This isn't really an introduction post since I've been posting for a little while now, so I thought this was an appropriate place to ask my questions. Some of you may remember that I've been trying to get everything ready for a BD for a little while now. Well, yesterday we were confident that we had everything in place and that it was time to go buy our new scaly companion. I went down to a locally owned, reptile based store. They had a lot of different reptiles there, very neat to see. They had some small hatchlings but since I had a 75 gallon set up I thought it'd be to big for them. They also had some that were between a year and two years old. They were a little overpriced but we went with them anyway.
For more info on my enclosure, check out this thread: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=144711 Since then, the only thing we've changed is we put up some temporary paper on three sides of the tank and we glued the probe down to the basking spot.
I went with the smallest yearling they had. It's a boy and he's about 16" long from tip of head to tip of tail. Is that a good size for a one year old? Is he big enough to eat supers? We ended up buying a box of 1000 crickets for $20 at the store (is that a good price?) and I picked up some collard greens for now, just until I figure out how much he eats. The crickets are in a 10gallon tank with dry cat food to eat and oranges as food/moisture. There are a bunch of egg crate pieces sitting upright against the side w/o the food and moisture. Is that okay for them or should I be feeding them something different?
When we got him home last night he seemed hungry, trying to lick anything that moved so about 2 hours before lights out we offered him 5 crickets which he gobbled up. I figured that was a good sign, correct? I was a little worried because after lights out he went to sleep completely upright. Little hands and head resting on the glass and his back feet on the tank floor. Is that normal?? It looks so uncomfortable. We tried moving him onto a blanket but he went right back to being upright.
This morning I chopped up some collard greens and sprinkled some Reptivite multivitamin powder on them. I moved him to the basking spot so he could warm up. He didn't seem interested at all in his veggies. Also, when he walked this morning he didn't move very smoothly. He kind of wobbled a bit. Is that just because he wasn't warm yet? His nighttime temps were 75 and 71. His basking temp I'm trying to get around 105 right now. His lights are hooked to dimmers so I can turn them down if they get too hot.
Anyway, I'll stop babbling now. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I want to be the best Beardie owner I can.
For more info on my enclosure, check out this thread: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=144711 Since then, the only thing we've changed is we put up some temporary paper on three sides of the tank and we glued the probe down to the basking spot.
I went with the smallest yearling they had. It's a boy and he's about 16" long from tip of head to tip of tail. Is that a good size for a one year old? Is he big enough to eat supers? We ended up buying a box of 1000 crickets for $20 at the store (is that a good price?) and I picked up some collard greens for now, just until I figure out how much he eats. The crickets are in a 10gallon tank with dry cat food to eat and oranges as food/moisture. There are a bunch of egg crate pieces sitting upright against the side w/o the food and moisture. Is that okay for them or should I be feeding them something different?
When we got him home last night he seemed hungry, trying to lick anything that moved so about 2 hours before lights out we offered him 5 crickets which he gobbled up. I figured that was a good sign, correct? I was a little worried because after lights out he went to sleep completely upright. Little hands and head resting on the glass and his back feet on the tank floor. Is that normal?? It looks so uncomfortable. We tried moving him onto a blanket but he went right back to being upright.
This morning I chopped up some collard greens and sprinkled some Reptivite multivitamin powder on them. I moved him to the basking spot so he could warm up. He didn't seem interested at all in his veggies. Also, when he walked this morning he didn't move very smoothly. He kind of wobbled a bit. Is that just because he wasn't warm yet? His nighttime temps were 75 and 71. His basking temp I'm trying to get around 105 right now. His lights are hooked to dimmers so I can turn them down if they get too hot.
Anyway, I'll stop babbling now. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I want to be the best Beardie owner I can.
