First Baby Dragon - Peyton!

[misterbasic]

Hi everyone. On 03/25/17 I got a brand new baby beardie! Not sure how old he or she is (about 7.5" long from nose to tail end), and because I have no idea about the gender I named it Peyton. I refer to him as a "he" for now to keep it simple. I just want everyone to know that I am 100% committed to offering Peyton the best life a dragon can have, so I really appreciate any knowledge you guys will share with me. This is also why my introduction post will be so dang long, sorry!

I had thought I did a reasonable amount of research online, so I went ahead and bought a Zoo Med Juvenille Beardie kit and a few other extras (the Petco guy was nice, but I don't think he really knew that much unfortunately). And then I discovered this site and the forums... basically learned that the kit was a poor setup in general. The last 4 days have been me trying to fix Peyton's home.

I read about all the horror stories about the potential health problems of not raising these guys accurately. So I reluctantly opened my wallet again and went out to buy more stuff and make a bunch of customizations and modifications to the terrarium.

A whole lot of dollars later (ugh!) I think I might finally have the proper home for my lil guy

I'm pretty new at this, so any veteran dragon owners please feel free to give me any suggestions:

I have a 20 gallon 30" x 12" x 12" glass tank for the time being. I figured once Peyton grows longer than a foot, I will dish out the funds to get a 40 gallon tank. But I should be ok for a few months, right?

I got one of those brown carpet things because I heard that Peyton might eat loose substrate (like sand or walnut shells) and become constipated or impacted. How often should I replace the "rug"?

The pyramid is both a basking platform and a hideout. I also have the tree stump hideout on the cool side (the right side). Peyton never uses either of them. In fact, he seems scared to go inside. The crickets like to jump away into them. :roll:

Also in the first picture you notice I have this crazy rig set up with four lights over the basking pyramid. And then I have a slimline tubular light fixture placed over the cool side.

The reason I have two dual combo light fixtures on the basking side is because I live in an apartment in Philly with REALLY POOR insulation and I have electric heating so to heat my room to a decent temp costs a fortune. When I'm home I usually keep it 55-60 degrees indoors and wear a sweatshirt.

Initially, I only had one of the dual combo fixtures, and put a 100w incandescent bulb and a ReptiSun 10.0 UVB 13w compact in the other (yes, I know compacts are not the best but hear me out!). Anyways, the basking spot would not go beyond 90 degrees F :?

So I went back to Petco (it's like 1 mile away so it's convenient) and bought a second light fixture! So now there are three incandescent bulbs for basking and the other one is the ReptiSun 10.0. Now depending on the temperature, I can have 1, 2, or 3 basking bulbs working in tandem! For example, today is pretty warm and sunny in Philly (no, it's not always sunny!) so my indoor room temp is 77 F and therefore I only have 1 basking bulb and the ReptiSun turned on over the pyramid.

Voila! 101.3 F -- that's good right? Also, I noticed the sticky thermometer that came with the tank was totally useless so I picked up this infrared temperature gun for 30 bucks at lowes

The center is about 85 degrees and the cool side is around 75. What about night? Well as far as I know, I'm supposed to turn all the lights off at night (I got the green surge protector with the timer on it), but then it might get too cold. I put a UTH pad on the side of the terrarium:

I used the heat gun to verify that touching the inside of the glass wall where the pad is gets no hotter than 100 F, so I don't have to worry about Peyton getting burned. But it does provide a nice amount of heat to keep the pyramid area at a comfortable 70-75 F even when the night time room temperature is only 58 F. (I'm sleeping in a hoodie and two blankets lmao)

Now over the cool section I HAD an 18" Zilla 50 UVB T8 bulb. At first I even left the plastic cover on (doh!) but luckily I saw a post on here that you're supposed to take it off! So then I think it's all good, but then I come across a forum post about how bad the Zilla bulbs are and that they can make my dragon blind?! I noticed the conversations were from like 2008-2009, but I didn't want to risk it so I went back to Petco and bought a ReptiSun 10.0 linear T8 15 watt bulb and installed it in the Zilla slimline fixture. I just took the Zilla bulb out and stashed it away in my closet.

Now back to my point about the ReptiSun 10.0 compact bulb I have over the pyramid:

As you can see I cut out and removed all the mesh from the cool side of the vivarium. This way I never have to remove the lid. And I'd say Peyton is a long ways from being able to jump out of the viv yet.

I left the mesh over the hot side because I was paranoid if the basking light fixtures fell down for some reason, I didn't want it to fall on my baby and burn him! I'm not really worried about the linear UVB on the cool side falling in because the bulb is only 125 F according to my infrared thermometer. On the other hand, the basking bulb is 231 F :shock: So essentially the mesh is there to catch any falling hot lights. Since we know that the mesh reduces the intensity of the UVB bulb, that means it will help protect Peyton's eyesight from the compact (it's not coiled) bulb I have over the pyramid. And it is ReptiSun 10.0 btw... On the cool side I have the linear/tubular ReptiSun 10.0 so really Peyton should be getting good high quality UVB coverage throughout his viv. What are your thoughts about this lighting set up?

Finally, I want to ask you all about Peyton's eating habits. The first couple of days he chomped down on a decent amount of crickets and mealworms (I didn't know about the impaction risk -- I have since restricted him to only 2 small mealworms a day) but he 100% refused to eat any veggies or fruits. I tried celery, lettuce (I know, not the best but I wanted to see what happened), carrots, apples, tomatoes, pears... NOTHING.

Then on day 3 he wouldn't eat. I also realized then that he hadn't taken a crap since I brought him home. I tried warm baths, belly rubs, etc. Nothing seemed to work. Luckily the next morning he finally relieved himself and regained his appetite. However, he seemed to be getting dehydrated. He apparently doesn't know how to drink from the water bowl or the bath (trust me, I'm trying!). Finally, I convinced him to eat a piece of grape which was very juicy. I also got him to lick a couple drops of water from a syringe. He ate several more crickets that day.

