Help! Been thrown in at the deep end!!!

[Sassyalice123]

Hi all,
My brother and his long term partner recently split and left their bearded dragon with me (he was literally just dumped on me last night!)
I honestly have no clue about lizards and only have dogs as pets. He is called Barry (apt name) and I don’t think he has been handled a lot, he is around 3 years old.
I have got him out of the tank today and he has had a run around my bedroom, he also crawled on me and licked my neck- is this normal?
He also at one point sounded like he exhaled deeply- again is this normal?
Any advice would be gratefully received! I’ve read a few websites regarding beardie care but figured you all all the experts!
Thanks in advance,
Alice

 

[Eteda]

yep. licking is normal. they taste their environment. signs of a healthy and mentally alert and happy dragon.
exhaling air? mine puffs up when I give him a warm water soak for about 15 minutes each night. he gulps in his air to float. He will then kinda figure out that he's ok and exhale like a hissing sound and sink down in the warm water. Since he has MBD and is new to baths i always put my fingers behind his arms or legs so he can feel like he can push up to move out of the water. as soon as he does his business in the water he is ready to get out.

 

[KeyBlu422]

Well, i don't know about the deep breath thing but him licking you is him trying to familiarize himself with his surroundings and you. At his age, calcium 2x a week and a quality multivitamin(such as herptivite by rep cal) 1x a week is sufficient. Crickets or whatever choice of feeder insect you provide can be given once or twice a week. You can give carrots, collard greens, mustard greens, kale, turnip greens, squashes(like butternut or zuchini) and a variety of other vegetables on a weekly basis. Generally, it's best to provide at least 2 greens in a beardy's daily salad. You can also give like 4 a week or something like that and stick with it or just use 2-3 greens a week and switch it each time those greens run out. a basking spot of 90+ is just fine. An exo terra compact uvb bulb such as the desert one or a reptisun t5 10.0 or arcadia 12-14% would be great. Good substrates include tile, reptile carpet, maybe excavator clay, and a couple other choices. Sand and other loose particle substrates can be used but are generally discouraged since there is a risk of impaction when swallowed. While usually not a concern for adult dragons that are provided proper husbandry and accurately get their food instead of eating sand each time they try and eat a cricket, impaction can occur for a beardy at any stage of life, especially baby and juvenile dragons. If you do intend to use sand, I'd recommend repti carpet or tile for the first years of their life, though i wouldn't see the point switching if you already use one of those options. Playsand is usually recommended over calci sand but certain play sands can actually be worse due to what they contain. cleaning fecal matter off of sand is a bit harder than tile as you need to really thoroughly clean the spot the dragon pooped on. People such as Ellen D have also claimed that sand will cause respiratory issues and whatnot but people have succesfully housed dragons on sand without any health issues. misting a dragon's veggies are good as dragons don't always go to their water since they don't really notice it unless they step in it. However, they also may just defecate in it. Usually one would want a four foot long tank for a full grown dragon but im sure you already have that.

 

[Eteda]

they puff up around their eyes too! don't let that scare you its normal. Im sure one of the experienced dragoners can give you the correct terminology for it, Im glad I read about it before I saw it. it made me laugh cause I it was the first time I saw it. lol Also when mine is in his bath water and it gets to cold for him the tip of his tail like 3 inches long turns really dark like their is something wrong with it. so I let out the cold water and put in some new warm water and it turns back normal body color. Im going to get a thermometer and watch the temperature a few times. He has got my curiosity up about that water temp. :study: