Hello!

[Marc4]

I just got a beardie Saturday night. We have named him Jagger. I was planning to wait until my baby torts were old/big enough to go into an outdoor enclosure full time and their terrarium would be used for a beardie but a neighbor wanted to rehome one of hers (tank, lights and all) so he would get more attention and I couldn't resist. Ive been trying to let him adjust with minimal holding time but its killing me. I have a chair by his tank where I like to sit and watch my torts so I get to watch him also and I'm just trying to get familiar with his behavior. I am so excited to finally have my lizard though. I lizard sat an iguana as a kid and fell in love. He was so cool but I was convinced by multiple people that he was an acception and most arent that friendly and that a beardie would be a better fit. I have 3 human boys (4 if you count the husband haha) a male dog and 3, 9 month old desert torts (sex tbd on them lol).

I am looking into new substrate options right now as I got him with sand but I don't want to change anything until he has more time to settle in. Any recommendations? I seem to be having a hard time finding reptile carpet that will fit his tank size (18 x 36 I believe it is. Its shorter but deeper than the one my torts are in, I find their tank size stuff all the time)

He also had diarrhea today, I assume from the stress of a new home. Hes eating and active otherwise. Just trying to read up and finish my research so any advice is greatly appreciated!

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[Yvonne G]

Welcome!

 

[KrissyLeigh]

Exciting! Beardies are great pets! I have torts too - 2 redfoots, and looking forward to a leopard soon.

I use nonadhesive shelf liner and cut it down to size- easy to clean but if it gets super gross cheap to replace. One $10 roll makes 3 tank carpets. Actual reptile carpet is too difficult to clean and their nails get caught in it.

 

[PatsyB]

Under my comment there are some links to lighting info and other helpful care stuff.

I find with my repticarpet and other stuff I have to cut it down just a little bit. Remember that the inside of the tank isn't really 36x18 it's more like 35 by 17 1/2 or something. non adhesive shelf liner is good, and so is slate tile. Some people even use something called excavator clay that kinda hardens and makes a more natural habitat but it could be hard to clean.

The mesh on top of the tank blocks about 35% of the UVB. If you are using a T8 size UVB tube bulb, you will want to somehow mount it inside. A slimmer T5 tube bulb is fine though to sit on the top of the mesh. Coil bulbs can cause eye problems and compact fluorescent bulbs don't penetrate far enough down into the tank to provide any benefit. Also make sure the UVB and the heat bulb over lap each other at the basking spot. The heat helps the body synthesize the D3 from the UVB.

 

[KrissyLeigh]

^^oh, good catch! For sure. Also on the subject of lighting - my reptile vet said even a few minutes of natural sunlight a few times a week can work wonders for their health. I try and take mine out in the sun at least on the weekends.

Also, do you have supplements? You will need a vitamin, calcium without D3 and calcium with D3. I also like to give mine a probiotic.

 

[Marc4]

Exciting! Beardies are great pets! I have torts too - 2 redfoots, and looking forward to a leopard soon.

I use nonadhesive shelf liner and cut it down to size- easy to clean but if it gets super gross cheap to replace. One $10 roll makes 3 tank carpets. Actual reptile carpet is too difficult to clean and their nails get caught in it.

Fun! I love my baby torts. They have cute personalities and their slow calm life is very calming for me to watch when my boys are being wild and crazy around me lol. Id love a sulcata one day if we get a bigger yard but my 3 DTs will be enough for our yard.

And thank you for you opinion. Thats sounds like exaxtly what I'm looking for as far as flooring goes. I want something I can clean when he goes (especially if he gets diarreah again) I'll be changine that out soon. Im paranoid about him eating the sand but I don't dont want to shock the poor guy with to much change just yet.

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[Marc4]

Under my comment there are some links to lighting info and other helpful care stuff.

I find with my repticarpet and other stuff I have to cut it down just a little bit. Remember that the inside of the tank isn't really 36x18 it's more like 35 by 17 1/2 or something. non adhesive shelf liner is good, and so is slate tile. Some people even use something called excavator clay that kinda hardens and makes a more natural habitat but it could be hard to clean.

The mesh on top of the tank blocks about 35% of the UVB. If you are using a T8 size UVB tube bulb, you will want to somehow mount it inside. A slimmer T5 tube bulb is fine though to sit on the top of the mesh. Coil bulbs can cause eye problems and compact fluorescent bulbs don't penetrate far enough down into the tank to provide any benefit. Also make sure the UVB and the heat bulb over lap each other at the basking spot. The heat helps the body synthesize the D3 from the UVB.

