Greetings to the Welcome Forum - Substrate and Reptile Carpet

[Doctor Tantra Mantra]

Hi all,

I have just joined the forum today, and attached a pic of our bearded dragon, Bunsen Burner.

To cut a long story short, Khaleesi in Game of Thrones is our favourite character, and she has three fantasy dragons. We ALWAYS visit pet shops when we are out and about shopping, and we spotted these super cute bearded dragon creatures. We thought that if it was good enough for Khaleesi, it was good enough for us.

We got him around three months ago. We had never kept a reptile before, and we didn't expect to be given him to take home from the pet shop on the day we bought all of his bits and pieces and his vivarium, it was a major panic and stress, setting everything up and simultaneously doing an emergency study of his species, whilst trying to keep him warm!

Caroline, my Wife, wrote a blog about it https://newbeardeddragonowner.wordpress.com/ you might find it useful, it gives more information there. She stopped writing it a while ago, so I will get her to update it if you like it. We've virtually changed his complete setup (apart from the actually vivarium), since then, so we learnt the hard way, at quite considerable cost, thankfully we both work, but I wouldn't like others to have to make some of the mistakes with equipment!

Bunsen Burner is virtually trouble-free, he's very easy to care for, and we can handle him without any worry at all, he doesn't nip or bite or anything like that, and we think he's even more super cute than ever. His claws are very sharp at the moment though (any suggestions?), we are thinking about very cautiously using one of the wooden boards like ladies use on their nails? They are too tiny and delicate to try to cut.

I do have a query, and perhaps this is not the right place, but if anyone can point me in the direction, I'd be grateful. We had a specific reptile substrate on the bottom of his vivarium, and we just changed it after a major clean out to a 'reptile carpet'. He didn't poop for three days, and I was thinking 'he's not happy with this', so today when I came downstairs, he was up at the window, giving it a knock, with the black beard going on!

This is what he's like, he has personality. He's like, I'm not happy with this, and I want you to help me. So I took him out and left him to have a trot around (we do this 2/3 times per day for 20-30 mins a time, he just does what he wants to do), and he'd kicked his mealworms over, spread his salad all over, kicked poop everywhere, it was like a bomb testing range! This was before breakfast... urgh.

So anyway, I cleaned it all up and put him back in. This is where I'm coming from. First of all, I don't think he's happy with the carpet. He poops pretty much every day, but since we changed it at the weekend he's gone once outside, but not once inside until today. When he eventually busted loose, he must have gone a little crazy, plus it's hard to clean. I think we might have to change back over specifically to the reptile substrate that we had before. It really didn't seem to do him any harm at all.

Again suggestions would be welcomed.

Anyway, thanks for reading and bye for now.

Chris

 

[diegothediggy]

Hi and welcome. My names Penny and I'm a proud mum of two beardies and have bin for over 2 years. Ur little one sounds a lot like our Diego. Beardies have very large personalities and love to show them off. The banging on the glass is called glass dancing Diego does it wen he wants to get out the viv. Wich is all day he does it from the moment he gets up till his light goes off. He runs up n down the viv with his nose pressed against the glass scratching n scrambling around he dnt care his he run through his salad or water his viv is cleaned daily coz he's a messy sod. Nothing to worry about tho just means he letting u no how he feels. As for the black beard. Beardie dnt like change not one bit especially wen it comes to there vivs. I changed Boris teddy a few weeks ago coz he pooped on his n he was devastated bobbing at it and everything. I had to change it to spongebob now he happy with him hehe. They dnt like change n it takes them a while to get used to it. I'm not saying that y the beard it cud b for a number of things. They go darker to absorb heat if they cold. They go darker if they stressed but he will also get lines on his stomach if he stress. As for ur substrate myself I use tile well I have 3/4 tile with a sand pit at the basking end with some stone in for the to sit on. I really luv to tile for a few reasons. It keeps the tempo up. It's easy to clean it looks nice and both my boys love there vivs. it's not fixed down its just placed in with sand to fill in the gaps so I lift them once a month and clean them all out n it's so easy. I get a large bag of sand once a month n that does both vivs. il post a pic wen I get home. Hope I was of sum help keep us updated

 

[PatsyB]

Welcome to the forum! I think at one point we all kinda end up getting something without research or prep. When I got my frogs we had a few things and knew a little but ended up buying the tank and decor and the frogs all at the same time. It was a lot of trial and error and after 4 years, I've only managed to lose 1. Bearded dragons do have LARGE personalities and like Penny above, I have a boy that runs his tank all day long until we finally give in and just let him loose. He hates being confined, he hates hides. If he is on the couch and we cover him with a blanket he will climb out. It's as iff he feels he's going to miss something if he is hidden. Yet, when he is tired from running around our house, he will find a corner under something and go to sleep!

As far as your substrate, lots of people like tile. It's easy to clean and it helps file their nails down. I had tile in my tank but it didn't fit snug and with Luci running around his tank he was constantly rearranging his tile and his nails filed down too much. I went back to repti carpet which works just fine.

I also feel your pain with the mess. I woke up Wednesday with a migraine, spilled a cup of coffee in my bag and all over the kitchen floor then went to check on the babies and found that Luci had pooped in his tank and smeared it all over the glass and all over his body! He is such a boy!

 

[drzebra]

I use carpet. I keep two carpets for each dragon. That way I always have a clean one to put in the vivarium.

