Hey, Everyone!

[Codeman]

Hello, all! I'm new here and I just got my first Bearded Dragon on St. Patrick's day, so I figured I'd join up here so I'd have a community to help me along as it grows. I work at Petco in the Fish & Reptile dept. so I have learned quite a lot about fish and herps in the last 6 months.

I'm not new to reptiles, in addition to my new Beardie I have a Leopard Gecko, Corn Snake and a Saharan Sand Boa. I also keep aquariums.

But, as for my Beardie, I estimate it to be about two months old. Since I've only had it for a week and a half, and don't know if it's male or female (since it's way too early to tell), it has no name yet. One will come once I really get to know the little critter's personality more. So far I know that he's got a healthy appetite, likes to be handled and explore and is one cute little bugger.

As for his/her setup, it is a 20-Long with a terrarium liner (until 5-6 months old, then calcium sand), two half log hides, one at each end , a vine, a large piece of Mopani wood (favorite basking spot), and a water dish and veggie bowl. I have a 40 breeder for him to grow into as well, he'll probably move in over the summer.

For lighting, I use a 75 watt basking spot bulb in a 5.5" clamp lamp and switch it out for a 60 watt red nightlight bulb at night. For a UVB source I have an 18" Repti Glo 8.0 bulb. I plan to switch to a Compact Fluorescent bulb/clamp lamp soon, though.

I've been feeding dusted baby crickets, 5-10 per day (I try to do 2 feedings) and have been offering finely chopped romaine lettuce, carrot and peas about every other day and the little guy seems to be taking to them already.

As soon as I can charge my batteries, I'll get some pictures up here for you all!

Thanks in advance and glad to be here!

 

[Craziness]

Heya!
First welcome to the site! We love pictures. :wink:
However I do have a few queries I'd like to go over with you.
Firstly you said you would use Calcium Sand later on. Don't. Your just asking for a huge vet bill or a loss of a lizard. The companies say its digestible and it's just not. My friend used Calci-Sand and her Beardie got impaction and she had to put him down because of it. He didn't even reach his first birthday! If you ask people's opinion on Calci-Sand or Calcium Sand on this site I think you'd get a same negative reply.
As for the amount your feeding him 5-10 crickets per feeding for a young one isn't enough. Even if you do 2 feedings thats only about (a maximum) of 20 crickets a day! My 2 young ones go through about 35+ crickets each in one sitting and they get 2 + feeding a day. So in total for one of my young ones amount it's about 70-100 crickets per day. So for me feeding 2 young ones its about 140+ crickets each day. And they also get a 4 2nd instar locusts a day and 3 waxworms per week. So per day both my young ones can easily eat up to 150 insects per day and that's not including their salad and dry food!
As for the salad your offering them, it's not the best stuff. If you feed them too much lettuce I think they get an upset tummy. If you go here: http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html and try to feed them some of the veggies and fruit in green font colour it'd be a lot better!

I hope I haven't overloaded you.
Rose.

 

[Catalyst]

Hello, all! I'm new here and I just got my first Bearded Dragon on St. Patrick's day, so I figured I'd join up here so I'd have a community to help me along as it grows.

Hello and welcome to the site! We're always happy to talk dragons, and this is a great place to come to learn more about these great little guys.

As for his/her setup, it is a 20-Long with a terrarium liner (until 5-6 months old, then calcium sand), two half log hides, one at each end , a vine, a large piece of Mopani wood (favorite basking spot), and a water dish and veggie bowl. I have a 40 breeder for him to grow into as well, he'll probably move in over the summer.

Sounds good. If you notice him spending a lot of time in his hides during the day when he should be out basking, you may have to remove them. It's a reletively common problem with young dragons. If he doesn't do that then no worries

There are two substrates that almost everyone here agrees should not be used with dragons: calcium sand and crushed walnuts. Calcium sand is junk and shouldn't be used with dragons of any age. It's dangerous because when ingested it often clumps up and causes a potentially fatal impaction - contrary to what the packaging says, it is not digestible by the dragon. You're best to stick with something solid until he's an adult (or at least has reached 16 inches because that's the safety point at which his digestive system has straightened out and he's less prone to impaction) - good solid options include paper towels, nonadhesive shelf liner, reptile carpet, and textured slate or ceramic tiles. I have tiles in my tank and love them - they look great, are very easy to keep clean, and help to keep Randal's nails trimmed down for me. Once he is an adult, if you really like the whole sand look, you can use washed and sifted silica free children's playsand. It behaves differently when ingested than the calcium sand and so is reletively safer to use, not to mention being much more economical.

For lighting, I use a 75 watt basking spot bulb in a 5.5" clamp lamp and switch it out for a 60 watt red nightlight bulb at night. For a UVB source I have an 18" Repti Glo 8.0 bulb. I plan to switch to a Compact Fluorescent bulb/clamp lamp soon, though.

At night there should be no lights on in the tank - contrary to packaging claims, experience has shown that dragons can see the red light and it often disrupts their sleep. They sleep best in darkness. You don't need any heating in the tank at night anyway unless the temps drop below the low sixties - otherwise the cooldown at night is natural and healthy for him. If it does get colder than that, you should use a ceramic heat emitter - it puts out heat to keep the temps up but no light to disrupt your dragon's sleep.

The reptiglo 8.0 is a good bulb. I wouldn't get a compact bulb though - there have been multiple issues with that type of bulb including some causing eye problems, while most of them have a high burn in (put off large amounts of UVB initially) followed by a fast decay, so they may only put out sufficient UVB for your dragon for 1-3 months, and unless you have UVB meter you have no way of knowing exactly when UVB levels drop below the acceptable range. With the full flourescent tubes however, they've been tested repeatedly and don't cause any ill side effects to your dragon while at the same time lasting for the full six months before it's time for a replacement. The reptisun 10.0 is the best flourescent tube, and then the reptisun 5.0 and reptiglo 8.0 are decent as well. Make sure your guy can get 6-8 inches from his UVB bulb at some point in his tank.

If you really want a smaller UVB bulb, then wait until your dragon is in a larger tank and go with a mercury vapor bulb (MVB). These put out heat as well as UVB and are stronger than the florescent UVB lights. The good ones are the Megarays (available online at http://www.reptileuv.com among other places) and the T-Rex Active Heat Flood bulb. Your dragon needs to be 12-18 inches away (depending on which bulb you use) from this bulb at it's closest point, which is why they shouldn't be used with smaller tanks.

I've been feeding dusted baby crickets, 5-10 per day (I try to do 2 feedings) and have been offering finely chopped romaine lettuce, carrot and peas about every other day and the little guy seems to be taking to them already.

There are two methods to feeding a growing dragon:
(1) offer as many crickets as he wants to eat in a 10 minute feeding - this can be over 100 crickets a day for some dragons at certain points in their growth.
(2) offer 50 crickets a day total
The first method reasons that a dragon needs lots of protein to grow and by giving him as much as he wants, you make sure that he gets everything he needs.
The second reasons that 50 crickets a day is enough for a dragon to grow well and at a good rate (i.e. not too quickly), and that it also encourages healthy eating habits since the dragon is more likely to start eating his salads at an earlier age.
Members here have used both methods to raise healthy, happy, large dragons.

Regardless of which of those two methods you choose to use, you'll definitely want to look into ordering your bugs in bulk (i.e. by the hundreds if not 1000 at a time) online - it's much cheaper than going through the petstore for them. Also, the smaller the dragon, the more frequently he should be offered live food. Tiny babies should get live food 3x a day. Then you can cut that back to 2x a day once they're a little bit larger (maybe around 6-7 inches long), and later on he'll likely cut himself back to 1 feeding of bugs a day somewhere between 8-10 months of age.

Romaine lettuce has no nutrition to it and so should be used only sparingly with dragons. You want to aim for a salad that's about 90% leafy greens (collard greens, dandelion greens, endive, turnip greens, mustard greens are all good options) and then 10% veggies and other stuff (squash, carrots, etc.). You should also try to put a salad in there every day - as an adult his diet is going to be 90% salads (he'll only get 30-50 bugs a week as an adult) so the sooner he starts eating them on a regular basis, the easier that transition will be for him, and he'll be healthier now as well. Here are some helpful links regarding feeding dragons:

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html
http://www.reptilerooms.com/Sections+index-req-listarticles-secid-1.html

As soon as I can charge my batteries, I'll get some pictures up here for you all!
Thanks in advance and glad to be here!

We look forward to seeing pics of your little guy, they're so adorable at that age! Always happy to help, feel free to ask any questions you have

 

[Codeman]

Thank you both so much!

As for sand, then, no way! I'll tile up a big tank for him over the summer.

I'll start using no night light, it stays about 65-68 in my house and my room is always hotter than that. I rethought the compact bulb, and decided I'll get a long fixture and a RetpiSun 10 bulb for his bigger tank.

When I go to work today, I'll pick up a dish of waxworms and as many little crickets as I can afford I figured I needed to feed more. I'll order some in bulk offline, as I get paid today and I'll get this little bugger growing well! I've been trying different things as they come through the house (today's experiment: Strawberries), but I'll go out and get some kale or mustard greens or something tomorrow.

As for the hides, the only time I've seen him in one is hunting down a cricket. He just loves to lay up on his log under the lamp.

Thanks again, to both of you!

 

[Codeman]

First of all, sorry for the double post.

I ordered 1000 crickets from mulberryfarms.com.

And here's some pictures!

 

[Catalyst]

Oh my goodness, what a cute tiny little thing He's adorable.

Just a note - the wax worms are quite fatty so try not to use them too much. They're pretty much beardie junk food, and can be addictive.

 

[Codeman]

Oh my goodness, what a cute tiny little thing He's adorable.

Just a note - the wax worms are quite fatty so try not to use them too much. They're pretty much beardie junk food, and can be addictive.

Yep, I thought so too :mrgreen:

I know that waxworms are fatty, but I figured I'd do one every couple days to make up for my week's lack of adequate feeding.

Thanks!

 

[dechainechel]

Hello! Glad to hear you are open to what the people say on this forum!!! They are wonderful, I learned a lot about beardies on here. I'd like to suggest feeding your tiny one Phoenix worms, they are full of calcium, and your beardie will love them! Mine couldn't get enough. Phoenix worms come in 3 sizes to feed growing beardies, and come in cups of 100 at a time. I hate crickets, they smell and can eat at your beardie if one isn't found, and left in the viv overnight. Phoenix worms saved us, and our beardie is happy and healthy.

 

[Jasper's Mom]

Hello and welcome! Your little beardie is really cute - he looks quite proud of himself in those pictures. I love the fourth picture, with his tail up - he just looks so confident and adorable!

 

[Codeman]

Thank you both so much!

I have looked into Phoenix Worms, I just haven't decided where to order from yet.

I'm also closing in on a name.

I've got it narrowed to either Hemingway or Luke (Leia if female) Sandwalker.

 

[dechainechel]

Hi! Those are very good names!

 

[antanuchzs2]

Calci Sand! no , the horror!.. it has killed my little beardie and im never going back to it! thats final!!!

 

[Codeman]

Calci Sand! no , the horror!.. it has killed my little beardie and im never going back to it! thats final!!!

No worries, he's on a terrarium liner now.