New User, New Beardie, New Tank

[C-Town Dragonz]

Hello this is my first post and i recentley purchased two beardies and just wanted to make sure i get off on the right foot. As of right now this is my tank set up...

It is a 40 gallon tank with repti-sand, drift wood, a rock formation on the left and their hammock on the right. Also on the right is a small red dish containing their greens and a large yellow pool for drinking.

A closer look at the right side

A closer look at the left side

And finally my two beardies (left, Xerces) (right, Thorn).

During the day they have their repti-glo basking light along with their repti-glo flouresent tube as shown in the picture. At night they have a repti-glo night lamp which emits a red glo along with heat. The day lamp is situated above the hammock while the night lamp is above their rock(they love basking under both and have no trouble reaching either). I feed them small sized crickets (dusted), meal worms and salad containing colard greens, bannanas and brocolli. Any input will be appreciated and thanks ahead of time!!! :mrgreen: 8) :mrgreen: 8) :mrgreen: 8)

 

[Lsorrent]

Looks great and your beardies are adorable! Just a few suggestions though:

1 - Lose the repti-sand. This is the same as calci-sand and can cause impaction. Basically when it gets wet it turns to cement. If you beardies eat it, it can block their digestive systems. Use substrates like paper towel, repti-carpet, non-adhesive shelf liner, or slate/ceramic tile.

2 - What kind of UVB do you have?

3 - Lose the red night light. Beardies need complete dark to sleep, the red light will only disrupt their sleep patterns. You only need heat at night if it gets below 60-65 degrees. If it does, opt for a ceramic heat emitter. It gives off heat but no light.

4 - What are your temps and how are you taking them?

5 - Mealworms aren't really recommended as they can also cause impaction due to the hard shell. Take a look at this website for a good nutritional guide: http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

6 (and final) - In the future you'll probably have to separate them. It's best to keep them separate as two adult males will usually fight and a male and female pair will mate.

 

[C-Town Dragonz]

I Will look into the diff bedding since i have heard from MANY diff sources its just bad news. As for seperation i am not positive about their sex yet, any true way of telling without a vet visit? Checking temps now update in a few,
Thanks for the reply!!

oh by the way is it just repti/calci-sand that is bad or just sand in general?

 

[C-Town Dragonz]

Their warm side is temped between 90 and 95, the cool side at 80-85 and underneath their basking light the temp is 105. I track the temps with a Kritterz temp gages purchased from petco placed on each side of the tank.

 

[InannaGod]

Hi! congrats on the new beardies! Sorry, but for little babies, all sand is a bad thing. They are very clumsy eaters and will often eat the sand by mistake. This can lead to impaction and death. If you want to, you can move them back onto playsand (NOT calci or repti sand) when they are fully grown.
And I would really recommend separating them. You'll hear this over and over because its true: beardies are solitary. Two males will fight and can kill one another. Two FEMALES will hurt or kill one another. A male and a female will eventually breed, but while they're not doing that, they will fight and get badly hurt. Or the male will overbreed the female, and she'll get sick and possibly die.

Good luck!

 

[epirates]

They are very cute, nice set up and I agree with the other posts for recommendations. I also wanted to say that the fake cacti you have in there, watch them when they get older (I mean the Beardies not the plant) because mine tried to eat one.

 

[C-Town Dragonz]

Lsorrent, the flouresent is a 5.0 UVB

 

[Catalyst]

Just so you know, a reptiglo 5.0 isn't strong enough for bearded dragons. The best flourescent tube UVB is the ReptiSUN 10.0. After that, the reptisSUN 5.0 and reptiGLO 8.0 (the 10.0 of the reptiglo has had some issues so i'd avoid it for now).

Hello and welcome to the board!

 

[C-Town Dragonz]

So sorry, the tube is a repti-sun, i just removed it and read...my fault, thank you for the heads up though. Much appreciated!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[C-Town Dragonz]

Lose the red night light. Beardies need complete dark to sleep,

Just to make sure...i should turn off the reptiSUN as well, the lady at petco told me that while they are young they need it to prevent deformities

 

[Catalyst]

At night there should be no lights on in the tank at all. They'll get all the UVB they need during the 12-14 hours that the lights are on during the day. After all, where would wild dragons get UVB in the middle of the night?

 

[C-Town Dragonz]

Thats my point exactley, I just have friends who constantly argue with me when I bring up that point...I honestley dont think wild dragons get much UVB from the moon,

Thanks again!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[Catalyst]

Not to mention that if they were sleeping out in the open trying to soak up some "moon rays" they'd probably be eaten. This being beside the fact that the moon doesn't actually give off any rays. People are funny about the ideas that they get in their heads sometimes.

 

[beardienewbie]

Okay as stated above CHANGE THE SAND!

Right now the babies are waaaaay too small to have any type of sand because they have the tendency to get a mouth full of sand when they go to chomp down crix. I would use either paper towels, or slate tiles(non-glazed). Once they become Juvies I would definately separate them! I would never ever house beardies together because they do not get along sometimes. It's just like when humans fight or ague only worse because beardies bite I have read some horror stories on here about beardies that were housed together. One of the beardies looks a little bigger than the other one, the smaller one has some dark stress marks, dont know what thats from but it could be from the larger beardie in there. Did you get them at the same place? Were they housed together there? Oh! and the water dish! Please please get a waaaay smaller dish as babies can drown in the littlest bit of water. Oh and your therms, change them asap. Temps are very important and the ones you have now can be off as much as 20 degrees. I would suggest getting a digital therm with a long wire and probe end or a temp gun. Those are the most accurate. The temperatures are so very important because if it is too cold they wont digest properly and will get too cold and maybe die. If it is too hot, well the beardie will get too hot as well and could get burnt. The cool side should be between 75-80. and the basking side should be 105- 110 but I would suggest 105.
If your house gets below 70 degrees at night I would get a ceramic heat emiter. But no light because beardies cannot sleep with light on. If your house stays in the 70's at night you can turn off all the lights and heating, your beardie will be fine. Make sure the lights stay on during the day 12-14 hours a day.

Hope this helped a bit!

--Amy

 

[C-Town Dragonz]

Thanks for your concern...already assesed the sand situation and comprehended the seperation inevitability. As for where, i did purchase them from the same store and same habitat. And the water dish, barely any water(i do know that they can drown when babies)They get most of their water from their greens since i float them in a small pool of water. thanks :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: