Boywithafishtank
Member
Hello everyone,
About my experience in petkeeping:
I am boywithafishtank from youtube, and as you might already have figured out, I keep fish tanks, and lots of them. I've been into fishkeeping for 8 years now, and as a 16 old boy like me, it has been the majority of my childhood. I've had animals my entire life, from fish to cats to dogs to one of my recent projects: newts.
Since animals always have been such a huge part of my life, my dream is to become a biologist, or well, specifically a marine biologist. Obviously i'm a huge science geek, and I especially love biology. Therefore, I will ALWAYS make sure that whenever I get an animal, I will research, read scientific papers and in general make sure to take very good care of them.
Why I decided to get a bearded dragon:
My friends are also science geeks like me, and they had aquariums for a while, but they suddenly decided to switch over to reptiles. Honestly, i've never really been a fan of reptiles, since i've never been introduced to such kinds of animals before. However, now I have decided to keep a bearded dragon, and hopefully I will continue reptile keeping along with my fishkeeping all throughout my life.
So, I started to dig into alot of scientific papers and i've researched for months now. Of course, I made sure to also check out what other bearded dragon keepers could say about keeping them, and how they have gathered knowledge through years of experience, and hopefully I can gather even more from this forum.
The setup
I will go get my last supplies tommorow, so I am ready for introducing my new bearded dragon. I expect to start with a healthy and friendly adult bearded dragon, since it might be easier than keeping a juvenile. I am currently breeding crickets, so that I do not have to pay as much for live food. For now, I got the heat lamp (UVA, UVB) and the terrarium itself, so there are still a couple of things that needs to be done.
The terrarium:
The terrarium is an Exo Terra 90x45x45 (in centimeters). This way I am sure that my bearded dragon will have enough space to move around. I am not playing around with my animals, i'm going for the big guns. What I personally find great about Exo Terra terrariums is that they retain heat really well. This of course is great for bearded dragons, and also, it has great ventilation. Also, since i've heard many stories of bearded dragons sometimes proving to be Houdini's of the reptile world, Exo Terra terarriums are very secure aswell. Not that he/she can't go lose, but when he/she is in the the terrarium, he/she stays in the terrarium.
Lighting
For the heat bulb, I got a Exo Terra Solar Glo. This bulb is fantastic, and releases the proper amount of heat for the basking spot, aswell as the sufficient amount of UVB and UVA. For now, I'm trying to safely find a way to keep this bulb secure, so that the bearded dragons nor my cats can touch it in any possible way. That being said, i'm also going to get an extra fixture with UV lighting, and hopefully this can be enough lighting for the terrarium.
The scape
I'm hoping to make a very beautiful and attractive landscape, however my options are running low, since bearded dragons really shouldn't have sand due to problems with impaction, but you guys know that! My plan for now is to get sandstone tiles as the "substrate" and maybe have some pieces of wood where I can put sand into and hopefully find some small agave plants to put in. Since agaves are desert plants, they will do really well in a bearded dragon terrarium, and the great thing is, if it gets eaten by the bearded dragon, it really causes no harm, and the plant is very hardy aswell.
For the basking spot, I plan to make it flow into the whole scape, by using the rule of thirds to make a nice transistion from a tall basking spot, to a lower landscape (left to right). And yes, I want it to be setup this way, I aquascape aquariums, and we're very artistical to say the least. The basking spot should preferably consist of wood, since rocks holds heat really well, and I don't want it to unintentionally burn the bearded dragon from underneath, since they have a very weak sense of heat at the bottom of their body. Rather strange, but deal with it.
Of course, the right side is going to be the cool side, where I can place some few rocks where I will try to form some caves where the bearded dragon can hide if neccesary.
