Advice on Daily Routine for Baby Beardie

[kelseyrae]

Hello bearded dragon experts. I'll be getting my first bearded dragon soon and I read the care sheet
along with some other books and info. My question is, what does your daily routine look like? Especially with a baby. What time to your lights go on/off? What times do you feed? When do you give baths? How often do you buy crickets and where do you keep them?
TL;DR: I know all the pieces to owning a dragon, just looking for day to day guidelines.
Thanks for the help!

 

[CooperDragon]

A young dragon will need a couple of meals per day. I'd set the lights to come on about an hour before I get up or morning routine starts. Then offer breakfast of a salad and as many dusted crickets as he wants in about a 10 min window or until he loses interest. Some basking time after the meal and maybe some time to run around outside the tank if he wants. I'd usually go to work after that and then repeat meal time with bugs after work then some time to bask for a couple of hours afterward then lights out and time for bed. Lights are usually on a 12-14ish hour daytime schedule depending on the season but 14hrs on is pretty decent.

Tank is spot cleaned as quickly as possible after every poop with vinegar/water and disinfected with F10SC. Deep clean of the tank every couple few weeks with everything taken out and sanitized well.

I used to order 1,000 crickets per month online from georgiacrickets. I kept them in a 20g tank with mesh top but you can use a big rubbermaid bin with a vented top too. They live in cardboard tubes and are fed vegetable scraps for food and hydration. There is dry cricket chow available as well.

I keep a dubia colony now so I haven't ordered crickets in a long time but that was my routine. At about 12-18 months their growth slows so you can gradually offer one meal per day and then salad daily with bugs every couple of days as adults.

 

[kelseyrae]

That's great advice, thank you. Can you give me any information on the dubia colony? Is it difficult to get started or keep up?

 

[CooperDragon]

It's not difficult to start or keep, quite the opposite really. They do take a while to get established and are more money up front but once the colony is going they reproduce quickly and provide a great staple food source. Here is some more info about them https://www.southtexasdragons.com/dubia-roaches.html

 

[MIMI510]

I'm new to this too since we adopted Ryder about a month ago. My schedule so far is working out well for me.

Lights turn on at 6:30 am- I have a automatic timer that does that for me. After waking my kids up for school I start to prepare Ryders meals which are calcium dusted Dubias and fresh veggies. I placed both in the tank and he jumps down from his basking spot and goes straight for the Dubias and gobbles them all up. If he still seems hungry I will add a couple more to the bowl until he no longer is interested in them. If there are still a couple left i just leave them there for him to eat through out the day. Works better since they cant escape from the food dish. It's crazy how he can eat about 15-20 xs dubias in one sitting. I'm mean where does the all go??lol. When I return in the evening I normally spot clean his tank and check his poop to make sure everything looks okay. I offer him Dubias again which he devours and let him bask for 2 hrs. After he eats. Then it's playtime! I normally take him out and let him walk around for a little bit and explore. Every other day I will give him a bath but everyday I mist him with water. When he starts to feel cool I return him to his tank. Lately though I been wrapping him up in a small blanket when it's his bed time around 7 pm and laying him on my chest. He loves to cuddle! Once he is knocked out I return him to his tank and tuck him in.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Feeding schedule depends on it's age.

When I got Rex and Puff @ 6 wks old , then similarly when I got Peppa and Toothless @ 5 wks old, I was advised by the breeders (two different people) to give them three live insect meals per day (as many live bugs as they wanted for each meal.

My schedule for Peppa and Toothless was
am feeding about 4 hours after lights and heat on , crickets
midday - early pm feeding , crickets
late pm feeding , silkworms + greens and grated veg.

I reduced to two live insect feeds when they were about 6 months old. Greens and veg in with second feed.

One live insect feeding (current schedule for Peppa and Toothless) from 12 months old, Greens and veg in after they have had their bugs.

My lighting schedule :
lights on 6am
lights off 10pm

I favour a long day cycle as it's more representative of the daylight wild beardies experience in their natural range.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Hello bearded dragon experts. I'll be getting my first bearded dragon soon and I read the care sheet
along with some other books and info. My question is, what does your daily routine look like? <<< my other post.Especially with a baby. What time to your lights go on/off? <<< see my other post. What times do you feed? <<< see my other post When do you give baths? <<<< rarely , only if soiled mostly .How often do you buy crickets and where do you keep them? <<<< I buy my crickets in bulk by mailorder , I separate into smaller batches and keep in old cleaned cricket tubs (about 50 crickets to the tub) in a cardboard box
TL;DR: I know all the pieces to owning a dragon, just looking for day to day guidelines.
Thanks for the help!

