Phoebe
Hatchling Member
Hello my name's Phoebe, I'm 18 and me and my boyfriend are from the UK. We've just got ourselves our very first Bearded Dragon about a week ago. Since getting him I've been checking this forum every night for extra info so I thought I should become a member. His name is Vegeta (Yes from Dragon Ball Z, my boyfriend picked the name) I'm not sure how old he is, but maybe somebody could have a guess once they see the pictures. Got him from a reptile shop.
I think his temps are ok. He has a UV light and a red bulb for basking spot, but I now know that the red one's disturb their sleep so I will soon change it. Temp was 30C when we first brought him home and after researching what temps should be I got worried and made my boyfriend increase the tempreture to 40C. He then completely stayed away from basking spot, and started gaping everywhere and anywhere so now we've got it inbetween at around 35-37C and it seems perfect for him. His tank has wood chips in which I also now know are no good (I hate the fact the people at a reptile shop can sell you things which are terrible for your pet) Although I was getting slightly paranoid about it before I read up on it, as Vegeta tends to lick everything, so I was worried incase of swallowing. I will most probably be chaning it tomorrow to Newspaper although I really dislike the look of it, so if anyone knows any substrate you can buy in UK I would appreciate it. He has three bark things in his tank (which before I started feeding him outside his tank got a million Crickets living inside and I had to put the bark in boiling water, not good!)
I'm thinking of making one of them fake rocks that I've seen in the DIY part of the forum, not sure where to get the parts in the UK though.
He was very scared at first obviously but now he is getting used to being handled. I can put my hand in the tank and he won't run away anymore (We were starting to think he hated us) But now we know they all do it ^_^ I can stroke him and get him out of his tank easily now, and he loves to run around the living room and explore. He also loves to poo on our nice floor which my boyfriend isn't too impressed with ^_^
We made a little space for him in the living room using wood so he can't run wherever he likes for when we want to feed him. So for feeding he'll run out when he see's some Crickets, and I'll keep feeding him until he doesn't seem interested anymore and goes back in his tank himself. I do this twice a day, and also feed him veg, although he only eats his veg if I put it right up infront of him, he won't go down to the front of the tank to eat it, and I haven't seen him drink any water from his water bowl yet either.
Yesterday his neck went dark black and started behaving really weird, he was running up and down the back of the tank and jumping around, then he'd sleep during the day which he wouldn't normally do. I got really worried but after reading up I knew not to worry too much and after an hour it went down and back to normal colour. In the evening when I finally got a close up look of him I noticed he was shedding so after bathing him the night before I immediatly run him a nice bath and let him soak. Some of the skin came off by itself and then we had a nice cuddle where he layed on me for a good 15-20 minutes before wanting to go back in. He loves it when I stroke his head, he's fallen asleep a few times on me already which is nice. Today he's acting more like normal, apart from running into walls... He's a little cutie I can't wait until he starts to bond with us more. I'll post a few pictures, the only one's I've got so far -
I think his temps are ok. He has a UV light and a red bulb for basking spot, but I now know that the red one's disturb their sleep so I will soon change it. Temp was 30C when we first brought him home and after researching what temps should be I got worried and made my boyfriend increase the tempreture to 40C. He then completely stayed away from basking spot, and started gaping everywhere and anywhere so now we've got it inbetween at around 35-37C and it seems perfect for him. His tank has wood chips in which I also now know are no good (I hate the fact the people at a reptile shop can sell you things which are terrible for your pet) Although I was getting slightly paranoid about it before I read up on it, as Vegeta tends to lick everything, so I was worried incase of swallowing. I will most probably be chaning it tomorrow to Newspaper although I really dislike the look of it, so if anyone knows any substrate you can buy in UK I would appreciate it. He has three bark things in his tank (which before I started feeding him outside his tank got a million Crickets living inside and I had to put the bark in boiling water, not good!)
I'm thinking of making one of them fake rocks that I've seen in the DIY part of the forum, not sure where to get the parts in the UK though.
He was very scared at first obviously but now he is getting used to being handled. I can put my hand in the tank and he won't run away anymore (We were starting to think he hated us) But now we know they all do it ^_^ I can stroke him and get him out of his tank easily now, and he loves to run around the living room and explore. He also loves to poo on our nice floor which my boyfriend isn't too impressed with ^_^
We made a little space for him in the living room using wood so he can't run wherever he likes for when we want to feed him. So for feeding he'll run out when he see's some Crickets, and I'll keep feeding him until he doesn't seem interested anymore and goes back in his tank himself. I do this twice a day, and also feed him veg, although he only eats his veg if I put it right up infront of him, he won't go down to the front of the tank to eat it, and I haven't seen him drink any water from his water bowl yet either.
Yesterday his neck went dark black and started behaving really weird, he was running up and down the back of the tank and jumping around, then he'd sleep during the day which he wouldn't normally do. I got really worried but after reading up I knew not to worry too much and after an hour it went down and back to normal colour. In the evening when I finally got a close up look of him I noticed he was shedding so after bathing him the night before I immediatly run him a nice bath and let him soak. Some of the skin came off by itself and then we had a nice cuddle where he layed on me for a good 15-20 minutes before wanting to go back in. He loves it when I stroke his head, he's fallen asleep a few times on me already which is nice. Today he's acting more like normal, apart from running into walls... He's a little cutie I can't wait until he starts to bond with us more. I'll post a few pictures, the only one's I've got so far -