As far as cleaning them goes, I just run them through a cold cycle in the washing machine (no soap) and a quick no-heat tumble through the dryer.

 

[Canicke]

Hi - Welcome to the forum. Re: nails - my girl came to me with her nails down to nuthin - previous owner had clipped them to keep her from climbing (she had free roam outside) when i got her, i let her nails grow out so she COULD climb. they got long fast - i used a nail file on them. she wasnt real happy with me for that. i did like one toe at a time. file in one direction - not back and forth. you may only get 5 or swipes in before he tries to get away. Do it toward the end of the day when it's almost bedtime - less chance of a temper!

 

[Doctor Tantra Mantra]

Hi and welcome. My names Penny and I'm a proud mum of two beardies and have bin for over 2 years. Ur little one sounds a lot like our Diego. Beardies have very large personalities and love to show them off. The banging on the glass is called glass dancing Diego does it wen he wants to get out the viv. Wich is all day he does it from the moment he gets up till his light goes off. He runs up n down the viv with his nose pressed against the glass scratching n scrambling around he dnt care his he run through his salad or water his viv is cleaned daily coz he's a messy sod. Nothing to worry about tho just means he letting u no how he feels. As for the black beard. Beardie dnt like change not one bit especially wen it comes to there vivs. I changed Boris teddy a few weeks ago coz he pooped on his n he was devastated bobbing at it and everything. I had to change it to spongebob now he happy with him hehe. They dnt like change n it takes them a while to get used to it. I'm not saying that y the beard it cud b for a number of things. They go darker to absorb heat if they cold. They go darker if they stressed but he will also get lines on his stomach if he stress. As for ur substrate myself I use tile well I have 3/4 tile with a sand pit at the basking end with some stone in for the to sit on. I really luv to tile for a few reasons. It keeps the tempo up. It's easy to clean it looks nice and both my boys love there vivs. it's not fixed down its just placed in with sand to fill in the gaps so I lift them once a month and clean them all out n it's so easy. I get a large bag of sand once a month n that does both vivs. il post a pic wen I get home. Hope I was of sum help keep us updated

Hi Penny,

Thanks for your reply and advice. We have done another vivarium upgrade, and we have changed to calci-sand, and reclaimed some slate tiles from some friends back garden, cleaned and disinfected them, and laid them on top of the sand. So we have 1/3 of the viv, pure calci-sand for where he sleeps (because he likes to burrow into it underneath his basking rock), the other 2/3 have calci-sand and then slate on top.

We are hoping that it is better for him and also easier to clean the poop out than the reptile carpet! He's only been back in there for 10 minutes so we will see how he gets on with that.

Stay in touch, Chris

 

[Doctor Tantra Mantra]

Welcome to the forum! I think at one point we all kinda end up getting something without research or prep. When I got my frogs we had a few things and knew a little but ended up buying the tank and decor and the frogs all at the same time. It was a lot of trial and error and after 4 years, I've only managed to lose 1. Bearded dragons do have LARGE personalities and like Penny above, I have a boy that runs his tank all day long until we finally give in and just let him loose. He hates being confined, he hates hides. If he is on the couch and we cover him with a blanket he will climb out. It's as iff he feels he's going to miss something if he is hidden. Yet, when he is tired from running around our house, he will find a corner under something and go to sleep!

As far as your substrate, lots of people like tile. It's easy to clean and it helps file their nails down. I had tile in my tank but it didn't fit snug and with Luci running around his tank he was constantly rearranging his tile and his nails filed down too much. I went back to repti carpet which works just fine.

I also feel your pain with the mess. I woke up Wednesday with a migraine, spilled a cup of coffee in my bag and all over the kitchen floor then went to check on the babies and found that Luci had pooped in his tank and smeared it all over the glass and all over his body! He is such a boy!

HI Patsy,

Thanks for your reply. What a nightmare, migraine, poop disaster, and coffee spill all in one go! We got an offer of some slate roof tiles from a friend, so we have gone back to calci sand and we are trying him on that. We will post again when we know how he readjusts.

Thanks for your advice, and for your story! Chris

 

[Doctor Tantra Mantra]

I use carpet. I keep two carpets for each dragon. That way I always have a clean one to put in the vivarium.

As far as cleaning them goes, I just run them through a cold cycle in the washing machine (no soap) and a quick no-heat tumble through the dryer.

Hi Doc,
Thanks for your reply. We've had a change again, and another vivarium upgrade to tiles and calci sand, as we really think he had some sort of mental block pooping on the carpet. We are going to see how he gets on with this. It looks pretty cool, and a bit more desert-like!

Thanks again, Chris

 

[Doctor Tantra Mantra]

Hi - Welcome to the forum. Re: nails - my girl came to me with her nails down to nuthin - previous owner had clipped them to keep her from climbing (she had free roam outside) when i got her, i let her nails grow out so she COULD climb. they got long fast - i used a nail file on them. she wasnt real happy with me for that. i did like one toe at a time. file in one direction - not back and forth. you may only get 5 or swipes in before he tries to get away. Do it toward the end of the day when it's almost bedtime - less chance of a temper!

Oh my goodness Canicke, their claws are so tiny. We used the nail file, and we managed to get a bit done. We live in the UK so the temperatures are too low to keep him outside for very long (10 mins max at this time of year). Today we have changed his flooring material to slate on top of sand in 2/3 of his vivarium and sand in the other 1/3, which we are hoping will help keep them down a little bit more!

Thanks for your reply Canicke
Chris