New to the forum and to Dragons

[lg33kt]

I have been researching online for awhile now and finally decided to pick up my first BD on sunday morning. I am guessing that she is a girl and by her size i am guessing 4-6 weeks old. I got a 20g Long tank, heat lamp, 10% uvb tube, carpet substrate, a basking rock, tree bark cave and a Tree thing. The first day she only ate a small mealworm and a cricket, Yesterday she ate 3 or 4 crickets, and today she has had about 8 crickets. She has not even touched her greens yet, She rarely opens her mouth so i cant really stick anything in there. Should i be worried about her not eating very much or could it just be stress. she has pooped 3 times. I gave her a bath yesterday with 98 degree water, she was not bothered by it at all when i set her in, She just stood there then like realized she was in water and then drank a bunch of it, I was expecting her to crap in the water but she didnt, i figured it was due to the fact that she just dropped a load b4 her bath. so on to some questions i have...


How much should she be eating? is there a minimum she can eat?
Can i give her tap water?
Her basking rock temp is 100-110
cage hot side hangs at 88 and cold side is in the mid to high 70's
At night her cage stays around 68. Are these temps ok?
Is it bad that she isnt eating any greens? Any tips on how to get her to eat them?

I am at work right now so i cannot post any pictures but i will do that when i get home.

I appreciate any and all tips you guys can give me, I am a very nervous parent and i do not want to kill my new baby.

 

[Kez]

Hi and welcome to the forum
First of all it may be due to relocation stress that she is not eating to much right now, give her a few more days to get used to her new home.
Mealworms are not usually advised especially for younger beardies, as they can not digest them properly. I would stick with the crickets for now which should be no bigger than the space between her eyes. Younger beardies dont usually eat that much of their greens but still put them in for her as sometimes they eat them when you are not there. Here is a link for a list of foods to feed and how often

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

When she starts eating you can feed as many crickets that she can eat in the space of 10 minutes, it will be quite a lot when she eventually gets her appetite
Your temps are fine but what are you taking them with?
Tap water is fine to give her, its great that you have been giving her a bath hopefully she will learn to love them Hope this helps a little

 

[lg33kt]

Thanks for the reply. I am taking the temps with an infrared gun. So even small mealworms arent good? Which other types of insects can she eat as a baby or are crickets enough? Are the tops of carrots okay? Thanks for the help!

 

[Kez]

I would stick with crickets for now, even the small mealworms are hard for them to digest which could lead to impaction.
if you go on the link for beautiful dragons it will give you a full list of foods to give them. With her being so young i would grate or finely chop the carrots

 

[lg33kt]

Well here we are on day 4:
Things are improving around here, She seems to be getting used to her surroundings a bit, I raised the heat lamp off the top of her cage and her basking spot is 110 at the hottest point as indicated by my heat gun. She seems to be eating more and more everyday. When i came home for lunch today i tried putting her in a medium sized transport cage with a paper towel on the bottom and threw in a few crickets, she ate two. Then when my girlfriend came home shortly after me, She ate 2 more! A total of about 8 today. and about the same yesterday. I am hoping to have better luck feeding her more crickets when she gets more used to the idea of a feeding tank. i got her 40 really nice and small crickets today along with some food which i am unsure if it would be okay to give her, I figure i will leave it in her cage along with her greens and whatnot and she can pick at it as she pleases.



It took me a couple of days but here are some pictures of my baby. I am unsure if i should lay the light on top of the lid or keep it higher...I had it resting on the lid for her first 2 days and she never seemed to have a problem with it, she moved around as she pleased to get her temps just right it seemed. When i got my heat gun i found out the hottest point was at 115 so i raised it up about 4 inches and got it at the recommended 110. Around the heat spot it is about 88 and 78 on the cool side still. She stays at about 72 all night and her light comes on at 830 and goes off at 2230. I am so worried that i am going to do something wrong. I am trying to grow a big healthy BD

Please let me know if there is anything i should change about her cage. I got rid of the wood thing in the one picture and put a plant in instead. I am hoping she will like that more. The dark picture is the corner she has chosen as her sleeping spot...Hmmm maybe i will get her a cave....

 

[Kez]

Its great that she is eating a little bit more, but it will increase a lot :lol:
In your picture i cant see your uvb light, do you have one?
I would leave a hide out for now as when they are small they can sometimes hide to much and not bask.
I love the picture of her she is so cute :love5:

 

[lg33kt]

Yes the UVB bulb is in that slim black thing, inside is a exoterra 10.0 tube.