New Beardie Owner!

[gregorydragon]

Hello everyone! I just wanted to introduce my (daughter’s) beardie and share our story. My daughter is 4 years old and outside of being a bit emotional and dramatic, is not girlie. She loves to wrestle with Daddy and brother (2y/o). She also loves soccer and reptiles, amphibians, and insects. She thought she wanted a gecko until she saw and held a bearded dragon (that changed everything). So we went to the Austin Reptile Expo last month and met a local breeder. It turns out she lives about 4 miles from our house (who knew!?).

We just picked up our little guy/gal(?) on Saturday 9/7. My daughter named her beardie “Mango” because of some orange coloration here and there. Mango is 8-9 weeks old, 6-7 inches long and lives in a 20 gallon viv. Here is some info on Mango:
•Substrate: newspaper right now, but may change because the crickets have too many cracks to hide in.
•Lighting: ReptiGlo 10 for UVB. Our aquarium is only 12 inches high and the only elevated area we have is the basking spot (105-112 degrees)
•Interior Temp: 80-85 degrees – day, 78-80 degrees – night
•Feeding: veggie dish (won’t eat veggies yet) and a water dish (removed at night)
oVeggies tried: collard greens, mustard greens, carrots (once)
oInsects: Mealworms (wouldn’t eat any), Crickets (eating ~ 8-10/day)
?Phoenix worms and silkworms should be here in a few days

We are feeding (or trying to feed) crickets and some baby mealworms (they really are tiny ones), but he only eats the crickets right now and not very well. This is making me nervous. I am soooooooo looking forward to the day that he really starts to eat. Hopefully it will be soon. He doesn’t seem to eat much and I have just read so many stories about baby beardies eating 60-100 crickets/worms/roaches a day. Any info here would really ease my anxiety. I just realized that I am saying “he”, but I don’t really know if this is accurate. Anyway, any tips or pointers will be great.

 

[gregorydragon]

I just saw the list of questions and thought I would include those, although I may have already answered them.

How old is your dragon? 8-9 weeks
How long have you had your dragon? 3 days
How long is your dragon? 6-7 inches
What is the sex of your dragon? don't know
What size enclosure do you have your dragon in? 20 gal viv
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank? Newspaper
Do you use UVB lights? Yes
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb? Flourescent tube
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)? Reptiglo-10
How old is your UVB bulb? 4 days
How close can your dragon get to the UVB? 8 inches in the basking spot
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage? Yes. 50 watt (some reptile basking light, but will try regular household bulb next)
What are the basking temps? 108-112
What is the cool side temp? 80
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun? circle dials for ambient temp and probe for basking spot
Where exactly are you taking your basking temps? central point directly under the basking light.
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad? No way!
What do you feed your dragon? crickets (waiting for silkworms and PWs)
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)? morning, afternoon (except for 2 days a week due to work) and night
Do you gutload (feed) your crickets, worms, etc? yes
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them? yes. Jurassi-cal (every time?)and JurassiVite (2 days a week)
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)? once a day so far
Do you bath your dragon? How often? yes. once so far, but plan on twice a week
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath? Water bowl when lights on. mist twice a day
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon? No
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done? No

 

[dragons1222]

ok return the reptiglo it has been causing problems the best one is the reptisun 10.0 and reptiglo 8.0

the dial thermometer really does nothing but as long as you have a digital it wont hurt to have it n there

when you say except 2 days a week do you mean you dont feed at all those 2 days or what? i am a little confused he should be fed every day

jurasical is good that should be 5x a week i dont like the jurasivite though i like the repcal brands you need a calcium with d3 and then the multivitamin which should be given 2x a week

he should also be offered greens the ones yu give are good but carrots should be given on a VERY rare occasion as they have alot of vitamin A and beardies can overdose on this here is a complete list of all food items http://www.beautifuldragons.com also do not feed mealworms they have a hard chitin shell and are very difficult for beardies to digest

bathing should really be done 5-7 times a week and when you mist make sure you mist outside the cage

i also recomend a fecal exam usually costs around $10-20 depending on your vet and can save a life sometimes they have parasites and you dont even know until they start showing it is best to catch anything before something happens


what substrate were you thinking of switching to a baby especially should never be housed on loose substrates and even adults have to have temps closley monitored as well as humidity and any signs of impaction


love the name by the way lol

 

[LJean]

Hello and welcome!

 

[gregorydragon]

OMG! Sorry! I meant that 2 days a week I can only feed twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

I'll have to get a Reptisun tomorrow or Friday.

No worries about the mealworms. Mango won't touch them. Right now it's crickets all the way. Today he/she ate 12. This is an improvement.

Mango needs a bath almost everyday? That sounds like more fun for my daughter, but I thought it was only once or twice a week. We do mist outside of the cage.

I was looking up reptile vets in my area today. I will plan to go to the vet in the next week or so. I guess a need a travel case.

I was going to switch to some sort of turf, but I haven't really looked into it yet. Will a humidity dial be sufficient?

