Welcome to the wonderful world of bearded dragons a land of mystery, enchantment, cuddles and, worry! A magical realm where things always seem to change in an instant and, the moment you think you have it all figured out, the rules change! You think you own your dragon?, guess again.....you are now a slave, lol!
Yes, those starter kits are a joke!
They come with
Sand...............................bad
Coil uvb bulb..................bad
Stick on thermometers..bad
And a bunch of bad advice to go with it!
You have come to the best place to get your questions answered and get good advice to boot.
Also food, the crickets are a joke and keep escaping the viv, im finding them all over the dining room and our lasses products she needs to send out, i was thinking roaches or locast but i dont want them to be too big for her to eat,
A coil type uvb, doesnt put out the proper uvb frequency for dragons. They can cause eye irritation, eye infections and/or blindness over time. I highly recommend that you change it out for a more suitable uvb source. I use a Reptisun 10.0 T5 HO . There are a few out there that supply "as close to" what they need as is available on the market today. The Reptisun 10.0 T5 HO or, the Arcadia 12%D3 are the ones to look for, though I would love to have the Arcadia set up, they are a bit more pricey.
Substrate, is very important as well. I use rough textured floor tile in my dragon's lair, it is easier to clean and, disinfect,and, trims their nails naturally. Other substrates you can use are...paper towels, nonadhesive shelf paper and, news print. These all do not pose an impaction risk because they can't ingest them. Loose substrates all have a big risk of being ingested so, I avoid them and, recommend against them.
I don't feed loose bugs in the viv, I have a separate tank for that.