new bearded dragon owner, any tips would be much appreciated

[RyanCody]

hey guys my names ryan im from south wales (United Kingdom), me and my girlfriend samantha recently bought a pair of baby bearded dragons last monday from our local petshop and i must say they are so cool.
the guy in the shop said that they were between 4-6 weeks old, so now they must be between 5 - 7 weeks old, here's a few pics of biscuit(the lighter coloured beardie) and Zip(the darker coloured beardie)

Isit normal that they only eat about 3- 5 locusts a day ? even if theres one right infront of them they'll just bask on their rock and ignore the locust most of the time,
also if theres anything wrong with the tank setup please let me know since im new to this
many thanks,
Ryan

 

[Maxwellsmomma1989]

ok several things..
1) they need to be housed seperate , even if they are clutch mates they tend to be dominant and one will get more food than the other and fighting will happen which is nasty and one could loose body parts or dies! its scary
2) how big are the locusts ? they cant eat anything bigger than the space between their eyes so real small at first
3) it looks like theres loose substrate?? beardies lick everything and any loose substrate can really block them up and that cna lead to death so change it please some use reptile carpet, news paper, papertowels, shelf liner, alot of use here use tile its cheap lasts forever super easy to clean and it files theur nails which is awsome when they are older
4) do you have a thermometer in there it needs to be a probe one or a temp gun the stick ons can be 20-40 degrees off in either direction if had my probe for 3 years now with the same battery .
if you have any other questions dont be afraid to ask the people here are so wonderful

 

[RyanCody]

ok several things..
1) they need to be housed seperate , even if they are clutch mates they tend to be dominant and one will get more food than the other and fighting will happen which is nasty and one could loose body parts or dies! its scary
2) how big are the locusts ? they cant eat anything bigger than the space between their eyes so real small at first
3) it looks like theres loose substrate?? beardies lick everything and any loose substrate can really block them up and that cna lead to death so change it please some use reptile carpet, news paper, papertowels, shelf liner, alot of use here use tile its cheap lasts forever super easy to clean and it files theur nails which is awsome when they are older
4) do you have a thermometer in there it needs to be a probe one or a temp gun the stick ons can be 20-40 degrees off in either direction if had my probe for 3 years now with the same battery .
if you have any other questions dont be afraid to ask the people here are so wonderful

Answer to 1) ahh really ? the guy at the pet shop said they shouldnt really end up fighting since they will be brought up together from a young age, and i only have the one tank, at the moment they seem to like each other anyway

Answer to 2) the locusts are really small, if you look at picture 1 there is a locust on the light in there.

3) okay i'll sort that out, the guy at the petshop gave us like a green fake grass/astroturf kind of material for a flooring, he said he has had alot of bearded dragons and they all seem more confortable with it, but when they get older swap it for sand, what do u have for flooring in your tank/cage ?

4) yes i have 2 stick on ones, 1 for the hot side which i like to keep at a 30 - 32 degrees celsius heat and another one in the cool side which currently is between 20 and 25 degrees celsius, i was going to get digital thermometers instead though as they are more accurate, what do you think

 

[Maxwellsmomma1989]

i have tried the reptile carpet astroturf and then i relaized its alot of work to clean and wash so i switched to tile it was cheap and now i just spray it down once a week and hes good to go and it files his nail
all beardies are different plus if you just got the little guys they can be going through relocation stress and will eat more once they get comfortable
and yes digital thermometer are way better because you just dont know what the real temp is with stick ons
also..you will learn petsmart people dont know every much one beardie will dominant the other and will always get more food and once the hormones kick in fighting can happen its scary they are just not animals that enjoy a friend in the tank family member or not many on here have missing toes and parts of tails from that

 

[BeardieMommy3991]

Hi! Welcome to beardie livin! Your little ones are cute. Most of us have learned not to listen to pet stores, as they don't usually have expertise on EVERY SINGLE animal in their stores. Which is a lot. Since this forum is exclusively for Bearded Dragons, I trust them to know their stuff. There are plenty of very experienced people on here such as longtime owners, breeders, and people with herp vet experience under their belt.

I have to side with the other poster as it is a bad idea to keep Dragons together. There is a long, very informative topic on cohabitation here ->http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=154908&hilit=cohabitation Which I urge you to check out.

You can find a lot of affordable tanks on craigslist, and the cheapest site to get your bulbs at is www.petmountain.com. The one you want is the ReptiSUN 10.0 tube.

Congrats on the little ones!

 

[mudskipper]

It's generally not a good idea to follow every advice of an employee who works in a chained pet store, especially if that pet store sells more than one kind of pets. I'm not saying all of them are misinformed, but enough of them are. Forums like this one actually have better and more accurate information than any pet store can tell you.

Your basking temperature is too low. It should be like 40C (105F). Definitely get an infrared temperature gun because other types can't read surface temperatures as well even if you tape the sensor probe down to the ground.

Good luck with your new babies. They are very cute.