New Baby Beardie - Good Health? Need Help Please

[kjbolanos]

Hello, in the past I have taken care of a variety of animals such as birds and rodents. I moved to California just recently and my husband bought me a bearded dragon a few weeks ago. I am very new to reptiles and I was excited to take on a new challenge of raising this beautiful creature.

My beardie developed an acute form of MBD recently and I noticed this because his head was twitching when I took him out of the tank. Then later, I noticed his limbs were also slightly twitching. But my husband and I modified the tank so that our Beardie can climb higher towards the UVA/UVB light and we put the light directly over near his basking spot. Also, I take him outside to bask in the sunlight for about an hour. So far, he is doing much better and his twitching is quite less compared to before.

Lately though, he has been "lazy". Just a couple weeks ago, he would scratch the walls of his cage wantinf to expore outside (unless this only meant he wanted to escape....). Now he just sits around his basking obstacles just lazily looking around and staring at my husband and I whenever we sit near him. I see other people with baby dragons that are so much energetic. My beardie does hunt and eats pretty well. The reptile shop person said it is best to give him a day to digest all his food and to feed him every other day. But I have been feeding him everyday....

I'm not sure if this is an lazy behavior because he is in the middle of shedding? Or is this normal and he is just comfortable and used to his surroundings?

Here's some info about his diet and other activites

-He is around 3 months old
-8-10 medium Crickets per day dusted with calcium+D3 and multivitamins (I feed him twice a day around the same time) as much as he wants to eat for 10-15 min
-chopped Sweet snap peas hand fed every morning (dusted wkth calciumD3 and multivitamins)
-Poops once every 1-2 days (he particularly likes to poop in the bath)
-Takes a bath once every 2 days
-The night gets cold so I change his white basking bulb into the red basking bulb and turn it on during the night. Yes, i am aware that bearded dragons can see red light and it can affect their sleep. I put him in his little cave and cover the cave with a dark towel. Don't worry, i keep the entrance open for him to get air and get out if he needs to. Also I do not put the light directly over his cave, just to the side. The temperature at night in his cave is about 70-75F.

The Terrarium (I have a digital thermo)
-Avg. temperature during the warmest part of the day is around 95-110F
-Cool side is 70-80F
-He has a "Reptisun Terrarium Hood T5 HO high output 14"" with with a "Reptisun 10.0 T5 high output 15watt 12"" for his UVA/UVB/Visible Light
-He has a "ZooMed Mini Deep Dome Lamp Fixture" with a "ExoTerra 75W intense basking spot" bulb

Please don't make this thread into a MBD thread. That is not what I'm asking about. I am asking if I am currently doing the right thing with my Bearded Dragon and if this "laziness" is usual due to shedding or relaxation.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Hello, in the past I have taken care of a variety of animals such as birds and rodents. I moved to California just recently and my husband bought me a bearded dragon a few weeks ago. I am very new to reptiles and I was excited to take on a new challenge of raising this beautiful creature.

My beardie developed an acute form of MBD recently and I noticed this because his head was twitching when I took him out of the tank. Then later, I noticed his limbs were also slightly twitching. But my husband and I modified the tank so that our Beardie can climb higher towards the UVA/UVB light and we put the light directly over near his basking spot. Also, I take him outside to bask in the sunlight for about an hour. So far, he is doing much better and his twitching is quite less compared to before.

Lately though, he has been "lazy". Just a couple weeks ago, he would scratch the walls of his cage wantinf to expore outside (unless this only meant he wanted to escape....). Now he just sits around his basking obstacles just lazily looking around and staring at my husband and I whenever we sit near him. I see other people with baby dragons that are so much energetic. My beardie does hunt and eats pretty well. The reptile shop person said it is best to give him a day to digest all his food and to feed him every other day. But I have been feeding him everyday....

I'm not sure if this is an lazy behavior because he is in the middle of shedding? Or is this normal and he is just comfortable and used to his surroundings?

Here's some info about his diet and other activites

-He is around 3 months old
-8-10 medium Crickets per day dusted with calcium+D3 and multivitamins (I feed him twice a day around the same time) as much as he wants to eat for 10-15 min
-chopped Sweet snap peas hand fed every morning (dusted wkth calciumD3 and multivitamins)
-Poops once every 1-2 days (he particularly likes to poop in the bath)
-Takes a bath once every 2 days <<< that's way too frequent IMO for a bearded dragon. I'd cut back the baths to only when it's necessary.
-The night gets cold so I change his white basking bulb into the red basking bulb and turn it on during the night. Yes, i am aware that bearded dragons can see red light and it can affect their sleep. I put him in his little cave and cover the cave with a dark towel. Don't worry, i keep the entrance open for him to get air and get out if he needs to. Also I do not put the light directly over his cave, just to the side. The temperature at night in his cave is about 70-75F.
<<<< I recommend you ditch the red coloured heat globe and replace it with a ceramic heat emitter and a thermostat, these emit ONLY heat, no light, the thermostat will control it (simply deploy the probe (on the end of the wire near were he will be sleeping) and set the thermostat to about 30degreesCelsius.

