New here..and recently took in a beardie

[xoerika620xo]

Hi everyone =) i am new here, my name is erika i am 22 years old and a new owner of a new bearded dragon. She was given to me by a family member who could no longer take care of her due to household issues. My boyfriend and I agreed to take her in since we were thinking of getting a bearded dragon for a long time now. I asked if she ate any vegetables he said no she has only been eating crickets and horn worms from time to time. From my previous reading i know they are supposed to be on a plant based diet more than animal based so we are working on her with that. so far there are A LOT of things in her tank i would like to change. first of is the sand, i def would like tile or something much better, second is her lighting. She has a exo terra terrarium and the uvb is outside the screen, were going to take the background out and tape it to the back and put the uvb inside the tank using 3m hooks. She also has a 75 watt lightbulb and a red light for night (that they kept on all day) and i know beardies can see the red light so i ordered a CHE and a new clamp for it. My house is cold at night so I'm going to use the CHE all day for now but is that ok? I hope a 60 watt will suffice because i know the CHE is really hot. ill still use the 75 bulb and in place of the red bulb im going to put a low wattage bulb for her cool side to give her some more light.

My main concern is she isn't eating, im guessing it is because she is too cold. But i was told she hasn't been eating for almost a month now so im not sure if it is because of burmation. They were also using one of those sticker thermometers but i managed to buy a repti temp gun online for pretty cheap. I knew there was going to be some things i wanted to change but i didn't know it would be so much.

We did buy some crickets and superworms (until i can buy some pheonix worms, and silk worms), i also would like to feed her dubia's and start a colony but my main focus is to have her eat her greens. I'm trying to get her away from animal's as a stable but she is one stubborn girl, and ontop of the temperature not being good enough for her i know she's not going to eat. If anyone has some advice to give me i would definitely appreciate it.

 

[brittani299]

Hello . It sounds like you have done a lot if research beiges hand which is good. I would for sure get rid of that sand. For now use paper towels, newspaper, or reptile carpet until you get tiles. I would go get a digital thermometer ASAP. The wrong temps can cause all sorts of problems. I would also make sure the UVB is not old and that it is placed inside the tank. Reptisun 10.0 is a good one. Your beardie may not like greens yet if they have never been introduced. I would keep feeding more feeders until you can get it to eat the greens more. Try putting the feeders on the bottom of the bowl and the greens in top so your beardie has to work for the feeders. It may grab a green with the feeder. I would give your beardie a bath 2-3 times a week so that it can get some fluids in it. Beardies absorb water through their vent so that will help. Sorry if you said this but how long is it about? If it is about 1 and over it could be brumating.y female is right now and she will eat bit not a while lot. I have sure she gets baths though so she stays hydrated and poos.

 

[xoerika620xo]

Hello . It sounds like you have done a lot if research beiges hand which is good. I would for sure get rid of that sand. For now use paper towels, newspaper, or reptile carpet until you get tiles. I would go get a digital thermometer ASAP. The wrong temps can cause all sorts of problems. I would also make sure the UVB is not old and that it is placed inside the tank. Reptisun 10.0 is a good one. Your beardie may not like greens yet if they have never been introduced. I would keep feeding more feeders until you can get it to eat the greens more. Try putting the feeders on the bottom of the bowl and the greens in top so your beardie has to work for the feeders. It may grab a green with the feeder. I would give your beardie a bath 2-3 times a week so that it can get some fluids in it. Beardies absorb water through their vent so that will help. Sorry if you said this but how long is it about? If it is about 1 and over it could be brumating.y female is right now and she will eat bit not a while lot. I have sure she gets baths though so she stays hydrated and poos.

Thank you so much for responding, she is over a year old so thats why i think she may be brumating. I've ordered a digital thermometer online it should be here wednesday. Right now she isn't eating anything, I've left worms in her tank but she hasn't even shown interest in them. first bath with us was today, and she did poop which was great. Were planning on changing the uvb this weekend since ill have some extra money.

 

[brittani299]

That's a good sign that she pooed at least. Do you know if it really has been a month since she has ate? I would try to get her to eat some baby food at least. You can get a syringe and do it that way. It is hard to say it she is brumating or just slow because of her habitat. You will know more when you can see the temps correctly.

 

[xoerika620xo]

That's a good sign that she pooed at least. Do you know if it really has been a month since she has ate? I would try to get her to eat some baby food at least. You can get a syringe and do it that way. It is hard to say it she is brumating or just slow because of her habitat. You will know more when you can see the temps correctly.

she did eat 3 worms on friday they said for the first time in a while so it really hasn't been a month. she just tends to sleep a lot and if i have her in my arms she will easily fall back to sleep thats why i believe it is brumation, wednesday can't come soon enough lol.

 

[brittani299]

Lol. It sounds more like brumation if she does that. Hopefully she will eat some more in the next couple days.

 

[xoerika620xo]

We received the temp gun and CHE in the mail, I was so glad it was still able to be delivered since we had a huge snow storm yesterday. As soon as I checked her temps her basking side was 85-90 degrees. Cool side was 75-80 which wasn't too bad. Once I added the CHE and kept the 75 bulb on for some light temps immediately went up to 100 degrees. I decided to turn it off at night since her tank was too hot at 89 for night so I might have not needed the CHE In the first place. She did poop today and tomorrow will be another bath, I just wish she would eat something. I always put worms into her tank but she still won't go for them so I just mist her to keep her hydrated.

 

[brittani299]

It might take her a few days to warm up and eat. If she hasn't are by Friday try the baby food for sure.

 

[xoerika620xo]

So we were able to find out why she isn't eating..my cousin explained she has been hand fed with tongs ever since she was little. So we tried hand feeding her and she actually ate ! The problem is now hand feeding her, is there anyway to get her away from that?

 

[brittani299]

That might be hard. My female kinda does the same thing. She goes in periods of only eating from tongs. If she won't eat the worms from the bowl I have to feed them from the tongs.

 

[xoerika620xo]

just wanted to update and say Kerwin is doing much better. she eats 3 or more worms every other day. Were going food shopping this weekend I'm going to buy some greens but since she is so used to being fed i'm not sure if she will even touch them. Since this will be her first time which would you suggest? i've also ordered her a new reptisun and fixture so we can mount it inside of the terrarium. next week were going to try reptiworms.