Now I am starting to worry

[lindawaz]

Hi, I am new to the forum and to owning a beardie. In reading the care sheets I am getting worried. First My beardie will be here tomorrow. Was not suppose to be here for two more weeks. My friend picked it up in Texas and has been traveling with it. Knew I wanted one and was going to surprise me 1st bad move. I have a 20 gal long Tank, the round needle therm. I have 2 one for cool and one for hot side along with a round needle humidty in it. now I see those are not so great. I have the basking spot lamp 100w and a 5.0 uvb 26 w bulb. I have 10 tiny crickets on cricket quencher. The reptile carpet, no loops a rock to climb on, 2 dishes. The beardie is suppose to be an older baby close to juv. I have been reading web sites to see what I needed and tonight I stumbled upon this one and I am grateful for that.

No where did I read how many crickets it(don't know sex) would eat so don't have enough crickets here. I was just trying to see if I could keep the crickets alive and 8 died thats why I only have 10 who knows what I'll have tomorrow. The temp in the tank will not come up to what is needed the high side is around 90 while the cool side is at 80 the humidity is at 23 with nothing in it. except for mentioned above. I have no veggies nor the stuff I am supose to put on the food. I am confused about the supplements needed and thought I had time to figure it out.

Any help, tips, would be appreciated since I am feeling a little overwhelmed and un prepared for the arrival. Also how stressed will it be when can't stand saying it so for now it is a he. How stress will he be when he arrives? What can I do to reduce it? Should I feed? Water? Thanks in advance

 

[Ayasha]

Well, first welcome to the world of beardie parenting! This site is really great with some awesome people to help you out. First and foremost, the 5.0 uvb won't do much good as it doesn't put out enough uvb for a dragon. Also the coil and compact type of uvb lights, at this time, have proven dangerous to our babies. Maybe see if you can exchange it for a reptisun 10.0 florescent tube or a reptiglo 8.0 flroescent. If not, there are a lot of places to order them at good prices and it would be better to wait a few days for the right one than to potentially cause harm. As for the crickets, you can also order them online pretty cheap. Your local pet store might carry them, you can call and get enough to feed your dragon for a couple days while waiting on a shipment. Many of the suppliers also have care sheets to help you keep them alive until they are fed to the dragons. Thermometer: walmart has a good digital one with a probe for about $8, accurite brand. I've read they are with the smoke detectors ( I ordered mine so don't know where they are for sure). You can try a water bowl in the tank, but many dragons don't use them and they become something else to clean. But in the event your dragon likes having one, it shouldn't raise the humidity all that much as long as you keep it on the cool side so the heat under the basking lamp doesnt' evaporate the water. The 20 gal long tank is a weeeeee bit small, but will do for a week or two until you can find something more suitable, or build an enclosure. Try http://www.craigslist.com for your area, suitable aquariums and terrariums are being listed at good prices all the time. Here is a good site with an excellent care sheet for dragons and a list of foods, color coded for what is good, treats and bad http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/home.html They also have live feeder care sheets as well. Between there and this forum, I've learned so much and very thankful I found it. (Long story I won't go into) Good luck with your new lil one and never be afraid to ask questions, all these wonderful people are more than happy to help.

 

[zebedeepink]

Welcome to the forum. Ayasha has given you some very good info there. With regards to supplements, you need Repcal calcium w/D3 (phos free) and Repcal Herptivite. The calcium you dust one meal per day, five times per week and the vitamin, one meal per day, twice a week. He may or may not suffer from stress - mine didn't. You could put him in his home and leave him for a couple of hours and then feed him or you could try and feed him straight away. Leave him veggies in all the time and feed him 2-3 times a day as much as he will eat in 10 minutes. He could take up to 2 weeks to settle in or he could settle straight away. Good luck

 

[lindawaz]

Thank you to both of you. The needle therm is not good as stated here. I went and purchased the one reccomended and the tank temp is right in the middle of recommended temps. I would have cooked him had I tried to bring up the temp according to the other therm. Still waiting for him to arrive. I have 100 very expensive crickets 12 cents apiece for the tiny ones. but they will get me through until the online ones arrive. I am relaxing a little now, the temp was really bothering me. Thanks again. As for the coil ubv that I have ,it is back in its box and will purchase the other after he is here along with the supplements. I figure to give him true peace I need to leave for a little bit. Thanks again for the information.

 

[redn3ckkittycat]

I'm so glad you read up on the care sheets. I was fixing to say something about buying online...but I re-read your post. So I nitched that. Anyways! Post pics when you get him...we love pics!

 

[lindawaz]

well they are here. Noticed I said they. He brought 2! :roll: The weee bit small 20 gal tank is gone. I have a 55 now. I replaced the flooring- reptile carpet because after re reading everything I took my cat's foot used her nails on it and they snagged- Loops . Now have the shelf liner non adhesive padded kind recommended in one of these links. I have the right lights therm and can breathe. They ate 4 crickets each and are now basking on the rock and log. They seem so small, pleae tell me the tail is included in the size. By looking with tail they are about 5-5.5 inches long. I know lights go out at night time but what time is there bedtime? Does it matter? and what time is good for waking up and having lights on again?

