New to Beardies

[animalhouse32]

I am new to owning them,But have been looking into them for almost 2 yrs now. I first handled one about a year ago at a reptile expo. And Have been hooked since!

Well tonight, found a gorgeous Juvi and my husband surprised me and said "Ok, Merry Christmas"!! I was SO Shocked! He knows how long I have wanted one! But, He is still nameless and I sexed him per Pics on the web. He has the 2 lumps at the base of the tail. But, I have NO clue the morph or age at this time. LOL

We bought him a 30g tank. Has reptile carpet, a water bowl thing, a cementish type Hidey and a small Log hidey. We also have a Night time, Day time, and a UVB Light. Hoping we are doing everything right LOL!

We got a container for crickets but after thinking about it.. It is too small to house what he would need in a week.. sooo I guess we will be getting crickets every couple days!


Tomorrow going to go to a bearded Dragon Breeder locally.. that has a store to get some worms as where we went didnt have anything. So, he has had Kale, Spinich and Crickets tonight. We need to get the powder for crickets and some worms still. We have a piece of potato with the crickets as I was told that was a ok thing to feed them.

Well, Here are some pics of him I took tonight. He is a fiesty eater, and already did the black Beard and wave in the tank Lol

 

[Mistyck]

Congrats. I've noted some things that can be problematic in your post and have made suggestions for you.

I am new to owning them,But have been looking into them for almost 2 yrs now. I first handled one about a year ago at a reptile expo. And Have been hooked since!

Well tonight, found a gorgeous Juvi and my husband surprised me and said "Ok, Merry Christmas"!! I was SO Shocked! He knows how long I have wanted one! But, He is still nameless and I sexed him per Pics on the web. He has the 2 lumps at the base of the tail. But, I have NO clue the morph or age at this time. LOL

He's a normal morph, with some nice coloring

We bought him a 30g tank. Has reptile carpet, a water bowl thing, a cementish type Hidey and a small Log hidey. We also have a Night time, Day time, and a UVB Light. Hoping we are doing everything right LOL!

Ditch the Night time light (unless your tank gets below 60-65 at night you do not need a heat source at night. Besides, the night-lights do give off color, even if subtle, and that disturbs their sleep.) What is your UVB light? Coil (compact) or fluorescent? Repti-sun or Repti-Glo? 5.0 or 10.0? You should have the Repti-sun 10.0 Fluorescent TUBE bulb. He does not need a water bowl as that will just raise the humidity in the tank. Instead you should give him a bath every other day for 10-20 minutes in luke-warm water.

We got a container for crickets but after thinking about it.. It is too small to house what he would need in a week.. sooo I guess we will be getting crickets every couple days!

You can buy crickets in bulk online for cheaper.

Tomorrow going to go to a bearded Dragon Breeder locally.. that has a store to get some worms as where we went didnt have anything. So, he has had Kale, Spinich and Crickets tonight. We need to get the powder for crickets and some worms still. We have a piece of potato with the crickets as I was told that was a ok thing to feed them.

Kale and spinach will bind calcium. Greens like Collards, mustard, turnip, & dandelion should be fed instead. Also you want to dust your dragons food with calcium (5x a week) & multivitamins (2x a week) What worms are you going to be getting him?

 

[ShelbyLu]

He is absolutely gorgeous!

So there is already a post covering the safety stuff and since I'm a new beardie owner too, I'll tell you a few things that ive learned that have made things easier/better.

Substrate: I started out with repticarpet too and hated it bc I could never really clean it. When you spot clean each day it still has stuff on it. So until we got to our more in depth weekly clean when we took it out and washed it it never felt clean and I feel like it retained the smell until washed also.

So, I went to home depot and bought tiles (not expensive) and it's awesome bc clean up is a breeze. It spot cleans perfectly but also I can pull out an isolated tile and wash it and put it back. I line the bottom of the tank with newspaper or paper towels and put it down on that. As a mom of 5 kids this made clean up quicker and I worry about contamination of little hands a lot less.

Dubias: consider dubias over crickets. I know that hearing the word roach throws up red flags, it did for me too. But if you research you'll find that only 3% of roaches are in the pest family and dubias arent one of them. They don't smell nearly as bad as crickets and it takes way less dubias to provide the same level of proteins as crickets. So they go a l8ng ways. Care and storage is a snap. Theyre basically like flat potato bugs.

Thermometer: buy a infra red temp thermometer. You can get them as low as ten dollars. I think I paid 25$ for mine. Way, way better. It gave me peace of mind. It also protected my dragons bc we had a basking rock that was getting way too hot. We were able to adjust things so it's just right now.

Lastly, this site is the beardie bible. The people on here are wonderful and kind and smart. Let us know when your beardie bonds with you. It's one of the best feelings in the world. I've had a lot of pets and the only thing that has come close to the beardie bond for me was the bond between horse and rider and that took a lot longer to form.

 

[animalhouse32]

Thank you for the info!

I tend to like to sleep in the cool at night, so It does get really chilly in here at night. So I thought the night bulb would be good to keep him warmer and it not get Super cold. And the UVB is the coiled bulb. I threw all the packaging away, I am not too sure the types of bulbs :-/

The tile is a great Idea!! Thank you! And Yes, i Plan to go out for more veggies .. I was actually coming on here to get a better list of stuff. haha We already had kale and spinich here so that is why we fed him those last night.

