New beardie person.

[Gragrac]

Hullo! I just joined this forum because I was suprised to recieve a baby bearded dragon yesterday and am kind of overwhelmed. He came with a heat lamp, UVB bulb, reptile mat, 20 gallon tank and some crickets. What else do I need?
This is the first reptile I've ever had. He's super adorable.

 

[Kacymyree]

Hello and welcome.
Do you know the age of the dragon? a 20 gal is only okay for young dragons.
ditch the heat mat, bearded dragons dont feel heat from their bellies and it can burn them without them knowing.
What type is your UVB the best type is ReptiSUN 10.0, if you don't have it you're going to need to get it.
What substrate are you keeping him on?
What are your current temps? for basking spot and cool side of tank? ( you'll need a digital therm or temp gun to get an accurate temp) those stick on guages are crappy and dont work.

 

[Gragrac]

The reptile mat is a covering for the bottom of the tank, not a heater.
I don't know his age, but he's about 4 inches long counting his tail.
I don't have a thermometer or heat gun yet, just the gauge one. I think I have a digital aquarium thermometer, would that work?

 

[ajkry2]

OK--proper husbandry is KEY in having a happy, healthy beardie...

lets start with lighting
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=114817&e=0

Now on to substrate (the floor of the vivarium):
Particle substrate (sand, bark, etc) is not recommended for 2 reasons
-- it harbors bacteria, and has an impaction risk. The recommended
alternatives are: Paper towels, repticarpet, shelf liner, or tile.
Many people like tile as its easy to clean (dishwasher/sink) and keeps
your BD's nails trimmed, I use paper towels (always replacing them due
to poopoo).

Lets talk about feeders:
Live feeders should be no larger than the space between your BD's
eyes. Here's a generally accepted list of safe foods:

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

A few rules of thumb -- superworms should not be fed until your BD is
16 inches or longer. Stay away from mealworms as they're hard to
digest, and may cause impaction.
and here's a little something I came up with

crickets - pain in the xss (stink, quick escapers, but cheap)
mealworms - too much hard outer shell, not enough good meat
(hard for poopers to digest resulting in possible impaction)
roaches - darn nice feeder (expensive on the onset, but easy to
breed, relatively slow movers, good meat to shell ratio)
superworms - delicious for BD's over 16ish inches for digestive reasons
phoenixworms - no experience, but from word of mouth they're
healthy for BD's but quite expensive and small
butterworms - nice treat for BD's, very fatty kinda like a
candy bar for your pooper
waxworms - don't like them. my pooper had the runs for days
after i fed a few to her. and she wouldn't eat more than 3 or 4 so i
dont think she likes em anyway




Okay, that's some general info. There's a ton of other people who are
way more experienced than me, but I hope this helps.

 

[Gragrac]

Forgot to say, the UVB is a Zilla Slimline desert fixture, but, I'm going to have to get another kind anyway because I've been messing with it all morning and it won't turn on!

 

[fresnowitte]

Hello & Welcome to BD.org!

Look forward in seeing pic's.

For tube style flourescent UVB light this is your best choice.
http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-fluorescent-bulbs/504983/zoo-med-reptisun-10.0-uvb-bulb.html
That's also the cheapest place to order one from that I've found.