Temperature?

[Jake5999]

Hello I’m new to bearded dragons. Got my first one a few days ago and got the temperature set to 95 with the basking light and everything. I don’t know if that’s too low or what. He/she is about 1-2 months old if that. About 2-3 feet long. Got him/her from petsmart and they didn’t tell me how old or what gender it is. Is it normal for them to always want to run away from me ? And is it bad if he/she only ate 1 and a half cricket and a few pieces of lettuce? Or am I over exaggerating. I’m worried he/she isn’t getting the right amount to eat. I’ve seen posts saying they should eat about 30/40 a day. Thank you

 

[VenusAndSaturn]

95 is too low for bearded dragons, may work for a species like ball pythons and leopard geckos but not with a day time basking species.

All temperatures should be monitored with a temp gun for the most accurate surface temperature, although you can use digital thermometers with a probe.

Basking spot - 100-110, no less no more.
Warm side (area around the direct basking spot) - 88-95.
Cool side - 70-85.
Night time temp - Never below 65, if it drops below this you'll need to purchase a CHE or ceramic heat emitter.
YOU CAN NOT USE COLORED LIGHTS FOR NIGHT TIME HEAT. Beardies see in full color just like us and the coloring of a miss-titled red light bulb will cause the beardie to stay awake/get barely any sleep and eventually cause eye problems and other health issues. This goes for purple/back/blue and any other colored lights as well.

Preferably you want two lights, a bright white basking bulb and a long UVB tube light.

The basking bulb should be off to one side to make a proper temperature gradient rather than in the middle if you have it placed there.

The UVB tube light should be placed right over the basking spot right in front or behind the basking bulb. Depending on the bulb and brand it may have to be mounted inside.

Recommended UVB tube is a Reptisun T5 HO 10.0 bulb with a reflective fitting T5 fixture.
There are slightly higher percentages of UVB which are generally better for placement on top of a screen as its stronger.
That being Arcadia D3+ T5 HO 12% or 14% bulbs.

Without proper temperatures and UVB a beardie will fail to thrive and die slowly and painfully depending on age, health and how bad the MBD gets.

A few cases of MBD, and this isn't even the worst of them trust me. I've seen MUCH MUCH worse than this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMvShx_hxDI
You can also watch this video if you want to see on video on how bad it can get.

I assume you meant inches rather than feet, most beardies from what i've heard usually hatch out around 3-4 inches and sometimes 5. So he's most likely a month old at the very most.

Lettuce is not good at all for any reptile, it provides barely any nutrition.
Instead you'll want to feed this for salad.
Daily greens- Turnip/collard/mustard greens, endive, and kale if added to a mixture of the other staple greens mentioned.
Fruit once or twice a week - Banana, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, red raspberries.
For more food items -
http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/bearded-dragon-nutrition-data.php#veg
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

And yes they should be eating 30-60 or more healthy staple bugs a day, any less than at least 30 at his age would be underfeeding.

All life stages eat 10-20 bugs a feeding.
1-4 months 3x a day.
4-12 months 2x a day.
12-20 months once a day.
20+ months twice a week at the least, every other day at the most.

Staple feeders - Crickets, locusts, grasshoppers, silkworms, black soldier fly larvae, dubia roaches, turkish roaches, possibly earthworms.

Treat feeders - Waxworms, hornworms, superworms, mealworms, butterworms.
Wax worms - once a week, 4-5 max.
Hornworms - every other day to every two days, 4-6 max.
Mealworms - every other day to every two days, 5-10 max. Only for beardies above 6 months.
Superworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max. Only for beardies above 12 months.
Butterworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max.

Make sure you dust 5x a week for calcium without D3 and 2x a week for multivitamins. I personally prefer the repti-cal supplements. Just dust at least one insect feeding a day.


As for the inside setup make sure you have a non particle substrate like paper towels, possibly newspaper, tile, non adhesive shelf liner, possibly AstroTurf, or repti-carpet.
Beardies in the US have VERY VERY weak genetics and immune systems and fail to thrive on most particle substrates. Most beardies outside of Australia have weak genetics but the US is the worst so far.

It's not just impaction thats a risk with particle substrates as well, its stained scales, prolapses (this can cost up to 1,000 to fix), joint issues, eye infections, fungal infections (Beardies are very prone to this), and RI's.
Its more harm than it's worth.

