have the warm side, the cool side, and the heat lamp on the warm side. I have put a sea sponge in their too to keep up the humility. I have feed him a little bit of collard greens(he isn't eating much and I read this is normal for a juvie.) and he is eating about 6 crickets a day.

I have a few questions:
1. How long can I keep him out of the cage? He is very friendly but I want him to get enough light/heat. Also I like to have him chill on my head while I work.
2. I don't have much money so I was hoping to get him a big cage fairly soon what do you guys recommend(size, store, ect.)
I was think of something like this: The Reptarium by Apogee
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754941

3. Am I feeding him enough?
4. When do you think I should transfer him to the bigger tanks?
5. I have read a few articles on taking care of my Dragon(his name is Jabba) but is there anything else you guys might want to add?
6. I am using carpeting and was wondering I could just pick up the waste or if I should take it out and fully hand wash it.

Thank you very much!

 

[peera]

My girlfriend got me a very early Christmas present (the Dragon) yesterday and I am scrambling to make sure we got everything he needs. He is pretty young and only about 5 inches long( The poor guy got the end of his tail nipped off). I have him in the 10 gallon tank for now but I am thinking about just buying him his big beardie cage here soon since I don't know when he will hit his growth spurt. I am thinking that the cage is fine for now because I have the warm side, the cool side, and the heat lamp on the warm side. I have put a sea sponge in their too to keep up the humility. I have feed him a little bit of collard greens(he isn't eating much and I read this is normal for a juvie.) and he is eating about 6 crickets a day.

I have a few questions:
1. How long can I keep him out of the cage? He is very friendly but I want him to get enough light/heat. Also I like to have him chill on my head while I work.
You can keep him out as long as you and he are comfortable. He needs a couple hours to bask after eating though. I like to spend cuddle time after lights out... It makes them feel safe that they can fall asleep on you and know you won't hurt them, and you don't have to worry about them wandering off if you get distracted.

2. I don't have much money so I was hoping to get him a big cage fairly soon what do you guys recommend(size, store, ect.)
I was think of something like this: The Reptarium by Apogee
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754941
That cage will not work. It has mesh sides so it won't keep heat in, and they don't need the tallness, they need the floor space. Optimally 4'x2'x2', I believe that's a 75gal breeder. A 10gal like you have him in is not a good tank for anything besides transport. What are your exact temps right now? I can't imagine they're spot on where they should be, it's just not possible in a tank so small. He cannot properly thermoregulate because part of him is always going to be in the hoot or cool side, and you need to be prepared for him to grow FAST. These guys do the majority of their growing in the first 6 months and it's not unusual for them to be 15 inches by 6 months. If money is an issue, check craigslist.org, they usually have good deals.

3. Am I feeding him enough?
No. Babies need as many crickets as they will eat in 15 minutes 2-3x a day. They cannot overeat, so don't try to control his eating. This can frequently be between 50-100 crickets a day. Crickets should be smaller than the space between the eyes (and they usually prefer them on the smaller side)
4. When do you think I should transfer him to the bigger tanks?
ASAP if not sooner. There's no reason a baby shouldn't automatically go into his forever home.
5. I have read a few articles on taking care of my Dragon(his name is Jabba) but is there anything else you guys might want to add?
6. I am using carpeting and was wondering I could just pick up the waste or if I should take it out and fully hand wash it.
Considering how much pooping he's going to be doing, washing the carpet every time he poops is completely impractical. Just remove it (baby wipes are grand) and then wash the carpet once a week. Personally, I'm a fan of tile. It's easier to clean and will never need replaced.

Thank you very much!

 

[fattonyisfat]

I do want to note that the 10 gallon temperatures on each side is 100F + heat lamp area and the other side is around 80F.

 

[MissT]

I have put a sea sponge in their too to keep up the humility.

Do you mean the humidity? Humidity should not be a big issue with bearded dragons. As they are a desert species, they need little humidity in their environment. The humidity should be around 30% - too high a humidity can cause respiratory problems.

 

[fattonyisfat]

Also I was wondering how big crickets you refer to when you say 50-100 crickets a day. I put in about 7 and he ate 6.I am putting in more now but I think he is just not hungry.

