Hello everyone. I have finally signed up to the forum after reading numerous posts over the last 6 months. I’m a pretty new Bearded Dragon owner, and reading previous posts has helped a lot. My apologies for the length of this post, but like other noobs, I need some validation, supervision, and confidence building that I’m helping and not hurting our new member of the Family. Any comments or guidance will be much appreciated.
We got Pepper in Oct ’21, so I’m assuming she was born in Sept ‘21. I’m assuming she’s a female, but not confirmed yet. She’s at 11.5 inches now. We did purchase her at Petsmart. I’m now aware of a lot of concerns of buying from them, and other big stores. Regardless, we’ve got her now. I finally completed her enclosure made from a dresser. It measures 49”wide x 16” tall x 15” deep.
The basking area is on the top right. The 60w bulb consistently keeps the surface area on the top right between 105 +/- 3 degrees. The UVB tube light is a T5 10.0 HO, 39w, and 34”, so it does cover approx 2/3 of the enclosure. The top of the right platform is 11 inches from the UVB bulb and basking build. She likes to sit on the rock on the platform which makes it about 1.5 inches closer.
The humidity is in the low 30’s on the upper right and mid 20’s on the lower left. Temps are 105-ish on the upper right and low 70’s on the lower left. Night time temps are mid/ low 70s. I use a digital gun thermometer.
The terrain and back/ side walls are made of Styrofoam covered with grout and polyurethane. Ventilation is through the two vents on the back wall. The plant is an Aloe plant (She has yet to touch the plant though).
We feed her 15-20 small/ med crickets daily. We finally got some roaches for her too. She’s knocking down 10-15 of those per day as well, but I think I purchased some that were way too small. She eats quite a few pieces of kale daily. A few blueberries and small shavings of carrots are given a few times a week.
She’s not the most interactive animal. Quite frankly, she doesn’t seem to want to interact with anyone. She’ll bask for hours at a time, and has recently starting gaping while she’s basking. We’ll bring her out of the cage daily, but she’s not a runner. She’ll just sit and stare. Also, she rarely goes into her “cave” areas. Even at night, she’ll mostly sleep on the top right or top left.
Any thoughts or comments? Positive and negative would both be beneficial. Thank you!
We got Pepper in Oct ’21, so I’m assuming she was born in Sept ‘21. I’m assuming she’s a female, but not confirmed yet. She’s at 11.5 inches now. We did purchase her at Petsmart. I’m now aware of a lot of concerns of buying from them, and other big stores. Regardless, we’ve got her now. I finally completed her enclosure made from a dresser. It measures 49”wide x 16” tall x 15” deep.
The basking area is on the top right. The 60w bulb consistently keeps the surface area on the top right between 105 +/- 3 degrees. The UVB tube light is a T5 10.0 HO, 39w, and 34”, so it does cover approx 2/3 of the enclosure. The top of the right platform is 11 inches from the UVB bulb and basking build. She likes to sit on the rock on the platform which makes it about 1.5 inches closer.
The humidity is in the low 30’s on the upper right and mid 20’s on the lower left. Temps are 105-ish on the upper right and low 70’s on the lower left. Night time temps are mid/ low 70s. I use a digital gun thermometer.
The terrain and back/ side walls are made of Styrofoam covered with grout and polyurethane. Ventilation is through the two vents on the back wall. The plant is an Aloe plant (She has yet to touch the plant though).
We feed her 15-20 small/ med crickets daily. We finally got some roaches for her too. She’s knocking down 10-15 of those per day as well, but I think I purchased some that were way too small. She eats quite a few pieces of kale daily. A few blueberries and small shavings of carrots are given a few times a week.
She’s not the most interactive animal. Quite frankly, she doesn’t seem to want to interact with anyone. She’ll bask for hours at a time, and has recently starting gaping while she’s basking. We’ll bring her out of the cage daily, but she’s not a runner. She’ll just sit and stare. Also, she rarely goes into her “cave” areas. Even at night, she’ll mostly sleep on the top right or top left.
Any thoughts or comments? Positive and negative would both be beneficial. Thank you!
