Need more heat for baby Juno

[Juno18]

We are new beardie owners and our little Juno needs more heat, she is in a 10 gallon tank and is about 8" in length we have a 75 watt heat bulb and a 10.0 uv bulb on her we took the temp in the tank and it is only around 95f in the hot side and 85f in the cooler side and we have been reading on this site that the heat side should be around 100f. Can anyone suggest how we can get her more heat without giving her to much?? She has not been feeling very well not eating and very sluggish and we think its the heat. also can anyone tell us what the temp should be at night, if its not warm enough for her what can we use to make it warm without keeping the lights on. From our understanding beardies need 12 day hours (light on) and 12 night hours (lights out). any help anyone can give would be most helpful, we are animal lovers and want to make her as happy as possible.

 

[diamc]

Hi there and welcome to the forum :wave: Congrats on your new baby. I can tell that you care a lot about Juno already. She won't be in the 10 gallon very long once she starts growing.

Actually a 75 watt should be enough for a 10 gallon tank but it does depend on the room temperature and how close she is to the bulb. Are you using a basking log? What type of thermometer are you using, a stick-on strip, round gauge, digital without probe, digital with long wire & probe end or a temperature gun? The thermometers make a big difference in the temps you're getting because if you're using anything other than a temperature gun or digital with probe end, then the temps could be off by as much as 20 degrees.

How long have you had her? You mentioned that she's sluggish, would you say that she's lethargic, does she respond to you? What have you been feeding her and how much? Babies can get dehydrated very quickly so it's a good idea to give her a bath at least 3 to 4 times a wk and 15 to 20 min each time. Use warm water tested by the inside of your wrist and add enough water to cover her front legs. Make sure you stand right there because babies can drown in a small amount of water.

How often are you dusting her feeders with calcium and vitamins supplements? Babies should have all their live food dusted 5 days a wk but only feeding a day with calcium and the other 2 days a wk with vitamins but again, only 1 feeding a day.

What type of substrate do you have on the bottom of her viv? Has she had a poop lately? You're right 12 hrs on/12 hrs off for the lights.

Please keep us updated and post some pictures of her when you can because we LOVE little babies. :wink:

 

[Juno18]

Thank You Diane for writting back so quickly, We are using the reptile carpet for her she does have a basking log and we did have one of those fake rocks that you get at the pet store it was one of the ones she can lay ontop of or go underneath and the last few days she has be very lathargic and sleeping under the rock. We took the rock out and now she just has a cork bathing rock. We were feeding her small crickets about 5-7 per day and dusting them with calcium 5 days a week. But 2 days ago she stoped eating them and they were crawling all over her. we took all the crickets out and we gave her a bath, we also read on another chat that someone mentioned making a food slurry for her, so last night we got some squash baby food and watered it down abit and she ate about an eye dropper full. This morning befor I went to work I gave her some more of the slurry and she seemed to be doing a bit better. She had a poopy 2 days ago and hasn't had one since. She is very skinny and Im worried about her do you think We should keep feeding her the slurry or should we try to get her to eat some crickets. We are using a digital thermometer with a probe and the temp were not bad last night right around 100f on the hot side and 85f on the cold. Thanks again for all your help

 

[Chomper1218]

I am not an expert but I know that a baby needs alot more than 5-7 small crickets a day. Any beardie less than a year old should also be recieving 7 dustings of calcium a week and 4 dustings a week of Rep-cal Herptivite. The two can be mixed together with a 1:1 ratio. I would recommend about 50-60 crickets a day over the course of three feedings (approximately 15-20 at a time). Offer fresh greens everyday. This is a great color coded reference chart containing the nutritional content of any food you could think of giving your beardie http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html Hope I was some help. Good luck with your new buddy!

 

[smurfthebeardie]

I am not an expert but I know that a baby needs alot more than 5-7 small crickets a day. Any beardie less than a year old should also be recieving 7 dustings of calcium a week and 4 dustings a week of Rep-cal Herptivite. The two can be mixed together with a 1:1 ratio. I would recommend about 50-60 crickets a day over the course of three feedings (approximately 15-20 at a time). Offer fresh greens everyday. This is a great color coded reference chart containing the nutritional content of any food you could think of giving your beardie http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html Hope I was some help. Good luck with your new buddy!

Those are rough guidelines. Every dragon is different.
Smurf will pig on one day, eat normally the next and then skip a day. He eats around 15 a meal on pig days, 8 on normal days. 2-3 times a day. Smurf OD'd on calcium with 7 dustings a week and ended up with yellow urate. He now gets calcium 4 times a week and has balanced nicely. Calcium also varies by UVB bulbs. Some bulbs sometimes require that there is no dusting, because of their UVB output.

 

[Chomper1218]

Like I said I am no expert, thanks for cleaning up my mess =P

 

[smurfthebeardie]

I've only been here a month (only owned reptiles a month and a half ). No big deal. Just adding me little experience.

 

[diamc]

I just wanted to add a little to the calcium and vitamin dosages. A beardie under 1 1/2 yrs old should have their food dusted 5 days a wk but only 1 feeding a day with calcium and the other 2 days a wk but only 1 feeding a day with vitamins. smurfthebeardie, that's good that you cut your calcium back when Smurf's urate was yellow, good that it is all balanced out now. When using a fluorescent UVB, you should use calcium WITH D3 but when using a mercury vapor bulb, you should use calcium WITHOUT D3 (because MVB's produce their own D3) BUT you should always use calcium with either type of UVB. It's also not a good idea to mix calcium and vitamins together because they need more calcium than vitamins. Getting too many vitamins can cause toxicity.