Hello! I'm a new Bearded Dragon owner.

[Heisenberg]

I think Shelby is a great name! I hope he is eating better.the Phoenix worms are great. Other worms you can try are silkworms (very good for bd) hornworms and butterworms. Butterworms are a little fatty and would bulk Shelby up a little. When he gets older cut back on the butterworms. I raise my own silkworms. You can get silkworms from thesilkwormshop.com they sell tiny and small/medium, try the tiny. Hornworms are another excellent food for bd. I get them from greatlakeshornworms.com hornworms grow very fast and grow to about 3-4 inches. For Shelby order eggs with a food cup, lay the eggs on the food in about 2 weeks you will have worms that are a good size for Shelby. To stunt their growth you can put hornworms in the fridge but only for a week or two before they start to die. Worms are high in calcium and also gives moisture to your dragon. I also get crickets from greatlakeshornworms you get 1000 for $18 so much cheaper then petsmart. You should gut load the crickets they sell a moisture cube that are good but at least 24 hours before giving Shelby the crickets you should feed them veggies that Shelby eats making the crickets that more nutritious. Hope this helps you. Good luck with Shelby

 

[FireFoXX]

An update on Shelby.

She definitely is a lot more active. Running and exploring every inch of her domain. She is finally getting off her hammock and being active! I don't know what changed but I have just been doing pretty much the same. Feeding her crickets dusted with calcium everday and dusted with vitamins once a week along with her greens. I put the water bowl back in but in the warm side and somehow the humidity has dropped by as much as 20%! It's now at a constant 40ish% humidity. She seems to always be curious as to what I am doing now. I'm guessing the humidity played a huge role in her activeness as that is about the only big change I really noticed. I had gotten some small phoenix worms but she wasn't really interested in those. I have some mediums on order hopefully she'll be more interested in those. I'm guessing size was an issue because I had a few wax worms left and they were bigger and she immediately went for those as soon as I threw some in. All in all she seems to be doing a little better. Still a little skinny but I'm hoping that will change soon. She also completely shed her body after she shed her tail. Sorry for the jumbled post but I was .....wow she just jumped from her hammock to other side of her tank in hunt of another leftover cricket lol. Ahem...sorry for the jumbled post but I just may be a little excited. =D

 

[sweetiepie9]

No problem, it's exciting when your new dragon gets full of energy & starts eating well. It's great news!

Just change one thing: you should only dust the crix 5x/wk with calcium and vit/min 2x/wk. Otherwise she'll get too much calcium. Otherwise all is really great. Now to get some pics on here!!

 

[GodzillasDumbCousin]

I was in shock the first time I saw Pyra's jumping ability. She has crazy hops lol. Recently, she was resting on my knee as I sat at my computer and I saw her position herself for a daredevil leap. She cleared the 2ft+ gap from my knee to the bed like it was nothing. I was so proud as if I made the jump. ha! One time she snatched a dubia roach from my hand about 16" above her. She loves those things

 

[GodzillasDumbCousin]

Glad to hear Shelby is doing better too. The multivitamin twice a week is a good habit. The supplement schedule I go by is:
Sunday & Monday- calcium w/o d3
Tuesday- MultiV
Wednesday- Calcium w/d3 ("With Wednesday")
Thursday- calcium w/o d3
Friday- MulitV again
Saturday- calcium w/o d3

That makes five days of calcium, one with the D3 added and two days of vitamins. Now there are those that will say yes or no to the necessity of D3 supplementation based on the dragons ubv exposure. Honestly, I do not know enough to give a solid yes or no. I bought both calcium powders when I started this beardie adventure so I play it safe and use it at least once a week. Some say use it everytime, some say don't use it at all.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Mine have always had Vit D3 in their calcium, both powders and now with liquid, but I have adults & so they get calcium only twice a week & vit/min only once a week. But they did follow that schedule weekly when they were under a year old. They're all very healthy.

 

[FireFoXX]

Thanks for the input guys I'll make sure to adjust the calcium dosage.

 

[FireFoXX]

Just a little picture update.
About a week after I got her(for comparison):

Christmas Eve:

One more for fun:

Since I look at her everyday I can't really notice her growth but after comparing the pics I think shes grown a little. Should she be growing any faster?

