No UVB light

[thordragon]

I bought my bearded dragon in august and I wasn't educated enough about them which I'm upset about but I've only had a basking lamp till about two weeks ago. I just bought a uvb lamp 2 weeks ago and ordered a reptisun 10.0 today. He has grown but only about 3 more inches. He eats regularly and has shed around 5 times since I've got him. I don't know if I've permentaly stunted his growth or if he's just small. Thor is about 6 months old.

 

[Drache]

lizard went almost if not more than a month without uvb, i would take him outside everyday to help me hunt, he would get and hour or two of sunlight, not much, seeing as how the sun gives off 1/5th what your uvb bulb does. but even putting them in a well lit room is benificial a little. glass reflects most uv light but it lets in a maybe 10%, it can let in up to 80% if its over 40 years. you can test age of glass by holding up a lighter flame and counting the reflections, each is ~ 10 years.

no worries, be happy.

oh and the most important thing is heat, heat is how they digest (cold blooded means they cant make their own heat like we can, thus they go into hibernate mode)

 

[Livey]

I would check to see if his limbs are not bent in or anything, This could be MBD from no UVB
I would take him to the vets for a check up, That long without UVB or basking spot could of done damage, poor thing

 

[thordragon]

All of his limbs work fine and he's had a basking lamp and a undertank heater since the day I got him.

 

[Vacren]

I'm surprised he didn't go to shaking. According to (name escapes me) ~40 minutes a day in full sunlight is equivalent to the UVB produced by your bulb in 12 hours, based on his location.

With the reptisun 10.0 tube we've seen serious improvements in growth, MBD reversal, dietary issues (malnourishment) and a host of other problems after just a few days. If he's doing ok now I wouldn't worry too much, but it would still be a good idea to get in to see a herp vet.

I would also recommend removing any loose substrate (sand, wood chips, pellets) and relocating your under tank heater to the back side of the tank. Beardies heat "sensors" are on top, so they can burn themselves if laying on a hot surface.

Because you said you were undereducated, can you walk us through your setup, diet and dusting schedule? A little fine tuning now can help to avoid any long term damage and a LOT of vet visits.

 

[Slave2Scarlett]

Although heat is very important I wouldn't say its more important that UVB.. Bc heat does aid in digestion and if they don't digest their food correctly then they will become impacted but the UVB keeps them from developing MBD which can be deadly as well.. So I think they are equally as important..

 

[thordragon]

I have a 20 gallon tank reptile carpet two sticks a basking lamp and a 15 watt uvb light. He has fresh greens everyday and around 40 cricket a day and I dust them with rep-cal.I also bathe him around twice a week. His cool side is 80 and the hot side is 95

 

[Vacren]

Temps, lighting (when the new tube comes in) and substrate are good. You may want to switch it out for tile or paper towels, but that's just because repticarpet is a pain to clean.

The tank is way too small for your dragon. Are you already working on that? By the time he reaches adulthood he'll need about a 48x24 enclosure, unless he's a rankin cross then it's probably closer to 36x18.

On the tube, you did order a reptisun TUBE not coil, right?

 

[thordragon]

Its a tube my reptisun 10.0 is in the mail

 

[Vacren]

Excellent. It sounds like you're good. You really do need to provide more room for your dragon though. At six mo's old that tank is much too small.

 

[thordragon]

Ok thanks so much!