Hello, I'm yet another first time bearded dragon owner. I have had some prior experience caring for an adult beardie and fell in love with the animal. I've waited a little over a decade to be in a position to have one for myself. Now I finally have a little guy (or gal) and am happily doting and cutting veggies for him to experiment with as well as dusting little crickets, etc. So nice to be doing it for my own dragon now. (cheer) Here is some basic information before I continue.
I've had my BD for three weeks. I do not know the age but it couldn't be much older than seven or eight weeks old at this point.
My dragon is almost six inches long (and likes the yellow color of the measuring tape ((and long walks on branches, hot tubs..but I digress)) but he is only 6 grams. It seems like he should be about twice that?
I can't tell his/her sex yet but I'm going to call him a him to make it easier for now. He is in a 29gallon enclosure. (I have a larger one for later but will be using this until Baby grows up a bit more) The substrate is eco-carpet. I have a fluorescent UVB light by reptisun (10.0) and the basking spot allows the baby to climb up to 5" of the light with a lot of gradients levels which helps with the actual basking light (separate) which is a bulb. The basking side temp's hot spot is 110 with a lot of options for slightly cooler. I've measured between 98-110 on the 'roost'. The coolest point in the viv is inside a hide on the cool side of the tank which will drop to 77. I had fun measuring all of those (and bath water, too) with a temp gun.
okay so, all that aside. I've had a very adventurous eater until this week. In very small hand fed amounts my baby BD has tried:
Mustard Greens (not as fond of)
Collard Greens (often)
Bok Choy
Carrot greens
Kale
Mango (absolute favorite)
carrot, minced
apricot
yellow squash
all of these have been in very small amounts. He has constant access to fresh bearded dragon diet which he ignores like a good boy. The main part of his diet has been small/med crickets which were nearly always dusted with a calcium/D3 powder. He was eating between 4-8 a day and tasting anything else around. We fed a couple in the morning after offering some cut up greens then another meal at midday then a final offering about three/four hours before we turned off the lights. The crickets were fed on collard greens mostly. Originally, I would stick a carrot in as well but it was so quickly messy that I started leaving them out. Also in the beginning, I was feeding the crickets in his viv but there were too many cricket hides so I started feeding him in a second tank (10gal) Feeding the crickets in the 10gal not only made it easier to keep them away from the BD when he was finished but it allowed me to feed them his left over greens and fruit. So their diet is pretty much his diet. Anyway...this is really going on and on. Sorry.
Four days ago, I was watching the baby hunt his crickets (the lazy, 'pretend I'm a stick' way) and one either bit him or stepped on a bit of his leg shed wrong. I don't know which. I saw him spin around and run for the wall of the tank. I put my hand in and he ran straight up my arm. I inspected his leg and tail closely (and continue to) but see no bump or crooked scale or any other sign of a bite. The bad part is, he's not eaten a cricket since. The next day, he had stress marks and ran immediately to the glass of the 10gal so I didn't try to offer crickets again for the whole day. I didn't think his memory would linger past that and that hunger would win out... He's taken a little bit of mango from my fingers and a little bit of babyfood squash..four wax worms which I ran out to grab last night...but then he stopped eating those as well. I've ordered some phoenix worms and am waiting for them to arrive. He's hydrated. He's still calm and happy in his bath (which I'm giving him daily because he seems to really like them and he always seems to be shedding some bit or another.)and sips away and licks at my fingers.
He is having daily movements. I think he is over due to shed his head. He did his back and hind legs last week and his front legs the week before.
Anyway, here is a picture of him wondering why he just got plopped on a scale.
Am I just another fretting newbie owner or is this way too light? I was looking off of the Beautiful Dragon weight chart and getting more and more worried.
I've had my BD for three weeks. I do not know the age but it couldn't be much older than seven or eight weeks old at this point.
My dragon is almost six inches long (and likes the yellow color of the measuring tape ((and long walks on branches, hot tubs..but I digress)) but he is only 6 grams. It seems like he should be about twice that?
I can't tell his/her sex yet but I'm going to call him a him to make it easier for now. He is in a 29gallon enclosure. (I have a larger one for later but will be using this until Baby grows up a bit more) The substrate is eco-carpet. I have a fluorescent UVB light by reptisun (10.0) and the basking spot allows the baby to climb up to 5" of the light with a lot of gradients levels which helps with the actual basking light (separate) which is a bulb. The basking side temp's hot spot is 110 with a lot of options for slightly cooler. I've measured between 98-110 on the 'roost'. The coolest point in the viv is inside a hide on the cool side of the tank which will drop to 77. I had fun measuring all of those (and bath water, too) with a temp gun.
okay so, all that aside. I've had a very adventurous eater until this week. In very small hand fed amounts my baby BD has tried:
Mustard Greens (not as fond of)
Collard Greens (often)
Bok Choy
Carrot greens
Kale
Mango (absolute favorite)
carrot, minced
apricot
yellow squash
all of these have been in very small amounts. He has constant access to fresh bearded dragon diet which he ignores like a good boy. The main part of his diet has been small/med crickets which were nearly always dusted with a calcium/D3 powder. He was eating between 4-8 a day and tasting anything else around. We fed a couple in the morning after offering some cut up greens then another meal at midday then a final offering about three/four hours before we turned off the lights. The crickets were fed on collard greens mostly. Originally, I would stick a carrot in as well but it was so quickly messy that I started leaving them out. Also in the beginning, I was feeding the crickets in his viv but there were too many cricket hides so I started feeding him in a second tank (10gal) Feeding the crickets in the 10gal not only made it easier to keep them away from the BD when he was finished but it allowed me to feed them his left over greens and fruit. So their diet is pretty much his diet. Anyway...this is really going on and on. Sorry.
Four days ago, I was watching the baby hunt his crickets (the lazy, 'pretend I'm a stick' way) and one either bit him or stepped on a bit of his leg shed wrong. I don't know which. I saw him spin around and run for the wall of the tank. I put my hand in and he ran straight up my arm. I inspected his leg and tail closely (and continue to) but see no bump or crooked scale or any other sign of a bite. The bad part is, he's not eaten a cricket since. The next day, he had stress marks and ran immediately to the glass of the 10gal so I didn't try to offer crickets again for the whole day. I didn't think his memory would linger past that and that hunger would win out... He's taken a little bit of mango from my fingers and a little bit of babyfood squash..four wax worms which I ran out to grab last night...but then he stopped eating those as well. I've ordered some phoenix worms and am waiting for them to arrive. He's hydrated. He's still calm and happy in his bath (which I'm giving him daily because he seems to really like them and he always seems to be shedding some bit or another.)and sips away and licks at my fingers.
He is having daily movements. I think he is over due to shed his head. He did his back and hind legs last week and his front legs the week before.
Anyway, here is a picture of him wondering why he just got plopped on a scale.
Am I just another fretting newbie owner or is this way too light? I was looking off of the Beautiful Dragon weight chart and getting more and more worried.