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

Many people have given their routines, but I may as well add my own.
I have an adult nearing 2years and a 5mo old, separate enclosures.

Lights are on a timer, 7:05am to 7:05pm during winter (Wisconsin, USA. It's dark until about 7:15am right now and gets dark a little after 5pm), spring 6am-7pm, during summer I change it from 6am-8pm.

I work full-time and am the full-time keeper of both my dragons.
I wake up at 6:40am, and once lights are on I hand feed them greens in their sleepy state while they bask to warm up. I add roaches (sized small, I dump about 30-40 in)to the young one's bowl and leave for work at 7:15am OR attempt to feed him large BSFL via tongs. While sleepy he only eats one or two. If I have no roaches, I will add pellets to his bowl which he is not fond of..

At around 1:30pm, I go home on my 30 min lunch, usually giving me about 6 minutes to feed before having to head back. I bring the juvi down to his bowl and get the roaches riled up so they're running, let him go crazy eating until full, add more roaches, and leave for work again OR If I have no roaches I will feed BSFL again until he is full, usually about 15-20? I haven't really counted, I just go until he closes his eyes to say "no thank you"

Once home around 4:30pm, I again introduce the youngest to his bowl of roaches, poke at them so they get all riggly and let him go at 'em. I will also offer BSFL. All food is stopped/removed 2 hours before lights out.

Since I am at work, I am unsure if he will actively go eat on his own, I haven't noticed much of a difference in how many roaches are left between work times.

I have not been dusting his food lately as his staple insects have been mainly BSFL (high in calcium) for the past month or so due to him going through roaches SO fast (I order 500 at a time) while waiting on my colony to be ripe for pickin's. On a more roach heavy diet, I will dust often via pouring them into a plastic zip bag with a pinch of calcium powder, shake em' up, and pour them into the bowl. Then it's like pac-man eating ghosts.

I didn't include the feeding for my oldest as this thread was regarding "babies"

 

[MIMI510]

That's great advice, thank you. Can you give me any information on the dubia colony? Is it difficult to get started or keep up?

I forgot to add to my previous post that Dubias are so much easier than keeping crickets. Crickets die to easily and smell! Plus having to remove them from the tank was such a hassle. I think I killed more trying to remove them then anything. I would always worry that they would chew on Ryder if I forgot a couple. I remember when I first purchased Dubias from a local pet store I was so afraid to touch them or even look at them :lol: ! This is a pic of when I first brought them home...I placed the container into another pet carrier container and taped up the holes just to make sure that none escaped. :lol:

Now, I have gotten used to it however I do have to admit that the bigger ones still do scare me a little...The tiny ones that I feed Ryder remind me of those Roly Poly bugs so I don't mind as much. I have tons that grew to big to feed Ryder now so I put them into a small plastic tub with a heating pad underneath and a shallow water dish for the humidity and another dish for food. If they breed that would be great but if they don't that's fine with me too since Ryder will be big enough to eat them with in a couple of months anyways. For the meantime, I just purchase XS Dubia Roaches off of Amazon. Its so much cheaper...100 XS size for only $10.00. The place near by where I purchased my previous ones from before sold approx. 50 Small for $15.99 and they carry the XS size I needed.

The only thing I don't like about the Dubias is that they eat and poop a lot which collects on the bottom on the container and you need to clean out every once in a while. That part really grosses me out. I can put I small baby carrot inside their tub and it would be almost gone with in 30 minutes. You can actually hear them crunching on it.

 

[BrightStar]

Rygel's schedule is lights on 10am. Lights off 10:30pm. I have tried a longer light schedule, but he has been set on 12hrs since I got him, and if I try to keep his lights on longer, he just goes to bed anyways. His schedule has been mostly the same since I got him at 10wks old. He is now almost six months old.

His schedule is as follows:

10am - lights on. (He is on an automatic timer for lights).

12 - I make sure he is out of bed. I take him out of his cage, cuddle him for a bit, and then he climbs onto his basking light(we have a second basking spot outside his cage). Rygel can be lazy and doesn't always get out of bed unless I get him up.

12:30 - I put him back in his cage. I give him his salad. Then I prepare his feeders. Most days he has Phoenix worms, so I don't dust with calcium. Weekends he has roaches. I dust them with vitamins. I used to put his feeders in his bowl, and refill as needed. But since I moved him into his bigger cage, he's decided to refuse food unless its hand fed. So now I feed him as many as he can eat in ten minutes, and leave a few in his bowl hoping he'll eat them when he gets hungry(and start eating out of his bowl again.) I usually finish mealtime with a hornworm or two, as they help provide hydration.

I check him regularly through the afternoon, and spot clean as soon as he poops. He will usually poop within an hour of eating. He also gets regularly offered a roach or a worm. If he seems hungry, he gets an extra feed. He also gets lots of pets and i stop by his cage a lot just to say "hi".

7pm - evening meal of insects. As many as he can eat in 10 minutes. Not dusted.

10pm - out for bedtime cuddle wrapped in his blanket until he falls asleep, then bed. I put him in his cage wrapped up in his blanket. I take the blanket out when I get him up the next day.

Baths - I usually bath him about every 3-4 days, and whenever his shed starts peeling.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Many people have given their routines, but I may as well add my own.
I have an adult nearing 2years and a 5mo old, separate enclosures.

Lights are on a timer, 7:05am to 7:05pm during winter (Wisconsin, USA. It's dark until about 7:15am right now and gets dark a little after 5pm), spring 6am-7pm, during summer I change it from 6am-8pm.

I work full-time and am the full-time keeper of both my dragons.
I wake up at 6:40am, and once lights are on I hand feed them greens in their sleepy state while they bask to warm up. I add roaches (sized small, I dump about 30-40 in)to the young one's bowl and leave for work at 7:15am OR attempt to feed him large BSFL via tongs. While sleepy he only eats one or two. If I have no roaches, I will add pellets to his bowl which he is not fond of..

At around 1:30pm, I go home on my 30 min lunch, usually giving me about 6 minutes to feed before having to head back. I bring the juvi down to his bowl and get the roaches riled up so they're running, let him go crazy eating until full, add more roaches, and leave for work again OR If I have no roaches I will feed BSFL again until he is full, usually about 15-20? I haven't really counted, I just go until he closes his eyes to say "no thank you"

Once home around 4:30pm, I again introduce the youngest to his bowl of roaches, poke at them so they get all riggly and let him go at 'em. I will also offer BSFL. All food is stopped/removed 2 hours before lights out.

Since I am at work, I am unsure if he will actively go eat on his own, I haven't noticed much of a difference in how many roaches are left between work times.

I have not been dusting his food lately as his staple insects have been mainly BSFL (high in calcium) for the past month or so due to him going through roaches SO fast (I order 500 at a time) while waiting on my colony to be ripe for pickin's. On a more roach heavy diet, I will dust often via pouring them into a plastic zip bag with a pinch of calcium powder, shake em' up, and pour them into the bowl. Then it's like pac-man eating ghosts.

I didn't include the feeding for my oldest as this thread was regarding "babies"

A timer is a good addition to your kit. Set it so the lights and heat are automatically switched on 1 - 2 hours before you get up. This way the beardies will awake , warmed up and hungry when you get up.

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

Many people have given their routines, but I may as well add my own.
I have an adult nearing 2years and a 5mo old, separate enclosures.

Lights are on a timer, 7:05am to 7:05pm during winter (Wisconsin, USA. It's dark until about 7:15am right now and gets dark a little after 5pm), spring 6am-7pm, during summer I change it from 6am-8pm.

I work full-time and am the full-time keeper of both my dragons.
I wake up at 6:40am, and once lights are on I hand feed them greens in their sleepy state while they bask to warm up. I add roaches (sized small, I dump about 30-40 in)to the young one's bowl and leave for work at 7:15am OR attempt to feed him large BSFL via tongs. While sleepy he only eats one or two. If I have no roaches, I will add pellets to his bowl which he is not fond of..

At around 1:30pm, I go home on my 30 min lunch, usually giving me about 6 minutes to feed before having to head back. I bring the juvi down to his bowl and get the roaches riled up so they're running, let him go crazy eating until full, add more roaches, and leave for work again OR If I have no roaches I will feed BSFL again until he is full, usually about 15-20? I haven't really counted, I just go until he closes his eyes to say "no thank you"

Once home around 4:30pm, I again introduce the youngest to his bowl of roaches, poke at them so they get all riggly and let him go at 'em. I will also offer BSFL. All food is stopped/removed 2 hours before lights out.

Since I am at work, I am unsure if he will actively go eat on his own, I haven't noticed much of a difference in how many roaches are left between work times.

I have not been dusting his food lately as his staple insects have been mainly BSFL (high in calcium) for the past month or so due to him going through roaches SO fast (I order 500 at a time) while waiting on my colony to be ripe for pickin's. On a more roach heavy diet, I will dust often via pouring them into a plastic zip bag with a pinch of calcium powder, shake em' up, and pour them into the bowl. Then it's like pac-man eating ghosts.

I didn't include the feeding for my oldest as this thread was regarding "babies"

A timer is a good addition to your kit. Set it so the lights and heat are automatically switched on 1 - 2 hours before you get up. This way the beardies will awake , warmed up and hungry when you get up.

Spring time is coming! I'll be bumping them up an hour earlier soon