First time dragon owner and husbandry

[Mike_Willemsen]

Hello my name is Mike, I am from Stratford, Ontario Canada. My family just got our first bearded dragon from a local registered breeder, he is a leatherback that is approx 2 months old, we have not come up with a name for him yet. I have previously raised a veiled chameleon so I am not completely new to raising herps. I have our little guy in a 4' long x 18" deep x 18" tall glass tank with reptile carpet as substrate. I am running a zoomed reptisun 10.0 HO t5 for uv, a 150 watt zoomed basking bulb for light and basking heat, a 100watt ceramic heater for additional heat and a 60w household bulb for additional light. The lights are on a 12 hour cycle. I'm using a exo terra digital thermometer/hydrometer probe that I can move around to find temps in different parts of the tank. I also have a thermo gun. My temps that I have achieved range from mid 70°s to 110° ish in the basking spot and a drop to 70° overnight. His tank has a dessert background, a large purchased water dish, a food dish, a large hide, a couple fake plants, a natural rock (sanitized) and a bridge he can go on to bask. He has only been in my care for 5 days now, I have only handled him once as I want him to get used to his new habitat. I've been a bit concerned about his eating so far, the first eve I got him he ate a whole lot of d3 calcium dusted small crickets and a bit of cut up cabbage but I haven't really seen him eat any since. I have been offering crickets, meal worms and cut up dandelion greens daily since but he hasn't really showed any interest in any of it. I read on some threads on here that it is likely to him adjusting to his new home but it still concerns me a bit, I also found a ball of cricket parts the day after his first cricket binge. He might be eating a little as he has had a poop everyday so far. If he doesn't eat in the next day or so I will post my concerns in a thread in the appropriate spot on here. Anyways there is my intro. I am happy I found this site as I belonged to a Chameleon forum site when I owned a Cham and learned a lot of very good husbandry from very reputable and experienced owners and I expect this to be similar. I look forward to learning lots from this forum. Thanks

 

[Hdrydr31]

Welcome to the forum!! And a big welcome to Beardies!!! I love your set up and love how much you've put into this little fella...
The only things I would change would be: Get some calcium without D3 (veiled chameleons need it but not these guys) he will get enough thru the lights and other food items. As far as the cabbage I would switch to collard greens as cabbage is a rarely to be fed item. Here are some great links that we all use here: As babies they will eat 80% bugs and 20% greens/veggies then once they become adults that will switch.. This is because they are in growth phase so the protein is what they will eat the most right now.
http://greathousefarm.com/Greathouse-Reptile-Nutrition-List.pdf
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html
The other thing I would stop are meal worms as their shells are full of chitlin which is very hard for them to digest and can cause impactions especially in the little ones, as adults it's better but most of us avoid them. Here are good bugs for them (best to get bugs that are the size between their eyes)
Crickets, dubia roaches, superworms, butterworms, waxworms, silkworms, hornworms are all good, some are treats as they are high in fats...
If your finding poop/urates then he's taking in some that your not seeing. Some are shy in their eating so maybe your not seeing him eat.. I wouldn't be concerned yet on his eating as he is most likely just getting used to his new home and owners it can take days to a week.
Your set up is great! that long log looks smooth can he move around well on it? might be too slick?
keep us posted!!

 

[PatsyB]

Welcome to the forum! Hdrydr31 gave some good links for fruits and veggies. Sounds like you have all the right lighting. The only thing I would change is the basking spot. The temps shouldn't fluctuate that much in the basking spot. It should be 107-110 degrees. The ball of crickets you found sounds like he/she threw them up which usually means the basking spot temp is too low.

 

[Mike_Willemsen]

Thanks for the advice Hdrydr31 and PatsyB. Patsy, I re read my post and it wasnt very clear. What I meant was that the overall tank temps ranged from mid 70 (in the cool end) and the basking spot is around 110° with various temps in between. Hdrydr31- his log is a bit slick, He can climb across it but it is slippery for him, I have been looking for something suitable, I found some awesome branches at some pet stores but they want close to $100 for them there, I am going to keep looking or maybe rough the one I have in there up a bit. As far as his eating goes he started eating good yesterday a few hours after my post of course. Thanks

 

[Hdrydr31]

Thanks for the advice Hdrydr31 and PatsyB. Patsy, I re read my post and it wasnt very clear. What I meant was that the overall tank temps ranged from mid 70 (in the cool end) and the basking spot is around 110° with various temps in between. Hdrydr31- his log is a bit slick, He can climb across it but it is slippery for him, I have been looking for something suitable, I found some awesome branches at some pet stores but they want close to $100 for them there, I am going to keep looking or maybe rough the one I have in there up a bit. As far as his eating goes he started eating good yesterday a few hours after my post of course. Thanks

Yea the stores want an arm and a leg for wood!! your log is cool looking maybe just take some sand paper to it and give it some more texture for his nails to grab onto..

 

[PatsyB]

Glad his eating is better. I would try to take some sandpaper to the board you have in there to rough it up a bit, it's real cool.

This forum differs a little bit from the chameleon forum. We are just people with years of experience we don't claim to be experts at any of this. I belong to a chameleon forum and it's a little overwhelming because they all seem like they wrote the book on how to raise chams and it's their way or no way at all. We are a little more laid back here