Less than week old new owner! (Some questions)

[KobeDragon]

Hey everyone! (Sorry if this becomes long, but I'm an excited new owner with some important questions, and thank you ahead if you begin to read!)

I'm a brand new baby bearded dragon owner, I've had my beardie named Kobe for about four days now. Kobe is very young and small he's probably a few inches bigger than my hand with his tail probably being at least five inches or more itself. I have to admit this experience is better than anything I could ever thought of. I did a lot of research before going out and buying Kobe but the past three days I find myself doing more and more research. Any free time I have I'm free roaming the web to try to find great advice on beardies.

:mrgreen:

A little about my little guy.. when I first came home with Kobe I left him be in his tank for about two days before trying to handle him and pick him up. He has eaten every day since I he's been in his new environment.. I keep the crickets in a small white bowl high enough where they can't free roam and attack him but low enough where he can clearly see them in there. He usually jumps in the small bowl eats about 3-5 crickets at a time and then climbs back up on his log. I also pet his head a few times before every feeding. This past day I went to the store to buy some mustard greens, dandelion greens, and turnip greens and attempted to feed him some veggies on just the third day. I cut up mustard greens for him and he ate them up right away, and again he waits for me to pet his head one time and then he goes right for the small piece of veggie. While I was at the store I bought some grapes for a treat but haven't fed him any. My plan on food is going to be crickets-veggie-crickets-crickets throughout the day if possible if my work schedule permits it. I plan on just giving bigger meals on days I have work and feed him before I leave for a usual 6 to 8 hour work day. I went to the store and got some calcium powder for the crickets which I plan on using every few days. Brand is Flukers Calcium by the way and I fed him the crickets with it on and he went right for it again, but seemed not to eat as many crickets this time around. The remaining crickets he does not eat he usually leaves and does not come back for them and if I leave them there until the next feeding he attacks the new ones and not the old ones. He really does just jumps in the little bowl, takes what he wants and then leaves.

By the end of the first night of having him he was already shedding, his whole back came off as one piece in about 24 hour span or less. I didn't want to scare him with a bath yet because I'm not sure how he is going to respond to it but I've been dipping my finger in his water bowl and slowly rubbing his back to get him hydrated. It looks like he has completed his shedding process because I can't see any extras in between his toes or tail. He didn't make any bowel movements for a while but today (third day) he took his fist bowel movement. It was actually right after he ate his calcium coated crickets and some pieces of veggies is when he went the bathroom. It wasn't immediate after but soon after. I plan on giving him his first bath tomorrow earlier in the day. I hope he responds well - any advice for the first bath?

As for lighting and heating it seems everything is okay. I may upgrade to a ReptiSUN 10.0 because I have read that the UAV coil lights are worse for the beardies and the ones that expand across the tank is better. It is worth the purchase? Should I upgrade my basking light as well if I go along and buy it? My little guy is usually on his log during the day basking at times here and there, and he does choose to go into the cooler side at times. At night he actually prefers to be on the cooler side where he sleeps on top of leaves, or like tonight where he is sleeping against the glass for the first time!

Finally for the best of all, the handling with this little guy was great! By the end of the second night I was petting him inside his cage trying him to learn not to be scared and he ended up closing his eyes while I was petting him for the first time. About an hour later I tried again and to my success it happened basically on touch and with gut feeling picked him right up. Every time since then has been better and better every time I let him out. Today I took him about four or five times for about 10-20 minutes each time. I'm in constant communication with him when I'm handling him, always find myself talking to him. I also set up a radio near his tank so that he can listen to music during the day. Is this a good idea? He was also watching us play video games today because I have my TV set up where he can see the TV pretty clearly. When my friend came over to visit Kobe responded perfectly fine with another human holding him after meeting him for just for the first time. He does want to run and he ends up running up my arms a lot - but as soon as I put him back on my hand he usually calms down. Tonight he was really great.. I ended up changing his lights and putting his night UAV light on with him right on the shoulder and he wasn't moving a muscle. He's also fallen asleep on my hands a few times as well in the very small amount of times I've held him.

