Am I doing a good job?

[NoahC]

Hi! So I've had my bearded dragon for just over two months now and I couldn't be more in love. She's called Jareth (originally thought she was a boy but the name has stuck ) and she's so beautiful! This forum has been a massive help to me and I wanted to make a post just to check that I'm looking after her correctly and if I could improve at all. This is probably going to be really long so if anyone takes the time to respond I'll be very grateful .

(excuse the greens all over the floor, she won't eat them out of a bowl ) OK, so first of all I wanted to ask questions about the viv. It's four foot long and I'm using paper towel as substrate, which eventually I will change to tile. One big thing I know needs to change is the UVB bulb, as its a compact bulb rather than a tube. Can anyone recommend a good one I could buy when I can afford it? I'm not sure what brand the heat bulb is as I threw away the box before thinking to check (stupid of me, I know) but I think the temperatures are good. Its normally around 98-110 Fahrenheit in the basking spot and around 78-80 in the cooler end. At night the viv is usually about 65-75 degrees, I live in the UK and it's quite cold at night, should I buy a heat lamp for nighttime? I use a thermometer with a probe to measure the temps. I usually turn the lights on at 7:30am and turn them off at 7:30pm, do they need to be on longer or is this enough?

(Basking spot)

(Cooler end)

Next thing I wanted to ask about was feeding. Jareth gets 2 meals of live food a day (she's around 5-6 months old) and normally eats around 15-20 crickets at each meal. It's quite hard for me to buy dubia roaches, they're quite expensive and I'm only 16 and I pay for everything myself. Occasionally I do buy roaches and she seems to enjoy them a lot. I dust the crickets with calcium powder on the weekdays and use a multivitamin powder on the weekends. I gut load them with rocket, kale, green beans, pepper and potato peeling. She eats greens very well for her age but I'm not sure I give her enough variety. She loves rockets, so I use that as a staple green, along with kale mixed in every other day. Sometimes I can buy Coriander (I think it's called Cilantro in America) and I mix that in with her salad too. Are there any other good greens I could feed her? There isn't any such thing as mustard greens or collard greens over here, or at least I've never seen or heard of them. She's only just started eating solid bits of vegetables and she's quiet hesitant to try new things, but she loves green beans and occasionally eats some red pepper. Are these good for her? Any suggestions about some other vegetables she might like? It's quite hard to dust the greens as she wont eat them out a bowl so I usually don't bother. As for water, she doesn't drink in the bath so I put a few drops on her mouth using my finger and she normally drinks them. I also lightly mist her greens.

Moving on to the worst part about owning her, her poops! :lol: She poops either every day or every other day, and occasionally in the bath, which she normally has about once every few weeks as she's not a big fan of the water. It's not watery and the urate has always been white so far. I think that's good, if you can call a poop that .

She's been shedding ever since I got her, which I'm assuming is normal as she's still growing lots. She finished one shed cycle and as soon as it was over, it started all over again! Poor thing, it looks so uncomfortable. Is this a normal amount of shed? And is there anything I can do for her while she's shedding other than baths?

This is less important than all the other points but if you know anything about morphs, I'd love to know what morph my girl is! She's super beautiful.

I'm sorry this was so long, I just really want to know if there's anything I need to improve on! Thank you so much in advance!!

 

[sparkybeardyandme]

Hello from the UK! I'm fairly new to the bearded dragon world myself and have learned a huge amount in such a short time period.

With food kale isn't something that should be given too often as it stops them from absorbing calcium. I use spring greens, which are the English version of collard greens. You can get the from any supermarket and they're fairly cheap. Dandelion greens are also really good as long as you make sure they have had no pesticides anywhere near them. My little one loves green beans. I think she would live on them if she could lol. This is a great website with more information about the foods you can feed them. I find it really helpful and check it constantly.
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

With the UVB, the bulb that is often recommended here is the Reptisun flourescent bulb, the tube not the coil. This is a really good website that I get all my stuff from. It has sales on all the time and the shipping is reasonable.
https://www.reptiles.swelluk.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwlcXXBRBhEiwApfHGTUKbT08M3NhqgpQA1wECDqnAzQ8CtmP4ItuYKYmfHa_cGwfR1cic8hoCBq0QAvD_BwE

Just click on the "shop by reptile" and then bearded dragon and it will give you all the things that are right for them.

