Got my BD :P

[Toucan]

I just got my Bearded Dragon this morning. My mother woke me up and presented me with everything. Honestly, I do not think I am trully ready at this moment, but I could not say return it. My Bearded Dragon is 2-3 months old. I was told by the pet shop guys, when I called, to feed it lettuce and crickets shaken in Fluker's repta-vitamin. They told me to just dump the whole bag of crickets into the tank and it should last the Bearded Dragon a week. It looks to be about 30 or so crickets in all. I have a Rep Pro 60W lamp above the cage. I will add some pictures really soon. I was reading some of the care sheets and it really seems like I am off to a bad start. Can somone please assure me of what I need to do for my dragon. I am not sure whether the pet store guys were just trying to make a sale or leading me down the right path. Thankyou.

 

[NintendoVixen79]

Listen to NOTHING the pet store told you!!!
I am on my way out so dont have time to type out all the details, but just needed to say thats some of the worst advice from pet shops I've seen so far....

 

[Toodles]

Not sure about the other bits of advice, but just dumping in aload of crickets, especially that many, is a really bad idea.

Your Dragon won't eat all them and the remains will just create a mess, not to mention irritate your dragon too.

Feed your Dragon a couple of crickets at a time, and then when he refuses anymore, simply take them out.

 

[Toucan]

Thankyou. I am going to clear the crickets out right now.

 

[Bianca]

Gosh, that's some pretty bad advice. You should feed your dragon as many crickets as it will eat in 10-15 minutes, and you do this 2-3 times/day. You should NOT leave the crickets in the tank with your dragon, any crickets that are not eaten should be removed right away. Crickets have been know to bite the dragons and leave little wounds...
Lettuce is not very nutritious for beardies, it's mostly water. Check http://www.beautifuldragons.com under Nutrition, for a list of greens/veggies that you should be feeding.
You dragon needs a UV light, regardless of what the pet store people may have told you. Make sure you get a good one for him/her as many lights out there are just useless. Good UV lights are ReptiGlo 8.0 and Repti

 

[Bianca]

Sorry, my computer is going crazy. So, for the lights, ReptiGlo 8.0 and ReptiSun 10.0. Your beardie needs to be able to come within 6 inches of this light.
For the basking spot, you need to have temperatures between 95F (minimum) and 110F (maximum). Any bulb that can get your temps this high will do, even a regular household bulb. Temps should be taken with a thermometer with probe not the round kind you stick on the glass as those can be very inaccurate.
What kind of substrate are you using? For babies, you should use paper towels, tile, or non-adhesive shelf liner. Do not use sand or walnut shells, those can easily cause impaction in your dragon and make him really sick.
The crickets/worms you are feeding should be dusted with Calcium 5 times/week and vitamins 2 times/week. On here, we recommend RepCal calcium with D3 (phosphorus free--important!) and for vits, RepCal Herptivite.

Also, make sure you read all the caresheets and articles at the top of the page. Welcome to the forum and don't worry, you will get the hang of things in no time. Beardies can be extremely addictive :lol:

 

[Catalyst]

I was told by the pet shop guys, when I called, to feed it lettuce and crickets shaken in Fluker's repta-vitamin. They told me to just dump the whole bag of crickets into the tank and it should last the Bearded Dragon a week. It looks to be about 30 or so crickets in all.

As you may have figured out, all of this that they told you is wrong. Lettuce has little nutritional value, is mostly water, and can give your dragon the runs. For veggies, stick with collard greens, dandelion greens, turnip greens, squash, and prickly pear. There are other good veggies as well listed on that beautiful dragons link that was posted. Chances are good that your dragon won't be too interested in the veggies at first, but its still good to put out a salad in the morning, mist it so it doesn't wilt too quickly, and then leave it in there for him to pick at or explore as he likes. Once he's an adult (12-18 months old) his diet will be mostly salad so its good to expose him to those sorts of food now.

You should be offering your dragon live food 2 or 3 times a day. A growing dragon can eat upwards of 70 - 100 crickets a day. Make sure that the crickets are no longer than teh space between your dragon's eyes since they have a shell that can otherwise block up his insides (impaction). You'll want to find a good site online to order your bugs in bulk from - its much cheaper than buying from the petstore. When my guy was younger I ordered crickets in 1000 at a time and that lasted me about two weeks. You can also use feeder roaches (they also follow the "no longer than the space between his eyes" rule), silk worms, pheonix worms, and smaller hornworms for feeders. The worms are more expensive but good to add in occassionally for variety. Don't give your guy mealworms - their shell is hard for a baby dragon to digest and can cause problems. Superworms are only for dragons 16" or longer, again because of the shell.