Food
As said earlier, I currently breed crickets, and that will be the main insects for them, with the occasional superworms and tomatoworms or maybe roaches. This will hopefully give them the right animal proteins, but as we all know, they should not get to much, there for we have to be sure to get plant protein into the mix. For now, i'm planning on feeding them the most calcium-rich vegetables out there, aswell as some few fruits on rare occasions (not citric fruits of course). I will give them some vitamin-D3 from the calcium supplement which I will add to the food, and of course, as we all know, bearded dragons need vitamin-D3 for calcium metabolization, and in a sneaky effort to get the majority of vitamin-D3 from the UV lighting, I will also add the few amounts through their food, so that they get the vitamins through their digestive system, and that way we can combinate this in a fashion where they will get a proper amount of vitamin-D3, personally I feel like nutrition is very important, and should be taken very seriously, so that what i'm trying to do.
I will get the bearded dragon this weekend, and i'll make sure to keep you guys updated. And of course, I am open to any advice you guys have, so if you have any, please make sure to reply on this topic. Thanks!
Update on the new bearded dragon
So here is a picture of Zilla:
And here is a picture of Zilla in her new enclosure:
Here is a picture of the agave plant that is in the tank (can reccommend this to any other bearded dragon keepers):
So the terrarium is doing really nicely, and Zilla is adapting very well to her new environment. From day one she has been very aware of her sorroundings, aswell as being curious and healthy. She started throwing up the first two days, but that was because the store I bought her from actually fed her too many superworms, which was not too good. However, after the two days passed she started defecating and started acting completely normal. Today she just finished her shed, and she is doing super well.
Here is a picture of the lighting (Arcadia light fixture and ExoTerra Solar Glo 125w):
What I fed her for now:
For the last 7 days i've fed her crickets and a variety of salads. Day one I started only feeding her very few amounts of fresh basil, and this was because of the previous problem that I stated earlier in this topic, with her eating to much at the store already. After she started threwing up, and started getting empty, I gave her some red sweet peppers, romane lettuce, broccoli, basil, cactus, raddichio, and some few slices of pineapple and bananas. I've dosed her salads with calcium and vitamins once, where the other two times (I will do it 3 times a week with calcium) I dusted some crickets for her to hunt down. I have fed her with crickets twice this week, and i'm gonna feed once again today. The first time I fed her with 5 crickets, and fed her with 7 for 2 days ago, and I will give her about 8 or 9 today (although, not dusted with calcium or vitamins to make sure that she wont get a calcium overdosage).
She seems to be well fed, and she absolutely loves getting handfed. If you wonder why I feed pineapple and other fruits once a week, I will now explain in depth, scientifically. Glucose and fructose are important for all omnivores and herbivores, and even to some carnivores who gets it through eating other animals. However, since I don't often feed my feeder crickets fruits, since its really expensive compared to vegetables, she will get it from an entirely different source. Pineapples contain rather large amounts of glucose and fructose too, which will make sure that the dragon will have enough sugar in her system, which helps her body function properly, and increases the amount of blood flow in her body, and as we all know, this is required to transport oxygen in the body. Increasing the amounts of glucose and fructose in her diet, will help her both stay healthy, but also active and not exhausted. Of course, in case of very high amount of glucose and fructose, it can actually create various problems. Therefore, I only feed her fruits once or twice a week, this will be either apple, pineapple or bananas, since they don't really contain any dangerous amounts of citric acids, as a study have shown, they contain about 7% citric acids, when fully ripe that is, where fruits as lemons contain a bit more. Its important to understand the life cycle of pineapples, because the higher the acids, the lower the sugar and vice versa. Although, fresh pineapples are not always the best choice, therefore its better to get canned pineapples, because the liquid in the cans actually keeps the sugars in the fruits, but not the acids.
Most of the time, you will find high quality pineapples in your local supermarkets with a perfect acid-to-sugar ratio, giving the fruit a low amount of citric acid. This should not harm the bearded dragon. However, never feed the bearded dragon very ripe pin lemons or oranges, because they contain very high amounts of citric acids. Citric acids aren't the worst acids in the fruit though, but pineapple contains high amounts of oxalic acids, which binds with calcium, and sadly, avoids it from being absorbed. However, the amount of glucose and fructose in the fruit is well worth the amount of calcium that is gonna be lost in the few hour long process of proper digestion. Calcium will be supplemented on the other days, which will not bind with any oxalic acid (since its not present).
