Adult Care

[beardielovers]

We have spent countless hours on this forum and have learned a PILE of great stuff for general beardie care. We were expecting to get a baby beardie and watch it grow up. Instead, we got an amazing deal on an adult red. We figured we would double check a few things because we know adults are a bit different than babies and juveniles. I'll write what we know and we're open to any corrections or additional info we are needing.

Feeding - greens and veggies available and feed live feeders once daily
Bathing - couple 15 minutes, or longer, baths per week
Supplements - Calcium once a day (5 days), vitamins couple days a week

Our new beardie was being fed Romaine lettuce for greens (which we will be changing based on the feeding list at Beautiful Dragons website) and fed crix and/or superworms every other day. Also, was only misted. We will see if he will let us pick him up today (just brought him home last night) and if he will we'll see how he does in a bath. He does look a bit dehydrated so we want to bath him as soon as he'll let us. Would it hurt him to start giving feeders daily or do we need to increase that more slowly? I know if they were very under nourished it can be a bad thing to start feeding them lots of feeders too quickly so we wanted to make sure. He has a very dirty viv that we will be cleaning out ASAP as well. The enclosure is a poor setup so I don't imagine it was cleaned very often because it would be so involved. A quick 15-20 minute cleanup would never be possible with the enclosure setup. So...any advice on our new friend would be great! He's in the middle of a shed and still in his really dirty enclosure, but here is a pic. If you see any visual health concerns (other than his home) please let us know. Thanks.

Edit: Now that he's awake and moving around, I think his bath will need to wait. He woke up with a black beard and seems really scared. If we even walk up to his viv he pancakes and beards us.

Kevin and Melissa

 

[Theresa20]

If I were you, I would give him a little longer to adjust before you start trying to handle him. And start it off slow, reach your hand in the tank, see how he reacts before you try to actually scoop him up. Maybe do this a few times a day so he know it's not a scary thing. Was he handled by his previous owners?

Do you know how old your guy is?

 

[beardielovers]

We were told he is about 4 years old. The previous owners handled him a lot. Shortly after my last post he was basking and I thought I would stick my hand in to see what he would do. He would let me touch him and everything. I took the plunge and scooped him up. He was a little nervous but settled quickly as I brought him close to my body. Then it was off to the bath! Double wammy for him. He really needed the bath though. He only stayed in the bath for about 10 minutes, but we got to measure him then. He's about 16" nose to tail. We were told he just finished brumation as well. He really perked up after his bath. There were rouge crickets left in the enclosure by the previous owner and he was running all over the place eating them. Before he would just look at them right under his nose. It was nice to see him have some energy. He also got really excited when our kids were close by the tank and it looked like he was trying to get through the glass to see them! His black beard is fading fast as well. I think we'll have a really happy beardie real quick! Now just to sort out his insect feeding requirements...

 

[haleygirl272]

We were told he is about 4 years old. The previous owners handled him a lot. Shortly after my last post he was basking and I thought I would stick my hand in to see what he would do. He would let me touch him and everything. I took the plunge and scooped him up. He was a little nervous but settled quickly as I brought him close to my body. Then it was off to the bath! Double wammy for him. He really needed the bath though. He only stayed in the bath for about 10 minutes, but we got to measure him then. He's about 16" nose to tail. We were told he just finished brumation as well. He really perked up after his bath. There were rouge crickets left in the enclosure by the previous owner and he was running all over the place eating them. Before he would just look at them right under his nose. It was nice to see him have some energy. He also got really excited when our kids were close by the tank and it looked like he was trying to get through the glass to see them! His black beard is fading fast as well. I think we'll have a really happy beardie real quick! Now just to sort out his insect feeding requirements...

Thats wonderful!!!! Congrats on the new beardie!

 

[diamc]

Congratulations on the new beardie. He does look scared in the picture but sounds like you have a good handle on it. :wink: I'll bet he really needed the bath, must have felt great to him.
Since he didn't get much protein before, I would go easy on the live feeders. Once he totally adjusts and is pooping normally, then you could feed him the "adult way", 30 large (like supers) or 50 small (like crickets) feeders a wk. As far as the calcium goes, adults only need it 2 to 3 days a wk and vitamins 1 day a wk. Keep us updated on him and take it slow & easy.

 

[beardielovers]

He really loved the water. We were nervous since he had never had a bath before. When we first put him in he just relaxed - so much that I had to hold his head up for him! Then he looked like a thirsty dog as he drank water for about 10 seconds. The strangest thing I noticed was that after his drink he lowered his head just enough so that when he opened his mouth it would be in the water. He sat like that for a couple of seconds then started moving around a bit. It sure is fun watching them though!! Now the challenge of cleaning out his viv while he's not in it! We're planning on another short bath today while we get everything cleaned out good. Thanks for the feeder info.

 

[haleygirl272]

He really loved the water. We were nervous since he had never had a bath before. When we first put him in he just relaxed - so much that I had to hold his head up for him!

AWWW! Ive been there before too! :love5:

 

[Theresa20]

Glad to hear everything is working out!!

 

[beardielovers]

Here is an updated picture. He's changed a lot after 2 days of good greens, a couple baths and a good house cleaning! It's amazing how different he looks already.
He looks bigger than he is in this picture. He's only about 16":

Another angle:

We're getting his 4x2x2 viv finished up this week and moving him to a nicer home. This one is a good size, just not as nice to get him out of as the front doors that we will have.

 

[diamc]

Wow, what a difference, he looks great and now his temporary home does too. When I looked at the first picture, I noticed how the top of his head sunk in but when you look at the last 2 pictures, you can see that his head is filled in now since he is getting properly hydrated. Good job.