DaddyGeek
Juvie Member
First I want to say that before I purchased my dragon I did a ton of research through google, youtube, calling petstores, reading FAQ's etc but there is sooo much conflicting information that I am a bit overwhelmed. Second I want to say that I am trying to be super informed and maybe I am being a little bit OCD about this but I REALLY want to be a responsible owner and have a healthy, happy beardie that I can spend a lot of years with. I bought my beardie yesterday from petsmart, I know it's not considered the best place but I was in there just to buy my supplies and decided to look at them again. There was one specific beardie that was hanging around the front following my finger back and forth and cocking it's head at me. I'm a six foot two ex-football player and that 4 inch lizard made me fall in love and laugh like crazy lol So naturally I bought it immediately lol I purchased the 40 gallon breeder tank with the mesh top and got the basking light along with the other light necessary. I pretty much told the lady to give me the best lights she had, screw the cost because I wanted to do this little guy(or girl, can't tell) right. I purchased a water bowl and two separate food bowls, one for pellets and veggies, the other for worms and crickets. I bought live worms, live crickets and repcal. For the basking spot I have some drift wood that has been treated and baked in the oven to ensure there are no parasites then washed and dried again with a hair dryer. I also ordered 1000 extra small live crickets from a website along with the food and water supplement to keep those alive. Oh, and I got the reptile carpet for my substrate. Anyways on to my questions and concerns.
1. Feeding. The people at the store gave me a schedule that they have been keeping on the beardies. It consists of live crickets dusted in repcal every other day served with pellets and shredded carrots. Then mealworms mixed with pellets the other days. They suggested 3-6 crickets twice a day dropped in live and dusted with repcal on the days I give them crickets. This confused me a bit. I assume at this juncture the beardie is considered a baby and not a juvenile because of his size. Working on that assumption the schedule sounds good to me because I definitely don't want to overfeed it. If it is considered a juvenile though that is a different story from what I have read. I would need to feed a lot more crickets. I would appreciate any comments on if that is wrong or right. I've read so much info on juveniles but have not found much on babies. My beardie is only around 4 maybe 5 inches long. I have had it for two days now. Today I was able to confirm that he ate around 8 dusted crickets but did not touch the pellets or the shredded carrots. I am purchasing tomorrow some collard greens and assorted veggies I got off a list on Daichu to serve as well. I am mixing dusted crickets, one or two at a time in it to see if the beardie eats them. If not I have 1000 live ones being next day aired here lol
2. Substrate. I am using reptile carpet. I am thinking of switching over newspaper for now. I have heard sand is bad for them until they are an adult. Sand seems like it would be easier but if there is one thing I have seen argued about more than anything else it is the sand issue. I don't mind using newspaper, I am not a fan of the reptile carpet, I can't get it to lay down right and every time I drop the crickets in there they manage to get underneath it. I think it stresses the beardie because it chases them and they run under the edge of it and then the beardie looks at me like, "Dude, what just happened?" So if I can switch to newspaper or some other substrate please advise.
3. Temperature. I have two different thermometers on different ends of the terrarium, which is again a 40 gallon tank. The basking spot seems to average around 100 degrees during the day because it's a little chilly in my area right now but once summer hits it should rise quite a bit which is why I got a lamp that the amount of light can be adjusted with a rolling switch to dim or brighten. I figure here in Texas it hits 100+ most of summer and if it is that hot outside even inside with an air conditioner going the lamp on high could easily get too high. I will monitor the temp very closely to ensure it never drops too low during the day. The other side averages 80-85. I have the tallest branch stretched and supported to within 6-8 inches from the light with the thermometer on the basking end. It seems to enjoy that spot as it sits there pretty much constantly watching me move around the room unless I'm feeding it. I'm pretty sure I got this right I just wanted to confirm it all sounds good.
4. Hydration. This part concerns me. I have the water dish, which every source I read said is a good idea to have but that the beardie may not use it much which so far seems true. I have read that they get a lot of their hydration through bathing, having their veggies sprayed and being sprayed on the head. I have not seen my beardie drink at all. Today I drew a warm bath and let it soak for about 10 or so minutes and I have been using a small baster to drip drops of water on it's snout. When I dropped the water drops it drank but otherwise when I placed it by the water bowl it just looked at me like I was dumb, cocked it's head and ran back to it's basking spot. I am worried about hydration. I sprayed it lightly today and it just kinda started at me with it's mouth open like it was angry with me, not that I blame it. Is a bath, a light misting on the head and the drops enough for a young beardie?
5. Sleeping. It seems to be doing a lot of this today. When it is awake it seems alert and moves quickly but it spent a lot of time sleeping today. As of right now it is curled up in one of the natural hidespots from the driftwood dozing. It's breathing so lightly I can't even see it's side moving. I had to tap the cage a few times just to get it to open one eye and make sure it was still alive lol. I have heard this is the time of year they do what is their version of hibernating, brumation I believe is what it is called, but one so young shouldn't do that right? As I said it is very young and when it's awake it seems very alert but sleeps like a log.
6 THE NAME! For now the name is Rory. My name is Cory but my niece calls me uncle Rory because she can't say Cory for some reason and since I can't tell if it's male or female and the petstore was no help there I figure Rory is a nice unisex name. I have considered Nefarian for a boy or Onyxia for a girl. Both are powerful dragons in a fantasy game I play online. Any thoughts? I'm assuming they don't respond to names anyway but still lol
7. Handling. At such a young age and being just moved in I am avoiding contact for a few days as much as possible. I picked it up only to give it a bath and to show it the crickets I had just dumped in it's bowl. It seemed to enjoy it on the way to and from the bath when I stroked the top of it's head with my pinkie finger.