Looks like you're doing a great job so far and this is a great place to ask question and get info. Also check out the care sheets and articles tabs as there is some great information in there.

 

[NoahC]

Hello from the UK! I'm fairly new to the bearded dragon world myself and have learned a huge amount in such a short time period.

With food kale isn't something that should be given too often as it stops them from absorbing calcium. I use spring greens, which are the English version of collard greens. You can get the from any supermarket and they're fairly cheap. Dandelion greens are also really good as long as you make sure they have had no pesticides anywhere near them. My little one loves green beans. I think she would live on them if she could lol. This is a great website with more information about the foods you can feed them. I find it really helpful and check it constantly.
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

With the UVB, the bulb that is often recommended here is the Reptisun flourescent bulb, the tube not the coil. This is a really good website that I get all my stuff from. It has sales on all the time and the shipping is reasonable.
https://www.reptiles.swelluk.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwlcXXBRBhEiwApfHGTUKbT08M3NhqgpQA1wECDqnAzQ8CtmP4ItuYKYmfHa_cGwfR1cic8hoCBq0QAvD_BwE

Just click on the "shop by reptile" and then bearded dragon and it will give you all the things that are right for them.

Looks like you're doing a great job so far and this is a great place to ask question and get info. Also check out the care sheets and articles tabs as there is some great information in there.

thank you so much! I'll look out for spring greens next time I go shopping

 

[HippieLizards]

Hello,

Your set-up and cage look great and you have a very pretty beardie! I Do agree that the coil bulb isn't very good and the tube is the best because coil bulbs can cause eye issues and some beardies have sometimes had a bad reaction to it.

Lol, I also had a gender-misunderstanding with my first beardie whom I named Cisco after a character from the flash, and I later found out that Cisco was a girl! :lol: The name has stuck ever since. Your beardie looks a little bit like Cisco. View media item 60788 Cisco says "Hello and keep up the good work!"

-HippieLizards.

 

[NoahC]

Hello,

Your set-up and cage look great and you have a very pretty beardie! I Do agree that the coil bulb isn't very good and the tube is the best because coil bulbs can cause eye issues and some beardies have sometimes had a bad reaction to it.

Lol, I also had a gender-misunderstanding with my first beardie whom I named Cisco after a character from the flash, and I later found out that Cisco was a girl! :lol: The name has stuck ever since. Your beardie looks a little bit like Cisco. View media item 60788 Cisco says "Hello and keep up the good work!"

-HippieLizards.

Cisco is so beautiful! Orange beardies are fantastic. Glad to know I'm doing ok, thank you for the support!

 

[sparkybeardyandme]

Just to answer some of your other questions. With drinking, you don't need to be overly concerned. Dragons get the majority of moisture from there food so if she will drink some drops from your finger that is great. I do the same as you with misting the greens. You can tell if there dehydrated by their poo (your favorite subject lol), so as long as that looks good then you're doing great!

As far as how often she goes that can vary from dragon to dragon, but once a day to every other day is perfectly fine.

Finally with regards to shedding, it's perfectly normal for her to be shedding more frequently when she's younger as she's still growing. You'll find as she becomes fully grown she will start to shed less and less, but again it varies from dragon to dragon. Some are more "sheddy" than others. If she has a bit that's not coming off very easily then a bath can help just to loosen it slightly and hydrate the skin. You don't need to rub it or anything, just like when we have dry skin a bath just helps to loosen it naturally.