Substrate
I will briefly touch in on this, because I think its important. Since I got a 40 cm bearded dragon, she is adult (although not fully grown) therefore I got some thick sand, with pretty large particles. This will make sure that impaction won't happen immediately, only after eating huge amounts. This is because the large particles takes longer time to clump up. Of course, this sand is silicate free, so it will not hurt her if she eats some by accident. She will always get a few particles into her system, because she licks her environment to check whats going on, but she can only take in fatal amounts of large particles if she eats food with the large particle sand stuck to it. This will be avoided at all costs, and I feed her with live foods in a feeder bin with no substrate, so that she also can chase them around herself, without opposing any danger to herself.
Adaptation and behaviour:
Zilla has been adapting really well, and she loves being handled. I even introduced her to my cats, and she even tries to lay on them, so that she can absorb the heat from the warm and soft kitties. I find this very interesting, seeing a mammal and a reptile suddenly becoming good buddies. The cats apparently do not mind the reptile at all, and seem to ignore its presence. Zilla started being a little shy, but after some few hours she was already trying to investigate her new environment by checking out all the decorations in her enclosure.
After day two where I handled her for the first time, she tried to jump at the glass, in attempt to escape her terrarium, pretty funny. I handle her about half an hour each day, and I usually sit with her on my shoulder or on my arm, and sometimes I set her on the living room floor, and let all of our cats check her out. She enjoys it, don't worry. She has never shown any signs of aggression towards me or any other people, and neither to the cats. Infact, she likes checking out my fish tanks too.
Shedding and color
When I first got her she was very pale, rather grey, and sometimes brown to black. However, after shedding, she got some bright orange, red and yellow colours around her eyes, the sides of her stomach, and even on her beard. Very pretty beardie!
Here are some pictures of her in the living room:
And of course, here is one of my cats checking the beardie out:
About my experience in petkeeping:
I am boywithafishtank from youtube, and as you might already have figured out, I keep fish tanks, and lots of them. I've been into fishkeeping for 8 years now, and as a 16 old boy like me, it has been the majority of my childhood. I've had animals my entire life, from fish to cats to dogs to one of my recent projects: newts.
Since animals always have been such a huge part of my life, my dream is to become a biologist, or well, specifically a marine biologist. Obviously i'm a huge science geek, and I especially love biology. Therefore, I will ALWAYS make sure that whenever I get an animal, I will research, read scientific papers and in general make sure to take very good care of them.
Why I decided to get a bearded dragon:
My friends are also science geeks like me, and they had aquariums for a while, but they suddenly decided to switch over to reptiles. Honestly, i've never really been a fan of reptiles, since i've never been introduced to such kinds of animals before. However, now I have decided to keep a bearded dragon, and hopefully I will continue reptile keeping along with my fishkeeping all throughout my life.
So, I started to dig into alot of scientific papers and i've researched for months now. Of course, I made sure to also check out what other bearded dragon keepers could say about keeping them, and how they have gathered knowledge through years of experience, and hopefully I can gather even more from this forum.
The setup
I will go get my last supplies tommorow, so I am ready for introducing my new bearded dragon. I expect to start with a healthy and friendly adult bearded dragon, since it might be easier than keeping a juvenile. I am currently breeding crickets, so that I do not have to pay as much for live food. For now, I got the heat lamp (UVA, UVB) and the terrarium itself, so there are still a couple of things that needs to be done.
The terrarium:
The terrarium is an Exo Terra 90x45x45 (in centimeters). This way I am sure that my bearded dragon will have enough space to move around. I am not playing around with my animals, i'm going for the big guns. What I personally find great about Exo Terra terrariums is that they retain heat really well. This of course is great for bearded dragons, and also, it has great ventilation. Also, since i've heard many stories of bearded dragons sometimes proving to be Houdini's of the reptile world, Exo Terra terarriums are very secure aswell. Not that he/she can't go lose, but when he/she is in the the terrarium, he/she stays in the terrarium.