 

[fattonyisfat]

I have put a sea sponge in their too to keep up the humility.

Do you mean the humidity? Humidity should not be a big issue with bearded dragons. As they are a desert species, they need little humidity in their environment. The humidity should be around 30% - too high a humidity can cause respiratory problems.

Jaba came with some reading material from petsmart that said to keep the humility around 20-30%. it has been around 18% so I spray him every so often. Should I not worry about it?

 

[MissT]

I would say, try to keep it between the 20-30%.... I would try not to mist the tank tho - I read something on here about someone blowing all their lights up (water+electricity = not good). Are you using a digital hygrometer? Is there a lot of ventilation in the tank?

 

[peera]

Crickets should be smaller than the space between his eyes, although as I said, they usually prefer them on the smaller side. Miss Priss CAN eat 1/2" crickets, but she doesn't like to and will only eat about 8. However, if I give her 1/4"-3/8" crickets, she goes insane and gorges herself into a little ballon. I've given up counting exactly how many, but I have to buy 1000 crickets about once a week. It can be hard to find small enough crickets at pet stores, and gets very expensive, so I recomend buying online (I buy from http://www.lllreptile.com, but if you're not on the west coast finding a supplier close to you would be a good idea. You can use http://feederfinder.net/ to see if there's someone closer.

Personally, I don't worry about humidity, and none of mine have ever had a problem. But WA isn't known for low humidity, lol.

We might as well go over the basics to make sure your baby has the best start in life you can offer-

How old is your dragon?
How long have you had your dragon?
How long is your dragon?
What is the sex of your dragon?
What size enclosure do you have your dragon in?
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank?
Do you use UVB lights?
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb?
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)?
How old is your UVB bulb?
How close can your dragon get to the UVB?
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage?
What are the basking temps?
What is the cool side temp?
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun?
Where exactly are you taking your basking temps?
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad?
What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific.
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)?
Do you gutload (feed) your crickets, worms, etc?
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them?
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)?
Do you bath your dragon? How often?
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath?
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon?
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done?

 

[fattonyisfat]

Crickets should be smaller than the space between his eyes, although as I said, they usually prefer them on the smaller side. Miss Priss CAN eat 1/2" crickets, but she doesn't like to and will only eat about 8. However, if I give her 1/4"-3/8" crickets, she goes insane and gorges herself into a little ballon. I've given up counting exactly how many, but I have to buy 1000 crickets about once a week. It can be hard to find small enough crickets at pet stores, and gets very expensive, so I recomend buying online (I buy from http://www.lllreptile.com, but if you're not on the west coast finding a supplier close to you would be a good idea. You can use http://feederfinder.net/ to see if there's someone closer.

Personally, I don't worry about humidity, and none of mine have ever had a problem. But WA isn't known for low humidity, lol.

We might as well go over the basics to make sure your baby has the best start in life you can offer-

How old is your dragon? I think 2 months, My gf got him for me.
How long have you had your dragon? 2 days
How long is your dragon? about 5 "
What is the sex of your dragon? pretty sure male but too young for me to figure out.
What size enclosure do you have your dragon in? 10 gallon
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank? reptile carpet
Do you use UVB lights? yes
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb? fluorescent
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)? I got the R-zilla halogen/fluorescent combo dome. 50mW
How old is your UVB bulb? brand new.
How close can your dragon get to the UVB? 4 inches
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage? no it is in the combo. I can't find the details of the basking bulb
What are the basking temps? The set up is a circular fluorescent bulb with the basking bulb in the middle. The thermometer on the wall near can get up too 102F.
What is the cool side temp? 80F
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun? One sided digital(warm side), other side a small stick thermometer.

Where exactly are you taking your basking temps? the wall ther.
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad? no
What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific. larger crickets(3/4th to and inch), collard greens. He doesn't eat many greens
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)? Noon and I tired to feed him at 5 pm but he didn't eat anymore(I got scared that I didn't feed him enough).

Do you gutload (feed) your crickets, worms, etc? I just got them. I think I might put an orange in there.

Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them? I am thinking about doing it every other day with flunker's calcium with vitamin D3.

Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)? He pooped today in his water dish.
Do you bath your dragon? How often? I am thinking 2 x a week. I gave him one today but he was a little scared.
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath? I have mist him many times today because I was scared of the humidity.
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon? No
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done?

No

 

[fattonyisfat]

I would say, try to keep it between the 20-30%.... I would try not to mist the tank tho - I read something on here about someone blowing all their lights up (water+electricity = not good). Are you using a digital hygrometer? Is there a lot of ventilation in the tank?

1.Yes I am using a digital hygrometer.
2. It is a glass tank and it has a mesh top. I covered it a little bit because I read that helps keep in the humidity.

I will keep in mind about the misting. Yikes.

 

[peera]

Ok, first of all, please, please return the UVB bulb. I put that on my oldest boy when I first got him and I've never been so scared in my life. Within 3 days he'd stopped eating, opening his eyes, and moving all together. You want the ReptiSun 10.0 tube. You can get it cheapest ($20) off of http://www.petmountain.com, it's hard to find/expensive in stores, but it's the best and one of few bulbs that won't hurt him. They need replaced every 6 months because they stop producing UVB after a while. Remember all reptiles need different UVB levels and what's good for one isn't good for all of them, however I've heard of that particular bulb hurting everything from beadies to chameleons.

Oh, my, no wonder he's not eating very many crickets, those are wayyyyyyy to big for him! Get smaller ones and his appetite will definatly improve. Remember crickets are carnivorous and the bigger they are, the more damage they can do to your dragon. Don't worry about the greens, babies need 80% protein and 20% greens, and that switches after one year. If you think he needs more, get them in the tank first thing in the morning when he's hungriest and don't give him live food until noon or so. Don't give your crickets an orange... only foods you want your dragon ingesting as well, so greens (They can and will burrow into and hide in a clump, so one leaf at a time!)/carrots/squash. Some dry dog/cat food is a good idea too otherwise they'll start killing each other.) http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html will tell you good veggies and such for him, and there's a chart for how you should be doing the multi & calcium.

You should get a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end. That way you'll know the surface temp of the basking side and the air temp of the cool side, which are the important #. The stick thermometers can be off by as much as 20*.

The water dish is unnessisary, as you learned today it's likely to be used as a toliet and he'll more than likely never learn to drink out of it. He should absorb enough water through his vent (his bottom) from baths, and if you can't give those every other day or so until he's more grown up (My baby gets a bath every day, my adults only get them once a week because they eat a lot more greens), you can drop a little on his nose so he can lick it off or mist his veggies if you find something he likes. Misting more than 1-2 times a day is completely unnessisary and might give him a resperitory infection, so lay off a little, ok? As I said before, humidity is nothing to get in a tizzy about. If he's scared in the bath, make sure you have a towel on the bottom so he doesn't slip, and put your hand in the water so he can crawl up and feel a little safer. However, if he insists on using your hand to climb all the way out and he hasn't had at least 10-15 minutes in the water, gently but firmly put him back in and take your hand out for a couple minutes so he understands that you're not going to allow it. Remember, he's just a baby, and like all children, human and animals, needs rules that get enforced every single time so they can learn what is and isn't proper behavior.

 

[fattonyisfat]

Ok, first of all, please, please return the UVB bulb. I put that on my oldest boy when I first got him and I've never been so scared in my life. Within 3 days he'd stopped eating, opening his eyes, and moving all together. You want the ReptiSun 10.0 tube. You can get it cheapest ($20) off of http://www.petmountain.com, it's hard to find/expensive in stores, but it's the best and one of few bulbs that won't hurt him. They need replaced every 6 months because they stop producing UVB after a while. Remember all reptiles need different UVB levels and what's good for one isn't good for all of them, however I've heard of that particular bulb hurting everything from beadies to chameleons.

