Hello!

[buchanstans]

My name is Rae! I'm a 25 year old genderfluid pet parent of one beardie, two dogs, and two cats! I'm a beginner at husbandry of beardies, but I'm eager to learn and I hope communicating with fellow beardie parents can help me!

This little guy (too young to be sexed, but this is what we're going with for now!) is named Bucky. He's about four months old, judging from his size. I adopted him in August and I'm doing my very best to give him a wonderful life. I do have a question that I hope some of you could help me with. Getting his temperatures and humidity to stay stable is being a real challenge and I know how essential that is to keeping him healthy. I've read so many different opinions on lighting and bulbs and I'm really lost on what the absolute best is to have. Let me give you a description of his set up right now and explain the problems I'm having.

I currently have Exo Terra Daytime Heat Lamp 100w for his basking because I heard bad things about the Zoo Med Repti Basking Reptile Spot Lamp. However, it's becoming clear to me that it's not nearly enough because his basking spot temp isn't going above 87 degrees and I know that's not good at this stage in his life or any stage for the basking area. I also had to put a 75w incandescent bulb in WITH the 100w in my Zoo Med mini double dome fixutre in order to get it to even that temp. I keep my house at 70 degrees, just for a little bit of background. I also have the Zoo Med ReptiSun 10.0 UVB compact fluorescent 13w for his UVB. He's in a 20 gallon long at the moment with a screen lid.

I'm having trouble keeping the humidity down to between 35 and 40% as well. The mesh lid seems to hinder the humidity rather than help. I know the risk that going above 40% imposes on his respiratory health, so I'm really concerned that it jumps up to almost 60% at times. I've had to buy a small silica gel based dehumidifier to put in the enclosure. If I leave the lid off, have the dehumidifier inside the tank, and have a small box fan pointed toward the tank it thankfully drops between 35 and 40%.

But clearly I'm doing something wrong and I don't want this little guy to get sick. So any and all suggestions you can give me would be GREATLY appreciated so I can correct these issues asap and avoid him in jeopardy any longer!

 

[buchanstans]

Ok so first off dont worry about the humidity it is fine and can go as high as 70 so your fine on that -- what is concerning is the UVB ---- the coil is bad------------- you need this for your UVB -
Which UVB light should I use?

The best UVB light is a ReptiSun 10.0 fluorescent tube HO (Or Arcardia 12% in the UK). Compact or coil bulbs do not emit the proper amount of UVB light for a bearded dragon, and should not be used. Other brands, such as the Zilla Desert Series and ReptiGlo have been known to cause eye problems and other health issues with bearded dragons, and should be avoided. The reason that some UVB lights (Zilla, ReptiGlo, coils/compacts, ect.) are considered dangerous is because the wavelength of UVB that they emit is shorter and more intense than the wavelength of the "safe" lights (ReptiSun, Arcadia). UVB lights should be replaced every 6 months. The T5’s are a strong bulb and only need to be replaced once a year – the T 8 every 6 months--- where as the T 8 are not as strong—they need to be placed inside the tank the T 5 10.0 bulb approx 10-11 inches from basking spot – the T 8 approx 8-10 inches from basking spot—the cover needs to be off the bulb for full effect of the UVB rays-- you need to replace w/ one of these bulbs ---
what size tank do you have?? Next you need a bright basking bulb that will keep temps 105-110 ---- it is trial and error w/ basking bulbs - the 20 gallon tank would use a 75 watt -- but you need to get accurate basking temps first BEFORE you do anything --- it needs to be taken w/ a digital probe or a infrared heat gun-- NO STICK ONS --- they are terribly inaccurate and can be off as much as 40 degrees - so before you replace the basking bulb get the temp---------------- you can get the digital at Petsmart for $5 and the infrared heat gun from Home Depot or Lowes for around $10-12---- I had a 20 gallon set up about a week ago and this is how I had it set up --- here is a pic---- the light on far left is a heat emitter ignore it-- the tube length wise is a Zilla T 8 fixture w/ a Reptisun 10.0 bulb T 8 bulb -- it is 18" long --- I would recommend getting a 20 or 22" fixture since you will haft to upgrade that 20 gallon tank here real soon --- he will not be able to stay in that tank long - I would start looking for a 75-120 gallon tank w/ front doors -- but you need to get your lighting fixed ASAP especially the UVB --- that coil is hurting his eyes and eventually he will quit eating ---- any more questions please ask I have all kinds of info if you need it

Okay, thank you so much. Yeah, I have the compact one but I'll get that changed out asap. I don't want him to be hurting. I'm really glad I got on this forum and asked questions because a lot of sites I would look at, extremely overwhelmed, recommended the compact. So yes, I'll get that changed immediately. I was actually looking at the T8 bulbs before I saw you responded and I'm wondering, does it have to be the Zilla fixture? Or can I use a different T8 fixture with the ReptiSun 10.0 T8 bulb? I saw a bit on the same article you got that from that said an under-the-counter fixture from Walmart would work. Just making sure that's right. I'm currently in the process of looking for a larger enclosure, so I'll make sure to get a longer UVB.