Lighting
For the heat bulb, I got a Exo Terra Solar Glo. This bulb is fantastic, and releases the proper amount of heat for the basking spot, aswell as the sufficient amount of UVB and UVA. For now, I'm trying to safely find a way to keep this bulb secure, so that the bearded dragons nor my cats can touch it in any possible way. That being said, i'm also going to get an extra fixture with UV lighting, and hopefully this can be enough lighting for the terrarium.
The scape
I'm hoping to make a very beautiful and attractive landscape, however my options are running low, since bearded dragons really shouldn't have sand due to problems with impaction, but you guys know that! My plan for now is to get sandstone tiles as the "substrate" and maybe have some pieces of wood where I can put sand into and hopefully find some small agave plants to put in. Since agaves are desert plants, they will do really well in a bearded dragon terrarium, and the great thing is, if it gets eaten by the bearded dragon, it really causes no harm, and the plant is very hardy aswell.
For the basking spot, I plan to make it flow into the whole scape, by using the rule of thirds to make a nice transistion from a tall basking spot, to a lower landscape (left to right). And yes, I want it to be setup this way, I aquascape aquariums, and we're very artistical to say the least. The basking spot should preferably consist of wood, since rocks holds heat really well, and I don't want it to unintentionally burn the bearded dragon from underneath, since they have a very weak sense of heat at the bottom of their body. Rather strange, but deal with it.
Of course, the right side is going to be the cool side, where I can place some few rocks where I will try to form some caves where the bearded dragon can hide if neccesary.
Food
As said earlier, I currently breed crickets, and that will be the main insects for them, with the occasional superworms and tomatoworms or maybe roaches. This will hopefully give them the right animal proteins, but as we all know, they should not get to much, there for we have to be sure to get plant protein into the mix. For now, i'm planning on feeding them the most calcium-rich vegetables out there, aswell as some few fruits on rare occasions (not citric fruits of course). I will give them some vitamin-D3 from the calcium supplement which I will add to the food, and of course, as we all know, bearded dragons need vitamin-D3 for calcium metabolization, and in a sneaky effort to get the majority of vitamin-D3 from the UV lighting, I will also add the few amounts through their food, so that they get the vitamins through their digestive system, and that way we can combinate this in a fashion where they will get a proper amount of vitamin-D3, personally I feel like nutrition is very important, and should be taken very seriously, so that what i'm trying to do.
I will get the bearded dragon this weekend, and i'll make sure to keep you guys updated. And of course, I am open to any advice you guys have, so if you have any, please make sure to reply on this topic. Thanks!
Update on the new bearded dragon
So here is a picture of Zilla:
And here is a picture of Zilla in her new enclosure:
Here is a picture of the agave plant that is in the tank (can reccommend this to any other bearded dragon keepers):
So the terrarium is doing really nicely, and Zilla is adapting very well to her new environment. From day one she has been very aware of her sorroundings, aswell as being curious and healthy. She started throwing up the first two days, but that was because the store I bought her from actually fed her too many superworms, which was not too good. However, after the two days passed she started defecating and started acting completely normal. Today she just finished her shed, and she is doing super well.
Here is a picture of the lighting (Arcadia light fixture and ExoTerra Solar Glo 125w):
What I fed her for now:
For the last 7 days i've fed her crickets and a variety of salads. Day one I started only feeding her very few amounts of fresh basil, and this was because of the previous problem that I stated earlier in this topic, with her eating to much at the store already. After she started threwing up, and started getting empty, I gave her some red sweet peppers, romane lettuce, broccoli, basil, cactus, raddichio, and some few slices of pineapple and bananas. I've dosed her salads with calcium and vitamins once, where the other two times (I will do it 3 times a week with calcium) I dusted some crickets for her to hunt down. I have fed her with crickets twice this week, and i'm gonna feed once again today. The first time I fed her with 5 crickets, and fed her with 7 for 2 days ago, and I will give her about 8 or 9 today (although, not dusted with calcium or vitamins to make sure that she wont get a calcium overdosage).
