New bearded dragon

[redfalcon53]

I got my dragon about a week ago and the people at pets smart said he was 4 weeks old. head to tail maybe 3 inches. he is so cool. I can not get him to eat any of the pellet food and since yesterday he wont eat the mil worms. The only thing he will eat is crickets. He is getting more and more active since we brought him home and has finally made him a nice place to sleep out of the bedding I put in there (moss and a log) He has had trouble getting out though as when the lights come on he stays in there until I pull him out and feed him in the morning.

 

[ShannyBeard]

Congrats on the new beardie! You are in luck with your beardie's diet because crickets are much, much better for them. The mealworms are actually bad to feed as they have a hard chitin shell and are hard to digest. They also are high in phosphorus, which robs the body of calcium. You will want to feed things higher in calcium. Repti-Worms are a good mail order choice to feed in addition to crickets and they are pretty easy to deal with. You can just put them in a dish in their viv, and they are naturally high in calcium. You don't need to dust them, either!!

You should post a pic! I am shocked at how small he is - 3"...! That is so very little! :shock: I bet he is super cute.

 

[redfalcon53]

It is pretty lil, I think not including the tail it is between 2 1/2 and 3 inches. I will post a pic when I can figure out how to do that on here. LOL He did shed his skin on his tail yesterday for the first time!

 

[c4chaos]

Congrats on the new beardie!
Let us know if you need any help.

 

[redfalcon53]

Hey havent had the chance to post a pic, he is a pretty cool lil guy. I do need a lil help though. a couple of weeks ago I picked him up and he bit me. I am not sure if he didnt like how I was holding him or what? Obviously it was not a hard bite but it shocked me and I dropped him. Since then he has not eaten hardly at all. He went from eating 3-4 crickets at a time to none. I also moved my thermometers and got another one and it seams that the hot side of the tank is only at 80-85 degrees. I have a heater under that side and am not sure why the temp would have dropped nearly 10 degrees. He is not very active at all lately and I am not sure it this was due to the fall or maybe an issue with the temp in his cage or both. I am going to monitor the temp better and see if maybe it was just because I had the lid open prior to this or what( just thought about the lid as I was typing).

I have also made a concaution of the pellets, kale, meal worms and calcium and ground it up to a baby food! I may try to give him a very small amount from a dropper twice a day if he dont change his eating habits soon. He does not seam to have lost any weight but hard to tell with his size!

 

[ShannyBeard]

Bearded dragons are basking desert lizards and do not get their heat naturally from below - they get it from above. You need to check the temperature directly under his bright basking bulb, directly on the surface that your dragon basks. That should be 100-105 degrees. You would need to use a digital thermometer with a sensor that you can place on that spot. Is that the kind of thermometer that you are using? And what kind of UVB light do you have?

 

[redfalcon53]

I have the bulb that came with the kit. its a dome lamp! I have to look at the wattage again, but when he basks he is usually about half way up on his basking ramp. I think it is probably plenty warm. The light sits almost directly above that spot

 

[redfalcon53]

I am going to be pissed off if they suggested I get a heat pad as well and it doesn't help!

 

[ShannyBeard]

I think it's pretty hard to guess what temps are down to within a few degrees. The temp needs to be between 100-105 directly under that basking spot, and the only way you will know is with an accurate thermometer. Bearded dragons are sensitive reptiles who respond best to very specific temperatures.

 

[redfalcon53]

well how am i going to increase or decrease the temp ? just get a stronger or weaker bulb?

 

[Chirple]

I've always read on here that heat pads aren't any good because they don't sense heat on their bellies and can get burned.

For temperature regulation, I have an IR temp gun for $15. You just point it at something and it will tell you the heat and we've tested it at work against their sensors and it is spot on. I've temped pretty much everything now, and it's worth the $15 just for fun ! I temp my soup, my cats, my co-workers, and more !

For the actual source of heat, I have a 75w halogen bulb in a dimmable dome fixture. I had to dim it slightly to get the desired temps, because on full tilt it went to 120F (but there wasn't anything at the store between 50 and 75, and I thought the 50 might not be enough). The dimmer is great for controlling temperatures very precisely. The dimmer saves you having to try a bunch of bulbs until you find the perfect one - which can get kind of expensive with halogens.

What size is the tank, and what's the ambient room temperature ? My room is 67 degrees and the 75w bulb slightly dimmed works well for a 50 g tank, although I need a second bulb for the "cool side" because it doesn't get as warm as I'd like. When he was in a temporary 20 long, I used a 100w regular household bulb which achieved the desired temperatures - but did not in the bigger tank.

 

[redfalcon53]

if you want to give me details as to how to get the gun email is [email protected]

 

[redfalcon53]

Sorry its been a while here is an update! We took the lil guy to the Vet. He had to call K-state reptile department to get some information. He gave us some canned dog food with super packed nutrients. We have been feeding him out of a syringe for about a week now and he is looking super healthy. He is alot more active and alert. He has already doubled his intake of the dog food. I am hoping that we can start getting him on a normal diet after the can is gone but we will stick with this for now. I am worried about the veggies as we have really struggled getting him to eat those even though I am cutting them into tiny pieces. I have already started leaving some in there hoping he will begin to eat the greens soon. I am going to blend some of them up to get him use to the taste if he does not start eating them in the next week.

I measured him yesterday and he is about 12 cm in length ( head to tip of the tail).
The vet weighed him between 3 and 4 grams but I would say he is at least 5 now.

 

[redfalcon53]

I think I got a pic of him to download finally!