What am I doing wrong......

[twixy79]

So Chewie has not been eating. He will stay on his rock or branch all day basking. He will drink water from his bowl and during bath time and he will even drink it off his rock and branch if you drip some on there while he basks. We had him in a 10 gal tank to start since he is so small (and I was afraid of losing him) but I don't think that was working for him. We set up his 55 gal today and waited for temps to be right and then we decided to move him. The last few things we took out of his small tank was the rock and branch. Well don't you know as soon as the rock and branch were out he started chasing crickets around. I don't get it... was there just too much stuff for him to want to chase things?
Anyway, Chewie is now in his new home. We are just waiting for some bigger wood to come in and we will start building some levels for him. Right now he's got a Reptisun 10.0, a 100w basking bulb, a 65w basking bulb by his rock platform, a 150w CHE and a standard white bulb for visible light on the "cool" side. Humidity is sitting around 30%. Cool side is 91 and basking is 111. We've got everything set up on dimmers and timers. I really hope this helps little dude eat better. I am worried about his lack of food intake.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, how old + big is Chewy ? A number of things can cause his behavior....stress from going to a new tank and temps. are too high for starters. There must be a cool end that is around 75-80, 90 is too high and that's probably why he's drinking so much. He'll probably settle in pretty soon + start eating.

Is the Reptisun uvb a t5 [ skinnier tube ] or a t8? They are both long tubes, the t5 is a thinner bulb but produces more uvb. A 55 gal. tank is pretty tall and probably needs the t5 bulb for the uvb to reach your beardie . Can you post pics of the set up as well as Chewy ? Here's how :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then hit XIMG

Try to get him set up with a nice primary basking log right away so he has a nice climbing area and feels at home. Almost all of my logs are actual wood collected from outside, you just pop them in a preheated 250 oven for an hour to sterilize them....just be sure the wood doesn't touch any heating elements in the oven if you do go that route.

 

[twixy79]

Hi there, how old + big is Chewy ? A number of things can cause his behavior....stress from going to a new tank and temps. are too high for starters. There must be a cool end that is around 75-80, 90 is too high and that's probably why he's drinking so much. He'll probably settle in pretty soon + start eating.

Is the Reptisun uvb a t5 [ skinnier tube ] or a t8? They are both long tubes, the t5 is a thinner bulb but produces more uvb. A 55 gal. tank is pretty tall and probably needs the t5 bulb for the uvb to reach your beardie . Can you post pics of the set up as well as Chewy ? Here's how :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then hit XIMG

Try to get him set up with a nice primary basking log right away so he has a nice climbing area and feels at home. Almost all of my logs are actual wood collected from outside, you just pop them in a preheated 250 oven for an hour to sterilize them....just be sure the wood doesn't touch any heating elements in the oven if you do go that route.

Well when we got Chewie we were told he was 2 months. After doing some research and some measurements, we think he was only 4-5 weeks when we got him. His body (nose to base of tail) is about 3 inches. His tail is long and skinny, about 4.5-5 inches. We dialed back the temperature on the cool end to 77 degrees. We have a digital thermometer/hygrometer on that side, as well as the temperature timer which turns the ceramic heater on/off as temperatures fluctuate. On the basking side, we have a branch for him to climb up. He can get about 6" from the 100w basking bulb. We also have a second basking bulb (65w) over his rock platform which isn't nearly as high as the branch. We also have some reptile vine for him to climb up.

We have the t8 bulb right now, but we are planning to get the Arcadia 12% t5 next week. I followed the instructions in the Newbie lighting post, and have mounted the 10.0 with command strips inside the tank so he doesn't lose the UVA/UVB benefits. We are also going to be getting a soft white bulb for the cool side just for some additional visible light. It's a bit dark over on that end.... fyi the walnut substrate lasted 1 day so he's on a shelf liner mat that we cut to size now.....

Oh and the pics are before I put the vine in.....

 

[Drache613]

Moved by Moderator from General to Health

 

[kingofnobbys]

Hi there, how old + big is Chewy ? A number of things can cause his behavior....stress from going to a new tank and temps. are too high for starters. There must be a cool end that is around 75-80, 90 is too high and that's probably why he's drinking so much. He'll probably settle in pretty soon + start eating.

