Hello!

[CrazyLeopardGeckoLady]

I'm new to bearded dragons and I'm getting a fully grown one from my cousins friend and I'm going to watch him while she's in collage if theirs any tips you can give me to make sure the beardie is comfortable and helping me take care of him I'd appreciate it greatly ^^ I haven't gotten him yet and she's giving me everything with him

 

[CrazyLeopardGeckoLady]

UPDATE: I'm getting the bearded dragon on Sunday! His name is fox

 

[RaidenMarshall]

What all is he coming with? I hope you take great care of him my beardie is definitely my shining reptile. They really are great pets!

 

[Elemental Dragon Lord]

Start a colony of super worms or dubia roaches. It will save you money in the long run.

 

[CrazyLeopardGeckoLady]

I'm sorry I haven't replied the wifi was down but she gave me his tank, lights, his cactus (fake), his bowls, and dried bugs (from the store)
I give him crickets when we buy them for my leopard geckos

 

[Josh]

Welcome aboard! Would love to see some photos of fox!

 

[CrazyLeopardGeckoLady]

This is him and I know that the pet store sand isn't good for him so I switched it out with paper towel for about a day but he looked miserable, the girl who I'm taking care of him for said its calcium filled and he's always been in sand now I don't know what I should change it to or even if I should I've seen so many negative comments about sand

 

[CrazyLeopardGeckoLady]

Also! She said to feed him every two to three days (he's 2 years old) but I'd like some tips on what veggies he can eat and just overall for him

 

[RaidenMarshall]

How big is that tank? Also what are his temps and UVB? You can keep him on sand, but its better to get playground sand as it clumps less (not to mention way cheaper). My guy is on repticarpet at the moment while we are planning out his enclosure, where I'll switch him to tile. Its the easiest to spot clean and looks pretty nice.

As for veggies, keep them fresh and available at all times. The insects you can feed every two to three days. Collard greens, mustard greens, and dandelion greens are pretty good staples, as well as sliced up butternut squash. You can feed him fruit on occaision as well. Blueberries, grapes sliced with the skin peeled off, strawberries, and raspberries to name a few. Never feed spinach as it binds calcium and I believe you're not supposed to feed oranges either. There is a pretty good website to look at what he can and can't eat, I just cant remember it off the top of my head. If I got any of the above information wrong I'm sorry! Someone much more knowledgeable and experienced than I will surely know

He's a cutie though! I hope you enjoy him, maybe you'll end up wanting one of your own

 

[drzebra]

I'll leave the impaction risk of sand alone and just approach it from a practicality angle.

Sand is a pain in the butt. At some point, you're going to have to take every grain of it out of there to clean the vivarium. You'll be hating it then, I promise.

Reptile carpet is ok, but I had a hard time keeping that clean, too. One juicy turd ruins the looks in a hurry. I switched Arthur over to slate tiles ($0.87 per 6 inch square at Lowes) and I haven't looked back. Just lift out the dirt tile(s), scrub/sanitize as needed, and you're good to go.

Welcome aboard!

 

[PatsyB]

Raiden and dr. zebra both have good points! Now, what if you switched out to slate tiles but put in a box of sand so he would still get the sand experience while also getting used to slate tiles? The website to look at for nutritional advise is http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html they have a list of all the veggies that are good for them. I would offer a nice salad every day but feed live food every other day or so. At that age they kinda decide when they want to eat live food. Mine will eat like a pig one day and then the next 4 days she will maybe eat one worm. If you are going to keep the sand in the tank, you'll want to feed him live food in another tank and be careful that the salad doesn't get full of sand. The calcium in calci sand is Calcium Carbonate...that's the same stuff that is used in antacids. It also can clump like clumping cat litter. Here is a link to an interesting article I found on the stuff....http://www.herpcenter.com/reptile-articles/calcium-sand-dangers.html

 

[drzebra]

Eh, sand just seems too much like work to me. I'm a guy that works 12 hours a day 5 days a week, so I like the less labor intensive stuff.

I have been feeding Arthur live daily, though. Should I cut that back? Maybe it'll make him actually eat his salads as opposed to just tromping through them and or sitting his butt in them?

 

[drzebra]

(not to hijack the thread - I'm new here, too)

 

[PatsyB]

@drzebra How old is Arthur? Little ones should have live food daily. As they get older though they don't need it as often, and actually don't seem to want it as often. Dexter is going to be 2 in November and it was a few months ago when I noticed she didn't want to eat live food as much.

I used to have sand in Dexter's tank and it looked real pretty. It didn't feed her live food in the sand but I would put her salad bowl on a plate and sand would still get everywhere. She actually didn't seem to like the feel of the sand. She spent most of her time up on her hammock. Now she has repti carpet and she's pretty happy with it. She doesn't poop in her tank so it stays pretty clean. Luci on the other hand has repti carpet and always poops in his tank. He always manages to go on his basking wood though and whatever does get on the carpet so far easily spot cleans then I give it a good cleaning once a week.

 

[drzebra]

Arthur is right around 2 years old. He readily eats any and all roaches and superworms that I offer him. I had to cut him off one day after 4 adult roaches and 4 supers.

When I had him on the carpet, the surest way to get him to poop was to run the carpet through the washing machine, dry it, and put it back in his vivarium. Guaranteed steaming pile, every time.

 

[Elemental Dragon Lord]

The only time I stop my dragons from eating was one time when Razor pigged out on 75 crickets. This was after he are his morning salad, 2 helpings!

 

[drzebra]

Yeah, but dubias are expensive. I'm going to start a colony soon, but still. Oof.

And I'm not doing crickets anymore. Nasty little buggers. Arthur never seemed particularly excited about them, anyway.

 

[RaidenMarshall]

Oh yeah repticarpet is definitely a pain, I machine wash mine every 2-3 days because I dont want the poop to build lol

 

[PatsyB]

Arthur is right around 2 years old. He readily eats any and all roaches and superworms that I offer him. I had to cut him off one day after 4 adult roaches and 4 supers.

When I had him on the carpet, the surest way to get him to poop was to run the carpet through the washing machine, dry it, and put it back in his vivarium. Guaranteed steaming pile, every time.

HA! Luci did that to me once when we were using paper towel. I cleaned the tank real nice and taped the paper towels down. I walked out of the room and came back in to find a big pile of poop, that he ran through!

 

[CrazyLeopardGeckoLady]

Thank you for answering my questions (my iPad doesn't tell me when people reply) I don't know his tank size and I have this

as a light bulb and I turn it on during the day and turn it off during the night, I was planning on getting him more stuff like to play on and a temp thing but I haven't gotten to it yet