This morning, Peyton was very cranky and didn't want to have anything to do with me. I let him be for a couple hours, and then I noticed there a giant wet "turd" which basically looked like a full cricket corpse. There was urate on it, so I knew he had pooped it out. Then I see another slimier mass a couple feet away. It was another cricket corpse wrapped up in a grape skin. I assumed this was a second "deuce" that he dropped, but I didn't notice any urate on it. So could it be that he regurgitated this back up through his mouth? I wish I had taken a picture, but I found it so repulsive that I immediately cleaned it up and threw it in the trash.

How concerned should I be about this? That was this morning and he's only eaten one cricket since then. He won't even eat worms. He stares at the bugs and he won't eat any of the fruits or veggies either. Not even grape. He never accepts hand fed items from me. But otherwise he seems to be enjoying himself basking in the light.

Finally, is it normal or okay to let him sleep in a towel like this?

Sometimes if I wrap him up he immediately jumps out, but other times he seems like like being all snuggled up inside.

One last thing, how much is a typical vet bill for a beardie?

Thanks you guys! Looking forward to sharing lots of stories with you all.

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. He's a cutie I would move the uvb with the basking bulbs so when he basks he receives heat and uvb. Mealworms are not very good they cause impaction. Better feeders are Phoenix worms, dubia roaches, crickets, silk worms. Also here is a site that will help you establish a good base for a salad. Beautiful dragons.com.

 

[CooperDragon]

Here's a link to the veg list that was mentioned. http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html
I'm glad you removed the plastic from the fixture. I think that's there to protect it from water when used in an aquarium environment. The Zilla Desert 50 bulbs are fine so you can use it as a spare with no problem. It should sit over the basking area and be about 6-8'' up from the top of it for best results. You can get rid of the 13w coil completely as it isn't useful at any safe distance. It's just too weak output wise.

Are you moving the temp gun closer when you read the surface temps? I usually take readings a few inches from the surface to get a reading for smaller areas. 100-110 basking area, 90s around that, and a cool side of 75-80 is about right (roughly).

Overnight since your apartment gets so cold I suggest picking up a ceramic heat emitter. Turn that on overnight and it should bump the temps in the tank just into the low 70s. Low wattage of under 100w should do the trick. Just a little bump.

Vet charges vary quite a bit depending on where you are. A basic exam at my vet is about $40 which I consider to be a steal for a reptile specialist. It's on the lower end. Since you're in Philly I suggest checking out the vet school at Penn. http://www.vet.upenn.edu/veterinary...tal/services/exotic-companion-animal-medicine You can call ahead to get rates for visits and common procedures. You want to deal with a vet who has experience treating reptiles and specifically bearded dragons.

 

[misterbasic]

Thanks for the replies guys. Really appreciate it. I'll modify the lighting setup again when I get a chance.

Cooper, how do you suggest I mount the 18" light inside the tank? Stick it to the inside wall?

Also, my guy seems to REALLY hate the calcium powder. Ever since he tried one dusted cricket, he refuses to eat dusted anything. I tricked him into eating another dusted one and then he decided to go on a hunger strike.

The guy literally won't eat anything now. I "force fed" him some apple and carrot by putting a little piece in his mouth (I sliced a very thin wafer and sort of gently wedged it between his lips and then he finally opened his mouth. Once it's in his mouth he chomped down and ate the food. But he won't open his mouth voluntarily. I can't do this with any collared greens cause it's too flimsy

I'm going to buy some dandelion greens from Whole Foods today. Do baby dragons really like those? I heard the adults go crazy for the dandelions but if the baby won't eat it, I don't want to waste my money. And again, because a leaf doesn't have the stiffness of a small piece of apple or carrot, I have no way of making him open his mouth to eat it.

He also doesn't know how to drink water yet... he looked a little dehydrated so i made him eat another apple piece this morning just for the moisture content. Is he going to be ok for hydration as long as he eats plant matter? I put aquafina in his water bowl. Should I be using a more gourmet water like FIJI or Voss?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks again guys. I saw all these YouTube videos of these poor little dragons with Adenovirus (every time Peyton turns his head up now I start getting paranoid) and MBD and they made me sad and scared for my little Peyton. Are these diseases for beardies common? I really want my lizard to live a happy life of at least 8 years under my care.

I'm also going to take him to a vet for a checkup soon. Is it money well spent for a new baby who seems like he's 2 months old or less? Like if they are just gonna look at him and say "he's fine" and send me home with a $50-60 vet bill, I don't even want to waste my time. But if they do useful testing and procedures then I don't mind even spending $100 for him.

 

[misterbasic]

Hi. He's a cutie I would move the uvb with the basking bulbs so when he basks he receives heat and uvb. Mealworms are not very good they cause impaction. Better feeders are Phoenix worms, dubia roaches, crickets, silk worms. Also here is a site that will help you establish a good base for a salad. Beautiful dragons.com.

Are island roaches or spotted roaches okay? They sell those at the pet store. And to be honest, I know they aren't cheap but I really don't mind spending the money. I know a lot of people here have roach colonies, but I have limited space in my apartment and my landlord would flip out if he found a roach colony in the apartment LMAO! I've already decided that I am okay with spending up to $2,400 a year on Peyton's food. $200 a month should be a decent budget, right?

I also read on some other threads that beardies don't digest phoenix worms and they come out alive in their poop? Is this really true and even possible? Seems crazy lol.

And that's for the salad resource! Problem is he won't eat any veggies. As per my previous post, I've been able to make him eat some carrot and apple, but I have no idea how to make his mouth open to eat a leaf.