Howdy all from Dr Rockso and Pebbles

[TheeApples]

Im new to this site, but liked what i was readin and the attitude of most members. I have two red flame bearded dragons, male 8in. and a female 6in. im unsure of the exact age. bought them a lil over a week ago.
i have them in a 55 gallon extra wide breeder tank, havent measured it, but its a pretty nice size. the baskin area is 95-100 and the cool zone is probably low 80-85? i've read its a no no for younger beardies, but i have sand for the substrate.
as of right now the male is eatin dusted crickets 1 to 2 times a day and is supplied with "bites" for bearded dragons from the company nature zone, brocolli, bearded dragon pellets, tomatoes all day. gave him a few pieces of carrot the other day, probably wont again for a week or two, dispite how much he seemed to like them.
the smaller female doesnt seem to like to eat the greens yet, so i chopped up some crickets and threw them in the mix with the greens, but she is also bein fed the dusted crickets.

just wonderin how im doing, they seem very active and alert. only concern may be the fact that the male is a lil bossy at times and often the female only gets to the crickets after he is done. also, how early is to early in handling them? i bought them a week ago, and im now pickin them up once or twice a day for only a few minutes at a time. too much touchin? or not enough?

 

[lilmike04]

welcome to the site i would love to see some pics.

 

[brittany]

From what you've posted, you're doing ok for now but not the best. You're going to have to separate your dragons. Males and females should never be kept together as the males mature faster than the females and will over-breed. The male may start breeding as early as 6 months old where as a female needs to be 18" long, 18 months old and over 500 grams before breeding, which none will happen by 6 months. Your basking temp needs to be up to 110 as they are babies and need the higher heat to properly digest their food and absorb their calcium. The male AND female need to be fed twice a day as much as they can eat in 15 minutes. I'd separate them at feeding time so that each can get their fill. The male seems to be dominate and not letting the female eat as much as required. Dragon pelet food is NOT a complete or proper diet for a dragon. It lacks a lot of the nutrietns that live feeders and greens contain. They can be used as a suplement but not as a staple as it seems that you are using them as. Live food that you can use is crickets, silk worms, pheonix worms, butter worms, horn worms, dubia roaches, turkistan roaches, and then for a dragon over 16" long, super worms. Mealwoms can be used as a treat for dragons over a year old. Any younger and they will cause impaction as babies have a curved digestive tract which mealies get caught in. Wax worms can be used as a treat for any age of beardies but only two a week. Here's a site with the veggies you can give them: http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html It's very rare that dragons under a year old will eat a lot of their greens but you should still offer them daily. Crickets do NOT need to be cut up. If they are too big for your dragon they shouldn't be fed at all. The rule for food is that they can't be longer or wider than the width between your dragons eyes. Handle them as much as you can. The more that they are handled as babies, the easier that they will be to handle as adults. Sand is a bad substrate for babies. If you have calic-sand, it is bad for ALL dragons no matter what age. Babies don't have good aim and will swallow a lot of sand which leads to impaction which leads to death. Sifted playsand is ok for dragons over 16" long. Other safe substrates include paper towels, reptile carpet, newspaper, shelf liner, and slate tiles.

What type of UVB bulb are you using?
How close can your dragon get to the UVB?
What do you take your temps with?
Do you gut load your feeders?
What do you dust your feeders with?
Do you mist your beardies? How often?
Do you bathe your beardies? How often?

 

[TheeApples]

wow, thanks for all the helpful info, thats what i was lookin for! thanks for the advice on seperatin them. everything i've been readin is so much different than what the supposed breeder told me to do and what not. and about the pellets, i only just have those available, along with mustard greens that i bought last night, again the male is eating them, but the female not so much? she slept a lot yesterday and didnt move around too much, but she has been runnin around more today after i picked her up, held her for a few, then put her in the basking light.

im usin a "Repti Glo 10.0 Compact Desert Terrarium Lamp", supposedly has ULTRA high UVB output. dont know how true it is, but im assuming this light is good for my dragons. the bulb sits on top of the cage and they can get within ten inches of it.

i have two thermometers at each side of the tank around half way. but for the basking spot i was usin a thermometer wand thing my father has for some reason? dont know the exact name for it.

im not sure on the term gutload, but i feed the crickets greens, and i dust them with Herpcare cricket dust

i only mist my dragons in the morning and late afternoon.

i havent bathed my dragons yet, would like some ideas on how to do that and what to do exactly.

 

[anoellak]

My baby dragon got his first bath I just let him sit on my hand. He did good.