I have my first Bearded Dragon and I have a few questions

[ownedbyfina]

I purchased my first Bearded Dragon on July 31st and she is beautiful. She is very sweet and loves to be held. I have never seen her beard or heard her hiss. She is still in the same enclosure but I have made a few changes.

The enclosure is an Exo-Terra. The measurements are 36"w x 18"d x 24"h. There was a structure in it that took up most of the inside. She had very little room to move, so I removed the structure and replaced it with a slate hide and a tree in her basking area. There is also a live Jade plant in there with her. I covered the floor with linoleum tiles for easy cleaning. There are 2 pieces of slate so that she can keep her nails somewhat filed. She has a reptisun 10.0 UVB light and a 100 watt heat lamp.

Fina just turned a year old on August 28th. She is about 15" long and weighs 254 grams. I wish I had weighed and measured her when I got her. I just weighed her for the first time today and plan to do it weekly. She gets Phoenix worms every other day and her salad mix (mustard and turnip greens, grapes, apples and a few pieces of carrot chopped up in a food processor) every day. She also gets 25 superworms a week, spread out over the whole week.

Her basking area is 100 degrees consistently. Her warm area is 85-92 and her cool area is 80-85. She rarely goes to the cool side. All lights are on from 6am to 8pm.

She is bathed for at least 20 minutes every other day but most times longer because she doesn't show any desire to get out of the bath.

She is having her first shed since I got her. It started with her tail. It has completely shed. She is a faded color from her back legs to the middle of her body and on her front legs and head (I have provided links to the pictures).

She is stressed from all of the changes. I hold her a lot because she seems to enjoy it and I also take her outside.

My questions are:

How long will it take her to completely shed?

Some days she will eat her Phoenix worms, she will always eat the superworms but she will rarely eat her salad mix. Is this normal? Her previous owner had her on mustard greens and Phoenix worms but she has never been interested in the mustard greens since I had her.

Is there anything that I can do to help her get through the stress?

Here are the links to her pictures:

http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag63/ownedbyfina/IMG_0213_zps7377447f.jpg
http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag63/ownedbyfina/IMG_0212_zpsb466ecf6.jpg
http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag63/ownedbyfina/IMG_0211_zpscc7dbe6b.jpg

 

[jacody]

Most sub-adults shed in sections so be patient.. my 10-mo-old male has slowed down w/ shedding and does exactly that-- in sections slowly.. try diff. kinds of greens, mine like collards w/ grated squash and others swear by bok choy.. any other ?/'s just ask and someone will be sure to help you out.. :wink:

Not sure if you're talking about stress from shedding since you said she doesn't mind being handled?? The warm baths will naturally help in shedding so you're doing well w/ the hydration.. the pics of her are great, looks healthy and happy to me so just keep on doing what you are..

 

[dragonscales]

Ember has never been a big eater of the greens I give her. If it doesn’t move she does not want to bother with it. I normally give her mustard, turnip and collard greens. I just started giving her some cactus pads but only seen her eat one bite of that. She does not even eat squash I offer her. She is very picky

 

[ownedbyfina]

I have finally settled on a salad mix that Fina and my daughters juvenile dragon seem to love. I use a small carrot, 2 yellow squash, an apple, 15 grapes, about 6 collard greens and about 6 mustard greens. I chop all of that pretty fine in a food processor and mix it together. I add a jar of baby food applesauce for a little more natural sweetness and to keep it from being so dry. They seem to love it! I got the recipe from a herp expert that raises bearded dragons and I've also researched to make sure that none of it would harm them. The carrot is pretty small and is spread out over a whole week and between 2 beardies. The rest of it is pretty healthy for them