Some questions to cover basics

[The_Genesis_Purge]

Hi Everyone,

Firstly I apologise in advance for a potentially long thread

I have a couple of questions I will list below. I generally do a lot of research before buying any reptile, but in some excitement 2 weeks ago I went on a bit of an impulse buy. You can hardly blame me though with how cute these guys are. These guys were illegal where I stay up until this year and the first batch that came in to the nearest pet store sold out the day they came in and a further 20 were booked. I happened across 1 two weeks ago in search of rabbits for my burmese python. As I walked in I happened to see a tank with a lone bearded dragon and bought it on the spot.

Now I had done research a few years ago and knew the bare basics - that they are omnivores and need UVB light, so picked up some mealworms and a UVB10 light and ballast with my dragon and did some more research at home.

As mentioned in my intro thread I am not new to reptiles, only new to bearded dragons.

Below are a couple of pics:

On to the questions...

1) How old would you say my bearded dragon is?
As with most pet shops, they don't actually know much about what they sell and could not tell me the age. According to this link: http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/bearded-dragon.php and my measurement of 12-14 cm (~5 inches) mine is in the region of <2 months. Now I realise that's not ideal, as you should only by a bearded dragon from 2 months onward, but I would like to know the rough age so that I can put him on the appropriate feeding schedule. I also cannot yet tell the gender, so I am thinking that supports sub 2 months age.

2) Is this a good feeding chart?
According to this link (way at the bottom) the recommended guide for feeding a bearded dragon sub 2 months is:
Insects everyday twice a day and fruits veggies twice a week. I was feeding mine quite differently. I was feeding mine fruits and veges everyday with either mealworms or crickets once a day almost everyday. The dragon seems more than willing to eat the veggies everyday but I want to ensure I am not feeding him incorrectly.
Also how many is a good number of mealworms and crickets for a feeding? I know its based on how much the animal wants to eat, but I don't want to under or overfeed it accidentally. All the insects I give it are appropriately sized. I dust with calcium powder every 2 to 3 days. Do I still need the multi vitamin if I feed the bearded dragon a variety of vegetables and fruits?

3) Is this tank big enough/ too big for his current size
Image below:

Is this sufficient for his current size? I have a glass vivarium I plan to move it into at a later stage but it's about 5 or 6 times larger than this tank.

4) Are my temps/ humidity good
During the day time and night time I get roughly the same figures, being such a small tank it's hard to get the right temps.
Basking spot 40C (104F), warm side 38C (100F) and cool? side 36C (96F). If I turn off the UVB light and lamp at night and leave only the heat mat on it gets way too cold. I was worried it was staying too hot at night and put the lamps off and next morning I found the bearded dragon legs a little limp. He fire right back to life once in hand and the lamps put back on. But I don't want to take that chance again since we are in the middle of winter. During the day I sometimes leave the lamp on sometimes off. With lamp on the temps are the same as above and without they are at 27 to 30C (80F). I work during the day and can't always monitor the exact temps and we do have the odd hot day in winter and I would rather not leave the heat lamp on as it will get well over 40C on a hot day with it on. Humidity is around 10 to 15%

5) Bearded dragon is currently shedding
The above humidity practically stays at the above with the heat lamp on. I do spray the tank about 2 to 3 times a day with a water bottle, is this sufficient?

6) UVB lamp flickers periodically
I bought I think it was a repti-glo 10.0 UVB tube (it came in a green box) bulb brand new and a ballast (10watt tube and 10 watt ballast). From time to time I come home and find the light sort of flickers. It's not everyday that it happens and not within 2 hours. What should I do? Check connections,ask for a new tube? Both are virtually brand new. Also is the flickering bad for the bearded dragon? I know it's not good, but is it BAD? He seems neither phased not stressed out by the flickering, but I want to ensure it gets its "sunlight" and that the bulb has no chance of exploding.

7) Is there a recommended fruit and veggie guide
I have found a lot of different sites saying what you can and can't feed and also how often you should/ should not be feeding these items, but each one contradicts the one before it. Is the a reliable one so I know what fruits and veggies I can feed my dragon everyday to what should be fed once a week kind of thing?

Alright I think that's everything, phew. If there's anything you want to ask me, if I left out something please feel free to. I may know a bit already and have years of experience with other reptiles but I am always willing to learn more.

 

[PatsyB]

Welcome to the wonderful world of beardies! At the bottom of my post there is a link to general care that will give you loads of helpful information.

