need help please, new user and new beardie

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Botha

Member
New Beardie and not sure if all is well.

Hi, My name is Jacqui Botha, married to Rudi Botha and mother of 2 children, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 50 fresh water fish and now, mother of one beautiful Beardie!!

My beardie's name is "Rango".

He/or she as I still dont know,
was baught at a pet shop yesterday morning with a new large wooden glass door cage with the the UV light and infro red heating light, a heating pad covered with sand on one side, a water bawl, small container with veggies as suggested by many sites, and hidden cave, rocks and a wood log for him to climb up higher and closer to the Bulbs. The cage is well ventillated with "tea cup ring" size Air vents on all 4 corners in mesh. The cage gets well warm quicly with the lights and heating and works very well.

He/She is "14" inches or 36cm in size, and ate 7 smallish crickets yesterday, No veggies, drank no water apart from a few drops (20) dripped off from my finger and was a bit scared I thought mostly hiding behind cave. Late afternoon, I realized she wass gasping a bit with a mouth open wile lying underneath the infro red heating bulb.

During this first day, I switched off the heating pad, but left the UV light and infro red heating light on. Switching the heating light off for 20 minutes at a time when she was gasping. At bed time, I switched the UV light off, left the heating pad off and only left the infro red heating light on. And went to bed.

This morning, Rango was very still hardly moving, pick her up and she hardly moved anything, She felt very dry, her skin. I was very worried, then put her on the sand and frew in 9 crickets in front of her. Then finally she/He got some life and ate all 9 quickly, placed the water bowl in front of Rango, still no drinking, dropped a few more drops above her mouth, but no luck in swallowing it, didnt open his/her mouth. Dripped a few more drops on the dry body and rubbed the moist in with my fingers. Half hour later I realized she is starting to shed from her legs and nails up towards the body and is getting very active now tapping at the window glass looking at us.

Then just a few seconds ago realized apart from eating 16 or so crickets in about 23 hours all together since I got he/her, Rango still hasnt drank water by itself, still hasnt eaten any of the veggies I placed in front of it, still hasnt made any wee or poo!! Will in the next few minutes try some corn and papaya to see if that works.

Our enviroment where we live is in southern Drakensberg, South Africa at about 1565 metes (5165 feet) above sea level and as it is now winter, it is a cold place, with tempreture in our house dropping to about 4 degrees Celsius (39/40 F Degrees) during 10pm - 07:00am and rissing to about 17 degrees celsius (61/62 F degrees) during mid day. Outside of house, allot colder. In the cage, I have no moniter for degrees as in yet, but it is warm when i place my hand in!

The petshop we bought her: The owner only recently started selling them and could not provide us with allot of info on it. There were 3 beardie's all the same size, Rango we chose was most active with no funny spots or illness we could see. She was in a vey cleen enviroment.

Now, my questions:
1) Is there annything you can note from the above that sounds bad or is wrong?
2) Is it normal not to have made NO poo or wee after 23 hours?
3) Is it normal that she wont eat any veggies as in yet?
4) Is it normal that she hasnt drank any water as in yet?
5) How do I tell her/his gender?
6) Can anyone guess it's age from the size? as we have no idea.
7) gasping with mouth open, is there any other reason to do so apart from getting to hot?
Am I turning off heat and bulbs off/on correctly? When should the heating pad be left on?
9) How close should the Rock/wood stump be to the UV and Heating bulb for him to lay on?
10) Having 2 more mates in one cage at the petshop, and now having none, would it cause a diferent behaviour such as lonlyness.

Please can any or many respond to my questions and above info to help me tell what to do, what am I doing right and what wrong?

Your help will be much apreciated.

I will try to aploud some pictures of cage and beardie soon!!

Thank you so much and for having me registered on this site! Think it is great

great regards

Jacqui Botha
 

MissT

BD.org Addict
Hi there! Welcome to the forum!
I will try to answer each of your questions individually (answers in red)

Botha":2ox769pp said:
Now, my questions:
1) Is there annything you can note from the above that sounds bad or is wrong?
Firstly, I think you should switch the sand for paper towel, shelf liner or tile. Sand can cause impactions in beardies, especially when they are eating in the sand. These can be VERY serious.
Also, you need to change that heating light to a bright white basking light (a normal household bulb will work just fine) so that his eyes do no get damaged by the uv and also so that he knows it is day time and time to bask. Also, find a ceramic heat emitter to use at night time - the infra red light will disturb his sleep and also confuse him - he wont know its night time as that light is still on

