nice to meet yall

[texaslove]

hi im new to this site, just wanted to introduce myself and my new beardie, seymour. ive never owned a reptile, so i thought this site would be helpful. also first time on a discussion board...so sorry if i do somethin wrong...also i tried to post a pic of seymour, but was not quite sure how to do it...thanks yall <3

 

[Catalyst]

Hello and welcome to the site This is a great place to get your questions answered and share stories about your dragon. If you'd like, you can post some details about your current set up and care and we'll look it over for you to point out any potential problems. Have a great day!

How old is your dragon?
How big/long is your dragon?
How long have you had him?
Did you get your dragon from a breeder or a petstore?

What size tank is your dragon in?
What substrate (ground covering) are you using?
What are you using to heat your tank?
What is the temperature at the basking spot?
What is the temperature at the cool side of the tank?
What do you use to measure your temperatures?
Do you use a heat pad or heat rock?

Do you use a UV light?
If so, which bulb and how old is it?
How close can your dragon get to the UV light?

What (and how much) do you feed your dragon? (please be specific)
How often do you feed your dragon?
Do you use supplements?
If so, which ones and how often?

Do you bath your dragon?
If so, how often?
Do you mist your dragon?
If so, how often?

Is your dragon housed alone or with another dragon?

 

[texaslove]

my beardie is 6 months old, he is very small. i have only had him for a week and a half. he came from a pet store.

right now, he is in a 10 gallon, but i plan on getting him a bigger place very soon. the substrate is newspaper now which i change every day. i have a hygrometer and thermometer in the center of his house. i was told that the humidity should be around 30%. however, sometimes it gets up to 40% and i do not know what to do about this.

he has two light bulbs one red 50 w for night and a 100w white for the day. for a couple of hours after he wakes up i leave both of them on. should i get him another heating source as well? if so which is best?

i feed my dragon about five crickets a day. he also occasionally eats his "bearded dragon" food that i bought at the pet store. sometimes, but not always he allows me to hand feed him carrots that i sprinkle with calcium.

i mist him every day or every other day. and he lives alone. thanks a lot !

 

[dearwinston]

Welcome!
You will definately want to look around this site! Everybody will be so helpfull too!
You'll probably have to make adjustments, but I am still learning myself. So, someone will be along to help you out.
Good Luck!

 

[tg_spike]

hey welcome i'm new here too but it's great here so i hope you get as much info as you can from here it is informative and you can make great friends here 8)

 

[Catalyst]

right now, he is in a 10 gallon, but i plan on getting him a bigger place very soon.

The 10g will last him about a month but then you'll need something bigger. As an adult he's going to need something with a minimum of 6 - 8 square feet of floor space and a minimum depth of 18 inches. This works out to a 75g tank or larger. There are also several good sites with plans for building your own enclosure if you're interested (it can be quite a bit cheaper).

the substrate is newspaper now which i change every day.

I'm glad you're using something solid. So many petstores try to sell sand for babies which is just plain a bad idea. You can use newspaper permanently if you'd like, or many others use reptile carpet, nonadhesive shelf liner, and ceramic or slate tiles with good results as well.

he has two light bulbs one red 50 w for night and a 100w white for the day. for a couple of hours after he wakes up i leave both of them on. should i get him another heating source as well? if so which is best?

Get rid of the red bulb. It is unneccessary and the red light can actually disturb the dragon's sleep at night. You only need a night time source of heat if the temperature in the tank is going to drop below the low sixties, otherwise the cooldown is natural and healthy for him. If it does get colder than that, use a ceramic heat emitter at night - it's a ceramic disk with a base that screws into a normal light fixture and it will put out heat without any light to disturb your dragon's sleep.

During the day he needs a basking spot with a temperature in the 100-110*F range in order to properly digest his food. The cool end of the tank should be 80-85*. You should pick up a digital thermometer with probe to keep track of those two temps, the stick on ones that most petstores sell are known to be inaccurate.

i feed my dragon about five crickets a day. he also occasionally eats his "bearded dragon" food that i bought at the pet store. sometimes, but not always he allows me to hand feed him carrots that i sprinkle with calcium.

As a baby your dragon needs a lot more food than that. He needs to be offered live food 2 or 3 times a day, as much as he'll eat in 10-15 minutes. As he grows, this will be upwards of 60-100 crickets a day. Also, make sure that the crickets are no longer than the space between his eyes.
For supplementation, you should be dusting one feeding of live bugs a day, with Repcal Calcium with D3 5x days a week and then with Repcal Herptivite the other 2 days a week.

Carrots are okay. To see which other veggies you should offer him check out this site: http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html - they have a helpful colour coded chart showing which types of food are good how often. Your dragon should be offered a daily salad, put out first thing in the morning and left for him to pick at as he wants. For now he might not be too interested in it, but as he gets older it'll become the main part of his diet.

i mist him every day or every other day. and he lives alone. thanks a lot !

You should try to mist your dragon on a daily basis. Also, since dragons generally wont' drink out of a water bowl, the best way to keep a baby hydrated is through regular baths. Fill the sink or a clear container up to his shoulders with warm (not hot - test it with the inside of your arm like you would for a baby) water, and put a rag or something on the bottom so that he has something to grip. Sometimes keeping your fingers in the water with him will help him feel safe. Don't worry if your dragon doesn't like it at first, it'll grow on him. Let him soak in the water for 10-15 minutes and he'll absorb water up through his skin and vent. Babies should be given a bath every 3 days or so, the more the better.

You didn't mention any UV lights... do you have one? If not then you defiantely need one since they are essential to the good health of a dragon. You have two options: you can use a flourescent tube UV light (Reptisun 10.0 is the best on, reptisun 5 and reptiglo 8 are decent seconds) or a mercury vapor bulb (Megarays are the best).
With the flourescent tubes, the dragon needs to be able to get within 6 inches of the bulb at some point in his tank and the bulb needs to be replaced every six months because the coating that produces the necessary UV rays wears off. If you go this route, make sure you get the flourescent tube and not the compact version because there are problems with the compact bulbs.
With the mercury vapor bulb, they can last up to a year before they need replacing, the dragon has to be 12 inches away from the bulb and they put out a better quality of rays that results in a noticeable improvement to the well being of most dragons. check out http://www.reptileuv.com for more info on these types of bulbs - Bob, the guy who runs the site is very helpful.

Feel free to ask any questions you have, we're always happy to help.

 

[NintendoVixen79]

Seymour's a great name! That's my cat's name, hehe.
Welcome!

 

[BdEric]

I am also new to this site, but in the last week have picked up a lot of help. I have also been chatting with a breeder that lives close to me, he has been halpful too.
I was given some bad advice from a pet shop, i had done some reserch before purchasing Eric so i know the pet shop missed some information out!!
The feeding in particular was bad, they told me eric was happy eating about 10 Locust a day along with veg and dragon mix (pellets) but infact he eats as many as he can (upto 50 in one feeding), when he's full he just stops. I also give him crickets now, but he still perfers the locust. He loves his greens, especially watercress and carrot, but i can't get him to eat the bearded dragon food!!!
I'm still unable to hold Eric, getting use to his surroundings but i make sure he is misted three times a day (I wipe up any moisture from him enclosure after), he has just had a shed, which made him very grumpy.
Its great fun watching him and i love learning how to keep him happy.
Good luck with your beardie

 

[BlackMagic]

And you said he was 6 months old but very small? How small is he? At that age he should already be around ~16", are you sure he is 6 months old or is that just what the pet store told you.