Oh, my, no wonder he's not eating very many crickets, those are wayyyyyyy to big for him! Get smaller ones and his appetite will definatly improve. Remember crickets are carnivorous and the bigger they are, the more damage they can do to your dragon. Don't worry about the greens, babies need 80% protein and 20% greens, and that switches after one year. If you think he needs more, get them in the tank first thing in the morning when he's hungriest and don't give him live food until noon or so. Don't give your crickets an orange... only foods you want your dragon ingesting as well, so greens (They can and will burrow into and hide in a clump, so one leaf at a time!)/carrots/squash. Some dry dog/cat food is a good idea too otherwise they'll start killing each other.) http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html will tell you good veggies and such for him, and there's a chart for how you should be doing the multi & calcium.

You should get a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end. That way you'll know the surface temp of the basking side and the air temp of the cool side, which are the important #. The stick thermometers can be off by as much as 20*.

The water dish is unnessisary, as you learned today it's likely to be used as a toliet and he'll more than likely never learn to drink out of it. He should absorb enough water through his vent (his bottom) from baths, and if you can't give those every other day or so until he's more grown up (My baby gets a bath every day, my adults only get them once a week because they eat a lot more greens), you can drop a little on his nose so he can lick it off or mist his veggies if you find something he likes. Misting more than 1-2 times a day is completely unnessisary and might give him a resperitory infection, so lay off a little, ok? As I said before, humidity is nothing to get in a tizzy about. If he's scared in the bath, make sure you have a towel on the bottom so he doesn't slip, and put your hand in the water so he can crawl up and feel a little safer. However, if he insists on using your hand to climb all the way out and he hasn't had at least 10-15 minutes in the water, gently but firmly put him back in and take your hand out for a couple minutes so he understands that you're not going to allow it. Remember, he's just a baby, and like all children, human and animals, needs rules that get enforced every single time so they can learn what is and isn't proper behavior.

When I give him a bath should I just put him in a tube with water up to his feet and drop water on him every so often? I will order the bulb here in a little bit. Do you know if I should just return the combo light thing because the fluorescent light in it is circular and the $20 one is a long stick? Also do you know which Watt size I need? I will get him some small crickets tomorrow and let him have at them. You think I should put a hundred in his cage at a time? How is your cage set up? Can you show me a picture?

 

[peera]

The tube doesn't come in watts, (Actually, I don't know any UVB that does, only MVB's) just go to the site and you'll only have the one option, just differing lengths. I don't know if it will fit in your fixture, I didn't keep mine (took it back to the store and gave them a piece of my mind for selling something so freaking dangerous). However, you can get fixtures for reasonable prices at Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. Just take the light in and someone will be able to find you a fixture that works.

Baths, I try to give a deep end and a shallow end so they have the choice to go between up to the neck and just covering the feet... towels can help make the gradient if you're using a smaller area... For Ms Priss I use a small rubbermaid container (1 gallon, maybe?) and my older dragons get to run around the bathtub, which has a natural slope. They're all different (don't ever let anyone tell you they don't have personalities, lol) so how deep/warm they like it is all a matter of trial and error. I usually let them sit for a couple minutes and then ripple the water and let drops drip off my fingers onto their nose. They usually get the idea and drink if they're thirsty.

It's probably not a good idea to drop 100 crickets into his tank, if he doesn't eat them all you'll have a heck of a time trapping them all and they could intimidate him. He may eat less right now because he's not used to getting that many, and feeding tends to drop off after a relocation for a little while. The best thing to do is to feed in a completly seperate, bare container. (A small tank or medium-large rubbermaid tote work very well... you can use his 10gal once you get him upgraded.) But for now I'd say just drop them in 10 at a time and make sure to keep an eye on them so none get left in there to chew on him.

 

[MissT]

The tube doesn't come in watts,

Not trying to contradict you Peera, as your advice has been great to the OP so far but I believe the tubes do have a wattage - basically so that you get the correct starter. Last repti-sun I bought was 30w so I had to go buy a 30w starter as I only had a 20w at the time. The differing lengths have differing wattages.

 

[peera]

Not trying to contradict you Peera, as your advice has been great to the OP so far but I believe the tubes do have a wattage - basically so that you get the correct starter. Last repti-sun I bought was 30w so I had to go buy a 30w starter as I only had a 20w at the time. The differing lengths have differing wattages.

You're right Miss T, I noticed that when I went to look at them on petmountain last night, but was to tired to come back and correct myself. I guess I just never really think of buying them by watt, only by length.