New Baby! And a bit of confusion.

[totalbasscase]

Howdy. I'm a 20 year old student; my roommate in our apartment wanted a pet. We went to the pet store, and I've had friends with friendly beardies before, and figured that a beardie would make a good pet for her (lease only lets us have things in tanks, and she wanted something she could take out and handle). I used to raise green anoles in middle school and high school, so I've done the whole reptile care thing before, but there are a lot of things about Kai (9 week old baby from the upstate NY pet store).

For instance: he can handle big crickets (the first batch they sold us were big, I was dubious, but the pet store lady said he was old enough), but the smaller ones are easier. Should he be eating the small ones? The internet has given us mixed responses. Same on greens feeding, on heating setup (of course they sold us a hot rock), and coloring.

Coloring is why I come to this forum to begin with. Today, he's been dark. Generally dark colored with dark ovals/circles on his stomach. Searching Google brought me to this forum, and this forum got me worried that Kai is too cold (my roommate stuck the thermometer on the wrong side of the enclosure, so I can't tell how warm it is by the lamp). I bathed him for the first time tonight, and he pooped within two minutes. Thinking maybe he was just constipated? We just put on his night light my roommates went to bed; I feel like I should throw a post out here and maybe read over your care sheets.

Any suggestions? Pics from his first day home are included.

 

[abraxas'smomma]

I am new to, but have had my little Abraxas for a couple of months now, and got alot of good info here ( well ALL my info lol), and yeah it sounds like a to cold thing, you need a digital thermometer, and as far as I know the heat rock wont hurt a dragon, ( mine only likes it cause I drop the crickets onto it ) The cricket thing is REALLY easy to figure out, small enough to fit between their eyes is the right size, The hot cold thing is pretty easy to, it need to be ( from what I gather) about 110 on the warm side, and double check the cold side info, I dont rember it off the top of my head, I know mine is good, cause I check this sight everyday, for some reason I cant get that number to stick in my head lol. They DO get impacated pretty easly from what I can understand, but if they are pooping in the tub then she is good, thats pretty common, Brax wont poop in her cage AT ALL, she waits till bath time, or when daddy is holding her ( ROFLMAO) I hope this helps, and I hope someone else that has had them longer gives you some notes to, I am still REALLY new also, But relax a little and have fun, they are great fun!!!

Chell

 

[ReptileMom]

even though your little guy CAN eat the bigger crickets, it's not a good idea. as the last post said, you want to feed no larger than the space between the eyes. if you feed larger than he could end up with an impaction. heat rock is a no no. beardies can't determine heat from their underside. if the rock gets too hot, he won't move. they often do get too hot and can burn a beardie. you want him to be able to get warm enough from the heat light. what uvb do you have? you do need a temp gun or digital thermometer so you can check temps. on both sides. temps. are very important. basking area 105-110 cool side around 80. are you giving supplements? what size tank do you have? that can make a difference in getting your temps. appropriate. sorry for all the ?, but we can help you better if we have these answers.

 

[totalbasscase]

The jackholes at the pet store told us that beardies were different from the anoles I used to raise, and that the 4.99 'full spectrum' lightbulb would be fine for heat and UV. They lied. They said a ten gallon tank would be fine. They lied. They said the heat rock would be fine. They lied.

Just sent an order in for a 65 gallon Reptarium, a mercury vapor bulb (not the ESU one, I read the posts here about them), and a new light fixture. Hopefully it'll be here by Friday or Saturday, and he'll perk up with the UV.

He's eating fine - 10 big crickets a day for the last couple days, and on your advice I had my roomie buy mediums and pinheads (the local pet shop doesn't differentiate), so I'm going to see how many he takes down when I get out of class today.

Supplement wise, he gets calcium on all the crickets, but my roommate read somewhere online that juvies don't need a multivitamin supplement, so she's against it (and she's stubborn as all hell). If he DOES need them, post it here so I can show her =)

The tank tops out at 95 degrees on his basking rock/branch, and cools off to 80 on the other side. Mildly concerned, but there's not much I can do till this shipment of lizard stuff gets here, and at that point he's gonna have more room than he knows what to do with and all the heat and UV he can shake a stick at.