As far as worms I was going to get the Pheonix worms and wax worms. I Know Super and Meal aren't the best choices
I will consider the Dubia, But those dang things creep me out! hahaha I also have to get some long tweezers as we forgot those last night. Oops!

Now where do you get the Infra red thermometer?

We will be getting the calcium as well! We forgot that last night too! ugh..

Where is it you can order stuff online the best price?

 

[Mistyck]

Thank you for the info!

I tend to like to sleep in the cool at night, so It does get really chilly in here at night. So I thought the night bulb would be good to keep him warmer and it not get Super cold. And the UVB is the coiled bulb. I threw all the packaging away, I am not too sure the types of bulbs :-/

Coil bulb will do nothing but harm your beardie. It hurts their eyes, and doesn't do anything beneficial for them. Since it is the coil, then it doesn't matter the strength. Your best bet is to turn off the coil, and order the fluorescent tube online. The night light will not help him at night. You should get a Ceramic Heat Emitter (CHE) instead. It provides heat without the light that disturbs your beardie.

The tile is a great Idea!! Thank you! And Yes, i Plan to go out for more veggies .. I was actually coming on here to get a better list of stuff. haha We already had kale and spinich here so that is why we fed him those last night.

As far as worms I was going to get the Pheonix worms and wax worms. I Know Super and Meal aren't the best choices
I will consider the Dubia, But those dang things creep me out! hahaha I also have to get some long tweezers as we forgot those last night. Oops!

Wax worms are not good for beardies, unless you want to give an occasional treat. They are liken to a candy bar for humans. They only need one or two at a time, and very seldom.

Now where do you get the Infra red thermometer?

You can go to wal-mart and get an accurite thermometer with a probe and that will work just as well.

We will be getting the calcium as well! We forgot that last night too! ugh..

Where is it you can order stuff online the best price?

Petmountain
Amazon
LLLReptile
among others...

 

[animalhouse32]

Thank you We will be going out tonight to get a better UVB bulb.

And as far as the worms, What is the best. I am getting a lot of different advice online haha I Dont want to do Supers till he is older due to the harm they can cause when eaten?! And I read Silkworms are OK. Is this true? Lol I Just want to make sure we get everything right tonight when we go out. I also read because we run the AC A lot here.. We live in Florida.. that the water bowl is good because it adds the humidity the beardie needs because the AC takes it out the air naturally. He got Sprayed with water last night, And i am going to start the baths every other day. And if I Read right.. Pheonix worms wont need to be put in the suppliments... or do they still need to be? haha

We will be buying his Dusting stuff, as well as more feeders and veggies. And get a new UVB bulb. I Will also look into the tile but the carpet is OK for now till we can make it to that store haha I wont use sand as I hear such horrid things about that.

We will also Check walmart for a new thermometer.

Ahhhh Sometimes reading online can be so confusing!

 

[ShelbyLu]

A member on here made a "Feeder worms super guide" that is an awesome resource. YOu can find it here:

viewtopic.php?f=76&t=197902

~Shelby

 

[animalhouse32]

Thank you Shelby!!!!

 

[ShelbyLu]

Oh I almost forgot. When I bought my infrared thermometer I got nervous because when I googled it all these big temp guns came up for hundreds of dollars. I got mine at a pet store, I know Petco has them too. I'm not sure what other brands they have but if you want to google for mine, maybe you'll find other similar ones.

http://www.amazon.com/Racers-Edge-Mini-Infrared-Temp/dp/B0009O1G5K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385408184&sr=8-1&keywords=mode+temp+gun

Good luck!

~Shelby

 

[animalhouse32]

Thank you Shelby, i Will look into that one too!!

 

[animalhouse32]

Oo, Just read, we can't have Dubia brought here. State laws say no. :-/

 

[animalhouse32]

Well, we bout a different UVB Light, and got the Infared bulb for the night time Also got him a wood branch to climb. And the better veggies He was far more active tonight and was running the front of the tank lol

 

[Mistyck]

Infrared bulb? I hope you mean CHE? An infrared bulb still produces light and will interrupt their sleep.

 

[animalhouse32]

This is the one that produces NO light. I made sure to ask the guy at the reptile store. We did more research on the coil, and saw alot of people also said it was wrong. VERY wrong. So think you for telling me about it!

And we have the big Tube Floresent bulb thing for UVB now
His Humidity went higher when I added the wet veggies.. So I took out the water bowl. So it started dropping. We will see that tomorrow. And I got the Prob them. And so I can see the temps on his basking area. Which is between 100-105. Which I read is right.

I Will also be getting tile later in the week. We are still waiting for his BM. He is eating like CRAZY! We also got smaller crickets as the ones I got first.. seemed a bit large for him. He had a bath today.
But he has the stress marks so, I am trying to limit my interaction with him. But, lemme tell you.. It is tough! haha

 

[animalhouse32]

This Is the night time bulb we got..

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiCare-Ceramic-Infrared/dp/B001F9CV7K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385440196&sr=8-1&keywords=reptile+heat+emitter

It covers 30-40g tanks. We have a 30g