Meet my Dragon - new pics added

[NateS]

Hi all. I found this forum last week in my searches for proper care for beardies and it has been very helpful. I thought I would join and see what else I can learn. I've answered some of the questions that I believe I am supposed to below the two pics. Please give me any tips that you think I should know/do. I really want to make sure she is properly taken care of. Oh, and she is going to be my class pet in my 5th grade classroom during the school year.

Oh, and excuse the background lighting...these were Christmas pictures I did last year of her.

My Dragon is about 7-8 years old

I have had it for 1 day, but my dad has had it since it was a baby.

Not sure on length but she's a big girl compared to other adults I've seen.

It is female as far as I can tell (one lump in the center of the base of her tail instead of two lumps with an indention in the center)

55 gallon aquarium but I am thinking of extending the height and making it a two level with a ramp to the upper level.

Playground Sand but I am looking at tile. For now, the sand is at least better than the small round pellet stuff my dad was using.

I have one ZooMed Repti basking spot lamp also puts out UVA light and I have a ReptiSun 10.0 18" tube but

I have to make a trip to Lowes today to get the housing.

Bulbs are brand new.

UVB will probably be about 8" from the lizard and the heat lamp probably about 4-6".
Basking temps I am playing with but right now it's about 105. Trying to get it closer to 100.
About 87 degrees on the cool side.

I have one stick-on "bar" thermometer on the cool side, one dial on the hot side and another stick-on that isn't stuck that I place in the basking spot to gauge temps.

I take my basking temps right on top of the log where she can bask, or I place the thermometer on her back while she is basking.

No heat rock or heat pad, though I do own a heat rock (from my dad).

The dragon has been eating RepCal adult bearded dragon food for a long time (most of it's life). I have recently purchased a new food with smaller pellets and some mixed dried crickets/worms because she doesn't seem to be digesting the large pellets well (probably my dad's poor care).

Right now, I am leaving food in there until I can get her on a regular eating pattern. So far she has not eaten since I brought her home yesterday.

Bowel movements seem to be once a day but she is passing what appears to be full pellets that have not been digested. I am hoping this due to temps too low and no source of UVB/UVA light which should fix itself hopefully.

I bathed her Friday night while at my parents and plan to bathe her once a week. She seemed to really enjoy it. I do not mist her other than bathing...should I be? I do offer a water dish though and she occasionally drinks from it.

I haven't had a vet check or fecal done. Waiting a month or so for her to settle in and get used to all these changes.




Now that I answered all of those, you can see the poor girl's care was not great. My dad didn't clean the aquarium much and left an auto water in the cage. She had absolutely no source of UV and half her cage was dark all day because she only had the one heat lamp with a 90w household bulb on one side.

Ever since I gave her a bath (she was shedding and couldn't get the rest off...the bath did) she has perked up and gotten a lot more active. Now that she has a fresh and clean cage, she is very active and is running all over the cage, climbing on the rock wall backdrop, etc.... I plan to build some new stuff for her enclosure but for now it is set up pretty nice.

 

[bambichik39]

Aw I'm glad you took her in your care! Everything sounds great, but I would change her diet! I don't use those pellet things at all, really unnecessary when they are getting the proper nutrition through their salads and live food. I'd start slow with her, since shes not use to it, but I'd highly recommend it! Her cage sounds like its got a lot of nice things! I'd suggest Lowe's to get the tile, they will cut it for you for free if you buy it there. Just remember to measure before hand, and take into consideration that a tank may be 36'' long, but thats outside to outside, you have to take about 1/4" off extra to get them actually in the tank easily. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[NateS]

Aw I'm glad you took her in your care! Everything sounds great, but I would change her diet! I don't use those pellet things at all, really unnecessary when they are getting the proper nutrition through their salads and live food. I'd start slow with her, since shes not use to it, but I'd highly recommend it! Her cage sounds like its got a lot of nice things! I'd suggest Lowe's to get the tile, they will cut it for you for free if you buy it there. Just remember to measure before hand, and take into consideration that a tank may be 36'' long, but thats outside to outside, you have to take about 1/4" off extra to get them actually in the tank easily. Good luck and keep us posted!

Thank you. I was wondering about the pellets. I see that dragon's should be getting a lot of their water from their veggies. Mine gets no veggies. A few questions after browsing today if someone can help.

What are the best veggies. I understand no lettuce of any kind. Collards I think I saw mentioned somewhere are good? Does she have to get live food as well? I'm in a bit of a remote area with no good pet stores...hard for me to get live food which is originally why my dad moved her to pellets.

No heat rock right? I pulled it out as soon as I re-did the cage.

Do I not need a water bowl? I was planning on doing a bath once a week....should I change this to twice a week (say Mon and Friday?) to help with hydration and then remove the water bowl?

Oh, and thanks for the tip about Lowe's cutting the tile...that will be a big help.

