New dragon, how's he/she look?

[MostBeast]

http://imgur.com/a/UxqE3

Here's an album of my little buddy. Haven't decided on a name, so feel free to suggest. Couple questions:
1. Does he look overall pretty healthy? Also, would you guess him to be around 2.5 months?
2.He kind of went on a hunger strike, but I treated him to a few SMALL mealworms (2-3?) and he got his appetite back for crickets. Is this common?
3.Does my lighting setup look okay? The one on top on the screen is just a basking light for heat, it's way up there because any lower and it gets too hot. Then in the double lamp all I have going is a single UVB 5.0 Repti-something and he seems to always be on his log under it. Do these conditions look okay?
4.Any name suggestions? I can take boy and girl names!

 

[ancapper]

That is a very nice color pattern cute little bugger. The only issue i see is the uvb. The coil bulbs are pretty bad, a tube type like a reptisun 10.0 or if you can afford an arcadia 13 go for it. That may be the cause of the hunger strike.

Not sure if its an option, but try phoenix/repti/calci worms aka black soldier fly larvae. High enough calcium all you need is multivitamin, and no hard shell

 

[MostBeast]

That is a very nice color pattern cute little bugger. The only issue i see is the uvb. The coil bulbs are pretty bad, a tube type like a reptisun 10.0 or if you can afford an arcadia 13 go for it. That may be the cause of the hunger strike.

Not sure if its an option, but try phoenix/repti/calci worms aka black soldier fly larvae. High enough calcium all you need is multivitamin, and no hard shell

Could my little guy develop MBD with this coil? Is it that bad? And with the larvae, how hard is it to care for them?

 

[ancapper]

the general consensus around here is yes on MBD I believe, but I'm no expert. as for soldier flies, easy as heck. They come in a quart sized soup container for about 1000 large with a dirt mixture. I widened the holes on a dollar store plastic strainer to get the dirt off then plop them in a bowl for steve then i can go to work knowing i dont have crickets to chase. steve is about 6 months old and 16 or so inches and he eats between 40 and 60 large in a sitting

 

[MostBeast]

the general consensus around here is yes on MBD I believe, but I'm no expert. as for soldier flies, easy as heck. They come in a quart sized soup container for about 1000 large with a dirt mixture. I widened the holes on a dollar store plastic strainer to get the dirt off then plop them in a bowl for steve then i can go to work knowing i dont have crickets to chase. steve is about 6 months old and 16 or so inches and he eats between 40 and 60 large in a sitting

Thank you so much, this is such good news. Where do you usually buy yours, and how many would you recommend/what size for my guy right now? Also, can you slow their growth by putting them in the fridge?

 

[kingofnobbys]

He's fine, and looks very healthy and happy (nicely coloured up). They often go off their food for the first few days to a week when they come home to a new family, new routine, new foods, new tank , it's called relocation stress.

At the very least replace the existing UV globe with a 26W UVB200. Try to arrange things so he can get within 6-8 inches of the UV source.
He's telling you he needs more UV (A and B) by staying close to the existing UV globe.

I've had a lot of success with these for bearded dragons , make sure your dragon can bask within 6-8 inches of the UVB200. He needs very high UVA (for good apetite) and very high (at least 10%) UVB for metabolisation of dietary calcium and creation of VitD.

If you want to give him a great headstart on life , silkworms are fabulous insects to add to his daily live feeding staples (small 1" silkworms x 6 per day for a little guy like your's, ie I'd substitute one cricket feed per day). Another highly recommended feeder insect (by many for hatchlings) is BSF maggots (aka phoenix worms aka calcigents but you'll need LOTS of them !!).

See my thread on Peppa and Toothless for some the things they did and how I'm raising them.viewtopic.php?f=6&t=221328 you might find it useful.
Note: good idea to weigh him weekly and keep detailed husbandry records (feeds, feeding times, pooing, shedding, general behaviours, changes observed .... all very handy to refer back to if there is an issue later) - I use Excel spreadsheets for mine.

 

[JRevenall]

Very , very nice dragon ! Love the red . As for UVB I bought a cheap 24" strip fixture from Wal-Mart and a good 10.0 bulb from Amazon and attached it with velcro strips to the inside of the tank , you will be surprised how much they perk up and eat better with a good UVB bulb. I did cheap out on basking bulbs though I use 100 watt incandescent bulbs but again man beautiful dragon

 

[kingofnobbys]

Very , very nice dragon ! Love the red . As for UVB I bought a cheap 24" strip fixture from Wal-Mart and a good 10.0 bulb from Amazon and attached it with velcro strips to the inside of the tank , you will be surprised how much they perk up and eat better with a good UVB bulb. I did cheap out on basking bulbs though I use 100 watt incandescent bulbs but again man beautiful dragon

Can improve on that - all you need is a strip of thin stainless or aluminium (that is easy to bend / fold) , make a reflector to go behind the UV tube and either fix it with araldite or a few selftaping screws, this will amplify the UVA and UVB where you need it by reflecting the UV that is currently getting wasted behind the tube.

 

[ruben0311]

for his size the coils are ok, the issue comes up when they get larger as the area of coverage for UVB is very small therefore the gradient will be too drastic... if you follow the manufacturers data you'll be fine, just need to make sure the distances are spot on. ive kept Fred under a coil since day one and just recently changed to a tube light, just due to the gradient issue, but i have had zero issues at all with them... kinda prefer them actually due to size and ease of use but hey, its their health not mine so yeah.

 

[JRevenall]

Very , very nice dragon ! Love the red . As for UVB I bought a cheap 24" strip fixture from Wal-Mart and a good 10.0 bulb from Amazon and attached it with velcro strips to the inside of the tank , you will be surprised how much they perk up and eat better with a good UVB bulb. I did cheap out on basking bulbs though I use 100 watt incandescent bulbs but again man beautiful dragon

Can improve on that - all you need is a strip of thin stainless or aluminium (that is easy to bend / fold) , make a reflector to go behind the UV tube and either fix it with araldite or a few selftaping screws, this will amplify the UVA and UVB where you need it by reflecting the UV that is currently getting wasted behind the tube.

Thanks man that sound like good advice and I'll try it out. I'm still new and learning so all info is very helpful to me