Newbie Beardie Question ?

[FrozenPrince]

Hi everyone, I'm from Montreal, Canada and this is my first post here on this site so I hope I will receive some useful feedback on my new beardie !

The thing is I just bought a new enclosure from a bearded dragon breeder and fortunately he gave me one of his new off-springs as a gift. I named him Spike , he is about 5 weeks old and about 6-7 inches long (including tail). Not sure if it's a male but I hope he is. So after spending 2 weeks with him, I came to realize a few things some his behaviors:

Housing: I put him in a 48x24x20 enclosure with 1 big tree branch + 1 big Zilla hiding and basking cave + 1 water bowl and 2 food bowls ( 1 for salad and 1 for everything else). I use a mixture of tile and Zoo-med repti sand dessert white as my substrate (8:2 ratio).

Lighting and Heating: I use a 160W Zoo-Med PowerSun UV ( from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm directly 16 inches on top of the basking spot with no screen top) as his UVs and heating source on the warm side and one 100W Zoo-Med ceramic heat emitter( no light for 24/7) on the cool side. Basking spot (measured with a temp-gun on his basking cave) 100-110 degrees, middle-enclosure is about 90s and cool side 80s. Temp at night is about 75-80. Question : I noticed that he rarely uses his basking spot that I provided for him but he just wanders around the enclosure or spends most of his time on the tree branch which is in the middle of the enclosure. If I take and put him there, he will stay to bask otherwise he never went there. Is this a normal behavior as he is trying to regulate his temp or maybe he's sometimes lost and does not know where to go ?

Feeding: I feed him 2 weeks old crickets everyday with some phoenix worms in the afternoon. I dust the crickets with Zoo-Med calcium + D3 every time and 2x/week with Rep-Cal multivitamin. I bath him 2x/ week and give him water by using a small syringe everyday. Question: I usually gives him 15 dusted crickets in the morning and he will eat them all but then he stops eating for the rest of the day or just eats 1-2 worms in the afternoon when I come back from school. Is my beardie eating healthy enough ? A lot of pp say theirs eat somewhere between 30-50 crickets/day but not mine ! He does poop regularly though (normal poop) and looks very alert whenever I get close to his enclosure.

Handling: I tried to handle him sometimes after his first week with me but he always runs from me when I put my hand in the enclosure. When he is out, he becomes more calm and will stay on my palm. Question: Will he one day just become more relaxed as I take him out to play when he gets older ?

I know this is kind of long but I hope you guys will help me answering my questions and do not hesitate to tell me what I do wrong here. Thank you

 

[morphmom]

Hello. I'm from Ontario I can not answer your questions as I adopted my dragon as an adult but I'd like to suggest editing the title of your post. Most of the people here are from the USA and many may not view your post because they may feel your question is related to where your located. I would really like to suggest (strongly) that you do not use sand of any kind. It is a huge impaction risk. You can try tile, paper towel, shelf liner, fabric or repti carpet. Good luck!

 

[owtoty]

Hi, I have gotten my beardie at around the same age. He/she might just be stressed from being in a new environment. Just give him a little more time, and he should be okay. Also, don't use sand! It could impact them and maybe kill them. I use reptile carpet, and works well and just needs to be cleaned every once in a while. Also, hold him/her frequently to get him/her used to you and people. Other than that, good luck with your new beardie!

 

[FrozenPrince]

Hey, thanks for the reply. About the substrate, I wouldn't say that I use sand in the whole enclosure but I modified it a bit by putting some ceramic tiles on the sand so the sand just fills up any gap between the tiles. It also looks more natural like this as most of them live in "sandy" desert areas in the wild. I used to put paper towels in there but the crickets always hide under them and I really have to keep an eye on my dragon while he is eating so this combination really works for me

 

[lillylizard]

Okay you need a Reptisun 10.0 UVB tube bulb. Not compact or coil. Others are very bad for there eyes and trust me i made this mistake. And watch the Heat bulb and make sure it is just heat not UVA or UVB. Also no sand at all. It is just too dangerous. They don't just use there tongue while eating. They will go eat it and taste it because there babies and they think it tastes good and may have salt in it so they like that. Hope this helps. If you have any questions about lighting if you go the the Enclosure section there should be an article about how to set up lighting and all of that. Also stuff about good UVB's and bad. Have fun.

