Newbie

[colmaslik]

Hey everyone, my name is Colleen and I'll be getting a bearded dragon in two weeks. I'll be buying a bearded dragon kit that comes with the cage, the bulbs/lighting, water dish, calcium, and food. My girlfriend has just recently bought a chameleon so I have small fresh crickets available to me as well. I will be getting a basking stone for him too. I plan on doing the lights manually for night and day time, but I am not absolutely positive on what times they should switched. I'm looking for any advice that would help me provide a safe and thriving enviroment for my soon to be bearded dragon. Thank-you for taking the time to read this, I look forward to any advice given to me!

 

[chuckagr]

Congrats, I have mine on a 14 hour daylight cycle. From my understanding a 12-14 hour cycle is good. I have to have mine come on at 5:30 so i can feed him at 6:30 before work and stay on late enough to feed him when i get home and let him chill after. I hope i am doing it right.

 

[daner923]

Welcome! Getting a beardie is really exciting! They are truly wonderful creatures. Sorry for the following wall of text, but I wish someone had spelled all of this out for me when I first got Max - it would have saved me some trial and error. Be ready, however, because your new little guy will eat quite a bit of crickets (my 4.5 month old eats probably 75 small/medium crickets a day, and a similar number of large phoenix worms, depending on what I feed him on any given day). Just make sure you feed crickets and soft bodied worms, rather than meal worms, to avoid impaction. Also, nothing bigger than the space between his eyes.

I would warn you away from getting any kind of "bearded dragon kit." As I'm sure others on here will tell you (in fact, they are the only reason I didn't get a starter kit), the bulbs and some of the other contents are wrong. Before you spend money and waste your time/potentially endanger your new pet, you should spend some time reading through some of the info on this forum. The key components, however, are that you should have the following for the viv set up:

1) An adult bearded dragon needs at LEAST a 40 gallon tank. However, if you get a young one, he/she may be more comfortable in a 20L gallon tank.

2) Reptisun 10.0 TUBE UVB light or Arcadia 12% tube UVB light in the appropriate fixture (you can get an under cabinet fixture at Walmart for ~$10), which should shine directly on your beardie from within 6"-8". There should not be a screen between the light and your new baby. You can mount the fixture inside the tank with 3M command hooks.

3) You should have a basking light - you can use a regular incandescent household light bulb, as long as it has a clear bulb. The basking area should be between 105-115 F for a baby/juvenile beardie.

4) You should measure temps with a digital probe thermometer or infrared temp gun. The hot side should be about 90-95 F with a gradient down to 80-85 F on the cool side of the tank. The basking area, as I already mentioned, should be 105-115 F.

5) DO NOT use a night light - the temps can fall to ~68 F overnight. Beardies like to sleep in total darkness, so a night lamp will disturb their sleep. If your house gets too cold at night, you can get a ceramic heat emitter to keep his tank warmer (these do not create any light).

6) This is really important - do not use any kind of sand a substrate, especially with a young dragon. They tend to lick things, and sand can cause impaction. Instead, you can use non-adhesive shelf liner, paper towels, or slate tiles (my personal choice).

There's probably a few things I'm forgetting, but I mostly wanted to save you the pain and money of buying the wrong thing and being out more money than you hoped

Best of luck with your beardie, and I look forward to some pictures once you get him!

 

[colmaslik]

Welcome! Getting a beardie is really exciting! They are truly wonderful creatures. Sorry for the following wall of text, but I wish someone had spelled all of this out for me when I first got Max - it would have saved me some trial and error. Be ready, however, because your new little guy will eat quite a bit of crickets (my 4.5 month old eats probably 75 small/medium crickets a day, and a similar number of large phoenix worms, depending on what I feed him on any given day). Just make sure you feed crickets and soft bodied worms, rather than meal worms, to avoid impaction. Also, nothing bigger than the space between his eyes.

I would warn you away from getting any kind of "bearded dragon kit." As I'm sure others on here will tell you (in fact, they are the only reason I didn't get a starter kit), the bulbs and some of the other contents are wrong. Before you spend money and waste your time/potentially endanger your new pet, you should spend some time reading through some of the info on this forum. The key components, however, are that you should have the following for the viv set up:

1) An adult bearded dragon needs at LEAST a 40 gallon tank. However, if you get a young one, he/she may be more comfortable in a 20L gallon tank.

2) Reptisun 10.0 TUBE UVB light or Arcadia 12% tube UVB light in the appropriate fixture (you can get an under cabinet fixture at Walmart for ~$10), which should shine directly on your beardie from within 6"-8". There should not be a screen between the light and your new baby. You can mount the fixture inside the tank with 3M command hooks.

3) You should have a basking light - you can use a regular incandescent household light bulb, as long as it has a clear bulb. The basking area should be between 105-115 F for a baby/juvenile beardie.

4) You should measure temps with a digital probe thermometer or infrared temp gun. The hot side should be about 90-95 F with a gradient down to 80-85 F on the cool side of the tank. The basking area, as I already mentioned, should be 105-115 F.

5) DO NOT use a night light - the temps can fall to ~68 F overnight. Beardies like to sleep in total darkness, so a night lamp will disturb their sleep. If your house gets too cold at night, you can get a ceramic heat emitter to keep his tank warmer (these do not create any light).

6) This is really important - do not use any kind of sand a substrate, especially with a young dragon. They tend to lick things, and sand can cause impaction. Instead, you can use non-adhesive shelf liner, paper towels, or slate tiles (my personal choice).

There's probably a few things I'm forgetting, but I mostly wanted to save you the pain and money of buying the wrong thing and being out more money than you hoped

Best of luck with your beardie, and I look forward to some pictures once you get him!

Thank-you sooo much, I will defiantly get those pic's to you ASAP! I know this maybe isn't the right disscussion forum but I was wondering what greens do you feed your BD, and if you're willing would you tell me more about phoenix worms(i know there very nutritional, but i don't know where to get them...or if i should buy them online) Thank-you!

 

[daner923]

Sure! I have a tried a few things with Max - collard greens when I first got him (he didn't eat much of them, but that may have been his age/relocation stress), escarole (hasn't seemed too interested, but his head is shedding so he may just be grumpy about greens), and dandelion greens, which he definitely loves. If you get a youngster, don't be alarmed if he doesn't eat greens right away. Just keep offering them. I leave a salad in with him every day while I'm at work. Also, in case you didn't know, you need to offer him live food (i.e., crickets, worms, or dubia roaches) 2-3 times a day when he's little. You can find great info on what to feed at http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html.

As for phoenix worms, I would definitely order them directly from the official phoenix worm website - I've read a few stories of people getting them elsewhere and them being less than fresh. They are fairly small - When Max was just 7" or so when I got him, he was eating mediums. Now he's onto larges (he's 12 inches already!). He seems to love them most of the time - except when he's shedding . Like today. Head shed makes him the grumpiest, so all he wanted to eat tonight were some small dubias. My colony isn't really up and running yet, so I had to go disturb the roaches to feed him because of he's being a brat with this shed. GAH! Sorry for the rant haha. Anyways, phoenix worms are pretty awesome, although a bit pricy (not terrible, but a bit more than crickets). Let me know if you have any more questions! Feel free to PM me as well!