new beardi owner

[corpsman8404]

hey guys i just picked up a orange bearded dragon yestorday it was listed off craigslist for 50$ with the tank and everything. i just wanted to make sure everything is good to go

cage: is a 20 gallon long (30in in length)

Substrate: some sort of green pad not completly sure

Lighting: is a repti-glo 10.0 (tube type not coil) and a basking lamp (not sure what bulb) and ive got it on a timing system with my chameleon 12hrs on 12hrs off

Supplements: rep-cal with D3

Food: gut loaded crickets, mustard greens, green beans

Temps: not sure i dont have a temp gun just yet (ill be getting one of thoes soon though)

its a male orange beardie his is 13 1/2 inches from nose to tail . i was told that he is 6 months old. that sound about right? at what size will i need to upgrade his cage? can i start putting sand in the bottom yet?

 

[foto69man]

I would upgrade his tank now, and I would personally never use sand. Slat tile works awesome for me. It is so easy to just wipe clean, and it keeps the nails from getting long...you never have to trim them

 

[jortiz9758]

I would also have to agree with upgrading to a larger tank real soon. I would also get the REPTISUN 10.0 for him instead of the REPTIGLO10.0 you now have. How old is that bulb BTW?

The green pad is probably a repticarpet and is also a good thing. As mentioned, tile is the best as is repticarpet. I personally use both sand and tile. Sand you have to be very careful of when using it with really young dragons. I use sand because I like that fact that I can scoop it up BUT also keep it really clean all the time, and change it all out every two weeks. Sand harbors bacteria if not maintained properly.

Good Luck with your new dragon...and post pics. :lol:

 

[tank4102]

Agreed the green thing is most lickly repticarpet, you should upgrade his tank to a 40g breeder+, and switch the reptigo 10.0 because it has been known to give major eye problems, get reptisun 10.0
or a megaray, or t rex mvb it has uvb and heat.

 

[Judah'sHuman]

Hello!

Congrats on the new beardie!

First You will wnat to switch the Repta Glo 10.0 to a Repta Sun 10.0. The Repta Glo 10. has been known to cause eye damage because it is unstable a bit. You also need a regular old house hold bulb next to the Tube lighting to help with their eye site. You can use a Household hallogen such as sylvania spot this will also add heat to your tank. You need a basking spot of around 105-110 most of them like 105 range when they get a little older which your sounds around 5 months or so but length is not nessasarily a good way to tell. Keep an eye on yout temps though if you use a basking lamp or the mentioned hallogen, since you have a small tank it may get hot in there. Perhaps for now a reg 60watt bulb will be sufficent, but if you need more heat then switch to the Hallogen

You also need to pick up a digital termotmeter with a probe. Most of us use a Acurite, they are sold at walmart in the garden section with all the other thermometers for around $12. The dial or stick up types can be very off and proper tempos are important.

I agree on getting a bigger tank, eventually you will need at least a 40-50 gallon. They need an area to get away from the heat and cool off, around 75-80deg. In a small tank this is hard to have for them.

I maybe wrong about this since you are using a Floresent light, but you need to be very carefully using Calcium with D3. I blelieve that if you use any sort of UVB you dont really need a Calcium with D3 because they get it from the UVB. you can acctually over dose them on D3. Now I have a Mercury Vapor bulb and I do have a multi vit with D3 in it. (Merc bulbs have a very high amount of UVB out put.) I use this multi vit sparingly. So check with a few others on that, you may need to switch to a D3 free calcium.

Here is a website with good list of things to feed http://www.beautifuldragons.com

Also check out the section at the top click on Care Sheets and Articles. There is Punduncks Care sheet, it will give you a good list along with a few other breeder links caresheets to start out.
Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[corpsman8404]

Yea ill post some up asap. I was going to ask about wether or not the repti-glow was ok to use. I also have a ambilobe panther chameleon.(They kick as$ BTW) and in the chameleon world you use repti sun and only repti sun(only the tube ones never coil ones they damage there eyes and you change them out every 6 months. So that answers that question. Yea I think I'm just gonna order his adult cage in dec. Lil guys gonna have to W8 a lil bit.

And yea I was thinking the same thing about scooping the sand out as well. But the tile sounds good too.

What about the supplements? Should I give him the calcium D3 with all of his crickets?

 

[Judah'sHuman]

Wow we all posted the same thing at once! :lol:
I just noticed that you were told he is around 6 months, that sounds about right for the length. When I got Judah he was in sand. I do not recommend it for younger dragons, but feel at around 6 months areas of sand are ok. What I have learned is a mixture of tiles and sand works the best for us. I did have all sand, but it was messy, a jerk to clean every few weeks and I didnt want him eatting it. So after about 8 months of him being on all sand I put a bunch of tiles in there and kept the sand between the tiles, under the tiles to hod them in place and then one end of the tank with just sand so he can digg in it in his hide area. The tile area is were he eats and poos. it is so much easier to wipe poo off the tiles rather than scooping it from sand. Also, no sand gets in to his food. I had a few broken tiles a verious colors and stone types and just layed them in there. Now I don't have to clena the sand as offten, as he is not pooing on all the sand or getting ickies in it.

If you choose to use sand only use Washed & Sifted play sand. DO NOT use any other type of sand such as cali sand or any type of sand that is sold at pet stores. Also stay away from quartz sand or anything else at the home improvment stores that doesnt say "Play Sand". someone sold me arena sand one time and it has lil pebbles in it....no bueno. Also, if you use sand, make sure that your beardie is not eatting it, getting it in his food or ingesting it in any way. However, beardies like to tounge taste basicly it looks liek they are licking everything. This is normal and he may get a little tiny bit of sand in his mouth. very small amounts of sand will pass, but if he is an obsesive licker sand can be a danger to him and prolly should be removed.

 

[corpsman8404]

ah ok well then ill just put him on the same supplement monthly schedual as my panther chameleon.

!st Week
Mon-Sat: Cal w/o D3
Sun: Cal with D3
2nd week
Mon-Sat: Cal w/o D3
Sun: Herptivite
3rd Week
Mon-Sat: Cal w/o D3
Sun: Cal with D3
4th week
Mon-Sat: Cal w/o D3
Sun: Herptivite

 

[Judah'sHuman]

Yeppers Supp schedual is very similar to your chameleon.
At 6 months to 1 year Calcium with no D3 5x per week and multi vits every other day (about 3x) per week. Still not sure on the D3 thing. D3 calcium a few times per week should be ok though After 1 year old you can cut back just a little on the calcium because they are not growing as fast. I still feed calcium 3-4 times per week depending on the variety of food he has been eatting. And multi vit (w/D3) once per week. sometimes I forget and skip the multi's.