Baby Bearded Dragon Newbie in Need of Advice!

[sierralynn]

I will be getting a baby bearded dragon in a couple of days and I wanted to make sure that I have bought everything necessary for the enclosure. I made the mistake of buying a ZooMed 20 gallon juvenile bearded dragon kit (but it was half off for Black Friday so it’s okay). The food that came with it is not very nutritious and is mostly mealworms so I will not be using it for now and instead feeding extra small crickets and I also got some Baby Bites food from Petco along with the calcium powder and multivitamin with vitamin D3 powder. The substrate I have is the reptile carpet that comes with the kit since I have read that sand can cause impaction. I have gotten rid of the coil uvb light since it is not good and I have replaced the basking light that came with it with a 100 watt ZooMed Repti Basking Spot Lamp, however it doesn’t seem to be getting hot enough. I only have a stick on thermometer right now and it is reading 95 F in the basking spot, which I know is not hot enough since it should be around 105. I will be getting a probe thermometer tomorrow to get a better reading. What other basking spot bulbs are recommended? I want to make sure my baby beardie will have the correct basking temp. The LLL Reptiles employee told me not to get a halogen basking bulb because it will get too hot, but I am also not very sure if he knows the correct care for a baby beardie. I live in San Diego, California so the temperatures are mostly pretty warm where I live, so I don’t want to get a bulb that is too hot either. For the uvb lights I have a 24 inch fluorescent light fixture that I am going to mount inside of the enclosure along the back wall of glass at the very top with a Reptisun T5 HO 10.0 bulb. My enclosure is 30 inches long so I was wondering if I should mount the uvb light in the center of the back wall and have 3 inches of space on each side or if I should mount it close to one side and have 6 inches of space without the light? Either way I mount it I will have the basking light overlap with the uvb so it can get the uvb while basking. I also have some questions about teaching a baby to drink and what is the best way to do so? I have read about using a dropper to put water on their nose so they will drink it when it drips or putting a strawberry in their water dish so they might try to drink from it, but I would like to know what the best way is. I also would like to know about how often I should soak my baby beardie? Someone told me every two days but I am not sure if that is too much. Please let me know what you think, I am open to all suggestions and advice! I want to provide the best care possible for my new baby. Sorry for the long post I just wanted to provide enough details about what I have in case anything is not adequate. Thank you!

 

[sapphira907]

Hey! So I am in the same shoes as you and i just got my baby about a month ago now and she is 6.5 Inches long and is going through a phase of shedding right now and I am becoming overly concerned about her. Mostly because i don't wanna loose her..... While she has been going through this phase she hasn't been eating much at all is getting feisty with me and looks skinny. Any advice would be great!
Thank you!1

 

[VenusAndSaturn]

Glad you have everything setup correctly, if the basking spots getting to 95 with the stick on one i'd wait until you get the better one before replacing the bulb since 95-105 is where you want it. If you want you could go for tile or shelf liner later on, i myself used the green repticarpet and the sandmat and both were a nightmare to clean every day when my two adults were little, but so far tiles are working perfectly.

As for the hydration part i use a dropper to drip water onto my beardies nose and bathe them twice a week. I bathe my juvenile a bit more often then my adults, usually 3 times a week. So every two days would be good for a baby beardie. I know some people dont suggest bathing at all but i personally like doing it as my beardies will drink from the warm water and they usually go to the bathroom in it as well so thats a plus and they seem to enjoy it.

For the uvb i'd say mount it closer to the basking spot as beardies spend the majority of their time basking.

Also for the food, make sure if you have a baby thats 1-4 months you feed it 3 times a day as many as it wants in 10-15 minutes or 10-15 crickets in each feeding. For 4-12 months feed it twice a day the same way, 12-20 months feed it once a day the same way, and then 20+ months 2-3 times a week. And the reason i say this is because i prefer gradually slowing down their insect intake instead of immediately jumping to that once they hit 12 months.
Make sure you dust the calcium 5 times a week and multivitmin 2 times a week, i sometimes dust their salad but not often as i give them a large variety to pick from. Also i'd only feed those baby bites either as treats or salad toppings. Ive tried the adult kind and only one of my beardies liked it the others hated it and she liked it so much she refused to eat her salad and would just pick those off instead so i had to completely cut her off of them which she then protested and stopped eating for a few weeks except when i offered hornworms.