Just a Few Starter Questions and Fun Photos!

[AngelicDevil]

I have owned beardie's before, but got out of my reptiles for awhile as my life hit a busy streak. Just now starting to get back into them. I never did a lot of research on beardie morphs though and am looking more into that area this time. Right now I just have a normal bearded dragon. I am pretty sure it's a male, in its juvenile stage. Just got him yesterday Can't think of a good name so suggestions would be great!

Also wondering if there are any good links to bearded dragon morph information.

Are they all recessive genes?
What makes what?
What do you need to breed?

My ultimate goal is to own my own pet facility where I can breed all my own stock of reptiles and small animals so I can guarentee them without fail and teach more people about reptiles. I'm more skilled with the legless species (snakes) so still learning a lot about the beardie's and other lizards. Thanks!

Christina

Chillin on his rock/water bowl

Photo of his set-up. Has a heat lamp and a UV bulb, some sticks to get closer to the heat as well.

Him looking pretty proud of his new giant sized home (compared to his 20 gallon he was in before I got him haha)

Showin off

His eye

 

[Mistyck]

What substrate is he on? Particle substrate isn't good for dragons, as they like to taste and ingest things.

What lights are you using? UVB, and basking...

Other than that he looks good. Nice coloring.

 

[AngelicDevil]

What substrate is he on? Particle substrate isn't good for dragons, as they like to taste and ingest things.

What lights are you using? UVB, and basking...

Other than that he looks good. Nice coloring.

He is on whatever the guy gave me with him, some kind of digestible substrate. I work at Petco though and plan to get something else, just haven't decided on what to get yet.

I got the T5 light for his UVB, and the normal basking bulb for heat.

He had a salad today with greens and carrot slices. Pet store was out of crickets so gave him some mealworms. Yesterday he gobbled down all his crickets in 2 seconds flat haha. About how many a day should I be feeding this guy? He has pooped twice so far... make that three. Fat piles of poo. Seems to be fine

 

[daner923]

Hi there - what T5 bulb is it, exactly? Sadly, many UVB lights are really not great. Also, even though it says "safe for beardies", no particle substrate is good. You should go with tiles, paper towels, or reptile carpet! I personally love tile - it's easy to clean, doesn't smell, and helps trim nails! Please don't feed meal worms - they can cause serious impactions, and are also nutritionally useless. Stick with the crickets! What are you temps? And are you using some sort of night lamp? Colored night bulbs can disturb their sleep!

 

[Spencer]

I agree with everything daner923 said.

The best UVB are the flourescent tube bulbs. Reptisun 10.0 or Arcadia 12%

It is best if he is about six inches from the UVB and the UVB should not be on a screen or glass or anything.

Please please get the sand or calci sand out right away. instead use paper towels.

Do you have a probe thermometer? The dial thermometers are not accurate.

please never feed mealworms even though the petstore you work in may say it's ok. It's really really not. and he can have as many crickets as he wants twice a day for fifteen minutes. Make sure you are doing the proper dusting of calcium and vitamins. I do calcium one feeding a day for five days and vitamins on weekends.

have fun with your new beardie!

 

[AngelicDevil]

Hi there - what T5 bulb is it, exactly? Sadly, many UVB lights are really not great. Also, even though it says "safe for beardies", no particle substrate is good. You should go with tiles, paper towels, or reptile carpet! I personally love tile - it's easy to clean, doesn't smell, and helps trim nails! Please don't feed meal worms - they can cause serious impactions, and are also nutritionally useless. Stick with the crickets! What are you temps? And are you using some sort of night lamp? Colored night bulbs can disturb their sleep!

Well I looked it up. This is the one I just bought at Petco:
http://www.petco.com/product/14564/...ture.aspx?CoreCat=MM_ReptileSupplies_Lighting

I can take it back and return it if its not right. Petco does carry the Reptisun 10.0 but my particular store does not so I guess I will have to ask if they can custom order it. Should I keep this one until then as I have no other way to get one?

I have already taken out the substrate and replaced it with paper towels. Going to get measurements on this odd shaped tank and see if I can get some slate or something cut to fit the bottom of it as the carpet I hate! (can't cut it easily to fit this tank and I hate the colors xD) What kind of tile/slate do you recommend?

The meal worms I fed because we are out of crickets until next week :/ All we have besides that are wax worms, meal worms, and I think super worms. But he is eating a lot of salad bits with it all! I wonder if he would eat the dead crickets in the can until I can order some more?

I have a red night bulb in the lamp... doesn't seem to disturb him at all, he knocks out like a rock the second I turn it on haha.

Temp where the sticks meet is 87 degrees with the day bulb on, then on the ground its around 84 degrees. Cool side stays on 74 degrees pretty evenly but he only goes over to that side for sleep!

 

[AngelicDevil]

I agree with everything daner923 said.

The best UVB are the flourescent tube bulbs. Reptisun 10.0 or Arcadia 12%

It is best if he is about six inches from the UVB and the UVB should not be on a screen or glass or anything.

Please please get the sand or calci sand out right away. instead use paper towels.

Do you have a probe thermometer? The dial thermometers are not accurate.

please never feed meal worms even though the pet store you work in may say it's ok. It's really really not. and he can have as many crickets as he wants twice a day for fifteen minutes. Make sure you are doing the proper dusting of calcium and vitamins. I do calcium one feeding a day for five days and vitamins on weekends.

have fun with your new beardie!

How would I mount the UVB to the glass inside the tank?

Already took out the substrate, it wasn't sand but it was a partical substrate (some kind of digestible stuff). Right now I just have down paper towels.

If I do not have access to crickets this week what should I feed him? Christmas rush took all our crickets and I didn't know, I was out of town and got this guy on my way home. Went in for crickets and NONE! I do have the repti cal stuff to dust the crickets with though!

 

[daner923]

If he will eat the canned crickets, they are temporarily fine. Not as good as live, and he may not like them since they don't move. You could use SOME wax worms, but be careful as they are high in fat. They are more of a treat than a staple. You can definitely get tile cut to fit the tank. You can mount the UVB light on the glass along the back of the tank using 3M command hooks. You would just need a 10-15 dollar under cabinet fluorescent fixture from Walmart or Home Depot. He really needs to be closer to it anyways - 6 to 8 inches. You should just order the Reptisun 10.0 online, by the way. The tubes run about $50 in stores, but only about $30 online. Just search around a bit. Once you order it, you can turn off the old light until it arrives. But honestly, at the current distance and with the screen, he is getting little to no benefit from it anyways. I noticed in your pics that he like the rock. Does he spend much time basking up on the logs? Also, your temps are much too low. The basking spot should be 105-115 F, averaging around 110. The warm side of the tank should be 90-95, and the cool side should be around 80. Unfortunately, because of the height of that tank, you may need some serious bulb wattage to reach those temps. I still recommend ditching the red light, even if he seems to be sleeping okay. Unless it is under 65 in the tank overnight, you don't need anything. If it drops below 65, you can use a ceramic heat emitter, which has no light. But if he's sleeping okay now, it's up to you of course!

 

[sweetpea1981]

My baby used to sleep like a rock with a night light too, but after a few weeks, the light did start bothering his sleep, plus his tank without the light doesn't go below 70 (cause we bought a little space heater for the lizard/computer room and have it set to 75 degrees so it keeps the room at a good temp) so now we don't use the night lamp, can't have my babies grumpy from lack of good sleep.

 

[BrendaKay]

We used to have the red light on all the time too. He would sleep through it forthe first couple weeks but then we noticed he was awake at all hours of the night. Returned it to the store and told them that bear dies could indeed see red light. They were stunned but I'm sure still selling them for the same reason.