Lowan update & questions!

[SpiritScale]

Lowan (my little rescue I adopted about five weeks ago) is doing well.
I'm not sure on their exact age, estimated at about 6-8 weeks of age. In the month that Lowan's been home they've nearly tripled in size.

S/he's currently 6.5-7 inches long nose to tail tip and weighs 13 grams---little porker put has gained 3 grams in two days so is finally putting on some weight as for a while all that food was going into length and no weight gain.

Diet is crickets, butterworms and mealies thus far (yes, I know---but s/he tolerates them well, always poops regularly and sometimes we have local shortages of other feeders so they're a back up). Switching the crickets for phoenix worms ASAP (the guy who runs the reptile supply store is just working things out with a new supplier). I'm also going to try out hornworms and skilkworms as soon as I can find some small enough.
Lowan also has a dish of veggies/greens and rep-cal juvenile beardie pellets at all times (will be switching over to Zoo-med all natural juvie pellets once they're finished). 'Salad' is a mix of green beans, arugula, dandelion, collard greens, squash and escarole.
Eats about 20 crickets etc a day (I offer more but that's all they choose to eat)...I don't mind slower growth as Lowan is pooping, active and shedding regularly (every two weeks or so, sometimes more often). Current supplements are calcium with d3 5x weekly and multivitamin 2x weekly.

When I switch over to phoenix worms I was thinking of only doing the calcium with d3 once weekly since the phoenix worms are high in calcium (the multivitamin also contains d3)---thoughts?

Also silly question but I've begun bathing once daily and have noticed since doing that that so far Lowan chooses not to drink when I mist them, assuming that's because Lowan takes in water from soaking so isn't thirsty? If so I'll stop misting.

Temps are about 80-85 cool side and 105 or so hot side. Has access to UV. In the process of getting the 36x18 terrarium (should have it by the first week of December).

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Great to hear he is doing so well & is gaining weight, also.
You could switch to a straight calcium supplement without D3 several times per week & just give D3 a couple of times as long as he has a good UVB light now.
Which multivitamin are you using?
They do absorb fluids through their vents, but not significant amounts. If you can get him to drink from a dropper that would be ideal as well to be sure he is hydrated enough.
His tank set up sounds great, no problems with that. Are you using a digital probe or temp gun to measure the temperatures?

Tracie

 

[SpiritScale]

His UVB light needs to be upgraded so will continue the D3 till then (long story short language laws where I live chased out a lot of the major brands and so getting the 'staple' brands can be extremely difficult, so we end up using what we can find here---his UVB for example is a bulb which I know isn't preferable but I am searching high and low to replace his current brand bulb with ones local beardie breeders have tested and measured to make sure it at least has the correct and lasting UV output--it's a bulb or no UV at all).

The current calcium D3 and multivitamin brand is the exo-terra stuff by hagen---again this is the 'local champion' and even zoo-med can be tough to find. Twice a year our local expo has some of the better stuff and I'll upgrade as I can.

Temps are all measured using a temp gun.

I still mist him a few times a week to see if he'll take it (he drank readily this way before the first time he had a bath---as he also would if I put water drops on his nose)---but as long as he soaks regularly he doesn't want to drink.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Where are you located?
Which UVB light do you use now?
The exo terra brand for vitamins should be fine. Are you using calcium with D3 apart from the vitamins?
He may decide to drink while he is bathing, a lot of them end up doing that. If you do mist him then you can mist him outside of the tank, too. It takes the humidity up too high when misting inside of the tank.

Tracie

 

[SpiritScale]

I'm in Quebec, Canada.
He's currently under (about 6 inches from) an Exo-Terra UVB150 26 watt bulb. Problem being is that this brand does NOT sustain the claimed UV levels for more than a month according to breeders who tested it out. He'll be being switched to a Zilla Desert 50 20 watt bulb this month---which has a higher and more consistent UV output and lasts longer than either the Zoo-Med bulb and tube light they tested.
Everyone around here carries bulbs but not many carry tubes---and if they do they're overpriced, usually outdated models or old stock.
As far as supplements go once the current stock is used up I'll switch him to either Repashy or Rep-Cal supplements as I finally found them.
He does get Calcium with D3 separately, he gets it 5x weekly and the multivitamin 2x weekly.
I do mist him while bathing but usually he's uninterested.

 

[SpiritScale]

Just wanted to update this a bit. Ended up going with the Zoo-Med ReptiSun 10.0 13 watt.