How long before my new beardie should start eating.

[kenny21]

i just got a hypo pastel beardie, i have hade him for 4 days. il drop crickets in his tank everyday,but he has only tryed to go after one or two but he doesnt seem interested. im worried he wont eat, need some tips!

 

[thyngb]

He should start eating in the next few days but you should try to make it as stressless as possible and dont handle him in tell he starts eating normal. Heres a few questions.

What is his basking temperature?
How often do you mist him and give him baths?
What are you using for UVB lighting?

 

[kenny21]

his basking temp is about 100 F. i mist him very lightly once a day,havent given him a bath yet,would it be okay to give him a bath even though hes not used to his new home yet? and i have a exo terra 10.0 for UVB

 

[AmStaffPit]

Kenny,

In regards to his basking temps, try to raise it another 5 degree but no more than 10. I would try giving the bath. Is your UVB light a coil or a long tube. If it is a coil get rid of it and buy an undercabinet fixture. Or if you want to spend the extra-money, purchase a Mercury Vapor bulb. If it is a fluorescent tube, that will be fine but I recommend the Repti-Sun 10.0. I am still learning as well as I just got my first BD about a month ago. But if i am wrong I hope someone corrects me. Other than that, have fun with your new friend.

Shawn

 

[kenny21]

Thank you shawn, and yes I have the long bulb, not a coil.and I will try and give him a bath.

 

[thyngb]

Has he started to eat yet?

 

[kenny21]

I have only seen him eat one cricket today,im going to leave about 3 in his tank overnight, and il see if they are there in the morning.

 

[sweetpea1981]

I would not leave them in overnight! That is bad, crickets can bite your beardie when he is sleeping and beardies sleep like rocks, they are defenseless when they are sleeping and crickets can do some major damage to a defenseless sleeping dragon.

 

[kenny21]

wow thank you i wont be doing that again!

 

[sweetpea1981]

no problem, with crickets I would suggest feeding him in a separate container or feeding him one by one so you see he eats them, it makes looking for one cricket easier than looking for 10, because they can hide very well.

 

[krusty46]

We got Gimli on Thursday and he didn't want anything to do with crickets the first 4 days. He'd eat maybe 1 or 2 and then just stare at them. Don't ask me why, but we bought large crickets instead of the small ones and he went crazy for them. Couldn't eat them fast enough. It could have just been coincidence as he might have just been more comfortable in his new house, but he seemed more interested in the larger ones.
Still hit or miss with his greens though (mostly miss) :-(