Is the Reptisun uvb a t5 [ skinnier tube ] or a t8? They are both long tubes, the t5 is a thinner bulb but produces more uvb. A 55 gal. tank is pretty tall and probably needs the t5 bulb for the uvb to reach your beardie . Can you post pics of the set up as well as Chewy ? Here's how :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then hit XIMG

Try to get him set up with a nice primary basking log right away so he has a nice climbing area and feels at home. Almost all of my logs are actual wood collected from outside, you just pop them in a preheated 250 oven for an hour to sterilize them....just be sure the wood doesn't touch any heating elements in the oven if you do go that route.

Well when we got Chewie we were told he was 2 months. After doing some research and some measurements, we think he was only 4-5 weeks when we got him. His body (nose to base of tail) is about 3 inches. His tail is long and skinny, about 4.5-5 inches. We dialed back the temperature on the cool end to 77 degrees. We have a digital thermometer/hygrometer on that side, as well as the temperature timer which turns the ceramic heater on/off as temperatures fluctuate. On the basking side, we have a branch for him to climb up. He can get about 6" from the 100w basking bulb. We also have a second basking bulb (65w) over his rock platform which isn't nearly as high as the branch. We also have some reptile vine for him to climb up.

We have the t8 bulb right now, but we are planning to get the Arcadia 12% t5 next week. I followed the instructions in the Newbie lighting post, and have mounted the 10.0 with command strips inside the tank so he doesn't lose the UVA/UVB benefits. We are also going to be getting a soft white bulb for the cool side just for some additional visible light. It's a bit dark over on that end.... fyi the walnut substrate lasted 1 day so he's on a shelf liner mat that we cut to size now.....

Oh and the pics are before I put the vine in.....

<<<< please get rid of the particulate bedding , this is especially important if it's CalciSand, that stuff is lethal to any reptile who accidentially ingests it with it's food , very high risk of terminal impaction (as its forms a concrete like mass in the intestines and the result is usually a big vet surgical bill and a dead reptile.

 

[twixy79]

Hi there, how old + big is Chewy ? A number of things can cause his behavior....stress from going to a new tank and temps. are too high for starters. There must be a cool end that is around 75-80, 90 is too high and that's probably why he's drinking so much. He'll probably settle in pretty soon + start eating.

Is the Reptisun uvb a t5 [ skinnier tube ] or a t8? They are both long tubes, the t5 is a thinner bulb but produces more uvb. A 55 gal. tank is pretty tall and probably needs the t5 bulb for the uvb to reach your beardie . Can you post pics of the set up as well as Chewy ? Here's how :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then hit XIMG

Try to get him set up with a nice primary basking log right away so he has a nice climbing area and feels at home. Almost all of my logs are actual wood collected from outside, you just pop them in a preheated 250 oven for an hour to sterilize them....just be sure the wood doesn't touch any heating elements in the oven if you do go that route.

Well when we got Chewie we were told he was 2 months. After doing some research and some measurements, we think he was only 4-5 weeks when we got him. His body (nose to base of tail) is about 3 inches. His tail is long and skinny, about 4.5-5 inches. We dialed back the temperature on the cool end to 77 degrees. We have a digital thermometer/hygrometer on that side, as well as the temperature timer which turns the ceramic heater on/off as temperatures fluctuate. On the basking side, we have a branch for him to climb up. He can get about 6" from the 100w basking bulb. We also have a second basking bulb (65w) over his rock platform which isn't nearly as high as the branch. We also have some reptile vine for him to climb up.

We have the t8 bulb right now, but we are planning to get the Arcadia 12% t5 next week. I followed the instructions in the Newbie lighting post, and have mounted the 10.0 with command strips inside the tank so he doesn't lose the UVA/UVB benefits. We are also going to be getting a soft white bulb for the cool side just for some additional visible light. It's a bit dark over on that end.... fyi the walnut substrate lasted 1 day so he's on a shelf liner mat that we cut to size now.....

Oh and the pics are before I put the vine in.....

<<<< please get rid of the particulate bedding , this is especially important if it's CalciSand, that stuff is lethal to any reptile who accidentially ingests it with it's food , very high risk of terminal impaction (as its forms a concrete like mass in the intestines and the result is usually a big vet surgical bill and a dead reptile.

The he is on shelf liner now. The loose substrate (which was crushed walnut shells) only lasted 1 day. It was messy and few everywhere when we took him out so we swapped it for the shelf liner