New Beardie

[thor2012]

Well, I just got my first beardie and his name is Thor. We have him in a 10 gallon tank but in like 2-3 day's we will have him in a 50 gallon tanks. Know I have 3 bags of desert blend substrate and repti carpet. I have a regular 100Watt heat lamp but we will get a uvb/uva lamp and a regular heatlamp for thor. I want to know anything else i need to know about and i have the feeding thing under control. Please help me :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[bdalton]

http://www.beautifuldragons.com/GeneralCare.html

Here's a care sheet. First, throw out the desert blend! This can cause impaction in your baby and it's unsanitary as its like living in a litter box. The repticarpet is good, or paper towel, tile, newspaper etc.
For UVB, you want a reptiSUN 10.0 long tube or Arcadia 12% (NO coils!)
You can get the reptisun at www.petmountain.com and you want it to be inside the cage, you can get a undercounted fixture at Walmart and mount it with command hooks. Screen blocks out UVB. You want him to get 6-8" to it and want it to be next to your basking bulb, which can be a regular household bulb or flood light. I like the clear bulbs an their extremely cheap and really bright. Brighter the better, it protects their eyes from the UVB.

To get accurate temps, you need a digital thermometer with a long wire probe placed directly on the basking spot (Walmart, 12$ acurite brand) or a infrared temp gun. The stick on thermometers can't get an accurate reading for the basking surface. This is really important. (105*-110* for babies, 80* cool side)

Www.beautifuldragons.com/nutrition had a color coded list of all the greens and vegetables/fruit you can give him and how often.

Let him eat as many crickets as he can in 15 min, 3x a day, dusted with calcium on the first feeding 5x a week and vitamins 2x a week still only on one feeding a day. I find that a schedule of Monday-friday dust calcium and weekends dust vitamins is the easiest way to remember, and I always do the first feeding so I dont forget if I did it or not.
Make sure not to leave any crickets in the tank with him because they will bite him while he sleeps.

I think that's pretty much it. If you have any questions let me know!!

 

[thor2012]

Thank so much for the info i hope i will be chatting you again

 

[bdalton]

No problem! Good luck with your first beardie and congrats. You will LOVE them, their amazing.

 

[thor2012]

Another question. Thor is right now in a 10 gallon tank. The bulb is 150 watt Intense Basking Spot Exo-Terra. We just changed to this bulb. We had 100 watt bulb. With this change now, his mouth is open a lot. I understand they do this to regulate themselves but should it be a constant? In other words, can the tank actually be too hot? And do I need to keep the heat mat on during the day or only at night? We've got it under his basking spot. I've heard that we shouldn't be using the heat mat at all. Your thoughts?

 

[bdalton]

Yes, hes definetly too hot. Turn the heat pad off, they cant sense heat underneath of them and can easily get burned. Also, a 150 watt is WAY too much heat for a 10 gallon, let alone with a heat pad. I use one 150 watt to heat a 75 gallon tank!!! You should get a bigger tank asap, its almost impossible to maintain a proper hot and cool side in such a small tank, which he needs to thermoregulate.
what type of thermometer do you have? You NEED to get a probe thermometer, your temps are probably cooking your baby right now. A 50 watt bulb should be all you need, and that could even be too hot, which is why the probe is so important. If a dial stick on thermometer says 105/110, the baskimg spot is at least 125-135. I would take him out immediatly and give him a luke warm bath. Not real warm, he needs to cool off but you dont want to shock him. With all that heat theres a very good chance hes dehydrated, so he may drink from the bath or drip some water on his nose, and continue to bath him daily for 15 min to hydrate him.
he will be fine in a bigger tank, or you could block some of it off with cardboard, but he will need one soon anyway with how fast he grows, so id suggest doing it as soon as you can. For now, see ifyou have a 40 or 50 watt household bulb laying around.
Dont turn the 150 or 100 watt on, and if theyre on now, turn them off!! If you dont
have any other bulbs, try to hang it above the tank (with the 100 watt) so its at least 6-10" away. I use a 100 watt to heat a 40g breeder tank, so that will be way too hot too. I cant stress enough how important he probe thermometer is. Like i said, you can get one right at walmart for 12$. Definetly give him a bath and dont put anylights or anything on at night, not even the heat pad. Id say just chuck it and the 150 unless you plan to get a really big tank.

Let me know howhe is after you give him a lyke warm bath,and dont worry about the water cooling off or adding warm, he will adjust to it as it cools,but take him out once itscold.