Hello you guys. I have just gotten my first BD! I have ALWAYS wanted one and now that I'm in my mid 20s I can finally care for one! So long story short I traded two of my crested geckos for a juvenile dragon about 6-7 inches hypo het trans with the dunner trait. My first question is his nails are clear with only a small black line through them. Does this make him a Het for hypo instead? I know full hypo are supposed to have fully clear nails. And second is I have been doing ALOT of reading and the setup I got "bob Marley" with the trade is not so good. Ten gal with the combo lamp fixture and coil bulb. I know this is bad and I'm planning on getting a 40gal breeder ASAP. For now though he seems comfy and settling in nice. Very calm and loves to be out. He eats his veggies but obviously prefers meat (can't blame him!). I've noticed he sometimes closes one eye when in the evenings and at night and I've been watching for swelling and what not but he looks fine. Eyes are clear and he is responsive. But I know that this light situation needs to change. This coil bulb is the exo terra piece of cow waste I've read so much about. The problem is I don't have the funds at the moment to run out and buy a new tank plus tube etc. I thought the guy I got him from had the proper setup for the time being until I could make improvements one step at a time. The first was going to be cage size. I was going to get him a nice melamine enclosure for a hundred and some odd dollars but now I need lights and more! So I need to know can I leave that bulb and off and just use the red basking bulb? It would only be for a week or two tops until I get paid again. I have another basking bulb. It's a compact halogen light. 25watts or 50 I can recall. But it dose a good job warming up his chill spot. Is that too bright as well?? Weather in California has just gotten rainy so our daily morning sun baths are out of the question. Will he be okay with no UVB for the short time? Other than that he is amazing and I love him. Very beautiful and calm. He dosent poop everyday though what's with that? Not impacted though I give him soaks and he has and does poop just not daily. Hope I'm not boring you guys I'm just concerned now and want to weight out my options. No UVB and healthy eyes vs. bad UVB and problems down the line maybe.
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I need some expert advice!
- Thread starter Macclucci
- Start date
Last pic shows the compact basking light I was talking about and the bad coil bulb he likes to sit under. I moved the compact from over his greens of course. It gets his rock nice and warm so I'm hoping it's okay. I'm going to turn off the coil bulb and leave the red light and basking bulb on his hot side for the day and see how he does. Temps are good at 100 hot side 80 cool. I have an infrared temp gun. Going to work now I hope someone can give me advice on what to do when I get back today! I'm going to get a fixture from Walmart and a bulb offline ASAP. Probably upgrade to a 20gal for now since I have to buy lights first. Sucks I was going to get tile and and have such a nice setup for him now I have too postpone.
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Congratulations! Hes a looker gor sure. Cant help you with the genetics - both of mine are "pound puppies" and i havent felt the desire to delve into the specifics of dominant/ recessive coding. Please keep in mind that God made these to be very resiliant creatures. They can take a lickin and keep on tickin. That being said - id ditch the coil bulb asap. Please reference Germs threads for some links. Dont panic. Do what you can when you can. Re: pooping. He might not be a daily pooper. He may wait a couple of days. May be longer. Fresh greens - fiber and water - will help move things along. At 6-7 inches hes still a young'n so the greens should be offered daily but he might not eat em. Needs his protein. He may be a bit stressed due to the move. GENTLY rub his belly a bit to stimulate lower gi motility. Id also think about replacing his water bowl with a bowl more like the one youve got his greens in. Beardies dont "drink" water - they may if they happen to be IN the water. Id like to see you get him a more enclosed hide than the skull. A small cardboard box will work. And (sorry) im not a fan of plastic plants. Your beardie doesnt know its plastic and may try to chomp some down. There are some really wonderful links here - it'll take time to get to them all. Its an adventure! Welcome!
Thanks for the fast response! Yeah I'm getting rid of that light. I don't think he likes or needs it for the time being. The water bowl is used for his veggies now even though he dosent eat all that it can hold and the skull was left behind by the guy I got him from even though I wanted it. I'll make him a hide box today that's easy enough. I've had plenty of homemade hides for my snakes so that's an easy fix haha! The plants came with the tank and he seems too really like sleeping and basking on top of them. He doesn't even try to eat them but I'll take them out if you guys think it will benefit him. He loves it up there tho! I need to get him a log or something to replace it (another item added to the list).
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I would say leave the coil light on until you get a dif one. Its better than nothing. And the fake plants arent good either if they try to eat them could maybe cause impaction if he does manage to get a leaf off.
I think I'm going to listen to Canicke and ditch he coil bulb. He is obviously closing his eyes cause that light is so bright and too close. As far as the fake plant I really don't think he is interested in trying to tear off a piece of plastic and even then the leaves are pretty big so I don't even see him trying to swallow that when he has fresh bit size veggies in his bowl. He climbs the leaves and picks his comfy spot to sleep at night. I'm pretty sure he knows that it's not food. But hey I'm here for advice. I'm by no means an expert.
