First Time Beardie Owner

[RaidenMarshall]

Hi, my name is Mimi and I'm from Arizona. A little bit about myself: I love animals, love gaming, and spend a lot of my time outdoors when I'm not lounging about at home.

My boyfriend and I recently (May 24, 2014) adopted a beardie from our local reptishop. It's a boy, we named him Raiden, and they say he's a couple months old, I'm not too sure. I loved him the second I saw him and am hoping to be a good mum to him. As a first time bearded dragon owner, of course I have lots of questions, especially about getting him to eat his veggies! I'm also looking for some advice on starting a Dubia Roach colony, as we have five leopard geckos as well, and well, getting tired of constant trips to the reptishop.

I have no idea what the morph on my baby is, he has a very subtle tinge of orange the camera doesn't catch very well at all, but I'd just like to know what he could be if anyone can help.

Anywhoo, I hope to get to know a lot from everyone and be a great beardie parent.

 

[diegothediggy]

Hi mimi and Raiden. My names Penny im from uk n i have two beardies Diego and Boris. Make sure u take the best care of him u can 2 months is a little young for the shop to be selling him. The most important time in a beardies life is its first few months. If they snt get the rite heat and food it can b deadly. I no around here most pet shop wnt sell them until they over at least 4 months. So make sure ur twmps around 100f to 110. N make aure he has a cooler sife to his viv aswel around 80. As for the veg i wudnt wotty 2 much at the min. Offer him live prey 3 times a day as much as he wants in 15 mins. And dust them every other feed. Make sure theres always a diah of fresh salad in there i dnt dust my salad coz Diego n Boris eat more if i dnt dust it. I spray it with water to hwlp it stay fresh and it helps to hydrate them. Im not to sure bout morphs but i do no a lot of normal morphs can b great cokours. My Boris ia very orange but he just a normal. Whats ur beardies nails like that can help a lot wen checking morphs. Its nice to meet u i no its a lot to take in when ur a new beardie mummy i found myself online reading about them for weeks after i first got Diego. Theres loads of lovely helpfull ppl on this forum n we all very happy to help each other out so feel free to jump in a thread n put ur opinion in or just comment.

Diegos the lighter 1 and Boris is the orange 1 i luv my boys so much.

 

[Canicke]

Handsome young man. Like PENNY said don't worry so much about the veggies at this point he's probably going to eat almost entirely protein. He will transition to veggies but be sure and keep them present in case he does want them. Crickets are a pain I feed dubias. You'd have to get very small dubias. Breeding would be your best bet. Not hard at all get a couple of males and several females give them some egg cartons make up some Roach Chow cut up some oranges to provide them some water keep them heated and Well they will breed like roaches. Welcome to the forum.

 

[RaidenMarshall]

Oh, no, he's not a couple months old as in two, I meant to say they said he's maybe 6 months or older! He's about 11 inches long. His viv measured around 104 f earlier today, and the cooler side is about house temperature which is 78-86 f depending on what time of day it is. Thank you for the advice though! And your beardies are so lovely!

 

[diegothediggy]

Sorry i cudnt help with the dubias i feed mine hoppers (locus)

 

[RaidenMarshall]

I also made him a salad, was wondering if I could get input on it:
-collared greens
-butternut squash
-green/yellow bell peppers

Is this an okay enough diet in terms of his leafy greens? Or should I add more?

 

[diegothediggy]

Yeh they fine. U can also give them fruit as a treat.not too often tho coz its like sweets to them. Mine love love love banana. I just change wot greens i get from week to week so they dnt get fed up with the same stuff all the time. If u think bout it u wudnt like to eat the same thing all the time

 

[PatsyB]

Welcome to the forum! He looks like maybe 4 months old. We just came from the pet store today and they had some real tiny ones maybe 6 inches long, one looked like a leatherback.

You're salad sounds good. Like they said don't worry if he doesn't eat much of it, he's little and needs more protein at this point.

 

[Elemental Dragon Lord]

Raiden is a normal beardie just like my Razor, nothing wrong with that. If you want pm me and I can give you the number fot a guy in AZ that will put a colony with roaches fot $50, it's a good deal as dubia here are insanely priced and they are sooooooooo much better than crickets.

 

[RaidenMarshall]

Thank you guys for all the advice! I just got some dubias today, put them in a little 3 drawer holder, will be feeding them to him later. As for greens, surprisingly he ate some of his salad! Yay! I checked his belly and his stress lines seem to be fading. All in all, things are looking good.