Reptile Novice

[JustKate]

My fiance and I have a beautiful, spoiled pit bull named Mac who thinks that he's a human child and came out of me. We've tried expanding our family, but have found that Mac would like to remain an "only child". A few months ago, I fell down a Youtube hole and fell in love with bearded dragons. After mentioning this to my fiance, he revealed that he has always wanted one. This seems like a pretty reasonable compromise for our furchild, since bearded dragons live in confined spaces. He and I have been reading about them and watching a ton of videos about their behavior and care. Neither one of us has ever owned reptiles and we really want to be responsible humans before we bring an animal into our home. There seems to be a lot of conflicting info out there--namely the best substrate, temperatures, diet.... I mean, honestly I can find five sources that say something will absolutely kill a dragon after five sources that recommend them. So, I've come in search of knowledge. We're patient and reasonable people and won't be bringing home a scalebaby until we're absolutely certain that he or she can thrive in our care.

So far, my questions are:

Best diet? I know that they eat plants and insects. I've seen that fruit is something that they eat, I've seen to never give them fruit, and also to give them fruit sometimes. I've seen people feeding them meal worms, a lot. I've read to never give them meal worms--crickets only. ???

Every substrate can cause impaction it seems. Many sources say to feed them outside of their enclosure...I read on a breeder's site not to do that. Repticarpet is great, repticarpet is terrible, use paper towels. I've also seen to keep them on paper towels or repticarpet when they are babies and that I can use dragon-safe substrates like a certain type of sand later in their life. I even once saw it mentioned that rough surfaces help keep their nails, what do I do?

I've read that coil basking lights can burn their eyes and blind them.

There's really a lot to unpack here.

If anyone out there feels like helping a complete reptile noob out of the goodness of their (presumably) coldblooded hearts, I'd be forever grateful.

 

[Janelle]

Welcome! And great on doing research before you get your beardie. I know how totally overwhelming it can be! I researched for more than ten years before finally getting my first beardie baby a couple of weeks ago, and I still have had to ask a few questions.

As far as fruits and veggies, you've probably come across this website: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html
I find it is the best resource when deciding what produce to feed and how often.

For insects, what works best for us has been black soldier fly larvae (also called phoenix worms, calciworms, etc). Easy to care for, nutritious, non-stinky, non-biting, don't bother my kids' asthma, etc. Crickets and roaches seem to also be good options, but I have used neither. Supers are a treat, mealworms are a no-no.

I hope to get tiles for his tank soon. I am currently using paper towels, and I must say, it is super simple. When he poops, I can just pull the soiled one out and replace it. The worms wriggle under it sometimes, but it's easy to pick them up.

Plenty of reputable research has been done on the UVB bulbs. My husband was recently researching greenhouse lights for microgreens, and even the plant growers were saying the coil bulbs don't put off enough UVB to be useful for much. So even without the fact that they hurt beardies' eyes, they aren't very useful.

You've come to a great place for the help you need. (And by the way, good for you for giving a good home to a pitty.)

 

[BeardedHippy]

Hi, once you get the basics right beardies are really easy to care for (compared to other reptiles). Janelle has covered most of it. A lot of the confusion comes from outdated information, what was considered ok 10-15 years ago is not always ok today. Of course you are always going to get someone with the 'I've done/used this with my beardies for the last 10 years and they are fine' mindset, so the old info stays to haunt us. Substrates for example, your dragon could be fine on sand, but there is a chance that your beardie could swallow it and get impacted, same is true of chitinous mealworms. We want our beloved pets be healthy and to have as few trips to the vet as possible so we want to mitigate as many of these 'chances' as we can. The info provided here is correct as far our current understanding of beardies and their needs are concerned. Its advice though not law, you have to decide what you think is best.
With food, dragons like a bit of variation. Insects of all kinds can be ordered online really easily these days, you have to experiment a bit and see what they like. Some bugs are better than others for various reasons, Dubia roaches are by far the most nutritious. They need a lot of veggies too, the list Janelle posted gives you a clear picture of whats good and bad.
Tube UVB lighting is best, covering 2/3s of the length of your enclosure. There are several kinds T10, T8 and T5. The latter has the best concentration and penetration.

We are happy to answer any specific questions you have, till then ,there is a lot to read here.

 

[PatsyB]

I don't think I can say anything more than BeardedHippy said!

Knowledge is constantly changing on these guys. Even things I believed 6 years ago when I got my first one, have changed. When I started out someone on this forum gave me the best advise, go with the majority of answers. If 5 people say one thing and one person says another way, go with the 5.

 

[JustKate]

Thank you guys so much! I’ll definitely peruse the info around here and write down any questions that I may have so that I can ask here. I also reached out to an old friend from high school who is a vet and she is putting me into contact with a vet friend from the area who specializes in reptiles and I’ll be picking their brain as well.

And Janelle—this is Mac. He’s an actual baby.

 

[Janelle]

Love him! Absolutely precious!!

And great that you already are being put into contact with a Herp vet. It seems like many people don’t have a reputable one in their area.

 

[Odin1]

Mealworms are bad? I have been doing both mealworms and crickets. I have spoken with several people and none of them said the mealworms are bad.

 

[Heather8497]

Mealworms are bad? I have been doing both mealworms and crickets. I have spoken with several people and none of them said the mealworms are bad.

Meal worms are not terrible. Just the exoskeleton is hard for them to constantly digest.

 

[Heather8497]

I use the reptile carpet because it is a lot easier to clean. Yet if you have a female she will lay eggs even if not fertilized. So you should have a hatch spot just in case because some will become impacted with their eggs because they cant find a place to lay them. And joshes frogs is the best place to go if you want to have a wide variety of feeders for your beardie. If you use sand I would personally feed outside of the enclosure or by hand so he doesnt get a mouth full of sand. Plus if you get a meal worm and he gets down into the sand or under the carpet he can become a beetle and possibly bite your bearded dragon. Pretty much all greens are okay for a beardie but some fruits are really acidic and hard on their little belly's. So in moderation it should be okay to give them fruit. Mine loves to eat bananas and collard greens. Babys sont usually like to eat greens but if you put a worm or 2 under the greens it tricks them into eating them. 9 times out of 10. Lol as of lighting everyone has different opinions. But make sure you use your calcium powders on the regular. And he should be good to go.

 

[Janelle]

As for both mealworms and sand, they have been proven to cause an impaction in some bearded dragons. It’s true that some beardies seem to do ok, but many of us decide it’s simply not worth the risk. I’d hate for my little guy to be one of the unlucky ones to have major issues from something that was avoidable.

 

[Hdrydr31]

You've been given a bunch of great advise.. Take a look at the links below several of our comments as we have put together a ton of info for new comers to help out.. (also found in the general care section at the top)

 

[HaggridTheBearded]

You've been given a bunch of great advise.. Take a look at the links below several of our comments as we have put together a ton of info for new comers to help out.. (also found in the general care section at the top)

I'm new to world of reptiles, started with a Bearded Dragon, just found your forum after the one I found initially seemed to have lots of outdated posts so did a search for other similar groups. LOVE the nutrition info you have in the links you share with your posts.