Newbie needs some help! (keeping temps)...

[Kloster]

Alright so I finally got me a beardie! Shes a cutie, I picked her out from the rest because she was the only one with a stub tail and I thought that that singled her out and makes her special or w/e hah...

Anyways, I picked her up last night. I set up her enclosure before and all that but I didnt have a thermometer so I wasnt sure about the temps. This morning I got one and I put it on the floor and man it flew! All the way to ~120!! And this is on the floor imagine if it was on the rock!

I think that because of this she has been hiding in the little hole under her rock(got at petco, what a rip off).
I also just put some romaine lettuce and collard greens and the breeder told me I should put a boiled egg in there as a treat and to entice her to eat in a new enclosure. Im gonna go grab some crix in around 20 mins from a pet store nearby for her tonight.

Since my main concern is the lighting... I use a 100W bulb that I saw branded as "Basking Spot Lamp" from Zoo Med.
What should I do about it? Lower the wattage to what number? Put it higher up from her tank?

Heres some pics:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j19/funker666/DSC02969.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j19/funker666/DSC02970.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j19/funker666/DSC02971.jpg

I want to get her a log or something but its hard to find wood in NYC and I simply refuse to pay $10 for a piece of drift wood at petco...

Thanks a lot!

 

[Kloster]

I should specify that im talking Farenheit here.
I was also wondering If I should get some vitamin supplement or something like that for her?
For calcium I got reptocal by tetrafauna. How often should I sprinkle the calcium on her greens? Or should I not put it on her greens and just put it on the crickets? or both?

 

[DistDrag]

If your temps are too high you have a couple options. One you could go out to a home improvement store and buy a dimmer.

Here is one that home depot sells. (This won't work if you are using a Mercury Vapor Bulb)

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100001525
The other is to get a lower watt bulb. Also you can use standard spot/flood bulbs rather than those branded as basking lamps. The normal basking lamps provide no other value than heat.

Kevin

 

[Kloster]

Thanks for the reply Kevin.

I think im gonna switch to a 75 Watt for this enclosure and keep the 100 Watt for the next one (shell need a bigger enclosure in a month or so...)

1 Last question, how often is too often to handle her? I mean can I hold her and watch tv for an hour or so as I pet her and she chills? Or is it something like max 30 mins cause she needs the UVB and all that?

Sorry about so many questions I just want the best for my little beardie!

 

[Catalyst]

Romaine lettuce is okay to use in small doses, but it's not good to use a staple of your dragon's diet since it's mostly water with little nutrition to it. The collards are good, so are dandelion greens, endive, turnip greens and mustard greens. You'll want to start ordering your crickets in bulk from an online source - you'll go broke if you keep buying from teh petstores unless you're getting a great deal. A young dragon can go through anywhere from 300-1000 appropriately sized crickets a week depending on their size and appetite.

For heat you can use a regular lightbulb or a halogen flood light from the hardware store, no need to buy a petstore "heatbulb". All you really need is something that puts out lots of bright clear light and enough heat to get your basking spot into the 100-110*F range (cool side should be 80*F).

I notice that you only have the one bulb over your tank right now. You also need a UVB bulb in order for your dragon to stay healthy. There are two options for this:
(1) flourescent tube bulb - should run at least 3/4 the length of the tank, your dragon needs to get 6-8 inches from the bulb at some point in the tank, puts out UVB and some light but no heat, should be replaced every six months. The best one is the reptiSUN 10.0, and then the reptiSUN 5.0 and reptiGLO 8.0 are decent. There's also a reptiGLO 10.0, but it's had problems since being released so I would definitely avoid that particular bulb. You also want to avoid compact or coil versions of any UVB bulb since these are easily used incorrectly and have been shown to cause eye problems in some animals.
(2) mercury vapor bulb (MVB) - screws into a regular light sockets, puts out heat as well as UVB, is a stronger bulb so your dragon should be no closer than 12-18 inches to it. The best ones are the megarays (http://www.reptileuv.com is the main site for these) and the t-rex active heat flood bulbs (available in a variety of stores and online sites).

 

[DistDrag]

Just from the pics, I'd say she's old enough to hold as much as you'd like or as much as she likes. :lol: Just don't let her get too chilled.

 

[Kloster]

again thanks for the quick replies, great community here!

I do have a fluorecent tube for her UVB needs, it was just the heat that worries me.

I dunno about the crix... they smell and frankly they gross me out. I deffinetly want to buy them online in bulk but I cant keep them in my appartment because its already pretty small and cramped up and I WOULD NOT be able to sleep at all with the chirping.

Any suggestions for that?
Ive also considered setting up a Dubia colony (thall take a couple months tho) in the basement cause theyre not loud and they dont smell.
The crickets sounds good but I would refuse to purposely breed them and I think 1000 crickets for a beardie this size (shes around 7 inches, the breeder told me she ate ~10 per day) would be over kill.

 

[DistDrag]

10 crickets a day for a 7" dragon is NOT very much. You really need to give them as much as they will eat in about 15 minutes. I'm guessing you should be feeding crickets that are about 3/8" (no larger than the space between your dragons eyes). Don't hold back on the food if you want your little guy or girl to grow.

 

[Kloster]

. A young dragon can go through anywhere from 300-1000 appropriately sized crickets a week

10 crickets a day for a 7" dragon is very much.

I hear this often, 10 crix a day is not 300 a week... Which one is the most approximate?

 

[DistDrag]

Sorry that was a BIG typo, I left of "NOT" 10 crickets a day is NOT very much.

 

[Kloster]

I see... well will 500 crix live for a whole week?
I found a local pet store that sells me 10 crix for a dollar and I just got 10 crickets and 10 butterworms or something like that for $2, didnt seem bad at all but if were talking hundreds...

 

[DistDrag]

Crickets aren't hard to keep and for a week no problem. If you have a place local that sells in bulk great but if not your best value is going to be ordering online.