Any suggestions on catching the uneaten crickets to get them out of the cage, I finally gave up and attacked with duct tape and threw the 36 cent bugs out.

Was not sure of the picture size must admit I was a bit in a panic and only browsed thru the rules. will re read those too! so if to large I am sorry will edit them smaller if told to do so. Thanks for the support and help

 

[Catalyst]

well they are here. Noticed I said they. He brought 2! :roll:

Just a heads up in case you don't already know, but housing two dragons together can end up in big problems as they grow up. They may be okay for now, but if they are two males or a male and female, you'll need to separate them by the time they're 4-6 months old. Sometimes two females can live together, but it's still chancy and you need to keep your eyes open for subtle signs of stress or dominance. If you are fortunate enough to end up with 2 females who get along, you'll need a much larger tank to keep them both in when they're full sized. A 55g is about right for 1 dragon (although a bit narrow at only 12 inches wide), but too small for two.

They seem so small, pleae tell me the tail is included in the size. By looking with tail they are about 5-5.5 inches long.

Yes, we include the tail in the size. Generally speaking, dragons shouldn't be sold until they are 6 weeks old and six inches long, so yours are a bit on the small side. Mostly that means that you'll need to make sure to keep them well hydrated since smaller dragons can dehydrate more quickly, and feed them more frequently throughout the day if you can.

I know lights go out at night time but what time is there bedtime? Does it matter? and what time is good for waking up and having lights on again?

Whatever will work best with your schedule honestly. My dragon's lights are on a timer. They go on around 8:00 so that I have time to feed her before work and then off again at about 10:00 at night so that she gets some time out of her tank with me after I get home from work and before her lights go out for the night.

Any suggestions on catching the uneaten crickets to get them out of the cage, I finally gave up and attacked with duct tape and threw the 36 cent bugs out.

You can try propping tubes up in the corner of the tank, often the crickets will climb up these to hide in them. Another option that many members swear by is to have a separate feeding tank - usually a big rubbermaid tub or an empty glass tank. With the separate tank you can just leave the crickets in there after the dragon is done eating and has gone back to his main tank, or dump the crickets back out into their container. I didn't try the separate feeding tank thing until my dragon was almost an adult and she refused to eat outside of her own tank so I ended up using the tube trick. Since your dragons are still little you probably won't have a problem getting them to eat bugs in a separate tank.

Hope this helps Congrats on the new additions!

 

[lindawaz]

Thank you! The tank is 20 inches wide, don't know if that makes a difference or not. but will watch for signs to seperate them. I think I will try the seperate eating spot I don't know who is quicker the beardies or the crickets, plus I did not like making those quick motions trying to catch the crickets around them. So I guess mine around 5 weeks old then because of the inches. This is close enough to keep track of their age 1 week or 2 wrong won't make much difference once they are bigger. I like the timer idea, will get one soon as I am done shopping for them at the moment, I have been to the pet stores way too much even before they were here I guess I can flick a couple of lights on for now

 

[Catalyst]

Thank you! The tank is 20 inches wide, don't know if that makes a difference or not. but will watch for signs to seperate them. I think I will try the seperate eating spot I don't know who is quicker the beardies or the crickets, plus I did not like making those quick motions trying to catch the crickets around them. So I guess mine around 5 weeks old then because of the inches. This is close enough to keep track of their age 1 week or 2 wrong won't make much difference once they are bigger. I like the timer idea, will get one soon as I am done shopping for them at the moment, I have been to the pet stores way too much even before they were here I guess I can flick a couple of lights on for now

20 inches is a great width, we suggest a minimum of 18 so that as an adult your dragon will have lots of space to turn around in there. How long is your tank? It doesn't sound like a standard 55 (not that that's a bad thing, just trying to figure out what it's dimensions would be).

I picked my timers up from Walmart for $6 or $8 a piece - just a piece of info so that you don't get ripped off if you walk into the petstore and they're charging much more than that.

 

[lindawaz]

it is 20x38x15

Their first morning no one ate around 1pm- no one ate tonight around 5.30 one ate one cricket. I put them in a little tub, water slightly above there knees. They waddled a round a little but mostly kept bending their legs heads high as if to tell me it was to shallow but I was happy I was happy with the depth. the one that did not eat drank quite a bit in the water. I was surprised how much he was dipping his tongue. I kept them there around 20 minutes. Tried crickets- nope

the one that did not eat anything but drank seems droopy eyed to me he has them closed a lot more than the other. I left them alone except for the feeding and swim today to adjust- could one be just taking longer to adjust than the other? He also seems to move his belly area more when breathing, not all the time but like when a kid sighs.. I listened to him but did not hear anything, but they are small so do not know if I would hear anything. they are both calm when I have my hand in the tank catching the crickets, when moving them to the small tub and back again. They both were content to have me rub under their chins. Should I be concerned about anything right now or am I ok- Thanks