Thanks!

 

[dragons1222]

oh ok thats ok then lol

yes baths are good every day so they stay hidrated and it helps them with shedding

plus if they poop in the tub it is less mess for you to clean up lol

and yes the astro turf is fine

really the dials are not correct at all you dont really need to sorry about humidity that much b/c of how warm the tank stays it shouldnt get high enough to do any harm if you really want to know you can get a temp/humidity digital w/ a probe at walmart for around $12


let me know if you have anymore questions

 

[gregorydragon]

I have a bathing question. So far I have been bathing about 3-4 days a week (timing with work and school). I have only put a small amount of warm water in the bottom of a rubbermaid container and let Mango run around. I also drip some water on his back and head. Is this good enough or should I fill it up a little more and let him swim around? I don't want him to drown.

Just thought about a feeding question:
Mango will ONLY eat crickets. I think I might be rushing things, but I tried PWs, silkworms, baby mealworms (which the breeder fed him), but he will only eat the crickets. He loves the chase ! Should I just wait until he is older? I am going to try dubias in a few weeks. I am trying to figure out the most economical feeder without sacrificing nutrition. If he likes the dubias I may start a colony (I understand that it takes a while to get a colony built up so I want to try some to see if he will even eat them).

 

[fresnowitte]

:wave: Hello & Welcome to BD.org!
And...........
Congratulations on the New Little One!

Here's a link to some nutritional values to live feeders that I found useful;
http://www.feedersinc.com/insect-comparison/

I switched from crickets to roaches about 6 months ago and boy am I glad I did.
I have a thriving colony or Blatta Lateralis(Turk's, Rusty Reds).
These roaches are much faster than the others and don't get as big, but do lay egg sacks.
They lay egg sack about every 2 weeks and each contains between 20 to 30 babies.

What's nice about having a colony of roaches no matter which you choose to go with is that there's a variety of sizes to accommodate the range of size beardies that I have. They are easy, quiet, an don't smell near as bad as crickets. Futhermore they are a much cleaner bug to feed your beardies. I find crickets to be nasty, dirty,carnivors(?SP?), poop eating, noisey little pests. The type of roaches I have and the Dubias do not climb glass so I've had no escapees. Helped with the cost of feeding my clan. They all love them even babies.

All of my beardies even babies love silk worms as well, but can be costly.
These are the live feeders that I use;
Roaches
Silkworms
Horned Worms
Butter Worms
Superworms (only for adults unless you breed them and have small ones)
Phoenix Worms

Here's a link to a reasonable site that sells all of these worms;
http://www.mulberryfarms.com/

I ordered my colony of roaches here;
http://www.thebugpros.com/

If you choose the Dubias one of our members can accommodate you.(TheRoachGuy)

About bathing you can make it shoulder deep an if you'd like place wash cloth in the bottom slightly clumped up in an area so that your baby can get slightly out of the water if he/she wishes. Always supervise never take your eyes off them while bathing. I find with my beardies that they prefer to have it shoulder deep so they can swim. Keep in mind not all beardies will enjoy their baths. An even if they don't like it now they may grow to enjoy it later.
Again Welcome Aboard!

I would love to see pic's of your new beardie. :love5:

 

[gregorydragon]

Finally! Some pics! Here is my tiny little guy! His tail just shed yesterday and today he was an eating machine. He ate about 15 crickets and 3 silkworms. I've had him for a week and a half and that is the most he has eaten so far. Actually, I didn't actually see him eat the silks, but they disappeared in about 3 minutes of me leaving the room and they don't move that fast.

 

[fresnowitte]

Aaww! Tell your daughter I said that her little Mango is absolutely adorable. :love5:
And I thank her daddy for sharing the pic's. :wink:

 

[dragons1222]

glad he is eating more

also i would not feed mealworms their chitin is too hard and can get stuck in their intestines

and sometimes they can be picky little babies lol so sometimes it takes them a while to realize other things as food

good luck lol

 

[gregorydragon]

I would just like to say that I am officially no longer a newbie. :headbang:

 

[gregorydragon]

I think our little guy is getting ready to have his first full body shed (since we've had him). His tail shed 2 weeks ago and is nice and bright. The rest of his body is this dull pale gray color, but he is doing great. I am...impatiently waiting for my roach colony.

 

[gregorydragon]

ROACHES!!!
They are here. The tote is set. Now let's keep feeding crickets for 1-3 more months and then it's nothing but roaches and worms! WooHoo!

 

[gregorydragon]

We've had Mango for about 6 weeks now. This makes him...3 months old. He is about 8 1/4 inches long and I don't have a scale, but he is filling out nicely.

First bath (2 months)

This is just before his body shed

SpiderMANgo!!!

Encouraging me to do schoolwork :lol:

Sleeping - so peaceful (3 months)

"stop peaking over my shoulder. I'm trying to look out the window!"

After his body shed, he immediately looked bigger. Or maybe that's just my imagination, I'm not sure.