Alternatively you could place a thermostat controlled heatpad under a tile which has the hide on top (set the thermostat to about 35degreesCelsius and you'll have a happy toasty juvenile beardie , all my lizards have this arrangement and they all love their warmed hided.

The Terrarium (I have a digital thermo)
-Avg. temperature during the warmest part of the day is around 95-110F
-Cool side is 70-80F
-He has a "Reptisun Terrarium Hood T5 HO high output 14"" with with a "Reptisun 10.0 T5 high output 15watt 12"" for his UVA/UVB/Visible Light
-He has a "ZooMed Mini Deep Dome Lamp Fixture" with a "ExoTerra 75W intense basking spot" bulb

Please don't make this thread into a MBD thread. That is not what I'm asking about. I am asking if I am currently doing the right thing with my Bearded Dragon and if this "laziness" is usual due to shedding or relaxation.

They do seem to calm down and become "lazy" from about 3 - 4 months (in my observation), and of cause no matter how well you isolate them from the weather outside, they do seem to know when it's cold and nasty outside and tend to want to hunker down then. He's too young to brumate , so keep the temps up, the food coming and the lighting schedule long (I recommend 14-16 hrs lights on each day).

 

[kjbolanos]

Hello, in the past I have taken care of a variety of animals such as birds and rodents. I moved to California just recently and my husband bought me a bearded dragon a few weeks ago. I am very new to reptiles and I was excited to take on a new challenge of raising this beautiful creature.

My beardie developed an acute form of MBD recently and I noticed this because his head was twitching when I took him out of the tank. Then later, I noticed his limbs were also slightly twitching. But my husband and I modified the tank so that our Beardie can climb higher towards the UVA/UVB light and we put the light directly over near his basking spot. Also, I take him outside to bask in the sunlight for about an hour. So far, he is doing much better and his twitching is quite less compared to before.

Lately though, he has been "lazy". Just a couple weeks ago, he would scratch the walls of his cage wantinf to expore outside (unless this only meant he wanted to escape....). Now he just sits around his basking obstacles just lazily looking around and staring at my husband and I whenever we sit near him. I see other people with baby dragons that are so much energetic. My beardie does hunt and eats pretty well. The reptile shop person said it is best to give him a day to digest all his food and to feed him every other day. But I have been feeding him everyday....

I'm not sure if this is an lazy behavior because he is in the middle of shedding? Or is this normal and he is just comfortable and used to his surroundings?

Here's some info about his diet and other activites

-He is around 3 months old
-8-10 medium Crickets per day dusted with calcium+D3 and multivitamins (I feed him twice a day around the same time) as much as he wants to eat for 10-15 min
-chopped Sweet snap peas hand fed every morning (dusted wkth calciumD3 and multivitamins)
-Poops once every 1-2 days (he particularly likes to poop in the bath)
-Takes a bath once every 2 days <<< that's way too frequent IMO for a bearded dragon. I'd cut back the baths to only when it's necessary.
-The night gets cold so I change his white basking bulb into the red basking bulb and turn it on during the night. Yes, i am aware that bearded dragons can see red light and it can affect their sleep. I put him in his little cave and cover the cave with a dark towel. Don't worry, i keep the entrance open for him to get air and get out if he needs to. Also I do not put the light directly over his cave, just to the side. The temperature at night in his cave is about 70-75F.
<<<< I recommend you ditch the red coloured heat globe and replace it with a ceramic heat emitter and a thermostat, these emit ONLY heat, no light, the thermostat will control it (simply deploy the probe (on the end of the wire near were he will be sleeping) and set the thermostat to about 30degreesCelsius.

Alternatively you could place a thermostat controlled heatpad under a tile which has the hide on top (set the thermostat to about 35degreesCelsius and you'll have a happy toasty juvenile beardie , all my lizards have this arrangement and they all love their warmed hided.

