adjusting to a new "home"

[rhondau]

Hi all! We are back! nearly a year ago our sweet boy Max passed away, and the family is ready for a new beardie, however we are adopting a beardie who is about a year and a half old. She is a sweet girl with a super friendly demeanor. However right now her enclosure has sand, which we were not a fan of when we had Max. I read so much on here about how bad sand is, but she appears to be doing fine. Should we get her sand or would it be a hard adjustment if we put her on a different substrate in a different tank? I dont want to stress her out with a new home. What is the best way to get her adjusted? With Max we used Tile and shelf liner. But I never felt like it was ever clean enough after he would make a mess. Also the new beardie eats freeze dried crickets and superworms. We always fed Max live crickets. Will she adjust to live crickets easily or should I keep up with the food she is used to? Because our sweet Max died of reasons fully unknown to us, I am nervous I may have done something wrong before, and certainly don't want to do the wrong thing for this sweet girl. Thanks for any advice!

Rhonda

 

[brittani299]

Hello . I personally wouldn't use sand at all. It can cause impaction and it isn't that clean. Tiles are way better. And you only have to buy them once. I would use live food. Freeze dried crickets lack the nutrients of living ones. Can pu post what you are going to use in the tank.

 

[RuselBro]

She shouldn't have a Hard time Adjusting to Tile. Even tho you think the Tile didn't look to clean sometime's, I promise it was 10 Time's Cleaner than Sand could ever Be. You really need to put her on Tile.

As for the Feeder's, use Live Bug's and Fresh Veggie's. She shouldn't have a Hard time Adjusting to Live Feeder's, when she get's Hungry enough, she will eat them. Lol. But the Veggie's she might not like at first so you will have to work with her. a Beardie 1 year old and up should eat 80% Veggies and 20% Bug's. Veggies are very Important for an Adult Beardie.

Just make sure you have the Correct Temp's, correct UVB, ect. Oh and you should Dust her food with Calcium and Vitamin's cause I doubt the Previous owner did, and she really need's it.

 

[rhondau]

Thanks for the quick replies! I know she doesn't eat much of anything for veggies right now. Neither did my Max, be he was still under a year old when he passed. What do I clean the tile with? I was using a light vinegar water solution with Max trying to keep it "natural" but again, I second guess myself now that he is gone I think our temps and lighting were absolutely fine for Max so we will just use what we had before. I am mostly worried about her being stressed out about having EVERYTHING be so different.

 

[brittani299]

I take my tiles out and clean them by hand. I dont have to do it very often though because Daisy doesnt go to the bathroom in her cage.

 

[rhondau]

I take my tiles out and clean them by hand. I dont have to do it very often though because Daisy doesnt go to the bathroom in her cage.

So....where does she go to the bathroom? Uggg... my Max would go tons in his tank and then run through it....YUCK!

 

[brittani299]

I trained her to go in the bath. She will scratch at her cage and then I will put her in the bath and she will go. it is very easy to clean up

 

[rhondau]

I trained her to go in the bath. She will scratch at her cage and then I will put her in the bath and she will go. it is very easy to clean up

How on earth did you train her to do that? Wait wasn't that a movie? " How to train a dragon?" :wink:

 

[brittani299]

Lol yes I made her watch that movie until she got it right . no I just kept doing it over and over again until she know that the bath meant she had to go to the bathroom

 

[RuselBro]

She most likely will be Stressed just from the moving, so that's going to happen anyway most likely, nothing you can really do about that. But yes, her being an adult she need's to be on 80% veggies and 20% live feeder's. And you can take the tile out to wash it, easiest thing to do, or a wet rag and napkin's and pick up the poo with napkins then scrub the tile down with wet rag and hot water.

 

[rhondau]

Do you all prefer a certain size tile? I will have to get new tiles as we used the others in the bottom of the painted turtle's tank that came home from the pond last summer They were smaller and I hated how the urine would seep down between the tiles and make a huge mess.

Also question about basking, Is it okay to have the bulb inside the enclosure if the basking spot is the correct distance from the bulb? I have cats and would like to put the enclosure in our living space this time if possible but I had the bulb on the top of the enclosure before but it was fine, it was in my son's bedroom. Is there a prefered basking spot item? What we had before would be too small now, besides, that is also with the turtle :wink:

 

[brittani299]

I have slate tiles and I have never had a problem with anything seeping into them. You can put a light fixture/ bulb inside the cage as long as it is like 10 to 12 ish inches away from your beardie. I have done it before. It is nice because then they don't get knocked off by other things ( cats )