Raymond":10pkrz81 said:
Hi I was wondering if you could recommend some day lights and heating lights. I currently use a uvb 5.0 t5 reptisun bulb and a nocturnal infrared heat lamp made by zoo med. <<< if the IR night heat globe gives off light , get rid of it , it will be disturbing beardies sleep, CHE are globes that that get very hot but do not give off visible light - these are OK if it gets cold in the tank overnight.
As already mentioned , a 5% UVB source is NOT adequate for a beardie , you need to swap it for a T5 10% - 14% UVB ASAP to ensure beardie is getting sufficient UVA and UVB.
Also if the UVB tube is mounted ontop of a mesh topped tank, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND you move it so it is mounted UNDER the mesh as the mesh will be blocking about 25% of UVA and UVB it produces.
My lizard also hasn't grown past 8 inches and is 9 months old I was wondering what the problem could be, i feed her everyday and she lives in a 40 gallon tank. how much should i feed her and should i take her to a vet if she doesn't grow.
I would be giving her two live insect feeds per day MINIMUM, three live insect feeds per day will be better I think + offering green leafies (high in Calcium) + grated or chopped veg at her age, but since she seems not to be thriving, this may be caused by a number husbandry problems .
I'd also hold off offering the greens and veg until she's had at least two good feeds of bugs per day, it is quite OK to leave live BSF maggots and silkworms (on a bit of chow or fresh mulberry leaf) in the tank , she'll visit them and snack on them as she needs between scheduled feeds.
Some young beardies love their greens and veg so much that they pig out on them and have no space left for the insects (and at her age she needs live insect protein much more than she needs her greens and veg).
Other aspects that will influence growth are :
** tank temperatures - please double check these (need a basking spot temp at about 40oC and daytime warm zone temp about 30oC)
** day cycle too short -
I recommend 14-16 hours per day.
** insufficient
high quality live insect proteins per day - need this to grow more beardie
** insufficient UVB to metabolise the dietary calcium
** insufficnent dietary calcium - need this to grow more beardie and have good strong bones.
** dominance issues - beardie not thriving/ growing because it is being dominated / bullied by a tank mate = solution , relocate the bigger thriving beardie to another tank (it can stand another period of relocation stress) and this will result in the smaller tankmate perking up and it will very quickly start growing (though it will never grow as big as it could have been).
By high quality feeder insects I mean the following (and it's OK to mix them up)
>> BSF maggots (excellent feeders as a staple for a beardie)
>> silkworms (if she's only the size of a hatchling she can handle small ( = 1.5in long) silkworms and medium ( = 2in long) silkworms
>> crickets or locusts or roaches , but these need to be gutloaded with calcium rich greens and other foods (I use dry repcal adult beardie pellets) and carrot (food and moisture) and they need to be dusted with calcium on a daily basis and reptile vitamin powder on the weekends.
Have you been monitoring her grown by weighing her regularly and charting weekly changes ?
I recommend you do so as weight is a better indication of growth than length.
By way of comparision : at 9 months old my gang had the following weights
Peppa (F) = 367.6g
Toothless (T) = 291.6g
Puff (M) = 280.3g
Rex (F) = 283.7g
And Toothless and Peppa were on two live insect meals per day (my schedule was 12 medium (2/3 size) crickets in the am and 8 medium crickets + greens and salad in late afternoon. My lights are on at 6am , off at 10pm.
Your little girl is likely too small for 2/3 sized crickets , 1/3 size might be a better size for her at the moment , you maybe should consider giving 3 live insect meals per day and maybe if she's a poor eater, force feeding BugPie via feeding syringe and a feeding needle (these "crop needles"are blunt and designed to crop feed birds but work well at getting moist slurried foods into a lizard's mouth, or perhaps consider force feeding by hand for a while).