newbie to reptiles, period

[syariama]

I recently got a beardie, who I named Lily. I know I should have posted here first, but I was on other posts before this one. Some may have seen my stuff already. My boyfriend had gotten a bearded dragon sometime in November, and recently I had been wanting to get one because they're cute, semi-easy to take care of on my very tight budget, and don't have dander that I will sneeze from.
Measured Lily yesterday after her first bath and she was 2 1/2 inches without tail, and 6 1/2 with. She has a very long tail! She loves her crickets. We fed her twice today with crickets, the first one she gobbled up about 6, and probably about 5 or so. The day before she had like 8 crickets for one feeding. Can't remember the rest. Still trying to get adjusted to all the feeding that is required with her...I had a human newborn already and she was definitely a lot of work, I think this is just like that except I don't have to get up in the middle of the night for feeding!
Could anybody suggest a possible feeding schedule with how many and how often, maybe for both of the dragons? I'm feeling that I don't feed her enough. I don't live with my boyfriend, so I have to walk up there every day that I can (I can't have pets where I live). He usually is here at my house though too, so we have his mom turn the lights on and we get up to his house as soon as we wake up and get around. (11-12ish). Luckily in my tiny town there is actually a pet store (nothing else really though). We've been getting crickets there, 3 dozen every other day. (we are trying to figure out how we are going to breed them so we don't have to buy so minimal *crickets, not breeding the dragons*).
Here is what I've been trying with them: crickets 2x a day, stick like 15 in the tank. (they don't eat all of them either, so after about 25 minutes we take the extra crickets out since they go to bask.) We give them greens 3x a day, though I haven't seen her eat them yet.
I should mention that for now we have them in the same tank, a 55 gallon that is split down to about a 30 gallon for the both of them. We didn't have as much money as we thought we would so I couldn't afford a basking set up for her, had to put her in there for now, just the next 2-3 weeks. His dragon is about the same size, 3 1/2 inches without the tail, 5 1/2 with (he had cagemates in a petstore that bit him). They seem to get along alright and aren't showing any kinds of dominance although it was cute that Lily climbed on top of Gex and he did the whole arm waving thing.
Gex was gotten in a petsmart or petco, and Lily was gotten from a friend of mine who breeds reptiles friend that specially breeds Bearded Dragons (so she was a little more expensive than I anticipated, but my friend couldn't get any other ones from the guy, so thats why we couldn't get the lights right away.)
I know we didn't do everything by procedure although we should have...lack of resources make everything hard >.<
Lily

Gex

 

[Slave2Scarlett]

Oh she's so sweet and I love her colors! Usually you will want to feed them as much as they can eat within 10-15 minutes.. An appetite for a baby or juvi beardie is usually crazy.. They can eat anywhere from 45-80 crickets a day.. But she still could b suffering from a little relocation stress.. I usually put Scarletts salad in her viv first thing in the morning b/c usually she is hungry and will eat it. Then about 30 min later I will offer her the live food.. Make sure you are dusting the crickets with calcium powder 5xs a week and a multivitamin 2x.. Reptiworms are also a great feeder to use.. You don't have to dust them b/c they contain just the right about of calcium needed for a beardie.. I also use the micro super worms from Mulberry Farms.. You may want to consider buying a power strip that has a timer on it so u can put ur lights on a timer where they will come on at the same time everyday and go off at the same time.. I purchased mine @ lowes.. I'm sure you will have a few questions so feel free to ask away

 

[fresnowitte]

Hello & Welcome to BD.org!

I hate to have to say that the climbing on top of the other is a sign of being intimidated or dominance... not love.
They should be okay for now in the same enclosure, but you really need to keep a close eye on them. Most beardies become quite territorial and solitary as the mature. So do please be very careful.

Again welcome aboard!

 

[syariama]

Don't worry, we plan to separate them as soon as we can afford to get the hood and lights we need. (2-3 weeks, hopefully that isn't too late!). I don't think his dragon is too happy to have a cagemate. She's as content as can be, but we noticed they both have stress rings on their bellies, so it is imperative to separate them sooner if we possibly can. I ordered the repti-carpet last night, because i don't want them to be in sand.
what would be a good salad? I havent' seen her eat any greens yet, but she may have when I haven't been around. I just put in this one green that my bf got, can't remember the name. where would I be able to get reptiworms? I ordered some dubia to try, hopefully they like that as a feeder. crickets stink.