Rehomed Beardie--how can I improve?

[BeardieCA]

Hi Everyone,
I have a bearded dragon that was rehomed from a friend of my daughters. The dragon is a female, 5 years old and is about 16 inches long including tail. We have had her a little more than a week.
I read that beardies do not like changes in their environment. So I have tried not to change things in her enclosure too much yet.
My question is, we have the same environment she has apparently been in for five years, but based on what I have read, it can be improved. But if she has lived this way for five years, what should I improve and how quickly?
Here is information about her current set up.

• She has a big long glass tank, I think it is 40 gallons.
• It has a screen on the top with what I would describe as wider screen holes
• Her current substrate I havent been able to identify. Its not quite a sand and not quite a bark. I would say it most closely resembles walnut shells, but I dont think its that. It is reddish and has random small red pebbles in it.
• Her basking spot is one of those half logs with bark on the top. She lays on top of it.
• She has a 75W basking spotlight and its about eight inches from her head and maybe 10 inches from her body. The hide/platform is in the very middle of the cage. She does move away from the basking/hide during the daytime. When I use the digital gun to try to get a reading its not very high. Maybe 75/80 on the substrate and maybe 85 on the bark of the top of the hide. I dont know because its bark if its not giving me a good reading.
• She has a coil UVB that sits on top of the tank/screen
• She has been fed very large superworms at least the last two years.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[BeardieCA]

Hi Kaylynangel,
Thank you SO much for the reply!
I have a couple of clarifying questions:

• I have read about the UVB.. I think Ive got it straight, but what kind of fixture do I use? Ive heard the term 'reflector' but I dont know where to get one.
• For the time being, I have an Arcadia Shadedweller. https://www.arcadiareptile.com/lighting/shadedweller/ Until I get a better fixture will this help her at all to replace the coil with it? Seems like the UVB is too low (?)
  
• Re the basking bulb, Im mostly dealing with PetSmart and Petco in CA. When you say bright white basking bulb..She has a 75W one of these right now (the one on the left). Will this do if I get a 100W? https://www.petsmart.com/reptile/en...d-basking-combo-pack-reptile-lamps-14909.html
• Does anyone have any suggestions about a better basking platform? How far to the top of the cage should she be able to get? Ive looked around a lot and her body is like 11 inches long, I havent been able to find anything I like. She seems way too big for the logs and fake branches.
• I dont think she is in the best of health. She is eating either crickets (we have crickets for our gecko) or superworms every day (alternating). Can you tell me how many roaches or crickets she should be eating a day?
• She has never seen a veggie in her life. We started offering them to her and she does eat a little every day..yesterday she ate more than usual, today she didnt eat much. We pepper the veggies with small BSFL.
• She has a water dish and she does drink from it sporadically. She is pooping about every three days, I understand that isnt normal...she pooped yesterday.
• I do have crickets in a 5 gallon aquarium. Can dubias be housed in one side of the crickets if I separate the two sides?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[BeardieCA]

• Another question I thought of is, if shes not eating a lot of veggies (like maybe three mouthfuls), do I feed her bugs every day, until we can get her to eat more veggies? Or will she just wait for the bugs vs eat the salad?

 

[BeardieCA]

Ok this is totally understandable, thank you for writing that all down.
~i went and got a 100W Basking bulb, monitoring the temp right now. I think it will be good as I think the temp was only getting to 85 degrees. After 15 mins looks like we are at 95. She looks very happy!
~The coil UVB she had from her previous guardian was 13W, I went and got a 24W. It's in a clamp lamp. I will look for a better uvb bulb and fixture, Reptisun or Arcadia.
~She was under a 75W infrared red basking lamp at night for who knows how long. We changed that now and she sleeps in the dark.
~One question, there was a beardie keeper on you tube that had a lighting schedule that I thought was good. it was UVB from 7 to 7, Infrared basking bulb from 7-11, white basking bulb from 11-5, infrared from 5-7. That mimics the lighting and heat outside. When you say, the infrared red bulbs hurt their eyes, do you mean at night or during the day too? The name of the bulb I have is" infrared basking spot." It seems like the UVB is so bright thats all shes seeing (?) The red light should be OK for a couple of hours a day, right?
~ Is 12 hours of UVB a requirement (?) Cause she is sleeping in in the morning and I hate to turn the bright light on and wake her up!
~Thank you for the pics of the basking pieces. I saw the top one at Petsmart in store just an hour ago!