Bad owner..?

[Lel]

(this story is reallyyyyy long so just get ready for it)

So I have had my bearded dragon for quite a long time now... I bought Peanut (my bearded dragon) from a small pet store and their products aren't entirely great. When I was buying Peanut's cage, there were 2 options... the big cage and the medium cage.

At that time, the big cage was wayyyy to big to fit anywhere so I thought the medium cage would be half or 2/3 of the big cage. They didn't have the medium cage yet so like the impatient me... I decided to go with the medium cage without even knowing how big it is (very stupid right?). When they arrived with the medium cage... I was quite disappointed but also clueless of what to do with the cage.

So we prepared Peanut's cage and everything for a week so we decided to exchange the medium cage to the big cage (returning the cage and buying the bigger one) BUT apparently they said no because they just didn't want too. (We even tried to get a personal cage builder to build our cage but he was busy or something)

When I first started out, the seller told me that the reptisand was best for bearded dragons and so I fell for it. (I didn't do much research so I feel really dumb) She started to have impaction and all that which I feel very responsible. SO at the end... we have this poor bearded dragon in this small cage and having no where to climb. (it was so small that I couldn't fit any rocks or decorations for her to climb on).

When I was used to having a bearded dragon, I went online to see all these beautiful cage with beautiful decorations and a healthy bearded dragon and when I look at my bearded dragons lifestyle/cage and everything, I just feel really dumb and just not being able to give Peanut the good life.

I just need advice on what to do.

 

[Lel]

Oh and heres pics of the cage

 

[Lel]

i cant put the image up for some reason....

 

[BeardedHippy]

Hi, there is a size limit on photos that you can upload directly to the site, cant recall offhand what it is, i think its 500Mb. If your pics are larger then you need to either resize them or upload them to a site that hosts them, like photobucket or similar and paste the links.
Dont feel bad for falling for the bad advice from petstores, you are not the first and you will not be the last. The best thing you can do for your dragon is to get him an appropriate sized vivarium and some good lighting. First off, I would take him to a reptile vet and get him checked out, impaction can be fatal so I would want to find out what is going on there and how bad it is.
Habitiat and lighting, temperatures, humidity, the correct food and calcium, multivitamin suppliments, you are going to have to address all of these things for your beardie. Dont worry, this forum has all of the info and experts to help you along.
Remove all loose substrate from your cage if you havent already, replace with paper towels ,tiles or reptile carpet. Some questions though: What do you feed Peanut? how old is he and how big?

 

[Hdrydr31]

You are not alone many people get told the wrong care for them. How long have you had your dragon? Under several of our comments you will see a few links if you click on the one stating for 1st timers we cover everything you need to know to care for them..
Hang in there

 

[PatsyB]

Please start by checking the links under our comments so we don't have to repeat everything. General rule of thumb is you want a tank that is 2 times as long as an adult bearded dragon can get, and as high and wide as the length of an adult bearded dragon. So 36x18x18 is the minimum size for an adult. You could have started the baby in the big tank and offered lots of places for it to hide. As already suggested, I would start with a vet visit and a fecal to rule out parasites and any other damage that might have been done. Take the sand out of the tank if you haven't already and replace it with paper towel or tile or non adhesive shelf liner.

At a young age, they should eat whatever they want in a 10 minute time frame. Mine used to eat 25 appropriate sized crickets in 10 min a few times a day. As they get older, you want to feed them once a day. Make sure you offer salad every day. Meal worms are a bad feeder because they have a very hard shell that they can't digest properly. Beautifuldragons.com has a great nutrition list to give you ideas of what to feed. Also remember that your bugs need to be fed too, they can eat the same leafy greens your dragon does.

 

[Lel]

Hi, there is a size limit on photos that you can upload directly to the site, cant recall offhand what it is, i think its 500Mb. If your pics are larger then you need to either resize them or upload them to a site that hosts them, like photobucket or similar and paste the links.
Dont feel bad for falling for the bad advice from petstores, you are not the first and you will not be the last. The best thing you can do for your dragon is to get him an appropriate sized vivarium and some good lighting. First off, I would take him to a reptile vet and get him checked out, impaction can be fatal so I would want to find out what is going on there and how bad it is.
Habitiat and lighting, temperatures, humidity, the correct food and calcium, multivitamin suppliments, you are going to have to address all of these things for your beardie. Dont worry, this forum has all of the info and experts to help you along.
Remove all loose substrate from your cage if you havent already, replace with paper towels ,tiles or reptile carpet. Some questions though: What do you feed Peanut? how old is he and how big?

Peanut is around 10 to 11 months (I think) and around 35-40 cm, I feed peanut mostly vegetable than crickets and mealworms.

 

[Lel]

You are not alone many people get told the wrong care for them. How long have you had your dragon? Under several of our comments you will see a few links if you click on the one stating for 1st timers we cover everything you need to know to care for them..
Hang in there

Thanks for the links I have had my bearded dragon for around 11 months

 

[Lel]

Hi, there is a size limit on photos that you can upload directly to the site, cant recall offhand what it is, i think its 500Mb. If your pics are larger then you need to either resize them or upload them to a site that hosts them, like photobucket or similar and paste the links.
Dont feel bad for falling for the bad advice from petstores, you are not the first and you will not be the last. The best thing you can do for your dragon is to get him an appropriate sized vivarium and some good lighting. First off, I would take him to a reptile vet and get him checked out, impaction can be fatal so I would want to find out what is going on there and how bad it is.
Habitiat and lighting, temperatures, humidity, the correct food and calcium, multivitamin suppliments, you are going to have to address all of these things for your beardie. Dont worry, this forum has all of the info and experts to help you along.
Remove all loose substrate from your cage if you havent already, replace with paper towels ,tiles or reptile carpet. Some questions though: What do you feed Peanut? how old is he and how big?

Whoops sorry... Peanut is actually one years old

 

[Lel]

Please start by checking the links under our comments so we don't have to repeat everything. General rule of thumb is you want a tank that is 2 times as long as an adult bearded dragon can get, and as high and wide as the length of an adult bearded dragon. So 36x18x18 is the minimum size for an adult. You could have started the baby in the big tank and offered lots of places for it to hide. As already suggested, I would start with a vet visit and a fecal to rule out parasites and any other damage that might have been done. Take the sand out of the tank if you haven't already and replace it with paper towel or tile or non adhesive shelf liner.

At a young age, they should eat whatever they want in a 10 minute time frame. Mine used to eat 25 appropriate sized crickets in 10 min a few times a day. As they get older, you want to feed them once a day. Make sure you offer salad every day. Meal worms are a bad feeder because they have a very hard shell that they can't digest properly. Beautifuldragons.com has a great nutrition list to give you ideas of what to feed. Also remember that your bugs need to be fed too, they can eat the same leafy greens your dragon does.

Thank you for your advice and the links!! Do you know how much a bearded dragon should eat crickets in a day/week?

 

[Lel]

Heres a picture... (hopefully its there)

 

[Lel]

The tank is really empty and theres not really any decorations... but thats beause if i added fake plants for decoration then she would try to eat them

 

[BeardedHippy]

Hi, yeah the pic is there this time. When beardies are young they will eat as many as 100 crickets in a day as they need all of that protien for growth. As Peanut is almost an adult now, he should be eating more veggies and fewer insects. How many crickets he will eat as an adult varies from dragon to dragon, I'd say let him eat as many(large crickets) as he will in one 15 minute sitting a day plus his veggies of course (some days he may not want to eat any or just a few, they are fussy). The crickets should be gut loaded with the same veggies you feed your dragon and dusted with calcium 4x a week, calcium with D3 2x a week and a multivitamin 1x a week.
You certainly need a bigger tank, I would go for a 4x2x2ft vivarium which will give him all the space he needs with plenty of room for furniture and basking spots etc. You will need appropriate lighting for a viv that size, especially a really good source of UVB light. A UV tube 2/3s of the length of the tank is the way to go, this would be a T5 or T10 tube. Obvously this kind of vivarium will take up a lot more space than the current one, so if you are limited on space in your home you could have a problem.
I have some fake plants in my tanks, so long as you dont get the kind with small detatchable parts he is unlikely to try eating them though he may lick them at first. They add a bit of colour but aren't really necessary anyway.

 

[Lel]

Hi, yeah the pic is there this time. When beardies are young they will eat as many as 100 crickets in a day as they need all of that protien for growth. As Peanut is almost an adult now, he should be eating more veggies and fewer insects. How many crickets he will eat as an adult varies from dragon to dragon, I'd say let him eat as many(large crickets) as he will in one 15 minute sitting a day plus his veggies of course (some days he may not want to eat any or just a few, they are fussy). The crickets should be gut loaded with the same veggies you feed your dragon and dusted with calcium 4x a week, calcium with D3 2x a week and a multivitamin 1x a week.
You certainly need a bigger tank, I would go for a 4x2x2ft vivarium which will give him all the space he needs with plenty of room for furniture and basking spots etc. You will need appropriate lighting for a viv that size, especially a really good source of UVB light. A UV tube 2/3s of the length of the tank is the way to go, this would be a T5 or T10 tube. Obvously this kind of vivarium will take up a lot more space than the current one, so if you are limited on space in your home you could have a problem.
I have some fake plants in my tanks, so long as you dont get the kind with small detatchable parts he is unlikely to try eating them though he may lick them at first. They add a bit of colour but aren't really necessary anyway.

Thanks for you advice!! It helps a lot... Some of the materials you listed out like a UV tube, the shops does not have. We could try to get a 4x2x2 vivarium/terrarium. And again, thank you for your advice.

 

[PatsyB]

Lot's of times stores don't have either the UVB bulb or the fixture they fit in. Lot's of us order those online and have them shipped.

 

[Lel]

Lot's of times stores don't have either the UVB bulb or the fixture they fit in. Lot's of us order those online and have them shipped.

Ordering online is hard too since we live in a country that rarely gets shipped items and when it does, it cost 2 times the official amount of money. But we will try to find an online website to get it shipped.