The Terrarium (I have a digital thermo)
-Avg. temperature during the warmest part of the day is around 95-110F
-Cool side is 70-80F
-He has a "Reptisun Terrarium Hood T5 HO high output 14"" with with a "Reptisun 10.0 T5 high output 15watt 12"" for his UVA/UVB/Visible Light
-He has a "ZooMed Mini Deep Dome Lamp Fixture" with a "ExoTerra 75W intense basking spot" bulb

Please don't make this thread into a MBD thread. That is not what I'm asking about. I am asking if I am currently doing the right thing with my Bearded Dragon and if this "laziness" is usual due to shedding or relaxation.

They do seem to calm down and become "lazy" from about 3 - 4 months (in my observation), and of cause no matter how well you isolate them from the weather outside, they do seem to know when it's cold and nasty outside and tend to want to hunker down then. He's too young to brumate , so keep the temps up, the food coming and the lighting schedule long (I recommend 14-16 hrs lights on each day).

Could you help me out with more details about the ceramic heat emitter and the heating pad? The ceramic heat emitter bulb? How should i position it in my tank? How should I set up the heating pad? What kind of tile? What hide? I don't want to burn my beardie.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....if you want to provide overnight heat and keep it simple, you just get the ceramic heat emitter without a heat pad. You can either buy an extra dome to fit it in or just unscrew the basking bulb at night and put the CHE in there until morning, then switch back to the heat bulb again for daytime.

If your house is above 67 F at night, your beardie would be fine but a bit of extra heat [ night temps. of 70-80 at the most ] would be O.K.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Fully grown adult or nearly fully grown beardies will be able to cope better with chilly overnight termperatures than a tiny young hatchling as a 500 - 700g lizard has more thermal mass and will cool more slowly and adult beardies have a much slower metabolic rate than a hatchling.

Some information an ceramic heat emitters : http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/ceramic_heater.php very strongly recommend if you use one in beardie's enclosure the minimum steps you need to take (to protect beardie) are :
>>> use a fully ceramic hot temperature light fitting (they get VERY HOT !)
>>> position the CHE so beardie can not at any time reach it/touch it/leap onto it - it will very inflict very serious burns !!!
or
>>> enclose the CHE and light fitting or dome inside a wire cage to prevent beardie from reaching it/touching it/leaping onto it

If you are going to be changing out basking and CHE each morning and evening , allow the CHE sufficient time to cool else you will sustain a nasty burn when touching it if it's still very hot (they hold heat for while after being turned off and it will not be obvious their surfaces are extremely hot).
I recommend installing an ceramic separate light socket and circuit specifically for the CHE , and having a simple digital thermostat in the loop to control it's heat output (very easy to set up), and this CHE circuit be on it's own timer.

Regarding heatpads :
I live in a much warmer climate than most on these boards , I'm in subtropical coastal northern New South Wales and only about 5km from the Pacific Ocean (known locally as the Tasman Sea). Never colder than 5degC overnight here, never seen a frost.
My home is climate controlled (reverse cycle split aircon) 24/7 in summer (very humid and hot) and in winter to keep indoor temps comfortable (above 21degC overnight and at about 24degC in the daytime in winter , even if it's a chilly 12-15degCelsius outside).
I use heat pads like http://www.reptiledirect.com.au/p/85/GCE-200-Heat-Mat-5W.html , the 7W versions for my adult BTS and beardies. These will never warm to over 38degCelsius, and I add a thermostat to control them incase their internal thermostat / limiting switch fails (never has in over 8 years continuous use) ,and I also enclose them in a sandwich of used ceramic tiles for added safety and to spread the heat out more uniformly (no hot spots). These "slabs" go inside the tanks and the hides simply sit ontop.

Regarding thermostats :
There are thermostats that cost a fortune , and you need to program (so set alarms and upper and lower control bands and setpoints , and even program cooling and warming cycles for.

Then there are simple foolproof switching thermostat that have "programmable" aim temperature (setpoint) and are very cheap and very reliable - I used these - this is the style of thermostats I use , and have been using for over 8 years trouble free http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Thermostat-Digital-For-Reptile-Lizard-Snake-Heat-Mat-Lamp-Incubator-Aquarium/251930630349?_trksid=p2045573.c100505.m3226&_trkparms=aid%3D555014%26algo%3DPL.DEFAULT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D39923%26meid%3D38137f5e59744381a72a5e6039cafd3d%26pid%3D100505%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26

 

[AHBD]

Good point about the CHE...be sure it's cooled off about 15 minutes before you touch it, and if you suspend it inside the tank be sure it's out of reach of the dragon, just like the heat bulb. If it will be sitting on top of a screen then of course you don't have to worry.