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!!
(excuse the greens all over the floor, she won't eat them out of a bowl
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!!