New Beardie Mom

[DragonLady504]

Hi all,

On Sunday, we got our 1st ever bearded dragon. My son, who is 11, wanted one and Mom thought it was cool. Well, after tons & tons of research Mom is more excited than him, lol.
Any tips or suggestions I should know for my beardie baby, Decker??

Have a good day.

 

[Canicke]

There is soooo much to learn! There is a lot of really good information here - browse around and check it out. Please check here BEFORE you ask about care at one of the BIG BOX pet stores - they are woefully uninformed. Babies - as it appears you have, generally do not eat much greens - but offer them, ya never know. It is recommended that you feed them as many (small) crickets as they will eat in 15 minutes - 3 times a day. Can you give us info on your set up? or - pics? they do require some specific lighting / heat. But - they are forgiving. and tooo much fun! What's his name?

 

[DragonLady504]

Well, I have had 1st hand experience on the lack of knowledge and confusing info from 2 different big stores. I will take a pic tonight, but we do have the basking light and a UVB lamp. It's name currently is Decker, considering the sex later on this may change.
He is so tiny. We have fed him some greens but he devoured crickets last night. The pet store said to try 5 but those were gone in a matter of seconds actually. They also said every few days? Is this correct? So should I try more today??

 

[rob.kolm]

See Canicke's information on feeding above. Babies should eat a lot and often.

 

[Canicke]

my oh my oh my. Let him eat as many as he wants in a 15 to 20 minute window - 3 times a day. Some folks feed their babies small dubia roaches - you would probably want to start a colony for that, but i gotta tell ya - they dont make noise, they dont smell, they're a lot easier - once you get the colony going. one of our members did a study on his first clutch - fed 5 babies dubias, 5 babies dubias and crickets, and another set of babies just crickets. the dubia babies grew bigger faster. (this study was done last year - and most of the babies went to new homes, so there wasn't any follow up) but interesting none the less. ABSOLUTELY give him more today!!

 

[DragonLady504]

I will do this tonight.. Not too sure about the dubias, maybe I can get my husband to handle those! lol

 

[Josh]

Welcome to the forum! Dubia aren't so bad once you get used to them!

 

[PatsyB]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Mushuandcricket]

Congrats on your new bearded dragon!

 

[PsycoMenace]

welcome to the forum and hope you enjoy your stay. I am a new proud owner myself. and love my lil guy

 

[DragonLady504]

Thanks everyone. I'm so stoked and intrigued by this creature..I'm obsessed!!