By the way heres a little thing on enclosure sizes, you can put a baby/juvenile straight into a full grown enclosure when you get it as long as it eats well.
Enclosure size for baby less than 6 months - 20 gallon.
Enclosure size for 6-12 months - 40 or 50 gallon.
Enclosure size for 12+ months - 75 gallons (48"x18"x20") or a 120 gallon enclosure (4x2x2).

1-4 month old's are babies, 6-12 month old's are juveniles, 12-20 month old's are sub-adults, and then 20+ month old's are fully grown adults.


If you just got it then yes, it is normal for them to be skittish.

 

[Jake5999]

I moved my basking light around and got it up to about a 100 avg. we’re getting a bigger tank for him tomorrow. Also there’s no way he will eat 20-30 crickets in a whole day. The most I’ve seen him eat was 2 or 3 at a time then 2 or 3 at night.

 

[VenusAndSaturn]

My beardies all eat around 20-40 crickets on a feeding day each.
And these are full grown beardies and a juvenile. Beardies that actually need to eat less for the insect intake than him.

In a single week my juvenile will consume around 280 crickets a week, just for crickets. She gets various other bugs as well like BSFL and roaches, and occasionally mealworms and supers for treats.

For my adults they only eat about 40 crickets in a single weak, so much less than a baby or juvenile would need to survive. However this is because of their needs switches as they age, instead of lets say 70% bugs and 20% veggies at the juvenile and baby stage its now 20% bugs and 70% veggies or more for the adult life stages.

Beardies are essentially garbage disposables, they eat what they need and then some, as long as they are HEALTHY, HAVE CORRECT LIGHTING, TEMPERATURES AND SETUP. Which you don't have from my knowledge, at least not yet. It's good you moved the heat lamp, but you need to make sure everything else is 100% before he will start eating like a normal bearded dragon.

And depending on how old he truly is he could still be even absorbing his egg sack.

 

[lizardmom25]

I moved my basking light around and got it up to about a 100 avg. we’re getting a bigger tank for him tomorrow. Also there’s no way he will eat 20-30 crickets in a whole day. The most I’ve seen him eat was 2 or 3 at a time then 2 or 3 at night.

Where did you get the little guy? Babies from chain pet stores tend to have these kids of issues. I bought one and should have known better.

I had a baby that was doing this. He lost weight, eventually completely stopped eating, and I ended up having to take him back to the pet store because he just wasn't doing well. Most of his clutchmates had the same issues. Not eating, loosing weight ect.

My current baby (from an independent local pet store who uses a single breeder) is a complete 180 from this. He eats everything that hits the ground in front of him, which is what i understand is the norm. He has gone from 16g when i got him to 71g in a month.

 

[Jake5999]

I got him from petsmart, I also try to handfeed him but it never works. The most I’ve ever seen him eat was 2-3 crickets at a time and that was because I was out all day and.

 

[Taterbug]

Hello I’m new to bearded dragons. Got my first one a few days ago and got the And is it bad if he/she only ate 1 and a half cricket and a few pieces of lettuce? Or am I over exaggerating. I’m worried he/she isn’t getting the right amount to eat. I’ve seen posts saying they should eat about 30/40 a day. Thank you

Its not uncommon for changes like a new environment to put reptiles off their food. its really overwhelming for them. its best to try and be patient with him. Keep an eye out on if he become lethargic or less and less active as that can indicate other health issues. Also make sure your setup is good to go, you don't mention UV for example. Also what sort of thermometer are you using? Some of the ones from pet shops are pretty much junk.

Is it normal for them to always want to run away from me ? [\quote]
Dragons are prey animals in the wild, they are far from domesticated and babies can be fearful until they adapt to being around their humans.

Beardies see in full color just like us and the coloring of a miss-titled red light bulb will cause the beardie to stay awake/get barely any sleep and eventually cause eye problems and other health issues. This goes for purple/back/blue and any other colored lights as well.[\quote] Beardies actually see MORE colors than we do. Probably even our best lighting setups are kind of dull for them. Its best to also avoid coated bulbs like reveal and anything with a 'neodymium' coating. These are really white to us, but wont be to a reptile. While long term off color lights are probably unhealthy (long term stress from sleep issues, melanin cycle issues etc) there isn't really any evidence that they cause eye damage.