New To Beardies.

[jamesxo]

Hello everyone. I am new to beardies, i purchase two beardies from what the breeder said theirs one female and one male. i tend to be a worry person in nature lol. i feed them small crickets and vegies two times a day and bathe them before bed time. so i worry about how much i feed their lighting. like if one poops and the other one dosent i think he has impaction so i just want to know the signs of the most common illness and ill upload some pics of them.

i use this bulb that produces uvb and uva plus heating:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00101JIFG

i also have this bulb for night heat when it gets cold:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000255OU4

i originaly hand sand in their tank but then i read its bad for them so i quickly cleaned it and replaced it with news paper.

i leave their light on from 7:30 to 6:30 being 12 hours.

these are my beardies: (they have no names yet. any ideas?)

the one on the bottom is the boy hes translucent (hes about 8 weeks) . and then the female (is about 6 weeks) is on top shes a regular beardie.

this is another picture:

same thing from the other one just from a top view.

is my set up and every thing okay? i feed about 10 crickets each twice a day. i know i have to feed them as much as they can eat in 10-15 minutes but i just ordered the small crickets from the internet and pet shops around here don't really have baby crickets.

the crickets i feed them are around 1/4 to 1/2 from the picture scale shown below:

any ideas on improving or suggestions?

 

[jjh1]

What kind of UVB light?
Basking temp?
Cool side?
Beardies also really shouldnt be housed together it is better to have them 1 beardie to 1 viv. As they do tend to fight and one becomes dom over the other thus causing more stress fighting biting the male will want to always mate with the female this can cause death sometimes. Also one will eat more then the other take all the basking and not let the other bask.

People here on the site will tell you that housing 2 beardies together isnt a good idea.

But you beardies are very cute and congrats on them I know you will love them as much as I love my 3
welcome to the forum
Joanne

 

[jamesxo]

90-100 degrees basking
cool side 70-80 degrees

one questing do you think that the 1/8 are good size crickets or should i get the 1/4 crickets?

 

[Beardednoob]

Looking at your images they appear dark in color. This can be them showing they are too cold. What is the temperature of the basking spot? This is best measured with a digital thermometer with probe or heat gun. With the digital and probe thermometer, the probe can be mounted in the exact spot the dragons bask in, allowing an accurate reading. Some gauge style or stick on thermometers will read a variant temperature as it picks up the glass temperature. The glass temperature having a surface on the inside of the enclosure and a surface on the outside of the enclosure has a temperature that is intermittent of the actual enclosure temperature. I would get 2 digital thermometers with probes this will allow one in their basking area and one on the opposite side of the enclosure. There should be a gradient in the temperatures. This allows your dragons to retreat to a cooler area if needed. I would not recommend in the use of red colored bulbs with bearded dragons. Most reptiles do not see red but, bearded dragons do however. This can disrupt their sleep, causing them to be inactive or groggy. The red bulbs can also cause them to have a loss in appetite. How close can your dragons get to their UV source?

When choosing what feeder is right for your dragon ensure that the overall length of the feeder is no larger then the space between the dragons eyes. Feeding larger feeders can more easily cause issues with the possibility of impaction or other health risk such as choking. Are you dusting you feeders to a proper dusting schedule? You may want to read through this page -> http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html It will give you information on dusting, how often for how old your dragons are. It also tells of what food items make good staple foods and which should not be fed. When dusting with calcium ensure you are not using a calcium with D3, the UV source you use provides your dragons with sufficient levels of vitamin D. Adding D3 in their supplements can have adverse effects when coupled with a high UV output bulb. Ensure you calcium supplement does NOT contain D3.

This brings me to a concern. Having 2 dragons caged together be it male and female or 2 of the same gender is not recommended. At this point in time they may seem to do okay together but, as a dragon gets old it will get territorial and fight for it's territory. These fights will leave your dragons wounded or worse. When a male and female are paired in the same enclosure the male will definitely try to dominate the female, almost regardless. If they are not fighting at this point make sure that there isn't a prominent dragon over the other. If there is the prominent one may not allow the less prominent to eat. In almost all cases it is best to separate the dragons. This can hold true to 2 dragons that seem fine together. One might just mistake the others tail for food, or a toe for food.

I recommend you separate your dragons, this will help you to have the best experience possible for you and them.

I have males and a female in the same room, separate enclosures. When my males see my female eating, they get irritated, black beard, head bob, and frantically run side to side in their enclosures. They want to get over to the female and take the food for themselves. This is a show of dominance, prominence and territory. When this happens it is difficult to get the males to calm down as they get focused on this one thing. My female sometimes will give in to this display and get somewhat stressed.

 

[jamesxo]

they look dark because the picture is from my phone camera it sucks lol i just took a pic of the enclosure so you can see how close to the light they can get. and ok i will get a ceramic heater bulb so when its cold.

enclosure:

this is when they where taking a bath:

The male is 8weeks hes the one by the water bowl. the female is 6weeks the one in the corner

i need to purchase one of thetemperameters u talking about so it can acurate but the one i have said it gets to 90-100 basking cool side about 70-80

 

[ocrage]

you're going to want to get a new UVB bulb, a zoo med Repti-Sun 10.0. the tube kind.

and you want the basking temp to be 105-115 for beardies that young using a temp gun/thermometer with a probe.

also, "reptile" heating lights are over-priced garbage, just go to the 99cent store and get a 75w phillips bulb. a repti-sun bulb + $1 heating bulb is still $10 less then the bulb you have. www.petmountain.com or www.lllreptile.com to get the repti-sun.

cute beardies btw

 

[jamesxo]

should the repti sun be like this


http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiSun%C2%AE-Fluorescent-18-Inch/dp/B0009YJ3BE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1308632751&sr=8-2

and then just another regular tube light 75 watt? do i put them in the same fixture?

 

[ocrage]

thats the right bulb yes, but you want to get one of these for basking

 

[jamesxo]

Alright just a Thomas bulb right? And thanks! Oh one more thing should I just order one or two tube bulbs since the fixture gets two tube bulbs I believe

 

[ocrage]

well id say 2 because you should be separating your beardies asap, but 1 per enclosure is it.

 

[jamesxo]

Salting I'll get one since the tank is 45-50 gallon tank I'm gonna make a divider so it's gonna be 1 reptile sun and basking bulbs

 

[GeeUK]

You seem to be taking all information on board apart from seperating the beardies?

Once they get older, your male is going to constantly try and mate with the female, which can lead to stress and over breeding etc, especially as the male may mature faster and 'take' what it wants from the female.

 

[jamesxo]

I took all the information I said I'm creating a divider in the tank splitting it in half until I can buy her a tank of her own

 

[GeeUK]

Okay, pardon me.