New to the forum

[AKAMommyto1]

Hi everyone! I am a new member and would like to introduce myself to everyone! I am not brand spanking new to the beardie life, but under a year of experience. I currently am owned by two amazing beardies. Gir who is my love bug is 9-10 months old. And Link who is my grandbug (he is my sons beardie) just had his first birthday! Link has MBD and was given to us that way by his breeder. There was faulty equipment during the incubation period. He has some neurological issues as well but we take our time and patiently work with him. Gir was a pet reject from someone who I got off Craigslist. They had him for over 3 months and had no socialization! He was my first beardie and I struggled to figure out what in the world I was doing. Now he is a very temperamental beardie who throws temper tantrums when he doesn’t get his way. This usually involves me not holding him as soon as I come in or putting him up when he’s not ready. He is slightly overweight and I’m trying to figure out a way to slim him down some. Also, could anyone offer advice as to a way to get him to eat his greens?? He use to LOVE his greens and all of a sudden he stopped eating them. He only wants his yummy roaches. I have held back 4 days from feeding him roaches and only offering greens and he still will not eat them. He gets most upset when Link and Quinn (the leopard gecko) get them and he doesn’t. Any suggestions?
Thank you for allowing me in this forum and I hope to make many friends! My friends get tired of me talking about my babies all the time!

 

[AKAMommyto1]

Link is in a 40g. Gir is in a 55g UVB light is coil and the wattage is 10.0. I just changed it about 2 months ago. (I am in the process of going to tube) his basking temp ranges from 100-115. I also unfortunately use the stick ons and am currently in the process of getting an infrared point and click kind. Things I have tried in the past are hiding meal worms/super worms in his salad. I literally pick him up and put him at his food bowl. He watches me put the worms on top (the others are hidden). He will look at the bowl and look at me and eat only the ones on top and walks away. He will not even eat the ones he saw go under the leaves. He’s also staying on his cool side ALL the time. When we get him out and put him back in we will put him on his basking side since he is a little chilly and he will stay there no longer than 5 minutes. He sleeps in the cool side as well.
I am also in the planning stages of building 75g for both and making them bioactive. I have just started with the plant part of it.

 

[AKAMommyto1]

Yes please send me the info on the Arcadia light. I’ve been finding it difficult with shipping lately due to the virus. My worry right now is with Gir he will not stay in the basking area which is where his UVB light is. If he does he lays UNDER his swing and I know he’s not getting it there . I have not heard of the BSFL and unsure of what that is. Gir LOVES collards and kale. That’s about as exotic I can get him. I had stocked up on fresh veggies and prepared the tubs and froze them since our grocery stores were running out of everything. I had put in mustard greens as well forgetting he can not stand mustard greens. However, he was starting to get picky before this too. He goes through random phases of not eating feeders and only eating greens, this is the first time he has been 4 days without any food. I just can’t see him living only off roaches (he has decided all worms are yucky...except horn worms, he will eat those...they’re just so expensive and Link isn’t that fond of them) I try to order what they will both eat. Link is my Mikey...he’ll eat anything!

 

[AKAMommyto1]

Ok so I am going to say your dragons is a smart one --- little stinker ---- have you tried BSFL-- they are small and he would need to really be strategic on getting them out w/ out salad too --- as far as the coils you need to replace them NOW as of this point they are getting no UVB at all if your using the 13 watt bulb - if its the 26 watt it would need to be 8-10 inches from basking decor in a reflective dome --- so w/ that info I would go from there -- changing out to a 24" fixture w/ reflector and a Reptisun 10.0 T 5 or even the Arcadia D3 12% bulb would be better --- I can give you a website to order from that have a 24" fixture on there that is around $32 -- and the Arcadia bulbs as well - they are good and fast and ship Fed Ex -- let me know -- but going back to the salads and your little dude that wont eat them I would get some BSFL try those order large as they are small and you can feed as many as you want as they are a good staple feeder more so for babies but a good added supplement to adults and you dont need to dust them --- order them from here www.symtonbsf.com you will need a glass or ceramic dish they cant get out of -- I would start adding his roaches to the salad bowl as well w/ the salad in it of course --- I know I come w/ experience w/ the same issue my older one wont eat salads either -- I use silk worms to get him to the bowl as well as horn worms -- he loves horn worms -- my youngest I started him out eating salads first thing in the morning w/ BSFL 1-3 super worms or butter worms -- etc he does eat his salads but not as much as I would like him too -- here is a website for nutrition
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html ignore the kale thing its good to feed as a staple

I just ordered the BSFL. Would you happen to know if this would be good for a leopard gecko?

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome!

 

[AKAMommyto1]

Hi kaylynangel! I tried to send you a private message, but could not for the Life of me figure out how to do that! Thank you so much for the BFSL suggestion! I must say it was a HUGE success at my house! Link, my MBD special needs boy, wasn’t sure what to do until I put him in front of them and omg he tore them up! I haven’t seen him eat that fast and that easily EVER! He was finished before the others finished being fed! (I’m saving the picky one for last) Quinn the leopard gecko devoured them! I usually wake him up to let him know I am feeding him and drop his food in to ”hunt”. He was hobbling them up as fast as I could drop them in there. He was very impatiently staring up at me waiting for more! On the the picky non eating green boy Gir...he watched me put them in his bowl I set his bowl in his enclosure and he continued to stare at me (I did trick him into eating greens the Other day! I put him in front of a bowl of roaches (by this point he had been 7 days without food) and he steadily ate the roaches. I tried hand feeding collards to him (usually his favorite) and he turned his nose at them and went back to roaches. So I laid the green on his nose hanging down a little bit. The next time he grabbed a roach he got a mouth full of collards instead. Well he swallowed it and refused to eat any more roaches! I was so put out by him! Mind you the other beardie doesn’t have a problem at all with the salad and neither does the tortoise!) sorry for that long spill...so the BFSL came in today and I fed Gir...he watched me, I didn’t add anything extra today since this was his first time eating them. He wouldn’t move off his swing. So I picked him up and put him right I front of his bowl, he still wouldn’t eat them. So I tried to tong feed them to him. That just insulted him further so he actually looked in the bowl and took a bite. He had to do a sampling and think about each flavor . But he finally started eating them. I was impressed, he did not gorge himself and actually still had some left while Link was begging for more. So I had to give him a little more because he never seems to be able to eat fast and easily. He felt like a big boy! He has a neurological issue where he doesn’t have very good depth perception.
Anyway, sorry for this long rant to tell you thank you so much for introducing me and my love bugs to them![/QUOTE]

 

[Crabs Mcjones]

Welcome to Bearded Dragon Forum!

 

[Josh]

Welcome!