Just brought a beardie home

[shaggy]

We just came home with our new beardie a couple of hours ago. I have learned a lot from reading this board - what a great site. The first thing I found out is that I have a fine starter rig but it won't last long. It's a 20 gallon long aquarium and it sounds like I am going to need to roughly triple the size down the road. Are there any recommendations? I am not super handy so I am a little hesitant to build one myself.
This guy is young and I did not buy from a breeder - just the local pet store. We watched this one get handled and did so ourselves first and they have a health certification policy. How do you gender the really young ones? We don't want to give a name until we know and they told us that this one isn't old enough. Apparently the habitat suits so far - I gave some crickets and he/she went right after them. They told us they were feeding about five crickets several times a day but this one chowed down on ten in one sitting and probably would have eaten more. Are those Phoenix worms any good to give in addition? Any special advice for a real newbie? I will post pictures soon.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Welcome to the Family !
Okay first things first, please give us a total run down of the supplies you have for this baby.
Lights, what kind, what brand, and how close can the baby get to them ?
Substrate: what is it ?
Thermometers: round dial, or probe ?

Now that is out of the way, here is the basic rules for babies
Feeding, 3 times a day, as many insects as they will eat in 15 minutes. Length of feeder no longer than the distance between babie's eyes.
sprinkle calcium with d3 first meal for 5 days.
sprinkle vitamins first meal 2 days.

So, that is calcium for 5 days a week, and vitamins 2 days a week, don't mix them together.
Here is a wonderful site to help you choose healthy foods for him/her:
http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

Green is daily staple, and Black is treats, to be offered 1-2 times a week. Salad should be available all day.

Your temps should be as close to this: Basking 100-110* ( directly under the basking and UVB bulbs) warm side 85-95*F, cool side 75-85 , over night temps no less than 65*F.
Lights should be turned off at night, and if temps fall below 65* use a Ceramic Heat Emitter.

Lights should run 12-14 hours a day, with lights off for the night.

Bathing. You should offer a warm bath (90-100*F) 3-4 times a week in water up to the shoulders ( always supervise totally as dragons can drown in the teensyist amount of water.) for 15 - 20 minutes. Their tail should be submerged as the vent ( where the poo comes out) is where the water in taken in for hydration.

So, get back to us with those answers, and see if your parameters meet this advice!
Welcome once again !
Janie.

 

[shaggy]

Wow - thank you. That was a quick response.
Lights - reptisun 5.0 in a Fluker fixture (plan to go to a long flourescent as soon as I can). Basking is an infrared 100w, also in a fluker. I bought a regular basking spotlight at 50w after reading some of the posts out here - don't want to keep this baby up at night - but I couldn't get the temperature high enough with it. Plan to revisit that - can I use a regular incandescent? The basking is about 10" away from the highest point in the basking spot and the UVB is about 12".
Temperature checked with a probe - about 85-88 on the warm side, 106 at the highest basking and 75-78 on the cool side. I have the air on here (in VA and it is running in the 90s outside)but I set it on 72 so the house temperature is not likely to get below that.
Substrate is a cage carpet - kind of like Astroturf but really low knap to protect the claws.
Small feeder crickets - I have stuff to gut load them and they fit the size recommendations.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Hello and Welcome!!! Now wheres the pictures at? :lol:

 

[harharley97]

congrats on new berdie home that tank will do for a while then yes time to up grade here is a pic of my 20 long one of three different size set ups i have

 

[shaggy]

Thank you for the welcome - here is our new beardie. Just ate some breakfast and now relaxing in the sun. Sorry the pic is so small - this is new to me. I am working on getting bigger ones as normal.

 

[shaggy]

That looks good - I love the background.

 

[harharley97]

nice it will grow quick concrats again

 

[zebraflavencs]

I noticed that the thermometer you have is the round dial kind. It isn't really that good, so you will want to invest in a probe digital thermometer or a temp gun. I got my temp gun at the local harbor freight store.
Janie.

 

[harharley97]

do also have probe (acurite)not in pic cause in another tank at that moment but thanks good looking out

 

[zebraflavencs]

Just keeping the world safe for thermometers
Janie.