 

[NateS]

Oh, one other thing. Should I be trimming or filing her claws? Some of them are really long and just look too long in my opinion.

 

[bambichik39]

http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html That website lists what foods are safe, even tells you how often you can feed them. I personally don't use a water bowl, as most beardies dont drink from sitting water. Try and bath at least two times a week, usually every other day is better.

Heat rocks arent a good idea, so good call on not using it. They don't sense heat from their bellies, they sense it from above, so they could easily burn themselves with one.

I've never heard of a beardie being healthy and not eating live bugs. Best thing you can do if you dont live around a pet store is order them online. You can order any type of feeders off the internet and get more for your money that way. My beardie loves crickets, supers, and did well on roaches although he no longer gets those. Also can feed reptiworms although I found that option pretty expensive as a stable and therefore only feed those occasionally. you can search on the forum for reputable places to order from. I have ordered from reptilefood.com with success but found it too hot in my area this time of year to order offline. I personally just go to the petstore and buy weekly as I'm not home during the day enough to order offline and be here to receive them before the heat gets to them. As an adult they eat more greens than live food so I don't find it too expensive to do it this way. Good luck!

 

[NateS]

http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html That website lists what foods are safe, even tells you how often you can feed them. I personally don't use a water bowl, as most beardies dont drink from sitting water. Try and bath at least two times a week, usually every other day is better.

Heat rocks arent a good idea, so good call on not using it. They don't sense heat from their bellies, they sense it from above, so they could easily burn themselves with one.

I've never heard of a beardie being healthy and not eating live bugs. Best thing you can do if you dont live around a pet store is order them online. You can order any type of feeders off the internet and get more for your money that way. My beardie loves crickets, supers, and did well on roaches although he no longer gets those. Also can feed reptiworms although I found that option pretty expensive as a stable and therefore only feed those occasionally. you can search on the forum for reputable places to order from. I have ordered from reptilefood.com with success but found it too hot in my area this time of year to order offline. I personally just go to the petstore and buy weekly as I'm not home during the day enough to order offline and be here to receive them before the heat gets to them. As an adult they eat more greens than live food so I don't find it too expensive to do it this way. Good luck!

Thank you so much...you have been a huge help. I do have a pet store about 20 minutes from me that I forgot all about until about 10 minutes ago so I will see if they have crickets. Is it okay to do something like superworms all of the time or do I need to switch it up? My backdrop has some cracks and crevices that crickets could hide and I'd be afraid to not get them all out when I'm done.

So, see if I've got it. I am going to choose a daily diet of some kind of mix of the following:

Collard Greens
Mustard Greens
Kale
Turnip Greens
Escarole
Alphalpha plant

Then 3-4 times a week (Monday, Wed, Fri) she can have live food and I think I will just give her a bath those same days. That way I'll have the daily routine plus the 3 time a week routine of bath + live food.

 

[bambichik39]

yeah that all sounds good. I usually switch between supers and crickets. I'd give her a few supers and see how she digest them first since she hasn't been on live food. Some people here do use supers as a stable, I switch it back and forth. You can buy a cheap tote and feed her crickets in there, that way there arent any left over in the tank. You dont want any extras running around her tank at night time because they could start to nibble at her while shes sleeping and cause some damage. Also, not sure if I answered the question about clipping her nails... I personally clip my beardies but you do have to be careful so you don't over cut them and make them bleed. I only snip off the very black tip if its overgrown the white backing where you can see the vessel.

Heres an image I found online, I'd actually cut it a little below that arrow so they arent too short. I use normal nail clippers for people and they work great. I usually do it right after a bath, that way my beardies more relaxed and i think it makes the nails softer (similar to how ours get soft). Hope this helps.

 

[NateS]

Perfect. I am going to give her another bath tonight and will try clipping her nails after the bath. I am going to see if the pet store has any superworms. I'm aware to stay away from meal worms unless it's an occasional treat or emergency.

I will try to take some better pictures of her and her viv tonight and measure her so I can post how long she is. Thanks again for all your help bambichick.

 

[NateS]

About my Dragon's behavior (tell me if this would be considered a normal behavior after a move). In her cage, she doesn't move much. She will occasionally move around and get active. Today, she didn't move at all. Literally, she was laying in the same spot at 5:00pm as she was when I left at 7am. My wife said that she was awake and alert, just didn't move. I got her up and force her to move around by just placing her on the other side of the tank and gave her some superworms. She actually ate 8 of them (that's all I offered) but she refuses to eat her greens. She looked at them pretty hard but would not eat them.

When I got her out of the cage, she was very, very active. She climbed right up my shirt and onto the back of the couch to look outside. I moved her around and she kept climbing to the top of whatever she was on and very alert and active. I put her back in her cage and she hasn't moved...it has been a good 35-40 minutes and she hasn't moved from where I laid her.

 

[NateS]

I added more pics over in the "Photo Expressions" section.

http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=150895