Thank you! I'll check what bulb they have in there asap. Im outside with my DTs atm for their daily natural sun light. My goal is to bring Jagger out with us too once he's confortable. I spend 30 min to an hour outside depending on how hot it is 5-7 days a week typically. Have to supervise them though so the birds cant turn them into breakfast since I dont have a lidded enclosure yet

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[Marc4]

^^oh, good catch! For sure. Also on the subject of lighting - my reptile vet said even a few minutes of natural sunlight a few times a week can work wonders for their health. I try and take mine out in the sun at least on the weekends.

Also, do you have supplements? You will need a vitamin, calcium without D3 and calcium with D3. I also like to give mine a probiotic.

I just mentioned in my last comment I currently take my torts outside 5-7 days a week for about 30 min to an hour (depending on how hot it is) for natural sunlight so my goal is to bring Jagger outside with us as well I assumed it would be good for him since its good for them lol. They usually eat their breakfast outside amd get their exercise and I get some quiet time while my boys watch tv in the house lol

As far as supplements I have calcium without d3 for my torts since we go outside so often. How often should I be doing calcium for a beardie? I put some in his salad yesterday and he wouldnt touch it lol I think his previous owners dusted his crickets with it and he got crickets once a week and salad daily. Have mazuri for my torts which is their vitamins (they came to me eating mainly mazuri so I'm working on broadening their diets right now)

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[Marc4]

Under my comment there are some links to lighting info and other helpful care stuff.

I find with my repticarpet and other stuff I have to cut it down just a little bit. Remember that the inside of the tank isn't really 36x18 it's more like 35 by 17 1/2 or something. non adhesive shelf liner is good, and so is slate tile. Some people even use something called excavator clay that kinda hardens and makes a more natural habitat but it could be hard to clean.

The mesh on top of the tank blocks about 35% of the UVB. If you are using a T8 size UVB tube bulb, you will want to somehow mount it inside. A slimmer T5 tube bulb is fine though to sit on the top of the mesh. Coil bulbs can cause eye problems and compact fluorescent bulbs don't penetrate far enough down into the tank to provide any benefit. Also make sure the UVB and the heat bulb over lap each other at the basking spot. The heat helps the body synthesize the D3 from the UVB.

I believe its the t8 so this should be mounted inside then? I'll have to wait for my husband to get home and see what we can come up with to mount it inside.

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[Marc4]

Exciting! Beardies are great pets! I have torts too - 2 redfoots, and looking forward to a leopard soon.

I use nonadhesive shelf liner and cut it down to size- easy to clean but if it gets super gross cheap to replace. One $10 roll makes 3 tank carpets. Actual reptile carpet is too difficult to clean and their nails get caught in it.

Im looking at options online for the shelf liner, is this the stuff you use? Smooth texture stuff.

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[KrissyLeigh]

Im looking at options online for the shelf liner, is this the stuff you use? Smooth texture stuff.

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It looks similar... I get mine from home depo
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Con-Tac...ite-Shelf-Drawer-Liner-08F-C8A39-04/100672966

As far as supplements, there doesn't seem to be an absolutely correct answer. My adult beardie has a really healthy, varied diet and I give him calcium w/o D3 once a week, calcium w D3 once a week, vitamins and probiotics 1-2 times a week. And some weeks I do forget, honestly. But like I said, he has a really good diet - fortunately he isn't too picky an eater! If you take your beardie out a ton you might not need the calcium with D3, but I don't think it would hurt him once a week.

Do you not have to give your torts vitamins? I don't know anything about desert torts - my redfoots have cuttlebones and I dust their food with a multivitamin from repashy once or twice a week.

Ps- meant to mention earlier, I love the third picture of him. It's a very sexy pose hahaha!

 

[Marc4]

It looks similar... I get mine from home depo
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Con-Tac...ite-Shelf-Drawer-Liner-08F-C8A39-04/100672966

As far as supplements, there doesn't seem to be an absolutely correct answer. My adult beardie has a really healthy, varied diet and I give him calcium w/o D3 once a week, calcium w D3 once a week, vitamins and probiotics 1-2 times a week. And some weeks I do forget, honestly. But like I said, he has a really good diet - fortunately he isn't too picky an eater! If you take your beardie out a ton you might not need the calcium with D3, but I don't think it would hurt him once a week.

Do you not have to give your torts vitamins? I don't know anything about desert torts - my redfoots have cuttlebones and I dust their food with a multivitamin from repashy once or twice a week.

Ps- meant to mention earlier, I love the third picture of him. It's a very sexy pose hahaha!

Perfect I'll have to get that. I like the look of it better than white!

I have only had the torts since Nov so I'm still learning with them also but I was under the impression that the mazuri food had enough vitamins in it to cover that. Guess I'll have to look into that. And I was told with the amount of time I take them outside not to get d3 in their calcium. I try to keep a varied diet for them, some grocery greens, grass, weeds and plants/flowers. I have a black thumb though so until I am consistently keeping plants and weeds alive I still rotate in grocery greens lol working on doing the same for Jagger as well.