Also, you want to make sure that you don't leave crickets in the tank overnight with your dragon. Dragons are deep sleepers and dont' feel the crickets crawling on them and there have been cases of crickets causing serious injury by chewing on the dragon's skin at night while the dragon was sleeping.

You'll want a calcium supplement as well. The most commonly recommended supplement procedure is Repcal Calcium with D3 one feeding a day 5x a week, and then Repcal Herptivite one feeding a day the other 2x a week.

. I am not sure whether the pet store guys were just trying to make a sale or leading me down the right path. Thankyou.

Unfortunately it sounds like they really don't know what they're talking about, that's all too common in petstores.

You'll need two separate lights, one for heat and one for UV rays. The heat light can be a normal lightbulb or a halogen flood light (my preference cause it kicks out more heat per watt) - they do the same job as a "specialty" petstore heat bulb but cost less money. You need to have a basking spot in the tank where the temperature is in the 100-110* range in order for your baby to digest properly, and the cool side of the tank should be 80-85*.
You'll also want to pick up a digital thermometer so that you can accurately measure the temps in the tank - the stick on ones that they sell at the petstore can be inaccurate.
For UV you have two choices. You can go with a flourescent UV tube light. For this you'll need a flourescent light fixture with a reflector (can get it at Home Depot) and the bulb - the Reptisun 10.0 is best, with the Reptisun 5.0 and Reptiglo 8.0 being second. Your dragon will need to be able to get 6 inches away from the bulb and the bulb will need to be replaced every six months since the coating that produces teh UV rays wears off around this time (no matter what the pet store guys or the box says).
Your second option for UV lighting is a mercury vapor bulb. These bulbs last a year, your dragon needs to be 12" away from the bulb, some put out heat as well as UV, and they put out a better quality of rays. A great site for these types of lights is http://www.reptileuv.com - Bob, the guy who runs it is very helpful and will let you know what will work best for your tank.

Its important to keep your baby well hydrated. The best way to do this is through regular baths. Fill the tub or a container up to his shoulders with warm (not hot) water and put something on the bottom so that he has grip and doesnt' just slide around. Then let your dragon soak and he'll absorb water in through his skin and vent. It can take a while for a dragon to get used to their baths but be persistent. Many keepers don't bother keeping a water bowl in the tank since dragons generally don't drink from them and it just becomes a germ collector.

Let's see... oh, the other thing is what you put on the bottom of the tank. Many stores will try to sell you calcisand or vitasand - this stuff is actually dangerous for your dragon since it clumps up like cement when it gets wet, so you can imagine what it would do to the inside of your dragon if he got enough of it in him. For a baby stick with something solid like paper towels, nonadhesive shelf liner, reptile carpet, or ceramic or slate tiles.

Feel free to ask any questions you have. It can be a steep learning curve when you bring home a baby dragon and most of us have been there, done that, and are more than happy to help others avoid teh same sort of problems we ran into.

Welcome to the site

 

[Toucan]

Thankyou all so much. I would be doing everything totally wrong without the help from everyone. Me and gemini3 were talking for a few hours and she helped me a great bit. I thankyou all so much and when I am done setting everything up I will put up pictures.

 

[Toucan]

about the lighting...

The UV bulb goes over the entire area of the cage right?

The heat light goes over part of the cage right?


The bulb that the pet store gave me seemed way too hot. I actually noticed some parts of the metal net above the cage starting to melt.

Thankyou

 

[Catalyst]

Yes, the flourescent tube UV light should run the length of the cage, while the heat light is generally pointed straight down over one area of the tank.

As far as temps go, that does seem quite warm... make sure you pick up a good digital thermometer, you certainly don't want to cook your dragon but you don't want it to be too cold in there for him either.

 

[Toucan]

I picked up a digital thermometer and put it on the warm side and its came to 113 degrees after leaving it in there for an hour. I am putting it on the cool side right now to see what it comes to.

About the prickly pear: Where exactly do you think I can get this. I know that I have never seen them at a grocery store/supermarket.

Thankyou.

 

[Catalyst]

I picked up a digital thermometer and put it on the warm side and its came to 113 degrees after leaving it in there for an hour. I am putting it on the cool side right now to see what it comes to.

About the prickly pear: Where exactly do you think I can get this. I know that I have never seen them at a grocery store/supermarket.

Thankyou.

I find it at the larger grocery stores in my area. They're a little on teh expensive side (2 for $1 here) but Randal doesn't eat much in one sitting and I only use them sometimes. Check out the http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html site if you haven't already. Anything green on that chart is a good staple. What I did is make a list of veggies that were good staples and then checked to see if my grocery stores carry it. I can find 2/3s of those things here, but it varies by where you are.