It's hard to tell the age of a bearded dragon without seeing it hatched. So many things are involved in it's growth, such as lighting and food etc. I've seen 2 year olds that look like 2 month olds. I would say though that since you just got your dragon and it was just at the pet store, it probably is around the 2 month age. With that said, 2 month olds should be eating live food 3 times a day if possible. 2 times is okay but 3 times is better. You typically want to feed them whatever they want to eat in a matter of about 10 minutes. Yes, they will eat A LOT! Crickets are the basic staple that people tend to start theirs on and you want to make sure you gut load your feeders with the same salad stuff that you would feed your beardie. Stay away from mealworms, they have a hard exoskeleton that makes them hard to digest and can cause impaction.

Invest in a temp gun. The analog temperature gauges are highly inaccurate. You can get a temp gun off of Amazon or at a hardware store for around $12. Babies should have a a basking temp of 105-110 with 107degrees being perfect. The cool side of the tank should be around 75-80degrees. At night you need at temp drop in the whole tank. As long as it doesn't get colder than 65degrees, your beardie will be okay. Humidity should be between 30-40%. Anything too high could cause a respiratory infection and anything too low could cause problems too.

I don't believe in spraying the inside of the tank. I know some people do. You should give your beardie a bath at least once a week (more if they are shedding). Bathing not only keeps them clean but sometimes they drink water in the bath. Bathing also helps loosen up the shed skin so that it comes off easier. Yours is small enough that you can just use a small container with warm water up to their shoulders and just a 15-20 min soak will be fine. You don't need to use soap.

If your UVB light is flickering it could be a problem with the ballast. Contact the manufacturer and tell them what is going on, they should be able to replace it for you.

Your tank is a little on the tall side. Bearded dragons do better with more floor space plus it helps regulate the temps better with a shorter tank. Not only do you want to have a UVB light but you need to have a white basking light during the day. You want to mimic the outside as much as possible with the lights. The CHE is good for nighttime heat only if your tank drops below 65 degrees. You want to keep your beardie on a light cycle, either both lights 12 hours on and 12 hours off or 14 hours on and 10 hours off. Never turn the lights on and off during the day because you will confuse them.

Here are some links to some food guides. I would give salad every day. Little ones might not eat it so don't stress if it doesn't eat greens right away.
http://greathousefarm.com/Greathouse-Reptile-Nutrition-List.pdf
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Like I said, click on the link in my signature line to get to the general care guide that we put together.

 

[Hdrydr31]

I agree with all that patsy said we've worked hard at the links below our comments and those should help and we can help fine tune things..
1 thing I saw was you said a heat mat.. I would remove that as they don't sense heat from below and they can easily burn themselves..if it gets below 65F a CHE like patsy said would be the way to go.
Making sure you've got hides on both the warm side and the cold side will give your little one safe places to go to rest and to feel comfy..
With the little ones it's super important in making sure their temps are good and they are able to get good UVB to digest and absorb the calcium and multivits.

 

[The_Genesis_Purge]

wow thanks for the detailed replies, I will probably reply later in more detail, but for now:

I had a white daylight lamp that unfortunately met with an untimely end. A new pair are on order as well as the suggested heat ray gun. I am just using the night glow (i am not sure what it's called) lamp in its place for the temps. If that is the same thing as the CHE (ceramic heat emitter) as I thought the 2 were different?

Also on order will be a flatter and lengthier tank mostly likely glass with a screentop lid - that should be better for the heat regulation. Next is to hopefully get the pet store to swap out a better balast

I am planing to remove the heat mat, it's just currently hooked up in the whole units wiring. Don't think you can see from the photo but converted an old TV unit case into a reptile showcase.

Anyway thanks again for the replies. While I have tons of other reptiles I would be very sad if this beardie did not make it since I would have to wait til next year again to try and get one.

 

[The_Genesis_Purge]

ok, I have gone through a lot of the information and still have quite a bit to go through (there really is a wealth of knowledge around here)

As a result my plan going forward is the following:

• New cage (most likely glass or perspex) with added length and a screen top mesh
• Heat gun
• CHE and dimmer
• Daylight lamp
• Timer plug
• Replacing the ballast for my UVB light
• And some odd decorations and an improved cricket keeper system.

The above is all stuff I can only do when the next pay check comes around since in addition to a new bearded dragon I had to get a new fridge - luckily all my frozen feeders (rats mice and rabbits) did not defrost cos that would have been a nightmare on its own.

