BabyScorchDragon
Member
Hi all!
First post, first time beardie parent here....I've been stalking and lurking this website and forums after we got Scorch at the end of last November. Scorch was a birthday present for our 9 year old, which meant I knew I'd shoulder a lot of responsibility and was ok with that! Our son changes out the greens and the water every morning, so I don't do it all- just most of it! :-D We've had a handful of critter type pets and I have to say the beardie is by FAR my favorite!! In spite of the difficulties we've encountered. Which is what finally prompted me to post. I have no doubt, Scorch is now finally on his way to happy and healthy because of this site.
So, our story... we got Scorch from a chain pet store. He was a baby-baby. They sent us home with the LARGE size crickets. :shock: (first timer, I didn't know better. :-( quickly learned the rule of thumb though... nothing bigger than the space between eyeballs!!) After 2 days of choking down big crickets, he barfed them back up and really had no interest in eating crickets again. So, for a couple of weeks, cricket feedings were rough- even though I had switched to small ones. A friend suggested Dubia's. Just happened upon a pet store locally that carries them and on a whim, I said... beardie's gotta eat! I'm going to try them. He was in LOVE with Dubia's! Jumped off his rock and ran over to where I was getting them ready and danced for me. Yay! Thought things had turned around. In the meantime, the UVB bulb that came with the setup had burned out (?!?). Went back to the chain pet store and was told, "you know... if there's enough natural light in the room, you don't really need the uvb bulb" again.. :shock: :shock: :shock: so, when it burned out, I didn't hurry to get it replaced. :-( At about 2 weeks, I ended up going and getting the UVB bulb. It was a dome fixture, so I just bought a little coil bulb. (and now everyone is probably saying, uh-oh... we know what happened next...) After one week under the coil UVB (by the way, his heat lamp and basking zone is darn near perfect so I knew the culprit was UVB) he wouldn't eat... he wouldn't open his eyes...he really didn't do much of anything. I really feared we were headed toward a very untimely end...
Enter BeardedDragon.com forums!!! Scouring for answers... it became clear, first of all, YES beardies need UVB lights.. UGH!! (don't listen to pet store people. EVER. Unless they have beardies!) And then secondly, ditch the coil UVB. I went yesterday and got the highly recommended Reptisun 10.0 T8 bulb and found the more cost effective fixture at wal-mart. After only a few hours under the new light, Scorch would hold his head up, eyeball me and tilt his head from side to side to get a better look at me...he ate about half his greens...By last night, he was eating his dubia's without me having to stick them right in front of him... This morning after he had been awake for about 2 hours, I pulled out his dubia's and he once again scrambled off his rock and actually chased them down!! I've caught him glass dancing and roaming about like a happy, healthy, silly beardie! His eyes are bright and open and he's happy as a clam.
I know I covered a lot of other topics in an introduction thread...but it seemed the most appropriate place to say, THANK YOU for the kindness and advice that I've read. No doubt, it's probably what saved our Scorchy! I certainly hate admitting to the newbie ignorance, but I really wanted folks here to know how much I appreciate the wisdom that people are freely sharing. I've definitely become a beardie lover and can't wait to share more of Scorch's adventures!
Here's our goofy Scorch... I'm thinking he's doing some dragon yoga... :lol:
And I couldn't figure out how to turn the pic, so sorry it's sideways...
First post, first time beardie parent here....I've been stalking and lurking this website and forums after we got Scorch at the end of last November. Scorch was a birthday present for our 9 year old, which meant I knew I'd shoulder a lot of responsibility and was ok with that! Our son changes out the greens and the water every morning, so I don't do it all- just most of it! :-D We've had a handful of critter type pets and I have to say the beardie is by FAR my favorite!! In spite of the difficulties we've encountered. Which is what finally prompted me to post. I have no doubt, Scorch is now finally on his way to happy and healthy because of this site.
So, our story... we got Scorch from a chain pet store. He was a baby-baby. They sent us home with the LARGE size crickets. :shock: (first timer, I didn't know better. :-( quickly learned the rule of thumb though... nothing bigger than the space between eyeballs!!) After 2 days of choking down big crickets, he barfed them back up and really had no interest in eating crickets again. So, for a couple of weeks, cricket feedings were rough- even though I had switched to small ones. A friend suggested Dubia's. Just happened upon a pet store locally that carries them and on a whim, I said... beardie's gotta eat! I'm going to try them. He was in LOVE with Dubia's! Jumped off his rock and ran over to where I was getting them ready and danced for me. Yay! Thought things had turned around. In the meantime, the UVB bulb that came with the setup had burned out (?!?). Went back to the chain pet store and was told, "you know... if there's enough natural light in the room, you don't really need the uvb bulb" again.. :shock: :shock: :shock: so, when it burned out, I didn't hurry to get it replaced. :-( At about 2 weeks, I ended up going and getting the UVB bulb. It was a dome fixture, so I just bought a little coil bulb. (and now everyone is probably saying, uh-oh... we know what happened next...) After one week under the coil UVB (by the way, his heat lamp and basking zone is darn near perfect so I knew the culprit was UVB) he wouldn't eat... he wouldn't open his eyes...he really didn't do much of anything. I really feared we were headed toward a very untimely end...
Enter BeardedDragon.com forums!!! Scouring for answers... it became clear, first of all, YES beardies need UVB lights.. UGH!! (don't listen to pet store people. EVER. Unless they have beardies!) And then secondly, ditch the coil UVB. I went yesterday and got the highly recommended Reptisun 10.0 T8 bulb and found the more cost effective fixture at wal-mart. After only a few hours under the new light, Scorch would hold his head up, eyeball me and tilt his head from side to side to get a better look at me...he ate about half his greens...By last night, he was eating his dubia's without me having to stick them right in front of him... This morning after he had been awake for about 2 hours, I pulled out his dubia's and he once again scrambled off his rock and actually chased them down!! I've caught him glass dancing and roaming about like a happy, healthy, silly beardie! His eyes are bright and open and he's happy as a clam.
I know I covered a lot of other topics in an introduction thread...but it seemed the most appropriate place to say, THANK YOU for the kindness and advice that I've read. No doubt, it's probably what saved our Scorchy! I certainly hate admitting to the newbie ignorance, but I really wanted folks here to know how much I appreciate the wisdom that people are freely sharing. I've definitely become a beardie lover and can't wait to share more of Scorch's adventures!
Here's our goofy Scorch... I'm thinking he's doing some dragon yoga... :lol:
