New to Bearded Dragons.

[dragonmommy2003]

I got my son a bearded dragon a few weeks ago. He is about a month old, the dragon not my son. My son is 4 and just cares for the lights and talks to him. I feed and water the baby dragon at this point.

We have the baby dragon, unknown gender, my son named him Chuggingtons, in a 55 gallon fish aquarium. He has two climbing sticks, 2 hiding rocks, a water bowl and wood shaving substrate. I forget the name but I got it from LLLreptiles. Everything but the aquarium came from there.

In 6 months when they can tell us what gender the bearded dragon is we are planning on getting a 2nd one. I did research and know you can not have 2 males. So we are prepared for that.

I think we are doing this right from the research I have done. The lizard seems to be doing ok. He is eating crickets, and he drinks from his dish, which surprised me as according to research they would not. The only thing that really bothers me is he does not eat any of the veggies I put in his cage and was told he needed daily. Should I worry about that.

 

[hoopyscoop]

Welcome to the forums! Your beardie sounds adorable, and your sons definitely lucky! Their awesome lizardS!

By the way, you should really get rid of the wood shavings and go for a reptile carpet, paper towels, or tile. The wood could give him an impaction if eaten, and it could cut him.


The thing about not eating salad is okay, try adding a little fragrent fruit into it, colorful and yummy smelling fruit is what made my Fredericka eat her salad.

What UVB light are you using?

Also, you should not house any beardies together, male or not. There are success stories, but in my humble opinion, I wouldn't risk it. If you want more than one beardie, you should get another tank and lights/etc. :wink:

Also, if you'd like a food chart, here's a good one: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html


I'm sorry if I frustrated or overwhelmed you. Just trying to help.

 

[dragonmommy2003]

Welcome to the forums! Your beardie sounds adorable, and your sons definitely lucky! Their awesome lizardS!

By the way, you should really get rid of the wood shavings and go for a reptile carpet, paper towels, or tile. The wood could give him an impaction if eaten, and it could cut him.


The thing about not eating salad is okay, try adding a little fragrent fruit into it, colorful and yummy smelling fruit is what made my Fredericka eat her salad.

What UVB light are you using?

Also, you should not house any beardies together, male or not. There are success stories, but in my humble opinion, I wouldn't risk it.

Also, if you'd like a food chart, here's a good one: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Thanks. I will change to paper towels for now. I forget the brands. But he/she has a heat lamp that is red and a white uvb light. The guys at LLLreptile said they were a must because Chuggingtons needed the light to eat his food. I will try fruits off the approved list too. Thank you. We have frogs but I am not so sure about lizard care as of yet.

 

[hoopyscoop]

You are very welcome!

The red lamp isn't good, you should get a Reptisun 10.0 and mount it inside the tank.

You should also find a temp gun, and a thermother with a probe on the end.

I have to go, but hopefully some experienced members can come and help too.


Welcome to the forums! :mrgreen:

 

[dragonmommy2003]

You are very welcome!

The red lamp isn't good, you should get a Reptisun 10.0 and mount it inside the tank.

You should also find a temp gun, and a thermother with a probe on the end.

I have to go, but hopefully some experienced members can come and help too.


Welcome to the forums! :mrgreen:

The red bulb is just a heat one. If it is bad I will remove it, but it keeps the temp higher on that side of the tank. I know the other one is a uvb bulb but I am unsure of the brand. I just know it is not one we have had before with out whites tree frogs, so it was not exo terra.

We have the same thermometer as we do for the frogs. It is a digital one and also test for humidity which I understand is not a problem for these lizards. Thank you for your advice. I appreciate it.

I will take all the advice I can get. I took pics and will load them soon. I can not change his set up till in the morning when my husband gets home.

We also have 2 cats and a dog who might try to eat him if he gets away from me or one of the kids.

 

[dragonmommy2003]

http://s1262.photobucket.com/user/trinaphoenix/library/lizard?sort=3&page=1

There are 2 pictures so far. My phone is giving me issues when I try to send the pictures to my computer. But I will post more.

 

[disturb3d0n3]

I realize this is my second post and I'm new to beardies as well however I have almost a decade in dealing with reptiles. 55gal tank should be for your adult beardie, I would honestly downsize to a 20 gal and keep the tank fairly minimal as far as decorations for the first few weeks. Thisway he doesn't have a hard time finding food and you can monitor his bathroom habits. You definitely wanna switch to paper towels as previous suggested. We don't want the little guy lunging for crickets and getting a mouth full of that sand/substrate and becoming impacted.

 

[joea]

I hope you don't have a coiled or bent florescent screw in uvb bulb! It will cause photo-kerato-conjunctivitis. Use ReptiSun 10.0 or Arcadia T5 D3+ florescent tubes. No repti-glo tubes! You will also need the heat lamps to be close to the uvb. Unless you have a powersun type uvb + heat bulb, good luck. Nice bd by the way. Good luck!

http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor-info.htm

http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/E...7czoxOiIwIjtzOjg6IlNlYXJjaF95IjtzOjE6IjAiO30=

http://www.arcadia-reptile.com/fluorescent-lamps/t5-d3plus-desert/

 

[dragonmommy2003]

Sadly even with all your wonderful help and advice little Chuggingtons passed away. I don't know what we did wrong as we fixed everything that you told me to fix. He was fine yesterday morning, stiff in the hind legs last night. We gave him a Luke warm bath and put him where he could bask. Before I could take him to the vet today he passed. My son is very sad. My husband and I talked about it and asked the guys at LLLreptile what may have caused it, they said he just may not have aadjusted since he was so small. They offered us another small one. We are afraid to get another so small. We are going to clean his cage with vinegar and put the wood pieces in the sun after cleaning them. Then we will go to our most hated place to get a pet, Petco or pet smart because we know they have larger ones and go from there.

 

[joea]

Sadly even with all your wonderful help and advice little Chuggingtons passed away.
I don't know what we did wrong as we fixed everything that you told me to fix.
He was fine yesterday morning, stiff in the hind legs last night.
We gave him a Luke warm bath and put him where he could bask.
Before I could take him to the vet today he passed. My son is very sad.
My husband and I talked about it and asked the guys at LLLreptile what may have caused it,
they said he just may not have aadjusted since he was so small. They offered us another small one.
We are afraid to get another so small. We are going to clean his cage with vinegar and put the wood pieces
in the sun after cleaning them. Then we will go to our most hated place to get a pet, Petco or pet smart because
we know they have larger ones and go from there.

Oh!! My condolences. The SD Reptile Super Show is next month July 6-7.
They have a great selection and prices. That's where we got Kirbi :love5: last year. She's a little more than a year old and 24" long! :shock:

http://reptilesupershow.com/

 

[icelore]

My condolences on the loss of your little one. From being stiff in the hind end then passing, it sounds like he may have been impacted.

If you do decide to get another one, I urge you to have your set up reviewed by the knowledgeable members here before bringing a new baby home. I learned so much from this site, and I'm convinced that it's helped me keep my baby happy and healthy.

 

[dragonmommy2003]

My husband bought the dragon before I was ready. Here is the post to the other post about my set up.

http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=194869

I am hoping I did everything right this time but I am prepared for quick changes to do tonight and tomorrow. I really do not want to loose this lizard. Plus he got a small one which I wish he had not.

 

[icelore]

Awesome, I'll take a look.

 

[hoopyscoop]

I am very sorry for the loss of Chuggingtons.