Finally, I apologize for the novel and any spelling or grammar mistakes, it is very late here, but again I want to be extra cautious so I can do this little fella/lady right. I read a lot of stuff and watched a ton of youtube videos that talked about this stuff but there were so many arguing comments on most of them I figured I would go to the biggest community I could find that was enthusiastic about this and see what they had to say. Please tell me if I am doing anything wrong. I tried to post a pic below of my new little buddy.
1. Feeding. The people at the store gave me a schedule that they have been keeping on the beardies. It consists of live crickets dusted in repcal every other day served with pellets and shredded carrots. Then mealworms mixed with pellets the other days. They suggested 3-6 crickets twice a day dropped in live and dusted with repcal on the days I give them crickets. This confused me a bit. I assume at this juncture the beardie is considered a baby and not a juvenile because of his size. Working on that assumption the schedule sounds good to me because I definitely don't want to overfeed it. If it is considered a juvenile though that is a different story from what I have read. I would need to feed a lot more crickets. I would appreciate any comments on if that is wrong or right. I've read so much info on juveniles but have not found much on babies. My beardie is only around 4 maybe 5 inches long. I have had it for two days now. Today I was able to confirm that he ate around 8 dusted crickets but did not touch the pellets or the shredded carrots. I am purchasing tomorrow some collard greens and assorted veggies I got off a list on Daichu to serve as well. I am mixing dusted crickets, one or two at a time in it to see if the beardie eats them. If not I have 1000 live ones being next day aired here lol
2. Substrate. I am using reptile carpet. I am thinking of switching over newspaper for now. I have heard sand is bad for them until they are an adult. Sand seems like it would be easier but if there is one thing I have seen argued about more than anything else it is the sand issue. I don't mind using newspaper, I am not a fan of the reptile carpet, I can't get it to lay down right and every time I drop the crickets in there they manage to get underneath it. I think it stresses the beardie because it chases them and they run under the edge of it and then the beardie looks at me like, "Dude, what just happened?" So if I can switch to newspaper or some other substrate please advise.
3. Temperature. I have two different thermometers on different ends of the terrarium, which is again a 40 gallon tank. The basking spot seems to average around 100 degrees during the day because it's a little chilly in my area right now but once summer hits it should rise quite a bit which is why I got a lamp that the amount of light can be adjusted with a rolling switch to dim or brighten. I figure here in Texas it hits 100+ most of summer and if it is that hot outside even inside with an air conditioner going the lamp on high could easily get too high. I will monitor the temp very closely to ensure it never drops too low during the day. The other side averages 80-85. I have the tallest branch stretched and supported to within 6-8 inches from the light with the thermometer on the basking end. It seems to enjoy that spot as it sits there pretty much constantly watching me move around the room unless I'm feeding it. I'm pretty sure I got this right I just wanted to confirm it all sounds good.
4. Hydration. This part concerns me. I have the water dish, which every source I read said is a good idea to have but that the beardie may not use it much which so far seems true. I have read that they get a lot of their hydration through bathing, having their veggies sprayed and being sprayed on the head. I have not seen my beardie drink at all. Today I drew a warm bath and let it soak for about 10 or so minutes and I have been using a small baster to drip drops of water on it's snout. When I dropped the water drops it drank but otherwise when I placed it by the water bowl it just looked at me like I was dumb, cocked it's head and ran back to it's basking spot. I am worried about hydration. I sprayed it lightly today and it just kinda started at me with it's mouth open like it was angry with me, not that I blame it. Is a bath, a light misting on the head and the drops enough for a young beardie?
5. Sleeping. It seems to be doing a lot of this today. When it is awake it seems alert and moves quickly but it spent a lot of time sleeping today. As of right now it is curled up in one of the natural hidespots from the driftwood dozing. It's breathing so lightly I can't even see it's side moving. I had to tap the cage a few times just to get it to open one eye and make sure it was still alive lol. I have heard this is the time of year they do what is their version of hibernating, brumation I believe is what it is called, but one so young shouldn't do that right? As I said it is very young and when it's awake it seems very alert but sleeps like a log.
6 THE NAME! For now the name is Rory. My name is Cory but my niece calls me uncle Rory because she can't say Cory for some reason and since I can't tell if it's male or female and the petstore was no help there I figure Rory is a nice unisex name. I have considered Nefarian for a boy or Onyxia for a girl. Both are powerful dragons in a fantasy game I play online. Any thoughts? I'm assuming they don't respond to names anyway but still lol
7. Handling. At such a young age and being just moved in I am avoiding contact for a few days as much as possible. I picked it up only to give it a bath and to show it the crickets I had just dumped in it's bowl. It seemed to enjoy it on the way to and from the bath when I stroked the top of it's head with my pinkie finger.
Finally, I apologize for the novel and any spelling or grammar mistakes, it is very late here, but again I want to be extra cautious so I can do this little fella/lady right. I read a lot of stuff and watched a ton of youtube videos that talked about this stuff but there were so many arguing comments on most of them I figured I would go to the biggest community I could find that was enthusiastic about this and see what they had to say. Please tell me if I am doing anything wrong. I tried to post a pic below of my new little buddy.
And welcome to the forums.
I love that pic of her, its almost like she is saying, "What dad?" lol.