 

[owtoty]

Yea just stick with no sand to be safe even though it's only a little bit. I recommend reptacarpet like I said before.

 

[FrozenPrince]

Ok thanks for your suggestions guys, I will change the substrate as soon as possible, btw can anyone please help me answer the three questions that I posted ? :? We were somehow getting off topic here ?

 

[owtoty]

Okay for the first question he probably likes the tree thing and you could try putting it under his heat lamp. Also, get the uvb 10.0 reptisun TUBE because it will increase your bearded dragon's appetite (second question). For the third question, yes, bearded dragons do get calmer as they get older and babies usually are more active.

 

[Lurhstaap]

I agree with the suggestion that he probably just plain likes the tree thing better than the rock or whatever you have set up as his official basking place. Just rearrange his stuff so that his tree is closer to the basking light and voila, he'll probably begin using that spot much more frequently. The UVB bulb suggestion is also very true -- his appetite and activity level will vastly improve if you upgrade to a superior setup. I will note that the ReptiSun coil bulb IS working out fine for my Sunset, with no sign of eye damage or distress, and he has a voracious appetite and high activity level. But I also want to emphasize that my experience in this regard is very unusual! I'm not sure what I'm doing differently than others who have had problems with these bulbs, or maybe the particular bulb I got is less powerful than the usual. But I can tell you that a LOT of people have had major trouble with eye burn from coils and compacts, and even though we have not had any problems yet I still keep a very close eye on Sunny just in case he starts to show signs that the bulb is in fact hurting his eyes after all. When I get paid again I am strongly considering upgrading to the Reptisun 10.0 tube even though I have not had any problems with the Reptisun coil, just because it's better to be certain now than sorry later.

 

[owtoty]

Yep just try that.

 

[FrozenPrince]

Hey guys, here are some updated pictures that I took from my Itouch:

Enclosure:

The left one is : 100W ceramic heat emitter and on the right side : 160W zoomed powersun UV.

Spike spot:

The problem now is that if I replace my bulb , I will have to spend more money and if it does not work, it means I will spend some money for nothing ( everything here costs twice as much because of our heavy taxes ). This bulb was actually suggested by the breeder because it includes everything and is the best way to mimic the sun. The reptile expo in my area is in a week from now so I will go and see if I can find something useful and cheap there.

 

[Lurhstaap]

Believe me, I understand all about money issues... I am disabled and live on fixed income. It's definitely a balancing act to be able to afford Sunny, not to mention the new one I will be adding soon. But I do want to reassure you that you will not have to worry about the Reptisun 10.0 tube not working. From what I have been reading it is one of the best on the market, anywhere. It will probably be pricy to replace your current setup, but you do not have to worry about it being a waste of money at least! I can vouch for that and I'm sure others will as well.

He looks pretty happy to me. I can see why he's choosing the branch over the flatter spot, though -- it's simply more fun for him. I've observed that even when my beardie is hanging out on my computer monitor he likes to turn himself so he's hanging down the back. He doesn't NEED to do that to get the best warmth, but he does anyway and I suspect it's simply because it's fun for them to climb.

 

[lillylizard]

The reptisun 10.0 really does work. Plus other bulbs can give them eye damage and i know that. Before i can see the damage my other bulbs gave to Elyott.

 

[FrozenPrince]

Just came back from school and I saw

I was like : " Way to go buddy, U finally found it !" lol. Anyway I was wondering if I can add another 18 inches reptisun 10.0 or maybe 5.0 tube on the cool side of my tank (I have posted it above) because my tank is long and I think the 160W Powersun is not enough to produce UVs for the whole enclosure. Will this produce too much UVs for my beardie ? ( I figure that he is kind of inactive whenever he is away from the light ). Best regards.

 

[smeegy]

For such a little baby, a bigger viv can really stress them out and can have a hard time finding food. OR just end up not wanting to go across the tank for the cricket :roll:

Try putting one of your shirts in his/her viv!!! Make sure you wore it all day, get your scent on it so baby will get used to your smell. Also, just by you putting your hand in the viv can help at first. We're pretty big so just let em get used to a hand coming in and out of there! OH and do this eveeeeeryday!
Night time can be a great time to bond with them too. Turn off the lights and lie in bed with the baby until he falls asleep. :mrgreen:

No suggestions really on the feeding. As long as he's pooping normal and everyday, everything seems great! He's only 4 weeks!