Hey from Tom and Gizmo!

[tomeglenn]

Hey all, my name is Tom and I am the proud new owner of a gorgeous 11 month old Bearded Dragon whom we have named Gizmo!

My girlfriend and I have been looking to get a beardie for quite some time now, and finally took the plunge last Friday when we noticed one for sale in our local area via Gumtree and we had to have him! I've attached a picture of him below!

This should probably be posted in a seperate section of the forum, but one small concern we are having is his eating. Is it common for beardies to stop eating for a few days when you first get them? We watched him eat 6 mario worms before we took him home, but since we brought him back he hasn't touched a thing... Not even locusts! We have had him checked out at our local reptile specialist pet shop and he says he is perfectly healthy and that we should keep him on greens (Though he hasn't touched these either!) for a week and then introduce live food back into his diet.

 

[Livey]

hello and welcome!
Gizmo is Very cute! !

 

[wingnuts]

Oh Gizmo is a handsome fellow!!! Congrats on getting your first bearded dragon--they are wonderful animals. It is not uncommon at all for beardies to experience relocation stress that puts them off on their eating after their environment changes--even moving them to a new enclosure in the same house can do it. I would still offer him a couple of worms everyday and see what happens--probably at each end of the day. If he eats them great, offer him some more. And yes, the salads should be given everyday.

Tracy & Stella

 

[tomeglenn]

Thanks for the replies!

We have been offering him worms during the day just to see, but he just turns completely ignores them (Sometimes shutting his eyes). We are providing fresh fruit and veg and a shallow bowl of water every day though, so we will continue to do that and keep trying a worm every day.

He did pluck up the courage to try a piece of cucumber yesterday though (just one small piece!) and then had a little drink of water. So I am hoping he is beginning to settle in a bit now!

 

[tomeglenn]

Quick update: We let Gizmo out to bask in some natural sunlight today and tried him with a super worm. He turned his nose up at it again, but whilst our heads were turned we heard a crunch and he was eating it! We instantly jumped at the opportunity to feed him some more (5 more to be exact) and he ate them up one after the other!

Very pleased that he has started to eat, as it was getting quite worrying! We haven't been able to get him to eat locusts, crickets or wax worms yet but hopefully he will soon!

 

[Twobeardieguy]

:wave: very pretty.

 

[beardie parents]

He's adorable! I suggest you try to get him to eat greens every day. We are having problems getting our girls to eat greens on a daily basis as they aren't used to it. A couple of days ago, Rosie had 16 small pieces of greens in one day, this is more than she normally eats of greens.

 

[snowdrop]

Hi and welcome, a handsome boy you have there.

I hope you don't mind me making a few suggestions. I noticed in your pic that you have sand as the bedding, sand is not good bedding for your lovly boy it can lead to bigger health problems, tile is great of even newspaper you can buy repti carpet on ebay i use lino which i got cheap because it was a cut of from a local floor shop that they were going to through out! It's cheaper as you don't have to replace it every three months, doesn't have any ill effects on your beardie and is easy kept clean!

Beardies suffer from relocation stress! This normally lasts around two weeks, but they do come around in the end, glad to hear he has started eating for you. Beardies love wax worms but they are just a treat as the can be very fattening for your beardie!

I have now have three beardies! and i love them to bits, they are such great critters and nothing beats a lick on the nose from a beardie or a snuggles, when they are lying on you and wiggle their whole body to get comfy! Sooo cute, enjoy and the dragons snuggles you will be getting once he is settled is with yous!

 

[tomeglenn]

Thanks for all your replies!

Snowdrop, I was lead to believe that sand (children's play sand in this case) is one of the best substrates to use for beardies since it is what they would have in their natural environment in the Australian outback? I also heard that repti-carpet can cause problems as beardies can get their claws stuck in the fibers which can sometimes lead to small fibers getting wrapped around their toes and causing loss of blood circulation. (All of this information is from my local reptile specialist pet shop, so please correct me if I am wrong!)

Gizmo is really starting to get comfortable in his new home now. Yesterday he spent over an hour snuggled into my shoulder (and again ate about 5 super worms). Today he has spent well over 2 hours on my shoulder (he went to sleep!) and has also ate 3 crickets!

He is still very unpredictable with his eating habits, so I just try and offer him things now and then. Still won't touch wax worms, meal worms or locusts (or his greens.. at least I haven't seen him try them). He will also take water if I hold the water spray bottle to his mouth and gently spray (He won't drink from his water bowl).

 

[snowdrop]

I would still say sand is not good for them, there's been some very sad stories about the damage to the health of peoples beardies on here!

I know there's been a lot of discussion on this site about it, and i've have read the horror stories plus it's also cheaper to keep your beardie on tile, which is what most on here use. If you want to put a post up about sand you will truly see other beardie owners thoughts.

It so hard cause there are so many opinions out there on how to keep a bearded dragon. I was told to use sand as well, i was also told that you never bath a beardie or give them water to drink and that they can eat lettuce. And that was from the shop i got Rexie in! When i bought my first corn snake from a reptile shop that are also breeders and have been around for 20 years, there advice nearly killed my baby corn!

I think at least on here you are speaking to people with experience, who live with these amazing critters everyday. But everyone has there own way of doing things, just please consider it, as some people on this site have learned the hard way the problems sand can cause.

My two adults are on locusts, and they love them hopefully yours will get the taste for them as they are a great staple live food, and my wee rescue is on crix! Which i hate because no matter how hard your try one or two always escape! If you can try and avoid the meal worms they have a hard shells that beardies can't digest! When i first got rexie i gave her meal worms until i learned that.

 

[snowdrop]

Apologies if i'm coming across to strong, bad habit.

There's a thread n general discussion called Offering advice without offending people. Please read it theres comments about sand and bad advice from petstores. If your new to this it just shows that we all are crazy beardie mums and dads on here! That try are hardest to care for our animlas in the best way possible!

 

[tomeglenn]

Thanks again for your response snowdrop! Don't worry, I am not in any way offended, I appreciate your advice! It is true that there are lots of different opinions on almost everything it would seem, hehe.

My concern with tiles rather than sand is how easy it would be for Gizmo to walk on them? We have put him on wood (top of the tank to get some sun) and he really struggled walking on the flat hard surface.

 

[snowdrop]

You can get tiles that are rough and textured. I use lino which is wood effect so it's rough and have had no problems, i've never seen there feet slip on it but it is softer than tile. When rexie out running around my living room she can never get enough speed as i have a wooden floor and she slide everywere! lol

 

[tomeglenn]

Ahh, I didn't know you could get textured tiles. Textured lino sounds like a better choice! Haha, I can imagine. Gizmo slipped all over when we put him on top of the viv, we had to put kitchen roll down

Thank you for your advice

 

[snowdrop]

No probs heres a pic of my baby Rexie! But you can see the flooring and it is textured like wood so has a rough fell to it. It was so cheap as well.