need help with lighting and lizards size

[Raymond]

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. 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.

 

[seandeangelis]

For UVB 5.0 is not enough for desert dwellers like beardies, you should get either Reptisun 10.0 or Arcadia 12%. For heating anything works, it doesn't need to be "made for reptiles" I use a halogen flood light. Don't use a night lamp as it disturbs their sleep, if your house gets below 65F get a ceramic heat emitter. Is that 8 inches snout to vent (butt) or snout to tail? Can you weigh her? She should get as much as she can eat for ten minutes 2x a day. If you are doing all this and she is still not growing then I would go to a vet.

 

[diamc]

Hi, welcome to the forum. You're right, that is very small for a 9 month old, is that measured from the nose to the tip of the tail?

Could you post some pictures of him as there is the possibility that he is a rankins as those stay very small.

I agree with seandeangelis that the 5.0 is not strong enough for bearded dragons and that a 10.0 or Arcadia fluorescent tube would be more beneficial.

For a basking light, you need a bright white one as the red ones change their color spectrum making everything look red. A white bulb increases their activity level which in turn helps increase their appetite. As suggested, a heat emitter is much better to use at night if it is needed.

Your beardie should be offered all the protein it can eat 3x a day in a 10 to 15 minute timeframe. How often are you dusting with calcium and vitamins?

Would be a good idea to have a fecal checked for parasites to rule that out.

 

[Raymond]

I dust with calcium every other day and measured from nose to tip of the tail.

 

[seandeangelis]

That is very small, maybe you do have a Rankins. Can you post a pic (I'm not great at telling the difference, maybe someone else is though.) Try making sure you meet all the requirements we listed and dust with calcium 5x a week, I believe calcium is important for growth.

 

[diamc]

For a beardie that size, you should be dusting with calcium 5 days a wk on 1 feeding a day and with vitamins the other 2 days. The calcium and UVB light work together to help the beardies absorb the right amount of calcium but if the beardie isn't getting enough penetration from a good UVB light and not enough calcium, it can certainly affect their growth rate.

Your beardie should be offered all the protein it can eat 3x a day in a 10 to 15 minute timeframe. Have you been feeding this way?

Could you use this link https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post some pictures here of the XIMG image so we could take a look at him?

 

[kingofnobbys]

40 Gallons if OK ONLY for a rearing tank for when beardie is very young , eventually he will need a MUCH LARGER TANK. Anyone who tells a 40 Gallon tank is sufficient for a single adult bearded dragon is wrong.

Even if your 9 month old is a Rankins, it is likely by now getting too big to live comfortably in a 40 Gallon tank.

Standard tank size here (Australia) for a SINGLE ADULT CENTRAL BEARDED DRAGON is
4ft LONG x 2ft WIDE x 2ft TALL = 453 LITRES VOLUME = 120 GALLONS.
And if 1ft 6" tall the volume = 340 LITRES = 90 gallons.

Photos of his head from above will help us ascertain if you have a central or rankins or other species of beardie.

 

[kingofnobbys]

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).

 

[Raymond]

Tell me if photos are sufficient.

 

[Raymond]

 

[kingofnobbys]

I don't like the look of the bedding for the following reasons :
>>> if ingested it's likely highly indigestible and likely to result in impaction
>>> it's a perfect medium for virus, bacteria and fungi
>>> it's a great place for live feeder insects to hide.

He's better off with kitchen grade absorbant tuff paper toweling.

BTW he's definitely a central bearded dragon and NOT a rankins or other smaller species of bearded dragon.
See

 

[Raymond]

thank for informing but what substrate could be a better alternative.

 

[diamc]

Your beardie is adorable, love the coloring. Definitely not a Rankins though but if you make the changes that we suggested, it should help him to grow some more. Has he shed at all the time you've had him? When did you get him?

For substrate, it would be much safer & healthier to use paper towels, NON-adhesive shelf liner or slate tiles. So much easier to clean and if the waste is wiped up right away, there are no worries of bacteria growing. Please remove the bedding you have now & change to paper towels at least temporarily.

Also recommend changing to the High Output T5 10.0 Repti-Sun fluorescent tube and increase the calcium dusting on the feeders to 5 days a wk but only on one of those feedings a day. Then for the other 2 days, dust the feeders with vitamins but again, on only one feeding a day. Feed all the appropriately sized feeders (no larger than the space between his eyes) that he can eat in a 10 to 15 min timeframe 2 to 3x a day. Also offer mostly the greens/veggies in green print on this list daily: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Is he the only beardie you have?

If you have any questions, please let us know. We are glad you found this forum so we can help you to hopefully get him growing again.

 

[diamc]

Hi, I was wondering how your beardie was doing. Have you had a chance to make any of the recommended changes?