New BD owner

[Radict]

Hello I am a new dragon owner. This is my first dragon of my own but luckily I grew up with a childhood friend that had a beardie that I loved and always wanted one. I no expert by no means but feel I have a very basic understanding of the dragon. My son was the driving factor behind getting this dragon ( zelda ). Just stumbled across her on craiglist tank and all for sale. 100 bucks got us the dragon, 55gal tank, dual fixture heat lamps, and a UVB fixture. I did notice she was a little sluggish but after some careful reading on what dragons need here on the site I changed the 50watt single heat lamp to 2 100 watt lamps and instead of a 5.0 repti UVB I got a 10.0 and within a few days she was bouncing around the tank like a juvi. lol We where very lucky she has really excepted the changes well and the new family. Loads of fantastic info on here still sifting through the pages!

I will leave you with a picture of our new family member Zelda. ( kids named her. lol )

 

[CooperDragon]

Welcome to the forum! I look forward to hearing about Zelda's progress. One suggestion I have based on the photo is to put your temperature probe on the rock so you can get an accurate basking surface temperature rather than ambient air temp. It's good to know what the air temps are but basking surface temps are more important when it comes to dialing in your basking lights and setting a gradient across your enclosure.

 

[Radict]

Welcome to the forum! I look forward to hearing about Zelda's progress. One suggestion I have based on the photo is to put your temperature probe on the rock so you can get an accurate basking surface temperature rather than ambient air temp. It's good to know what the air temps are but basking surface temps are more important when it comes to dialing in your basking lights and setting a gradient across your enclosure.

So just lay the probe on the rock? I will try that, thanks! What should I be looking for then? I have read hot side needs to be 95-105, I just assumed that was ambient.

 

[CooperDragon]

Yeah try laying it on the rock or taping it to the rock. You can also use the probe for ambient and get an IR temp gun to get the surface temps around the tank. I usually recommend a basking surface temperature of 100-110 for young dragons and closer to 100 for an adult dragon. That should be surrounded by an area in the 90s and continue down a gradient to the cool side which should be 75-85 or so during the day. Providing a gradient of both temperature and UV exposure allows them to self regulate and get what they need from the "sun".

 

[Radict]

O ok I see now. You are looking for the ambient temp at the surface of the basking rock for a more accurate basking area temp. I will tape the probe on the rock somewhere out of her way and see what the temp on the rock is.

This 55gal tanks is so tall its been hard to maintain the temps properly. I was very surprised to see the temp in the tank varies much more than I would have thought with room temp the tank is in. Where u see the probe in the picture during the day is roughly ranging from about 94 to 98. 98 is the highest I have been able to get it with 2 100 watt heat lamps running. The cold side I did put the probe just on the bottom of the tank and it runs around 84 + or - about 3.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[CooperDragon]

I would think that 2 - 100w bulbs would be more than enough for a tank that size. What are the dimensions of your tank? What kind of fixture are you using the bulbs in? I was able to get to about 104 at the hottest point with a 150w bulb in a 150w rated dome fixture at 19'' up in a 36''x18''x18'' tank. You may want to try a single bulb with higher wattage over the basking area to get basking temps while brining that cool side down a little bit. You could also use furniture or decoration to create some shady areas on the cool side which may help provide some variation.

 

[Radict]

tank is 48x13x20 roughly ( googled it ) the heat lamp fixture is a zoo med dual deep dome rated at 100w each. Positioned roughly 16in above the surface of her rock. We just finished building a little hide on the cool side yesterday as that is her prefered sleeping area.

The basking area maybe getting hotter than my hot side temps, like you said the probe is on the wall not in direct heat from the lamps.

 

[CooperDragon]

OK. The hide on the cool side should help and it's good that she's taking advantage of it. Once you get some readings from the surfaces (give the probe about half an hour to start getting accurate readings in each area) you can tweak the lighting as needed. It's a bit of a process to get started but once you have the lights dialed in they tend not to need a whole lot of fuss other than seasonal change if the room temp varies.

 

[Radict]

Great call on the probe on the basking spot!!! Out of all the stuff I have been reading none has ever said to actually put the probe on the basking rock. After about 20min on the rock it was reading 111*!! Maybe a little to warm you think? I posted in another topic about aging her but no replies yet but I assume she is old enough to not be a juvi and need 111 temps. So I have turned off the 2nd 100w lamp. And I will monitor but so far after bout 15min temp has fell to 101 on the rock. Behind the hide temp with the dual 100w lamps temp was 81 on the floor of the tank. I have not checked the cool side with on the single lamp burning yet.

BTW thanks a bunch for taking the time to tweak the newbie!

 

[CooperDragon]

That sounds much better. Based on the photo you posted, I can tell she's an adult but not exactly how old. She'll definitely want to be closer to 100 at the basking spot (which will in turn lower the cool side to a nice high 70s) and she should be on a primarily (approx 80%) salad/veg diet with bug feeding every day or two in order to make up the remaining 20%. Lots of variety will be helpful. Check out this site for items to put in a salad (I like to use a base dark green and add 1 or 2 other items depending on what's fresh at the store). http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

 

[Radict]

great nutrition chart. I have been reading on here about the 80/20 for adults so we have been doing that although my greens to begin were kale.. Which I have since learned are not a staple green. So I have been hunting for mustard greens but for whatever odd reason I can not seem to find any but I was able to find turnip greens so thats what we are using for greens and where going to mix in some squash once we get some. Other than that melons have been the other item we have been giving on a once every 3 days or so treat. My main feeding question has not been so much what she can have but how much. We were told by the old owner to do a 1 day salad next day crickets approach but I have seen crickets daily with salad. I also read to give her as much as she can eat for 10-15min. Crickets gutted with flukers high calcium cricket food and fluckers cricket quencher calcium and we also dust the cricket before feeding them to her. But how many does she need to eat? The reptile store I buy them from say they are large but they are not larger than space between her eyes.
Example is yesterday was cricket day and she ate 27 before I finally cut her off and put some more salad down for her if she wanted to eat more but she was still hunting for more crickets. I have noticed she is much more active after eating crickets than salad.

From reading around I guess I need to be thankfully so far I have not dropped any type of veg she would not eat so I most certainly do NOT have a picky eater. lol

 

[CooperDragon]

It's good that her appetite is up. Kale is OK but as part of a balanced diet. Turnip greens are a good staple as are collards but you'll want to switch them up now and then too. Think of it as Turnip, Collard, Mustard as base items with some of the other greens like kale and dandelion as secondary greens and then rotate in some other veges from the chart with occasional fruit as a garnish or treat. I'd offer a nice big salad every morning and let her get into that. Then supplement with some crickets or worms in the evening (at least a couple of hours before lights out to allow digestion). You can even offer them every other day depending on how you sense her diet is going. The 10-15 minute rule still applies but not as much as with the young growing dragons. Cut her off of bugs once about 20% by mass (estimated of course) of the diet is reached but let her have as many greens as she wants. An adult can handle pretty much any sized cricket you can get a hold of so I wouldn't worry too much about impaction. Space between the eye rule is still good within reason but not as critical as with the babies.