Littlehawkf
Member
Well, my wife and I decided to get a bearded dragon and that turned into two, lol.
We got them from Petsmart 2 weeks ago. The beardies at Petsmart actually looked a ton healthier than the ones at the local reptile shop. At the time, they told us they were about 4 weeks old. They are now about 4 1/2 to 5 in. long. We're not really sure, but we think the lighter one is possibly a hypo, since all 20 nails appear to be clear and the shoulder pads are grey. The darker seems to maybe have some sandfire in him, since he has some red tinges along his sides, back and now tail after his first tail shed last week. Can anyone look at the pictures posted below and help us on possible morphs?
They ate about 4-5 crickets at each meal twice the first day home and been as high as 13 on a single meal, but averaging about 10 each meal now. We made a bad decision to get the ReptiGlo 10.0 UVB tube before we ran across the forums here. After going through I don't know how many different lighting/heating set-ups over a couple of days to get the right temps and gradient, we finally settled on a 75 watt Zoo Med incandescent on a dimmer for the basking site. The basking temp is around 105 deg from the probe on top of the logs and a 60 watt ceramic heat emitter on a dimmer for the cool side. It is at 85 deg from the probe on top of the tree to the right during the day, but it needs to be watched constantly due to the drastic weather changes we are having right now. At night we try to keep it around 70-75 deg with just the heat emitter in the middle.
We just took off the ReptiGlo after reading that we should have gotten the ReptiSun 10.0 tube instead, and have taken them outside in the sun inside a carboard box to try to make up for some of the lost UVB until our ReptiSun comes in, either tomorrow or the day after. We also have a 50 gal tank coming from a friend of ours and a lamp stand to hopefully get the basking light a bit higher and maybe a bit more stable temps. Then I will be working on making a final enclosure(s). I am also planning on adding a regular household CFL or florescent tube on the cool side for more ambient light within the next few days. Got some Reptiworms on the way too, as the crickets aren't holding up so well from Petsmart and we think they will be better for them.
It's a work in progress and hopefully they will do better on their appetites once the new UVB bulb gets here, but they still seem very lively and not too skinny. They have even started checking out the salads we keep in the food dish for them all the time and the dark one has devoured a few dandelion flowers torn up so just the yellow was in little pieces in the salad bowl a few times. We're dusting the crickets with calc 5x during the week, and Reptical vitamin dustings 2x on the weekends. The shelf liner we are using for substrate cleans up really easy and is tons better than using paper towels, since they were kind of catching their little claws in the paper towels. Also, we've been bathing them in warm water every 2 days since they really haven't touched the water yet.
We're not sure of the sexes, but the lighter one has been caught waving her arms a lot and the darker one hasn't done that yet that we have seen, so for now we are calling them her and him, but understand that may not be the case. They are so funny watching when they are eating. "She" kind of stalks the crickets like a cat and pounces on them, and "He" just seems to be a piggy that races all over to get the first few, then sits and waits for them to come to him before snatchin them up. "She" also loves to just stay on top of the logs at the very top under the basking light, while "He" will traverse back and forth to the tree on the cool side and we were wondering if that is because of her light pigmentation not retaining heat as well as his darker pigmentation?
I have to say, there is tons of info on this site for sure and hopefully we have it mostly right, but if anyone has any suggestions or comments, please let us know. It's definately awesome to have these little guys
They look grumpy in the pics because I don't think they liked being put in the box and taken outside the first time lol.
Sorry for the wall of text...we are just happy to find a forum with so much information and wanted to share our experiences so far.
We got them from Petsmart 2 weeks ago. The beardies at Petsmart actually looked a ton healthier than the ones at the local reptile shop. At the time, they told us they were about 4 weeks old. They are now about 4 1/2 to 5 in. long. We're not really sure, but we think the lighter one is possibly a hypo, since all 20 nails appear to be clear and the shoulder pads are grey. The darker seems to maybe have some sandfire in him, since he has some red tinges along his sides, back and now tail after his first tail shed last week. Can anyone look at the pictures posted below and help us on possible morphs?
They ate about 4-5 crickets at each meal twice the first day home and been as high as 13 on a single meal, but averaging about 10 each meal now. We made a bad decision to get the ReptiGlo 10.0 UVB tube before we ran across the forums here. After going through I don't know how many different lighting/heating set-ups over a couple of days to get the right temps and gradient, we finally settled on a 75 watt Zoo Med incandescent on a dimmer for the basking site. The basking temp is around 105 deg from the probe on top of the logs and a 60 watt ceramic heat emitter on a dimmer for the cool side. It is at 85 deg from the probe on top of the tree to the right during the day, but it needs to be watched constantly due to the drastic weather changes we are having right now. At night we try to keep it around 70-75 deg with just the heat emitter in the middle.
We just took off the ReptiGlo after reading that we should have gotten the ReptiSun 10.0 tube instead, and have taken them outside in the sun inside a carboard box to try to make up for some of the lost UVB until our ReptiSun comes in, either tomorrow or the day after. We also have a 50 gal tank coming from a friend of ours and a lamp stand to hopefully get the basking light a bit higher and maybe a bit more stable temps. Then I will be working on making a final enclosure(s). I am also planning on adding a regular household CFL or florescent tube on the cool side for more ambient light within the next few days. Got some Reptiworms on the way too, as the crickets aren't holding up so well from Petsmart and we think they will be better for them.
It's a work in progress and hopefully they will do better on their appetites once the new UVB bulb gets here, but they still seem very lively and not too skinny. They have even started checking out the salads we keep in the food dish for them all the time and the dark one has devoured a few dandelion flowers torn up so just the yellow was in little pieces in the salad bowl a few times. We're dusting the crickets with calc 5x during the week, and Reptical vitamin dustings 2x on the weekends. The shelf liner we are using for substrate cleans up really easy and is tons better than using paper towels, since they were kind of catching their little claws in the paper towels. Also, we've been bathing them in warm water every 2 days since they really haven't touched the water yet.
We're not sure of the sexes, but the lighter one has been caught waving her arms a lot and the darker one hasn't done that yet that we have seen, so for now we are calling them her and him, but understand that may not be the case. They are so funny watching when they are eating. "She" kind of stalks the crickets like a cat and pounces on them, and "He" just seems to be a piggy that races all over to get the first few, then sits and waits for them to come to him before snatchin them up. "She" also loves to just stay on top of the logs at the very top under the basking light, while "He" will traverse back and forth to the tree on the cool side and we were wondering if that is because of her light pigmentation not retaining heat as well as his darker pigmentation?
I have to say, there is tons of info on this site for sure and hopefully we have it mostly right, but if anyone has any suggestions or comments, please let us know. It's definately awesome to have these little guys
They look grumpy in the pics because I don't think they liked being put in the box and taken outside the first time lol.Sorry for the wall of text...we are just happy to find a forum with so much information and wanted to share our experiences so far.
