New Beardie - from AZ

[IHeartNerds]

First of all, I love this site. I've learned a lot and you guys are very friendly and helpful.

About a month ago I adopted a beautiful girl who we (meaning my 10 year old) named Isabella "Izzy". She's awesome.

When I got her she was in dirt with a log and a feeding bowl with no UV lighting. Pics below show what I've done. The light is basking and UV 10.0. She's 16in and I realize her viv may be too small so I'm having a bigger one made with sliding front doors. Yay!

Her poops reek but I realize that may be subjective as I'm still trying to get use to the smell of lizard poop which is quite different than that of dog, rabbit or fish poop.

Question time. She's a citrus, right? at 2.5yrs and 16 inches, she's reached full length I'd imagine. She likes to hide for a day or two at a time. Is that normal? Some places I've read the veg/incest split should be 70/30 leaning on way or the other. Which is it? Should I be doing a 3 day on and 1 day off feeding system? How'd I do on her viv? She spends a lot of time out with us and loves baths.

 

[CooperDragon]

Viv looks nice. Plenty of places to climb around. Having sliding front doors will make things MUCH easier though =). She looks like a regular beardie to me, with a lot of orange tones in her beard and face. Cooper had that too. At 16 inches she's small, but at 2.5 years is probably fully grown. You will want to have her on about an 80% veggie to 20% protein diet. I'd feed her a nice fresh salad every day, using the ingredients listed on the beautiful dragons site http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html. I would feed insects once a day as well. Not as many as a baby would eat though. Maybe 10 a day or so. It varies, just try to get a feel for how hungry she is and how much she goes after the salads. Hiding is pretty normal, but if her poops are worse than a dog it may be a good idea to have a herp vet do a fecal check. They don't cost a ton and are great for finding treatable problems.

 

[IHeartNerds]

Viv looks nice. Plenty of places to climb around. Having sliding front doors will make things MUCH easier though =). She looks like a regular beardie to me, with a lot of orange tones in her beard and face. Cooper had that too. At 16 inches she's small, but at 2.5 years is probably fully grown. You will want to have her on about an 80% veggie to 20% protein diet. I'd feed her a nice fresh salad every day, using the ingredients listed on the beautiful dragons site http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html. I would feed insects once a day as well. Not as many as a baby would eat though. Maybe 10 a day or so. It varies, just try to get a feel for how hungry she is and how much she goes after the salads. Hiding is pretty normal, but if her poops are worse than a dog it may be a good idea to have a herp vet do a fecal check. They don't cost a ton and are great for finding treatable problems.

Thanks! I'm still trying to figure out if she's eating enough or if I'm over feeding. I've been giving her about 30 crickets or red runners a week. Sometimes some small superworms.
Now I'm trying to get her on some sort of poop schedule or something because she enjoys pooping on me. Foul. I've got the salad part down pat though but she's rather picky.

I've got the number for a herp vet - the poops pretty foul!

Thanks again.

 

[CooperDragon]

If the poops are that stenchy I'd definitely get it checked out. Can't hurt and will at least give peace of mind. If there is something, you can get it treated early and get it fixed. I wouldn't worry about over feeding much. Just offer her what she seems to want within about 10 minutes per feeding and make salad available all the time. To get the poop schedule going, just start a routine. They respond well to routine and can be trained to an extent. Baths usually do the trick, so give her a bath every day at around the same time for a while and get her to poop. Once she's used to going at the same time every day, you can eventually just put her in an area where it's easy to clean up and keep her there until she goes. Eventually you may even be able to get her to go on some paper towels every morning. Takes time but it's possible.

 

[FirebornMuse]

She's really cute! I'm a new rescue Mom to a beardie too...