She seems to be well fed, and she absolutely loves getting handfed. If you wonder why I feed pineapple and other fruits once a week, I will now explain in depth, scientifically. Glucose and fructose are important for all omnivores and herbivores, and even to some carnivores who gets it through eating other animals. However, since I don't often feed my feeder crickets fruits, since its really expensive compared to vegetables, she will get it from an entirely different source. Pineapples contain rather large amounts of glucose and fructose too, which will make sure that the dragon will have enough sugar in her system, which helps her body function properly, and increases the amount of blood flow in her body, and as we all know, this is required to transport oxygen in the body. Increasing the amounts of glucose and fructose in her diet, will help her both stay healthy, but also active and not exhausted. Of course, in case of very high amount of glucose and fructose, it can actually create various problems. Therefore, I only feed her fruits once or twice a week, this will be either apple, pineapple or bananas, since they don't really contain any dangerous amounts of citric acids, as a study have shown, they contain about 7% citric acids, when fully ripe that is, where fruits as lemons contain a bit more. Its important to understand the life cycle of pineapples, because the higher the acids, the lower the sugar and vice versa. Although, fresh pineapples are not always the best choice, therefore its better to get canned pineapples, because the liquid in the cans actually keeps the sugars in the fruits, but not the acids.
Most of the time, you will find high quality pineapples in your local supermarkets with a perfect acid-to-sugar ratio, giving the fruit a low amount of citric acid. This should not harm the bearded dragon. However, never feed the bearded dragon very ripe pin lemons or oranges, because they contain very high amounts of citric acids. Citric acids aren't the worst acids in the fruit though, but pineapple contains high amounts of oxalic acids, which binds with calcium, and sadly, avoids it from being absorbed. However, the amount of glucose and fructose in the fruit is well worth the amount of calcium that is gonna be lost in the few hour long process of proper digestion. Calcium will be supplemented on the other days, which will not bind with any oxalic acid (since its not present).
Substrate
I will briefly touch in on this, because I think its important. Since I got a 40 cm bearded dragon, she is adult (although not fully grown) therefore I got some thick sand, with pretty large particles. This will make sure that impaction won't happen immediately, only after eating huge amounts. This is because the large particles takes longer time to clump up. Of course, this sand is silicate free, so it will not hurt her if she eats some by accident. She will always get a few particles into her system, because she licks her environment to check whats going on, but she can only take in fatal amounts of large particles if she eats food with the large particle sand stuck to it. This will be avoided at all costs, and I feed her with live foods in a feeder bin with no substrate, so that she also can chase them around herself, without opposing any danger to herself.
Adaptation and behaviour:
Zilla has been adapting really well, and she loves being handled. I even introduced her to my cats, and she even tries to lay on them, so that she can absorb the heat from the warm and soft kitties. I find this very interesting, seeing a mammal and a reptile suddenly becoming good buddies. The cats apparently do not mind the reptile at all, and seem to ignore its presence. Zilla started being a little shy, but after some few hours she was already trying to investigate her new environment by checking out all the decorations in her enclosure.
After day two where I handled her for the first time, she tried to jump at the glass, in attempt to escape her terrarium, pretty funny. I handle her about half an hour each day, and I usually sit with her on my shoulder or on my arm, and sometimes I set her on the living room floor, and let all of our cats check her out. She enjoys it, don't worry. She has never shown any signs of aggression towards me or any other people, and neither to the cats. Infact, she likes checking out my fish tanks too.
Shedding and color
When I first got her she was very pale, rather grey, and sometimes brown to black. However, after shedding, she got some bright orange, red and yellow colours around her eyes, the sides of her stomach, and even on her beard. Very pretty beardie!
Here are some pictures of her in the living room:
And of course, here is one of my cats checking the beardie out:
