New beardie - Nova

Just got a Beardie today at the NY Reptile expo (though i didn't plan on it quiet so soon) and thought i'd introduce him (no name just yet but i have a few things in mind i'll wait a few and see if his personality makes me lean towards anything)

got him from Dachiu at the show he is 5-6 weeks old and either a Red Hypo Translucent (possible leatherback) or a Red leatherback Translucent not totally sure at the moment but im sure time will tell


for some images on my enclosure / Viv and custom rock structure you can check out my sort of work log here viewtopic.php?f=34&t=213601



Edit: decided to call the little guy Nova (as in Nova Shenron as his color reminds me of a dragon ball)

 

[HitokiriBattousai]

an update the little guy was picking at greens (mustard and dandelion) after exploring a bit which is cool i didn't expect him to try to eat anything this soon even though it was like 2 bites


no signs of stress marks either which im happy about as it seems i got a pretty lax little beardie

 

[HitokiriBattousai]

this little guy is doing great!

first i wanted to give him a bath as his tail looks like it is gonna shed soon so i put in in a warm bath and it didn't seem like he was to fond of it so it only lasted 5 min before i took him out

but upon taking him out he pooped (which looks like a nice normal greenish color with a white urate and such and didn't smell to bad only a minor odor that did resemble that cricket odor but im not surprised by that lol)

then like 20 min afterwards i wanted to see if he was hungry so i took a piece of dandelion green and held it in front of him which he gladly took from my hand and ate so i remembered reading something about chilling crickets to make them slower and easier to catch so i put 5 in a container in the freezer for about a min but i guess that was to long (about a min) as they seemed to outright not be moving but maybe still alive so we offered him the crickets in a pair of tweezers which he gladly ate all 5 and is now basking happily (aside from when he gets the urge to climb his temporary screen front which is being swapped when the glass comes in)

overall its been a good day aside from my light just breaking (2 hours before his bed time and 1 hour after he ate)

do you guys think it is ok for him to go to bed early tonight?

 

[CooperDragon]

Sounds like a good day! Early bedtime should be fine. Do you have a spare bulb handy for tomorrow?

 

[HitokiriBattousai]

Sounds like a good day! Early bedtime should be fine. Do you have a spare bulb handy for tomorrow?

already bought it but now i need to re adjust the height while he is in his temporary bin for bed time

 

[CooperDragon]

OK great. He will be fine in a temp bin. I often have my dragon out with me in the evening hours after lights out (he falls asleep on me) and it's no problem. They like routine but aren't that sensitive to variations when needed.

 

[HitokiriBattousai]

OK great. He will be fine in a temp bin. I often have my dragon out with me in the evening hours after lights out (he falls asleep on me) and it's no problem. They like routine but aren't that sensitive to variations when needed.

if it helps he is sleeping on the same towel he slept on/under last night (when not in his temporary bin i keep the towel in the cave under his basking platform so he can chose to sleep on something soft or hard)

 

[HitokiriBattousai]

finally got the flood light at the right height (i gotta get a dimmer for it to make life easier)


using a Phillips BR30 and got it at 104.3 in the center of the hot spot 101.2 on the outside edge of the hot spot and there are all tiers around it so he can regulate his heat easily between 104 and 76 (my room temp on average)

 

[CooperDragon]

That sounds like a pretty ideal gradient =)

 

[HitokiriBattousai]

put the little guy in today seemed like he was liking it noticed he was gaping a little under the basking light (either that or he wanted something to eat as i hadn't put his salad in yet)

question though how much water does a little 6.5-7 inch beardie need? as i made his greens very moist with visible droplets of water on them and he ate 2 good pieces do you think that would be enough water for him or should i offer more? (he just got a bath yesterday which he didn't like nor drink from that lasted 5 min i was going to try to get a bottle to mist him with later as that is what they did at Dachiu otherwise it is gonna be droplets on the end of his nose with an eye dropper sort of thing)

 

[CooperDragon]

If you have fresh greens and well hydrated bugs that should be plenty. You can offer occasional baths to allow for some drinking time if needed too. They don't need a whole lot of water - they get what they need from their food for the most part.

 

[HitokiriBattousai]

well shortly after the greens we (me and my father) offered him some crickets via some tweezers again and this time we started putting them down in front of him while they were slowed (literally a few seconds in my freeze and they are moving sluggish ) and he happily snatched them up and then was grabbing them faster then they could be dropped from the tweezers

we gave him 6 total (slowly working him up to more as i don't want him to puke so tonight we'll try for 7 and so on till we figure out how many it approximately takes for him to be full)


right now he is happily basking gaping every once in a while (basking spot at last check was hovering right around 105 give or take a few because of the temporary screen front and my heat going on and off)


here are some pictures

 

[HitokiriBattousai]

and after all of that he caught sight of a moth in his tank (damn flour moths need a trap for them) and was trying like hell to get it thankfully he didn't but seeing he wanted it that badly i figured he must still be hungry but not wanting to set crickets lose in his big tank i tried putting him in his temp bin he has slept in a few times and letting them lose there and he chased them down and ate 4-5 more (the first few went so quick it was hard to count) then was content to let one stray one roam so i put it back and returned him to his basking spot


so 10-11 crickets total so far and i'll see if he wants any more in 6-7 hours at least 2 hours before bed time

here he is just a little while ago

 

[Nancy87]

He's gorgeous. Looks like he is settling in well.

 

[HitokiriBattousai]

thanks and yea he seems to be pretty comfortable now if only he'd stop climbing the temporary screen front lol


he must have been taken down from the top 6 times today last time i took him down i was petting him for a few last time and now he is back at his basking spot waiting for me to leave the room so he can climb it again