my first baby beardie...

[argolupin]

ok, so i am horible about impluse buying things. So i was at the reptile show this weekend and brought home a baby blood red beardie that is only a month old. right now he is in a critter keeper inside my old leopard gecko tank and has a heat lamp and uv light. I was wondering if a cage can be to big for a baby beardie. I have a 15 long that i would love to set up for him but have been trying to scrub it clean first as i used to keep feeder mice in it. i have all the lights i just know some reptiles don't do well with too much space as babies and i want to give this little guy the best chance of success. it's belly area is the size of the first part of my thumb as an idea of how tiny it is.i have seen it eat and drink, and it is very active. i have branches and hides for it as well as a humidity box. I am going to keep it on paper towel for now until it is older and by then i hope to have my home made cages finnished. Any caging advice helps.

 

[kjinxx2]

I'd love to help you out

First, the bigger the better - with any bearded dragon. You're going to have to eventually move your dragon into a 40 gallon breeder (18" X 36") at minimum. I'd start with that, personally.

What kind of UVB light are you using? What are you using to measure temps? I see that you have a decent number of posts, so I'm guessing you have some kind of basic knowledge for keeping BDs, if not, I'll help you

 

[ClydesGirl]

I would ditch the humidity box for sure. Beardies need low humidity, since they are desert dwellers. Ideally you want to keep it under 30%, but definitely under 37-ish%.

 

[kFitz]

Babies can get overwhelmed with too big of a tank. I wouldn't start out with anything smaller than a 20 gallon. If you have to purchase an enclosure, I would get the adult size tank (40 gallon breeder at a minimum, 4'x2'x2' is ideal), and just partition off part of the tank to make is size appropriate for your baby. The 15 gallon will work for a short time though.

 

[argolupin]

i have an adult that was a rescue and i have been battling MBD with him however i have not raised one from a baby. i also live in a very dry area so my lizards and snake have had trouble shedding out here which is what the humidity hide is for (its a plastic tubberware with a hole in the lid cut out and some moss moistened in it that he can hide inif he wants, but there are 2 other regular hide in my tanks as well). I am using a florescent tube for uvb light and i have a temp gun from ProExotics that i use multiple times a day to check tempatures in all my cages so i know if anything is failing. i just replaced the tube a month ago, i had it to lighten up my leopard gecko tank but have just moved it to the baby beardie. it is a 10.0 uvb. i am building enclosures simalar to the crossfire enclosures with fake rock back grounds just with the new job it is taking me longer than i expected to finnish. also i have been told that it is hard to get baby beardies to eat when they are so small (i would gestimate he is around 3-4 inches tip of nose to tip of tail).

 

[kFitz]

just make sure you're feeding tiny crickets. if he's that small, i would go with pinheads if you're buying in bulk. That way, even when they get bigger, they'll still be small enough for your little guy.

 

[argolupin]

yeah, i have to have pinheads for some of my baby tarantulas anyways, infact i was putting in an order this week. also, i was wondering about dubia roaches, my adult beardie loves them as a treat, but i wasn't sure if it was ok to feed tiny nymphs to this little guy, i live in an apartment so i can't raise any right now until we move out but there are a couple of places aroung here i believe sell them. i have been thinking about switching my tarantulas over to them and was just wondering if it was ok for the baby...

 

[kFitz]

if your guy is only 3-4 inches long, I would hold off on the nymphs for a little, but they'd be fine once he was 6-7 inches head to tail. the general rule of thumb is never feed anything that is longer than the distance between your dragon's eyes. When they're that little, their intestines are all twisted and turned inside them, increasing the risk for impaction if fed too big of feeders. Once they get to be 16 inches head to tail, their intestines straighten out, lessening the risk of impaction. That's why you'll see on here the recommendation not to feed superworms until they're that long. These little guys grow quick though, so you'll be able to feed the nymphs soon enough.