Hi everyone,
First off - I thought I had done all of my research before purchasing my daughter's bearded dragon. Lighting always seemed to be confusing with the different bulbs/basking/UVA/UVB, etc. I knew that they needed a cool side & a basking side.
When I went to purchase all of my supplies from the exotic store in my area, the 2 people that helped me have bearded dragons themselves. They had me get the MVB Powersun 160W bulb for my 40gal tank & a red bulb (100W) for nighttime. The warm side of the aquarium is around 90 & the cool side is at 80. That is going up, as his bulb has only been on for 1 hour now.
Yesterday was our first day having him, he's about 4 months old & he was active & ate great yesterday. The temp in his cage got up to 100, its heating up faster today. When I turned off his light last night - he climbed down off his driftwood and kinda went in circles like a dog, pushing around his bedding and went to sleep.
His driftwood is about 7 inches from the top (or he is when he is on it) but I can lower that - I think I should??
I was told by someone on another forum to purchase a lamp stand - because - when moving the top back and forth yesterday to get him out, feed him , etc. The lamp started to melt the center rod to the aquarium! My husband and I didn't realize it was plastic. The mesh screen is just fine.
The last thing that bothers me is the substrate - I had been looking forward to just using paper towels and going to home depot for some tile. At the exotic store they are on Carefresh (I used to build large cages for my guinea pigs and I don't have them anymore - wasn't really looking forward to have that stuff in my house again). The woman suggested I keep using it because that is what they are used to in the store.
I decided to use it this week until he is used to his cage - but I already don't like it. I don't want loose stuff he can ingest & it is impossible to see the crickets - although he does a great job at getting them, I just get paranoid he will miss a couple and I won't see. I know I can feed him in a seperate container.
I have the crickets in a 10 gallon - I was going to order them online - but AGAIN was told they only eat about 15 crickets a DAY?? I was prepared to feed him 3 times that. I have all the stuff to make the crickets healthy.
I orded Phoenix worms online - is that ok?
Ugh - I did this with my guinea pigs 8 years ago - went in and listened to the store person - came home and changed everything. I didn't want this happening again so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
And he is pretty grumpy right now - puffing up, etc. But he doesn't stay like that and we've only had him less than 24 hours.
Thanks - Jessica
First off - I thought I had done all of my research before purchasing my daughter's bearded dragon. Lighting always seemed to be confusing with the different bulbs/basking/UVA/UVB, etc. I knew that they needed a cool side & a basking side.
When I went to purchase all of my supplies from the exotic store in my area, the 2 people that helped me have bearded dragons themselves. They had me get the MVB Powersun 160W bulb for my 40gal tank & a red bulb (100W) for nighttime. The warm side of the aquarium is around 90 & the cool side is at 80. That is going up, as his bulb has only been on for 1 hour now.
Yesterday was our first day having him, he's about 4 months old & he was active & ate great yesterday. The temp in his cage got up to 100, its heating up faster today. When I turned off his light last night - he climbed down off his driftwood and kinda went in circles like a dog, pushing around his bedding and went to sleep.
His driftwood is about 7 inches from the top (or he is when he is on it) but I can lower that - I think I should??
I was told by someone on another forum to purchase a lamp stand - because - when moving the top back and forth yesterday to get him out, feed him , etc. The lamp started to melt the center rod to the aquarium! My husband and I didn't realize it was plastic. The mesh screen is just fine.
The last thing that bothers me is the substrate - I had been looking forward to just using paper towels and going to home depot for some tile. At the exotic store they are on Carefresh (I used to build large cages for my guinea pigs and I don't have them anymore - wasn't really looking forward to have that stuff in my house again). The woman suggested I keep using it because that is what they are used to in the store.
I decided to use it this week until he is used to his cage - but I already don't like it. I don't want loose stuff he can ingest & it is impossible to see the crickets - although he does a great job at getting them, I just get paranoid he will miss a couple and I won't see. I know I can feed him in a seperate container.
I have the crickets in a 10 gallon - I was going to order them online - but AGAIN was told they only eat about 15 crickets a DAY?? I was prepared to feed him 3 times that. I have all the stuff to make the crickets healthy.
I orded Phoenix worms online - is that ok?
Ugh - I did this with my guinea pigs 8 years ago - went in and listened to the store person - came home and changed everything. I didn't want this happening again so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
And he is pretty grumpy right now - puffing up, etc. But he doesn't stay like that and we've only had him less than 24 hours.
Thanks - Jessica