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[KrissyLeigh]

Perfect I'll have to get that. I like the look of it better than white!

I have only had the torts since Nov so I'm still learning with them also but I was under the impression that the mazuri food had enough vitamins in it to cover that. Guess I'll have to look into that. And I was told with the amount of time I take them outside not to get d3 in their calcium. I try to keep a varied diet for them, some grocery greens, grass, weeds and plants/flowers. I have a black thumb though so until I am consistently keeping plants and weeds alive I still rotate in grocery greens lol working on doing the same for Jagger as well.

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Right on. Like I said, I don't know anything about desert torts! I also don't feed mine pellet food very often, so the multivitamins are good.

This is the best and most comprehensive list of beardie food I have found:
http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/bearded-dragon-nutrition-data.php#veg

 

[PatsyB]

I like the brand Krissy uses, it's thinner and nails don't ruin it as quick and it's easy to clean. Like she said there really is no right way to do the supplements. Everyone does it different and it all seems to work. I guess as long as they are getting them? When I did separate supplements I did a multivitamin with D3 on the weekends and calcium w/o D3 during the week. I believed if you have a good UVB bulb and you are taking them out for natural sunlight, then you don't have to supplement with it. Now I use Repashy Calcium Plus for everything. It has a little bit of D3 in it.

I use a few other thing too that aren't necessary but they do help. I sprinkle bee pollen on their salads. Bee pollen has a lot of benefits even for us. The main benefit is that it stimulates appetite. One of my girls and my boy will eat their whole salad if they see it has bee pollen on it. Everyone gets a probiotic a few times a month to keep the belly in check. My oldest girl is 5 and she refuses to eat salad so she gets B Complex vitamin once a month. I also give her Milk Thistle to help with liver function.

You're bulb is a T8 so you are going to want to mount it inside somehow. As far up above his head as you can get it. You don't want him to be able to stare into it.

 

[Marc4]

Bought shelf liner and forget we have some tiles we were going to use on our bathroom but havent gotten around to it so I used a few of those as well. Ive seen a few people put blankets and such in their tanks. Is that safe? I had him in a plastic storage container while I cleaned out the sand and i put a towel down and he snuggled in and went to sleep on it so I was thinking I'd leave one in there for him to lay on if its safe, since he seemed to like it.
Still trying to figure out how to mount the light inside. I may have figured something out though when I had it all apart to clean. Fingers crossed my idea works when I try tomorrow morning

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[Hdrydr31]

Bought shelf liner and forget we have some tiles we were going to use on our bathroom but havent gotten around to it so I used a few of those as well. Ive seen a few people put blankets and such in their tanks. Is that safe? I had him in a plastic storage container while I cleaned out the sand and i put a towel down and he snuggled in and went to sleep on it so I was thinking I'd leave one in there for him to lay on if its safe, since he seemed to like it.
Still trying to figure out how to mount the light inside. I may have figured something out though when I had it all apart to clean. Fingers crossed my idea works when I try tomorrow morning

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Looks great! I've found out like many others that they do enjoy something soft to cuddle up in.. Maybe that's our human opinion however mine always gravitate to a nice soft micro fleece in their hide.
I've used zip ties to hold strip UVB to the underside of the wire mesh

 

[Marc4]

Looks great! I've found out like many others that they do enjoy something soft to cuddle up in.. Maybe that's our human opinion however mine always gravitate to a nice soft micro fleece in their hide.
I've used zip ties to hold strip UVB to the underside of the wire mesh

Thats exaxtly what I was going to try. There are only holes on one side and nothing to hook to on the lid but I think I can make it work. May need to get a little creative but ill figure something out.

Should i lower that rock/log basking spot once i have the uv light inside? I'm worried he will get to close to it. Also does it need to be centered or can he be off set towards the back of his tank? I'll hsve more options if i can put it towards the back but then I'll definitely need to lower his basking spot down. So many things to consider!

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[PatsyB]

Thats exaxtly what I was going to try. There are only holes on one side and nothing to hook to on the lid but I think I can make it work. May need to get a little creative but ill figure something out.

Should i lower that rock/log basking spot once i have the uv light inside? I'm worried he will get to close to it. Also does it need to be centered or can he be off set towards the back of his tank? I'll hsve more options if i can put it towards the back but then I'll definitely need to lower his basking spot down. So many things to consider!

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The light should be overhead if possible but if not put it as far up on the side of the tank as possible.

Lot's of people use blankets and soft things for their beardies to rest on. Some like them, some don't.