Only signs of aggression I've seen him from is he's puffed his beard a few times. From this short time of owning him I have not yet seen him do arm waving, hiss, head bob, etc. I try adding a 3D background to his tank today but I think it might have scared him a little and I ended up removing it. I didn't like the quality of it anyway so I'm not upset about it and I get a lot better vibes off him when it's removed. Besides that, pretty lucky here. Knock on wood!

I'm sorry for making this super long but I've needed to get some thoughts or any improvements to make! I want to make sure this little beardie lives a long, healthy and happy life. Based off the information given is there any advice you can give me? I've tried to cover the basics - food and digestion, sleep, environment, handle and care, etc. Any tips or pointers can help even if it's just some random great tip to know when it comes to owning a beardie, please mention! Any help is greatly appreciated and hope everyone has a great day!

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. Congrats on your little guy . As for the uvb you definitely need a reptisun 10.0 Tube. The coils don't give off the proper amount of uvb. They also have been known to cause eye, appetite and lethargy in dragons.

 

[KobeDragon]

Hi. Congrats on your little guy . As for the uvb you definitely need a reptisun 10.0 Tube. The coils don't give off the proper amount of uvb. They also have been known to cause eye, appetite and lethargy in dragons.

Thanks for replying.. I was getting worried I wrote way too much! But I ended up going out and buying the Reptisun 10.0 UVB T5 HO this morning. I can't use it until Friday morning because I couldn't find any UVB fixtures in my area but one of the stores ordered it for me to arrive on Friday. Friday would be about six days of having him, when I put the Reptisun UVB light in should I take my little guy out? I don't want to make him nervous and have him not get used to his environment.

Also I went out and brought a a flood light that is about 120 watts (86 actually used) at Walmart for a new basking light. Should I go back and buy a lower watt one? I was a bit worried about his heat levels I want him to have maximum heat. My little guy also loves to eat veggies.. seems like he can't get enough of them. How much veggies can I feed to a baby that is a healthy amount? I found out today that he is preferring and eating a lot more when I let the crickets run around his tank.. I usually drop one and let him eat one by one because I don't want a bunch running around because of his stress levels.

 

[destiny1998]

Thats good you bought the reptisun . As for the basking light you just have to get one take the temps with a tep gun or digital with a wire probe and find out the temps on the basking surface. I had to make at least a half dozen trips before I found the right bulb. :lol:

 

[Taterbug]

Kobe is freakin adorable

I'm glad you got the T5 light, they are great. What size and fixture did you get? You should be able to set it up and have him in the enclosure unless you are needing to do any modifications, then for safety put him in something else so no accidents befall him. If your fixture has a reflector you can mount the light outside of the screen even.

It's great that he likes his greens! You can offer him salad at all times, and while he is so little as many crickets as he wants a few times per day. I would try offering him lots of different things (even small amounts) so that he learns to eat many foods rather than grow up to be picky Since he has already figured out the dish feeding you can also leave some for him when you are at work, and let him hunt them when you are home to remove extras. I would do this for my guy when he was a little one to make sure if he was hungry he had access to food while I was out.

While he is little and growing you'll want to lightly dust his crickets daily (or according to the package instructions) with the calcium powder and a couple times per week with a multivitamin. You can also feed the crickets the same veggies to boost their nutritional value. The taste may be different to him, if he seems too put off by it you can try other brands. I use repashy and it's sort of fruity smelling.

I don't bath my guy unless he is dirty, but you could try using a small Tupperware and bath him right in his cage at first. Pepper got really freaked out by sinks/tubs when he was little so I've always used a plastic shoe box - more sanitary as well. If you drip the water on his snout, rather than rub his back he may lick it up. Dragons do not absorb water through their skin (and probably not the vent either...) so any way you can encourage him to drink is good, be it in a bath, from drips on the snout, or from a bowl (sometimes splashing the water will get them to notice it).

Your basking light wattage will depend on what temps it can reach, it takes some trial and error. You can get an inline dimmer (for lamps) if you need to bump it down a little.