Bearded dragon eating.

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Jittjuke

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Skipper7":qzghmewm said:
By dusting I mean calcium powder. In conjunction with the UVB, it helps them develop strong bones and steer clear of metabolic bone disease. Phoenix worms are naturally high in calcium and actually don't need to be dusted. I believe this is part of why Varalidaine reccomended them. It won't hurt to have veggies available all the time either.

Somehow I missed that you've only had him for a day or two!! It is comepletetly normal for babies to take some time to adjust. As Varalidaine already suggested, covering 3 of 4 sides may help him adjust quicker.



Yeah I see what you mean. It's normal for him to not really want to eat? Like I said earlier I'm hopping to be able to pick up his basking light tonight and his uvb will be Saturday. And yes I have covered up all sides. And even though I don't have the correct lighting rn I still try and keep him at 100-110 on one side and around 80-85 on the other. As far as foods right now what would you guys recommend with what I have? I can order some new worms tomorrow but those still have to ship so I'm left with pretty much crickets and lettuce.

Thank you all for you help. I've just been pretty stressed out making sure he will be okay.
 

Varalidaine

Juvie Member
Thanks for the pictures! Alright, to go over a few things:

1. Put the white paper on the inside of the tank, not the outside. Even with it on the outside, the white usually increases the reflections. Putting the paper on the inside completely gets rid of reflections. That should help with glass surfing.

2. Insects with exoskeletons like crickets and roaches have a lot of phosphorous, which will block calcium absorption. You need to get a calcium powder to sprinkle over the insects. As an example, when feeding crickets, you would put maybe 3 crickets in a bag with some calcium powder and shake them, coating them in a light layer of calcium. This increases the calcium content and must be done at every feeding for babies. Once they are over 2 years old, it can be done at least once a week. But for now, since yours is a baby, you'll want to dust every bug you feed him. Phoenix Worms are larva and lack a shell so they don't need to be dusted, but I still dusted mine every 2-3 days just to make sure he was getting enough calcium. Don't buy a bag of 20 crickets and dust them all as any remaining uneaten crickets will die if they are covered in calcium.

3. As for your set up, it looks like there is a lot of stuff on top of his tank. Please remove anything that doesn't need to be there. The only things that should be on top would be the lights. The reason for this is you are currently blocking air flow and heat will quickly build up in a glass tank. So just make sure there is plenty of air flow.

4. You currently don't have a basking platform. When setting up your tank, you want to create a basking platform on the warm side. This is an area like a climbing branch, rock pile, stacked tiles, box, etc where the dragon climbs up on top of. This lets him get up closer to this UV and should be the only spot that is 110-115. Right now he has no basking spot, which means the bottom of his entire tank on the hot side is 100+ which is way too hot. Babies will easily get dehydrated and I imagine that could be one factor adding to his glass surfing, trying to get out because of the heat in his tank. He was also in his water bowl, which is a standard sign of animal trying to cool down. You don't want the entire warm side of the tank to be 100+ degrees, just one spot large enough for them to fit their bodies. That's another reason for the platform is it creates a gradient. So the higher the platform, the warmer and closer to the UV. Then they can go up and down on the platform as they like to regulate. Warm side temperatures should be 85-90 air temperature-wise, with a basking spot of 110. Cool side should cool down to 75. Take a quick look at this page, it will help explain what I mean: https://sites.google.com/site/thelizardmadness/photogradient

5. I would highly suggest just letting him be for a week or two, and only handle him when taking him out to clean his cage. Reptiles aren't like cats or dogs, they are stressed very easily and can take 2 weeks - 2 months to finally settle in. Leave him be and give him time. As for feeding, try feeding him in his tank. Just drop 3 crickets in and walk away for 30 minutes, then check back and remove any uneaten ones or throw 2 more in and check back again. He'll become more comfortable with feeding eventually. It took my dragon more than 2 weeks to finally eat in front of us. He's over a year old now and still won't eat salad if we're watching.

6. I see your crickets are still in the baggie. You'll want to also have an insect container for them. Any bugs you feed your dragon also need to be fed. You can buy cricket/critter keepers for this purpose, or just re-purpose an old bin, tank, or tupperware. The bag doesn't have good air flow and the crickets will die off quickly like that. I prefer to feed them whatever veg I have in the fridge at the time. This is called "gut-loading" your insects and makes them much healthier for your animal.
 

diamc

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
You have been given a lot of great suggestions/recommendations. :)

I think feeding just a few calcium dusted crickets at a time when in his tank, will make a big difference. If the crickets seem jumpy, you can slow them down by putting them in a small baggie & placing in the frig for a few minutes. They will be easier to catch that way. Put in one, when he eats it, add another & continue until he doesn't want anymore.

You might want to think about backing off of the lettuce as it could give him runny poops as it contains mostly water. Please refer to this chart noting the best foods to feed in green print: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Only other thing I wanted to add is that his body looks a little dried out. Would be a good idea to use a plastic medicine dropper and offer drops on his nose for him to lick off. Some beardies like being misted on their noses but none of mine ever did, that's why I suggested the medicine dropper. :)

You're doing an awesome job getting everything together for him. :p
 
If you still want to try feeding him outside of his cage - we used a large mixing bowl (with a flat bottom) to feed Lucky when he was smaller. He couldn't climb out of the sides and the crickets were always within striking distance for him to catch easily. It wasn't hard for him to get used to that as his feeding spot.

He's too big for the bowl now so I just take out as much from his breeder where crickets can hide before feeding. We also made a homemade cricket feeder with an old plastic container. We cut a "flap" on one side about 1/2" wide and 1" tall close to the bottom. We put the crickets in there and dust them. We then put the container in the breeder and lift the flap. The crickets come out single file and Lucky gobbles them up and they don't go all over his cage.
 
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