We got a new beardie last saturday! Its our first beardie and one of our first reptiles. We had some western fence lizards that were wild caught (by my sons, in texas) that we kept for a year. But we dont have a lot of experience, I have, however, been reading a ton.
Still trying to name him. I am leaning towards Eli, but my kids want Indie (short for Indiana Jones).
Right now he is 12.5" long. He is an orange burst citrus hypo... The pet store said he is about 3 or 4 months old, they will ask the breeders that do there "high end" dragons for an exact date for me. Does that size seem right at only 3 or 4 months?
So far me and my two kids are falling in love with this guy, he's very calm, full of personality. He spends a few hours a day out of his tank hanging out with us on the couch, yesterday I was working on my laptop and he started chasing movement on the screen and trying to eat the little magnifying glass thing on window, it was hilarious.
He (I say he, but dont really know yet) is eating a bowl of greens during the day and every evening about 20 to 30 medium large crickets, I mix in some blue berries occationally and grapes, as well as the occational super worm. He has great coloring, all 10 fingers and toes and a nice full tail. He bit me once, while reaching into the cage, not hard at all, i think it was my mistake and he thought it was food.
Right now he is in a 20 gallon tall tank - I know this is not good, and its very temporary.
I have a heat bulb as well as a zilla compact floresent for UVB (I know now that they arent good and am in the process of ordering an arcadia T-5).
As of now I leave the heat bulb on at night...should i start turning it off? It gets to be about 74 degrees in the house at night.
I have started building a coffee table vivarium, I took apart a glass top table and I will start a thread in the enclosure section soon with some pictures so I can get advice. I know some people are against coffee table vivs because seeing glass above them may scare them. But I will be tinting the glass (probably with a sky pattern tint that I found) and will put down decorative cloth or whatever to prevent a lot of noice. His living space in this thing will be about 25' by 4' and about 18 inches tall. These dimensions may be a little off, im trying to remember while im at work. I will probably do slate tile, then do some of the fake rock back ground and other things ive seen on this website, still planning it all out. I have pretty ok woodworking skills, its the time that will be hard to find (2 kids running around to take care of). Any ideas for a coffee table viv will be appreciated, and hopefully this week sometime I will start my build thread in the enclosures section.
Hopefully I can have this thing built and finished up very soon to get him out of the little 20 gallon (I feel bad).
Anyway, I think that about wraps it up for now, I couldnt be happier with the little guy! I find myself thinking of him and cool things to do with his viv while at work. Thanks for any advice for a new dragon owner.
you can definetly turn the light off at night. It is safe to get down to 63, so 74 is more than warm enough for night temps. 
