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I'm new to reptiles

Ouroborus15

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
10
I got a Bearded dragon more out of rumors of their low maintenance, I think I have a female as i got her from a local pet shop that couldn't confirm, and she only had 1 bump at the base of her tail. She is very much a juvenile and does not like to be touched. am i correct in attempting to desensitize her to human hands or am i traumatizing her? Honestly I know next to nothing about reptiles. I have kept the enclosure at around 80 degrees F as it is about as hot as my 75 watt heat lamps (both white day and black night) will heat her 20 gallon enclosure with crushed walnut shell "sand" I'm feeding her freeze dried crickets gut loaded with calcium mixed with carrot shavings (cut to about 1/4 inch due to her small size, i saw the eye to nose rule listed in a packet the pet shop gave me). I don't want to accidentally neglect her, please let me know if i'm doing anything wrong.
 

JumpinJellyfish

Juvenile Dragon
Messages
319
Where to start? Corporate pet stores these days are notorious for giving crap advice and caring only about making the sale. Side note - the food size rule is usually the space between the dragon's eyes, not eyes to snout. Let's start with the tank. A 20 gal will serve as a starter tank but you'll need something bigger soon. Minimum for an adult beardie is a 40-gal breeder (3618x18), and you'll usually see 48x2x2 recommended. Required lighting includes bright white heat/basking bulb and a tube (not compact) UVB bulb. Proper temps (80-85 cool side, 95-105 basking surface temp) and UVB are an absolute need for your beardie's health. I stay out of the great substrate debate, but there are definitely better and safer options than walnut shell. A variety of live feeder insects would be much better than freeze-dried anything, and you should also be offering dark greens and a variety of veggies (just don't expect the dragon to eat much salad early on - still offer it). Babies need about 80% insects/20% produce, juveniles about 50/50%, and adults go 20% insects/80% produce. There's an excellent food chart listing good greens and veggies at www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html
I think you're right to encourage interaction - pay attention to her reactions and don't stress her out, but let her get used to you. You can slowly bring your hand closer to her from the side (never over the head), and try to gently touch her. Bringing treats helps, too! (A waxworm, a very small hornworm, a blueberry - you'll learn what she likes).
Does she have a name? Welcome to both of you :0)
 

Ouroborus15

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
10
Her name is Bess.

I have a 75 gallon tank I can move her to, I'm a bit wary of live feeder insects at the moment over paranoia of escapees but I'll see about getting some, any recommendations for little dragons? She's about 3 inches long if you don't count the tail. I'll be swapping the day bulb to UVB shortly, I'll be upping the wattage as well as my current bulbs struggle to hit 85. When I switch her tank I can try using calcium sand. I'll see how she likes Broccoli.

Stuff like that is exactly what I meant about not knowing things.
 

JumpinJellyfish

Juvenile Dragon
Messages
319
If you like loose substrate, consider playsand or a mix of playsand and organic (with no chemicals) topsoil rather than the calcium sand. Even though the "reptile" sand is marketed for them, it can cause problems.
When you say you're swapping the day bulb, do you mean you're also using some sort of nighttime bulb? Be sure to not use colored bulbs - they can hurt the beardie's eyes, and cause stress if used at night - they need dark to sleep. For the temps, you can try a higher wattage basking bulb (use both a basking and UVB), in a fixture rated for it, and/or you could add one or more CHEs. That's a ceramic heat emitter - heat with no light.
For bugs, you could try BSFL/Phoenix worms/calci worms in the type of dish that helps keep them contained. Dubia or discoid roaches are easy to contain - they don't fly or crawl up the glass/plastic container sides. You'd want baby ones to start. :0)
 

Ouroborus15

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
10
I got a 3rd lamp with a UVB bulb instead of swapping the day heat bulb. I am using a night bulb that is a black light, the really deep purple you see at parties or on cop shows. I've also added a sticky heater (it's marketed as an under enclosure heater but said it can mount to sides) to the side wall of the enclosure next to her basking rock, which is directly under the now 3 lamp domes. There is a shaded hiding den on the other side of the tank that is noticeably cooler but I only have the one thermometer in the "hot" zone at the moment so I'm not sure exactly how much cooler it is.

She spent the whole day on the basking rock on the heater side but now she's sleeping standing up on her hind legs in the opposite corner of the tank. I'll try to see if not using the night bulb causes her to sleep in a less painful looking position now that it isn't her only night heat source.
 

Ouroborus15

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
10
She seems much happier now, at least as happy as reptiles get. She started eating more but likes to take the fruit and freeze dried treats out of the bowl and stash them in the cool den. I tried feeding her some live crickets and meal worms but she ran away from the crickets and never tried more than one of the worms. She still doesn't like to be touched but will occasionally allow petting, like a tiny cat really. Do they get mellow with age or is this a personality trait she's going to keep?
 

Ouroborus15

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
10
She's in the bigger tank, no black light, her food gets dusted with Reptocal all reptile vitamin powder that has Vitamin A and D3 as top 2 ingredients, she still has access to the calcium gut loaded freeze dried crickets (not her only food source), grapes, carrots, and broccoli are left with the crickets as snacks. I'm not sure what the T number for the UV light is referring to but have a "Repti Glo 10.0 Compact" 13w UVB 150 bulb made by Exo Terra right next to the heat lamp over her preferred basking spot. If there's anything wrong on the digestive end it hasn't appeared to change the appearance, size, or frequency of her turds beyond what the uptake in eating changed. That said she is young and may have been stressed to the point of not wanting to eat before and just started eating normally.
 

Ouroborus15

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
10
this is from a day or so after I first got her, she used to sleep like this but has changed to either sleeping in the den or on her basking rock.
 

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