New Dragon Mom!

[IswearIsawadragon]

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to write on this forum instead of lurking in it haha I'm going to be adopting a 6 month old bearded dragon in about a week and I can't wait! I've been doing non-stop research, plus I had old notes from when I was researching about a year or so ago, and I now have my list of what I think I want for this little guy. I wanted to run it by the experts though to see if these are okay choices or if I should change anything, and if so what would be recommended

Tank: Zen Habitat 4x2x2 Original; 4'x2'x2' Original Wood Panel Bearded Dragon Enclosure | Zen Habitats

UVB Light Fixture: Bio Dude Solar Grow T5 HO Single Light Bulb 36"; The Bio Dude Solar Grow T5 HO Single Bulb Light Strip 36"

UVB Light: T5 Reptisun 10.0 34"

Basking Light Fixture: Fluker's Clamp Lamp with Dimmer 8.5" 150W max; https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/flukers-clamp-lamp-with-dimmer

Basking Light: Philips Indoor/Outdoor PAR30L Floodlight 75W (I'm wishy washy about this, I bought it when I first starting doing research and now I can't find this exact one for sale, it says its a bright light with 920 lumens, the top of the bulb has that mini hexagonal texture- would that hurt the beardie's eyes?)

Substrate: I was going to start with paper towels, then when he grew to adult size maybe switch it out for ceramic tile? I wasn't sure because I heard great things about this material but also that it could affect the joint health of the beardie. My other thought was to use non adhesive shelf liner like this one; https://www.amazon.com/HooTown-Non-...lja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1, but again I was going to wait until he was an adult so that the higher temperatures needed for him now won't crack the liner. I'm not sure, this is where I'm the most confused

Another question I have is should I hang the UVB light fixture inside of the tank or would placing in on top of the screen be okay? If it's recommended to hang it, what's the best way to go about that with this particular tank? Also, would the T5 10.0 UVB be too much if it's placed inside? I'm sorry if these questions were already asked and answered in other posts

 

[KarrieRee]

When I received him he didn’t have a hygrometer in his tank, and my probe won’t be here until Tuesday unfortunately I do have a hygrometer that sits on the desk, I’ll put that in there and see what it says in a couple minutes. I just ran to the store and bought a CHE just in case this is an RI. I got a good video of the popping while I was trying to get him to eat:

Let's have ahbd take a look and see what she thinks @AHBD
Keep him in the tank he's in for now moving him is going to stress him out - keep him warm over night and have his surface basking temps good

 

[Rocky2022]

(I'm here but going to stay out of the way so you can focus on his health and then I will comment- good luck).

 

[IswearIsawadragon]

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the support! I just wanted to give a quick update: so I decided to move him into his new enclosure, it was a difficult decision since I didn't want to stress him out more, but ultimately I felt getting him under the right kind of lights with a better temperature range was better for him.
He has stress lines which was to be expected with all the changes going on in his life, poor thing But the good news is that he still has an appetite! He's been eating his crickets and has eaten some salad, though I think he would eat more if he didn't have that mouth popping thing going on. That'll happen a time or two and then he loses all interest.
Thankfully the popping hasn't gotten worse, but it still worries me. He has a vet appointment this coming Monday (unfortunately that was the earliest opening), which I'm sure he's going to hate, but again I feel like its a necessary evil just to make sure nothing life threatening is going on. Ah, with all that he's going through I don't expect he'll trust me anytime soon, but hopefully he'll forgive me someday for this rough first week

 

[KarrieRee]

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the support! I just wanted to give a quick update: so I decided to move him into his new enclosure, it was a difficult decision since I didn't want to stress him out more, but ultimately I felt getting him under the right kind of lights with a better temperature range was better for him.
He has stress lines which was to be expected with all the changes going on in his life, poor thing But the good news is that he still has an appetite! He's been eating his crickets and has eaten some salad, though I think he would eat more if he didn't have that mouth popping thing going on. That'll happen a time or two and then he loses all interest.
Thankfully the popping hasn't gotten worse, but it still worries me. He has a vet appointment this coming Monday (unfortunately that was the earliest opening), which I'm sure he's going to hate, but again I feel like its a necessary evil just to make sure nothing life threatening is going on. Ah, with all that he's going through I don't expect he'll trust me anytime soon, but hopefully he'll forgive me someday for this rough first week

Make sure you have the correct distance for the uvb in the new tank