2) Is it normal not to have made NO poo or wee after 23 hours?
I would say yes... but just incase he has eaten a lot of and in the petstore, you might want to bath him and rub down the right hand side of his tummy in a circular motion - look for any hard lumps as you do this as it could indicate an impaction
3) Is it normal that she wont eat any veggies as in yet?
Younger beardies dont eat as many veggies but keep offering and encouraging him to take them - what veggies specifically are you feeding?
4) Is it normal that she hasnt drank any water as in yet?
Beardies often dont drink from standing water -none of mine have a water dish but I offer baths 3 times per week and they all take a drink in thre if they are thirsty
5) How do I tell her/his gender?
It is quite difficult. I think there is an artical on this site to explain it - I will have a look for it and post it here if i find it
6) Can anyone guess it's age from the size? as we have no idea.
He could be anything from 4 months to a year old (possibly even older if he wasnt looked after properly) - did the pet store give no idea as to how old he might be? If you could post a picture it might help
7) gasping with mouth open, is there any other reason to do so apart from getting to hot?
It is most likely because he is too hot.
Am I turning off heat and bulbs off/on correctly? When should the heating pad be left on?
Dont use a heating pad - they cannot sense heat on their bellies and the heating pads can cause nasty burns
9) How close should the Rock/wood stump be to the UV and Heating bulb for him to lay on?
The stump should be 6-8 inches from the UV. The heating bulb depends on getting the right temperatures - you will need to get a digital thermometor with a long wire and probe or else a temperature gun.
10) Having 2 more mates in one cage at the petshop, and now having none, would it cause a diferent behaviour such as lonlyness.
He will be going through relocation stress right now but its just because his surroundings are different - beardies do much better on their own than with company

NOw, just a couple questions for you...
What veggie items are you feeding him?
Are you dusting his food with a calcium or vitamin supplement? How often?
What is the brand and number of the UV bulb?

Hope this helps!!
 

Botha

Member
Original Poster
Hi Miss T

Great, thank you so much for all the help. I will post some pictures of him soon as I can,
point well noted on heating pad and sand. What if I place a Tile down on the Heating Pad?

The Noctural Infrared Heating bulb is a 50W from ZOO Med Reptile Laborities and says it is a 24hour burning bulb for great viewing of reptiles at night time.

The UV ray white Bulb: is also from ZOO Med Reptile Laborities. It is a Reptisun 5.0 UVB Compact Flueresent 26W.

Veggies: Yesterday we tried carrots and Beans that he/she would not eat. Today we tried feeding corn and papaya and it work with Rango eating just a small bit.

Vitamins: We spiced the crickets and veggies yesterday with a slight sprincle of ZOO med's Reptivite Reptile vitamins with D3. Today we didnt.

Thank you for all the help.

great regards

Rudi & Jacqui Botha
 

Kalyn876

Sub-Adult Member
I just wanted to add, I live in canada so it gets freaking cold up here (-41 degrees celcius with the wind chill) and I have a poorly insulated house. I use a ceramic heat emitter along with my basking light during the day and at night just the ceramic heat emitter in the winter. Maybe this will work to keep your temps up when it's cold instead of the under tank heater.

EDIT: And I also suggest swicthing out the red light for a bright white one, even a clear household bulb will do. No light at night as any light at all can disrupt a beardies sleep which is soo important for them.
 

coastergirl946

Hatchling Member
Or if you live in the humid, sticky frying pan I live in (which is Ohio.. we have been under a heat warning for over 2 weeks with indexes reaching 105-110 degrees during the day and topping out in the lower 90s at night!), you definitely do not need a ceramic heat emitter at night.
 

Toyguy

Juvie Member
As others have stated, you need a white basking lamp to replace the infra-red one. You should throw that away as it's useless for beardies. Your UVB lamp should be a long, tube type, not a coiled bulb. In Europe, a good bulb is the Acadia 12. I'm not sure if you can get that in SA.

You absolutely need a good digital thermometer and humidity meter. Temperatures are critical and should be about 105 degrees F at the basking spot, and about 85 degrees F on the cooler side of the tank. Switching to tile is good, but get rid of the heat pad. A ceramic heat element is the best choice if you need heat at night as they put out no light, but as long as temperatures stay between 65-70 at night, your dragon will be fine.

You should bathe him in shallow water about every other day, no higher than his shoulder at most. Never leave them alone in the water, especially when younger. Beardies may drink in the bath but they also take in water through their vents so baths are important.

You should dust your crickets with Calcium + D3 about 5x a week, and with a multi-vitamin on the other 2 days. Keep feeding salad even if he won't eat it yet.

It's quite normal for them to be sluggish and have no appetite after being moved, or if the cage content is changed, so give him a few days once you make all the changes.

Good luck, and post some pics of Rango!
 

Botha

Member
Original Poster
Please help me here.

How do a add photos on this site as this message reply blog doesnt give me any add photo options, and the "Img" butten saying insert image doesnt do annything when I press it.

Help

thanks

Jacqui
 

Toyguy

Juvie Member
Easiest way, IMO, is to open a free account on Photobucket.com. You upload the photo there, and they will give you a link to copy and paste. You then click the IMG button when you are writing a message here and you should see pop up. Insert your copied photobucket link between those 2 image tags.
 

Botha

Member
Original Poster
Tried uploading pics, still no sucsess!! I can load them up on facebook, is there a way to get them from facebook to here?
 

MissT

BD.org Addict
If the facebook album is public then you could just copy the link to the album on to here :)
 

Botha

Member
Original Poster
set


Here above a facebook link to photos and tank, Tank with sand at first, and then tank with tiles without sand.
Please see if you have time and respond to what looks good and what not

Many thanks

Jacqui & Rudi
 
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