New Western Bearded Dragon

[WesternBearded]

Hi everyone
Just purchased my first reptile yesterday. He is a Western Bearded Dragon (Pogona Minor Minor), 165mm (6.5") long and is named Richter. He is not scared at all, lets me handle him and does not struggle, but im trying not to pick him up or disturb him for a few days to let him settle in to his new home.
My setup is as follows:
TANK - 790mm (31'') long, 450mm (18") deep and 350m (14") high glass vivarium.
LIGHTING - Sylvania Reptistar UVB tube, he can get to within 6.5 inches of the tube. Both the UVB and the basking lamp come on 30min after the sun comes up and go off 30min before the sun goes down.
HEATING - I am currently using a 40w Philips R63 spotone globe i got from the hardware but i have a Reptapets ReptaSunGlow 60w globe i can use. Still trying to get the temps perfect. Any suggestions on what globe would be more beneficial for him? The ReptaSunGlow is a full 4 colour spectrum UVA/UVB so he will get a bit more UVB than using the normal spotlight.
TEMPS - 35C at warm end, 26C at cool end
SUBSTRATE - Butcher paper.

Just got a few questions,
How much should he be eating? Yesterday (the day i got him) i was able to get him to eat 3 small cricks and this morning he had 2. I offer him greens and he is not interested.

Also how do i get him to drink? i spray the walls and he does not lick it and hes not interested in the water bowl.

Thanks, any help greatly appreciated.

 

[WesternBearded]

 

[beardierhea]

hiya, you should be feeding all he can eat in 5-10 mins, 3 times per day.
my babies eat about 15 per sitting,i go through about 90 a day but your prob wont eat properley until he settles in.
beardies are attracted to movement so if you pop your cricks or pheonix worms or silkworms under the veg, he will see the veg move and go for it.
my babies dont drink either but i just bathe them every other day for 20 mins in a 'baby warm' bath up to their armpits. they absorb the water in through the pores in their vent and it hydrates them.

hope i helped

 

[WesternBearded]

Thanks for the info, i fed him 3 times today and he ate 3 small crickets each time, i suppose that's good coz its more than he ate yesterday. He seems to be settling in well, hes becoming more active and inquisitive and i caught him having a swim and drink out of his water bowl this arvo so at least i no he will drink from there. as for the veggies there is no interest at all.

 

[WesternBearded]

 

[beardierhea]

awwww its so cute when they have a little swim in their water.
have you tried putting butternut squash in with the veggies. just dice it and microwave it for a min.
its my babies favourite veg remember to put some live feeders under though to turn it into wiggly veg

 

[fresnowitte]

:wave: Hello & Welcome to BD.org!
And....
Gratz on the New Beardie!
What an adorable little beardie. :love5:
Thanks for sharing the pic's.


An Again Welcome Aboard!

 

[citrusdragon]

Very cool looking dragon!

Welcome to the Forum

Jeff

 

[WesternBearded]

Hi all just a quick question, im going to get a new uvb tube, should i get the exo terra 5.0 or the 10.0. he is within 6 inches of the globe on all basking spots. Thanks guys any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[beardierhea]

hi again
:| the exo terra bulb is the reptiglo,the reptiglo 5 doesnt put out enougth uv and the repti glo 10 has had lots of problems reported with it.
the best you can get is the reptisun 10, its a little more expensive than the reptiglos but so much better.
i think you can get them around $20 in the us and the uk about £25 which is considerably cheaper than the vet bills if you have the wrong uv bulb do make sure you get the tube though, not the compact.

hope this helps