Almost new Bearded Dragon Owners

[F2M2]

Hello everyone,

My son (6 years old) will be getting our family's first bearded dragon in about 2 weeks. We were supposed to get it last week but they were shipped to the pet store too small, so they are growing them at the store for a couple of weeks before releasing them. This has given us time to get everything ready and figured out.

I have been busy reading up on bearded dragon care (a lot of reading on this site included) so I think I have everything ready, but I thought I would check in and see if anyone noticed any issues I may have missed (thanks for the help!)

We have a 40 gallon tank. I have covered two of the walls with black construction paper, and the wall by the basking light with white paper.

I am using a 36" reptisun 10.0 UVB bulb in the reptisun fixture on top of the tank. I have slid the screen back on its track so that there is no screen between the UVB light and the inside of the tank (although my fixture has the reflective inside, so not sure if I need to do this).

The basking light is a 150W basking bulb set on a timer for 14 hours day, 10 hours night. I also have a ceramic heat emitter on a dimmer switch for night use.

My temperatures (measured with the exoterra digital probe thermometer left in tank on both hot and cool sides) are:

Day - Basking spot: 104-110.2 degrees F Cool side: 78-79 degrees F
Night- the lowest it has dropped is 58 degrees F, but usually around 62 degrees F. The CHE makes it too hot so I bought the dimmer switch and am experimenting with night temperatures now.

I am using paper towel for the substrate, and a piece of wood leading to a reptile hammock for the basking spot, which puts him 6" below the UVB light. We also have a couple of rocks and the food and water dishes.

For feeding I have found a source of reptiworms that I can get between about $.04-.06 per worm depending on how many I purchase. I still need to buy a fridge or wine cooler for them as I have not been able to find a natural spot in our house that stays within the 50-60 degrees F temp range to "keep them on ice"

I haven't decided if we will just feed him the worms directly or try fatten them up a bit first. To start with we will probably just keep it simple.

I also plan to buy crickets in smaller quantities for variety from the pet store ($.10/cricket so expensive)

For veggies we will have to depend on what we can get locally and I was also going to add in some of the Nature Zone Bearded Dragon Bites.

We have both Calcium plus D3, and multivitamins for dusting, though I am not sure how much we need to (or at all) dust the crickets if we are using reptiworms as the main diet.

I think that about covers it. I want to thank everyone on these boards for your posts, as this entire setup has been generated using info I have found here or on links from this forum.

Does anyone see any "holes" in this setup?

My son is super excited to pick up: Weirdo Godzilla/Red Godzilla/Scraggy/Dragonbreath from the pet store (he is still a bit up in the air with the name).

I will upload a picture once we actually have him in enclosure.

Thanks again!

 

[LizardLad11]

Hey there! As for the "holes" in the setup there aren't many and they aren't HUGE problems.
1. Dusting: Depends on the age
2. Daytime lighting: The cool side need to be a little bit warmer(79-90 degrees)
3. Crickets are gonna be great for young one if you get a baby make sure crickets are included in his/hers diet(Crickets give them great exercise :wink
That is all none of them are VERY important besides the dusting(if you can get me an age i can tell you how much dusting is needed)
Hope it helps!

 

[F2M2]

Thanks for the reply

1. The dragons came to the pet store to Small to sell, so they have kept them to grow larger. So I am guessing they are young. If I feed them mostly reptiworms with crickets as a treat should I be good on calcium ? Does a dragon just pass excess Calcium or can it cause problems?

2. Does the cool side need to be warmer because it is a baby? I have read 80°F for cool side but you are saying up to 90°F. I have also been wondering : even if the cool side is a bit low can't the dragon just move over a bit to get warmer ? Versus not having a cooler spot to go to if I have that side at 90°F?

3. The current plan is to feed the reptiworms twicea day and crickets once a day, so we will be feeding both.

4. An extra question: I have read a lot about 65°F being a minimum night temperature , but is there a recommended Max night temperature? I have searched but been unable to find an answer.

Thanks!

 

[LizardLad11]

Hey,
Sorry about the late relpy

1. Dragons do need Calcium and i would say dust the crickets once a week. This can be done easily by putting them into a bag with Calcium Powder and shaking it then empty the crickets into the cage.

2. The Temps need to be between 75-90 for the cool side and 90-115 for the warm/basking spot

3. That plans work very well, but as the Bearded Dragon grows he/she will need more veggie and less worms/crickets. Often frozen pinkies are used for big adults. So give him veggies every other day.

4. The max temp should be 75 degrees but it isn't really important

Hope it helps!

 

[F2M2]

Thanks.

I plan to have veggies on offer consistently,

The max night temp is helpful as our house is cold but I have been able to Keep temps consistently at around 70. IF I try go lower than that I sometimes go below 65 or even below 60

Thanks so much

 

[amsmith5297]

Does a dragon just pass excess Calcium or can it cause problems?

From all of the reading I have done, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, dragons CANNOT pass excess calcium. When calcium is given in excess it can lead to calcification of the liver.
This being said, hatchlings to 4 months require daily supplements of calcium and D3, and juveniles (4 to 18 months) need 3 to 4 supplemented meals per week.

A great beginner book is Bearded Dragons by Philip Purser. I picked it up for $10.95 before picking up my dragon.

 

[LizardLad11]

Does a dragon just pass excess Calcium or can it cause problems?

From all of the reading I have done, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, dragons CANNOT pass excess calcium. When calcium is given in excess it can lead to calcification of the liver.
This being said, hatchlings to 4 months require daily supplements of calcium and D3, and juveniles (4 to 18 months) need 3 to 4 supplemented meals per week.

A great beginner book is Bearded Dragons by Philip Purser. I picked it up for $10.95 before picking up my dragon.

That is a good book. Is there any idea on the age of the dragon yet? That would help with the calcium problem.

 

[F2M2]

There is no calcium problem, we don't have the dragon yet, it is still growing at the pet store. We got an update that it will probably be another 2 weeks.

My calcium question just arose because info on this site and in the book I have says dust crickets once per day.

Then other posts here say that reptiworms are high in calcium.

So, if I am doing two feedings of reptiworms, and one feeding of crickets a day, I am just trying to figure out if the crickets need calcium dusting or not. Or if the reptiworms will be enough calcium.

If excess calcium can't hurt the dragon I would just dust the crickets, but it looks like excess calcium could cause issues so I am still up in the air on whether to use the reptiworms twice a day for calcium with no cricket dusting. or just dust the crickets anyways.

 

[LizardLad11]

I would just dust crickets once or twice a week.

Hope it helps!