Need Ideas and help please?

[HILPIPRE17]

Need ideas on what I should try feeding my beardies... They love their crickets, meals worms, peas, green beans, and carrots but they won't eat anything else and I want to try to give them a bigger variety of foods.

Also I was wondering what everyone uses as subtrate because i am looking to switch from my reptile carpet that I am currently using so it can be more natural and also the carpet doesn't help hold in the heat for them. I worry about them getting compacted, but they seem to be doing really well and have grown. They are the length of my hand.

and I was wondering what everyone does to keep their humidity up.... My beardies have had a few bad sheds on their tails and i believe it is from the humidity being to low and one bearded lost the tip of its tail. (kind of worried about an infection)

any help would be a great help

 

[FranktheTank]

Check out beautifuldragons.com their nutrition chart provides a variety of safe foods for bearded dragons.
I'm using paper towels as substrate now, but plan to switch to tile in the future.
I use water dishes in my beardies enclosures and the humidity is fine. What are you using to measure the humidity? If it's not digital it's probably not an accurate reading.

-Kaleen

 

[HILPIPRE17]

No I don't have a digital therm. in the tank right now. But I'm pretty sure they humidity is my problems. Their sheds haven't been as good since I moved them to a larger tank.

Do you know of anything that can help them shed?

 

[Dracosmommy]

No I don't have a digital therm. in the tank right now. But I'm pretty sure they humidity is my problems. Their sheds haven't been as good since I moved them to a larger tank.

Do you know of anything that can help them shed?

Do you bath your beardies? I bath Draco at least once a day when he is shedding and once a week when he's not in shed. The humidity should be between 30 and 40 percent.
For food try things like Kale, Dandilion, Collards, Bok Choy (leafy part only) and Mustard greens along with the veg. They might not eat them at first but keep offering. I just tear the leaves up into bit size pieces. :mrgreen: I wouldn't feed them mealworms. They can cause impaction. They are hard shelled and in that shell is a thing called chitin. It's really hard for them to digest mealies. Please watch the carrots too. They are high in Vitamin A and can cause a Vit A toxitity if fed too much. I give them maybe once or twice a week.
I agree with Kaleen about the site she recommended. Sure helped me.
I use non-adhesive shelf paper that you can get at walmart cheap. I was using papertowel like Kaleen but found it expensive to replace all the time. I also agree with her about tile too. Newspaper is another alternative. What type of lighting are you using for the tank? They should have a basking lamp and a UVB florescent light. The Reptisun 10 is the best for UVB. Hope this helps a little.

 

[FranktheTank]

I wasn't asking if you had a digital thermometer, I was saying that if you're not measuring the humidity in the cage digitally it's probably not an accurate reading. The humidity in the cage should be between 30-40%.

-Kaleen

 

[HILPIPRE17]

I have the reptisun uvb 10 and I have a basking spot that is 100-108. I bath them twice a week but i will try the bathin whensheddin thanks

 

[Dracosmommy]

I wasn't asking if you had a digital thermometer, I was saying that if you're not measuring the humidity in the cage digitally it's probably not an accurate reading. The humidity in the cage should be between 30-40%.

-Kaleen

And to add to what Kaleen was saying sometimes just having their bowl of water in the tank keeps the humidity at that range. They don't need high humidity cause it can cause fungal infections of the skin. The baths are better when they are shedding not high humidity.

 

[HILPIPRE17]

The humidity stays at about 20-30 sometimes a little bit lower, and I have a 2 water dishes in there because one they will drink out of and they other they soak in.

 

[Dracosmommy]

In walmart they sell a digital thermometer with probe that has two temp display and also does humidity. It's called acurite. It will give you a more accurate reading of the humidity that the little dial ones you get in petstores. Just trying to help. Try misting them when the humidity goes below 30%. That will bring the humidity up a bit in the tank but get the acurite first for a more accurate reading of humidity. :mrgreen:

 

[tgolden]

I use tile in my viv and what i do is when my dragon pooos i pull that piece of tile out and replace with another.
I have mine in a 40 breeder and 2 18x18 tiles fit perfectly in there and i just swap them around as they get pooooed lol.

 

[HILPIPRE17]

I have 3 three month olds in a 75 right now but plan on moving them to my 125
Once they get bigger and might use sand?

 

[tgolden]

I'm not a big fan of sand myself. Other then the impaction problem we all fear there is also it holding moisture which in turn can cause bacteria
It looks really nice tho lol.
~tommie

 

[TheDeac]

id stay away from sand as well on top of bactieria most reptile sands are just calcium carbonate thats be ground up there is a thread on here some were talking about the risks of this but mainly while it is digestable (in small amounts) it can cause alot of resp problems as well i use tile in my viv and its super easy to clean along with holds heat very well also if you get the right kind (i use a slightly rough tile) it files the nails as well as for humidity i give stubb's a bath twice a week and he's never had a shed problem just bathe him more when shedding as for foods if you are stuck on worms wait till they are old and use super worms i pull of the mandables to remove the risk of bitting my drag but they have a lower chittin level than mill and a higher Meat>Shell ratio as well (less fat and phos as well if i remeber right) i personally feed Silk Worms almost exclusivly for insects but give a large variety of greens from beatifuldragondiet hope it helped


Also on a side note i wouldnt house beardies together they dont tend to get along