 

[sweetiepie9]

Well she's definitely grown Can you measure her length? She probably about 2 1/2-3 mo old, right? So she should be about 9-10" long, I think. It's been so long since I had a baby, it's hard to remember. But a friend has got charts up, so I'll go check.

So her female dragon was as follows:

2 months 8.5" and 22g

2 1/2 months 9" and 34g

3 months 10 1/2" & 61g.

Some babies grow less quickly, especially if they had a slow start, but it's a good reference.

 

[FireFoXX]

I'm gonna have to say she is about 3 months old now. When I bought her at the store they told me it was about 4 months old then but she was way too tiny for four months I think. I've got no means of measuring right now How do you go about weighing them?

 

[GodzillasDumbCousin]

I use a food scale. It doesn't have to be a fancy one, I got mine for like $30.00 at Target. I just put a plate on the scale, zero it out, then I lay my beardie on.

Now for length, if there's no measuring tape, you can use a dollar bill and some string. The bill is approximately six inches long. Run the string the length of the bill, mark the string, and do it again from the marked point - giving you a foot. I measure my girl when she is sleeping because she tries to tongue the yellow tape. haha

 

[FireFoXX]

So I went out and got myself some tools of measurement and weight. My baby is about 3 months about 15 grams and about 7 inches. Does she sound healthy or rather normal? As far as age goes I'm going on that I got her on November 2nd and she had to of been at least a month old then. She is getting ready to shed again as her skin appears to be getting darker and the fact that her tail shed again recently. So I think she is growing normally but I just want to make sure she is okay. From what I've read she seems to be eating normal. She eats about 20 crickets a feeding along with a few worms.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Did you check the chart I sent you of my friend's female dragon? Shelby is a bit small for her age and she should be eating at least 50-60 bugs a day at this age. If you're giving her wax worms, please not more than about 5 a week, as they're pure fat & can eventually lead to fatty liver disease, which can be fatal. I know you said she didn't like the phoenix worms, but did you look into butter worms? They're a bit bigger and would help her gain weight without too much fat. More crickets per day, too, because I know she loves to hunt them down. Maybe that's why she didn't like the worms, they don't move like crickets!

Did you get the temps steady at 105F at her basking spot. And you are giving her calcium with vitD3, right? It's necessary with the tube UVB.

She looks great in the picture you posted, got a great belly going on, so give her more crickets and see how she does.

She is going to be a very colourful beardie as she sheds, too

 

[FireFoXX]

I saw the chart and I was worried she'd be too small I got the temps down so no problems with temps. I got a dish for mixed greens (turnip, collard, mustard) and a dish with worms. Oh I forgot to mention that I did get a hold of medium phoenix worms and she LOVED those. No more wax worms. I guess it was the size of the worms that got her attention. So she would eat about 25-30 crickets a day along with about 15-20 medium phoenix worms a day. Crickets are dusted w/ calcium 5x a week and vitamins 2x a week. Overall she seems MUCH happier than the first month I got her. She moves around her tank a lot more rather than just sitting up in the hammock the entire day. She's also a lot more active in moving her head around watching me every time I get close to the tank. She is definitely an interesting little gal. Just hoping she turns out a gal as I've been calling it a she lol.

 

[sweetiepie9]

You'll find out about her sex when she's a bit bigger. And I'm glad you've got the temps going well. The only other thing I'd suggest is putting her Reptisun 10.0 in an under the counter fixture and getting it inside the tank. That way she's getting 100% of the UVB given off, as if it's on top of the screen, she'll only get about 50% of the rays. So see if you can make that change at some point. The fixtures are sold at Walmarts or Loews for not too expensive, so that might help with her growth, too.

She's sure eating enough, which is a great sign. Glad she loves the phoenix worms, you don't have to dust them with calcium as they're full of calcium naturally, so only the crickets.

Otherwise I think she's now going to grow and grow and grow. You'll see. Getting the husbandry right leads to good eating, leads to great growing!

So I'm glad you've got all the basics down pat, now she'll do even better! Now to the important thing, more pics? Please?