Anyway, I got home last night and fed Drogon 7 crickets after giving him a 7 and a half minute bath. He (I am saying he until I can determine the gender) wasn't too pleased at first about the bath but dealt with it. He was lively and active as he usually is. Because the crickets are so darn fast I feed him in a small feeder tub - some pics:

Question about the above - are these crickets big enough or too small? They were the only things size appropriate I could find. I usually feed between 5 and 10 in a sitting and Drogon still looks eager to take more

Here's a pic of the salad I prepared for him - Brocooli, cabbage, apple and carrot - he didn't touch it through the night, but in the morning he was very eager to dive in face first

Everything seemed fine, he was active and musing about his usual ways before going to bed.

Then in the morning I woke up to find him in the same position I found him in a few nights ago when I switched off all heat sources. This time however they were all on temps were 40 on the hot and 36 on the cool (i know those are still too warm, they are part of my things to fix)
{IMG]http://i.imgur.com/zO71Kdq.jpg[/IMG]
Is this just a normal sleeping position or is something wrong? Before i took the photo his eyes were still closed, but within minutes if taking the above photo and switching on the UVB light he was up and happy to his usual self lunging at thin thin for food until he happened across his salad bowl:

Since everything seemed okay and he seemed lively I felt a little more relieved but I am still worried. Anyway, i know you mentioned that mealworms aren't the best, but I need to finish the stock I have and I also need to keep stock of the crickets I have so I am just going to finish the mealworms and stop with them

I usually feed 4 to 6 at a time

 

[PatsyB]

They tend to sleep in whatever position that they were in when the lights go out so you are going to find him in some pretty weird positions. They sleep like logs too so there is no waking up until the lights come back on. It's like their eyes are attached to the light switches!

A CHE bulb only puts off heat so it's good for the night if needed because they shouldn't have any light at night. You shouldn't use any colored bulbs in the day or the night. At night it disrupts their sleep because even if the light is low, they can still see it. During the day colored lights, especially red lights don't let their pupils dilate correctly so they can damage their retinas.

He really is a cute little fella.

 

[The_Genesis_Purge]

Thanks for the confirmation i feel a lot more relieved now.

Just a quick question for clarity (sorry I ask a lot), but by coloured lights do you mean infra red ones as well?

I was just at the pet shop now replacing my ballast so I could sort out the dimming problem, and they had no CHE bulbs. Every pet shop I visited today had none and said they were too expensive to order in. They said that the infra red bulbs would work just as fine for night time and would be better since they don't put out that much heat anyway. Is this so? Can a infra red bulb be used while I order a CHE bulb online?

 

[PatsyB]

Red/black/purple all bad bulbs because they still put out light that bearded dragons can see. They are not good.

Think about when you are going to sleep and you are trying to fall asleep and a car goes by your window and a little light from the headlights comes into your room. You are falling asleep so the light scares you, "what was that?", "is someone in my house?", "are they going to get me?", now you can't sleep because you are afraid something is going to get you. Now imagine you have an eye on top of your head that is always open and always sending signals to your brain and you have that light in your room all the time. You may get used to the light but then something goes in front of the light and it makes it dark for a second but then light again, you would think something is over you trying to pick you up and eat you. This is the life of a bearded dragon.

 

[Hdrydr31]

I agree with patsy's comments.. Make sure you offer nice greens like collards, mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion greens that kind along with some veggies. most of us go by the links to the food items in the general info link...

cute dragon

 

[The_Genesis_Purge]

All's going well so far. Still struggling to find a dimmer and as a result I only leave Drogon's UVB light on during the day. It keeps the temp between 25 and 29 which isn't high, but with the infra red bulb or the daylight bulb it puts it up to 45 to 50C which is way too hot (measuring with a digital thermometer and probe in the ambient temp and on the ground below the basking spot.

I will be building a new cage end of the month that will last him til the end of his life. What I would like to know quickly is what is the furthest closest distance the UVB bulb must be so that I can determine the correct height for the cage. it will be inside the cage.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Leaving the UVB on just during the day is all you need as you want to mimic the sun. The UVB should be around 6" from them and from above them and not from the side as they have ridges above their eyes to protect them, so if the light is always shining from the side it will damage their eyes..
Beardies need floor space more than height. Once bigger (and babies) they get kinda clumsy and falling from heights can injure them. Width and depth are the important with height last.. 18"deep is good
Sorry I'm bad at the conversion F to C Babies need temps 100-110F daytime basking, warm side 80-90F and the cool side 70-80F with the over night temps can go down to 65F lower than that use the CHE 70F is perfect..

 

[JUNGLE JIM]

The crickets look pretty small for him. I would feed him as many as he wants to eat in 10-15 minutes a couple times a day at least. Crickets need to be dusted once a day with a calcium supplement. 1/4 -3/8 inch crickets would be the perfect size for him.