Newbie Owner, Baby beardy is not eating enough

[JennYoshi]

Hey guys, I am a new beardy momma, I purchased my lil dude last thursday. He has eaten roughly 1-3 crickets per day and maybe 1-2 meal worms per day and a couple bites of veggies. I am worried that he is not eating enough. Basking spot is roughly 98F, cool side s 76F. I have a 40 G tank, 150W daytime basking light, plus a repisun 10 UVB bulb. He has stuff to climb, and things to hide on both warm and cool side. I had sand as a substrate at first but have taken it out and just have paper towel for now.
He seems alert but does sleep often as well. Is this the new environment stress?

 

[JennYoshi]

 

[SydneyGaia]

It can take some days for beardies to get comfy with a new habitat. Continue to offer him tasty food and if he is still not eating by Thursday, let us know. With new beardies it's a good idea to take a fecal to the vet to test for parasites and bacteria, if he poops.

Also, for babies you want to bump the basking spot up a few degrees. Babies like it warmer. The basking spot can get up in 105-110F (MAX MAX) range.

As for a 150 watt in a 40 gal breeder - that seems a bit overkill, IMO. I would drop down to 100 watt in a tank that size. How are you taking your temps? in the 90s with a 150 watt bulb in a 40G enclosure doesn't really sound right.

 

[SydneyGaia]

Also, he is CUTE!! Enjoy!

 

[JennYoshi]

I origionally had a 100W bulb in but I could not raise the basking temp above 80. Switched to the 150W. I use the temperature gages that came with the Terrarium, ZooMed Analog dual temp and humidity gage. just checked on him again and basking temp is 100F.

 

[Terry15]

He is a beautiful color. He needs to be eating small crickets 3 times a day. No meal worms. I would suggest getting a digital probe thermometer, that way you will know what the temperatures really are. Those dial thermometers are so inaccurate. There’s lots of good info on this site, just keep reading & asking questions.

 

[SydneyGaia]

I origionally had a 100W bulb in but I could not raise the basking temp above 80. Switched to the 150W. I use the temperature gages that came with the Terrarium, ZooMed Analog dual temp and humidity gage. just checked on him again and basking temp is 100F.

Do yourself a favor and get something like one of these (infrared temp gun): https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Lasergrip-1080-Non-Contact-Thermometer/dp/B00DMI632G/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1545005620&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=infrared+temperature+gun&psc=1

I use mine multiple times per day - it is a lifesaver

 

[JennYoshi]

He is a beautiful color. He needs to be eating small crickets 3 times a day. No meal worms. I would suggest getting a digital probe thermometer, that way you will know what the temperatures really are. Those dial thermometers are so inaccurate. There’s lots of good info on this site, just keep reading & asking questions.

Are there other live meals to offer? or only crickets? I also offer small diced up kale, carrots, zucchini, celery, and apple no skin.

 

[KevinsMom33]

Small Dubai roaches, phoenix worms are great and full of calcium, wax worms are good too.
Collard greens are better than the kale, also mustard greens - instead of celery and carrots I would give green beans and butternut squash. Mine love anything red, so a red bell pepper would be nice.
He's so adorable!

 

[SydneyGaia]

Black Soldier Fly larvae are the highest in protein but also hard to find

 

[Aaradimian]

I origionally had a 100W bulb in but I could not raise the basking temp above 80. Switched to the 150W. I use the temperature gages that came with the Terrarium, ZooMed Analog dual temp and humidity gage. just checked on him again and basking temp is 100F.

I started out with a 100W bulb sitting directly on the mesh lid and not too far from the basking spot for mine when he was a baby, but in retrospect, it was probably too intense. I was trying to get the air temperature higher, but after learning more, I found that it's the surface temp on the spot/area that's the target, and that using an IR gun is best for getting that reading. Those dial things are pretty unreliable. I don't know where you are, but I picked up a gun for around US $25 recently and found that I only needed 75W bulb at much more distance than I had before to achieve ~105F.

There's a guide somewhere on the site about how to properly take a reading with an IR gun, but I've found a quick click at about 1" from the spot seems to produce repeatable readings on mine.