This was kind of thrust upon me...

[still_crimson]

Diego no I have romaine for now. I will look into some green leaf when I go to the store next, as that's probably what the piggies will be eating as well.

 

[still_crimson]

Great. I just saw a tiny red mite crawling on the inside of the cage. What do I do to completely get rid of everything? I haven't seen any mites until just now. Still don't know what that little white bug yesterday was but I saw one of those on the top of the screen lid today again. It's tiny and thin, almost like a flea. But white and skinnier than the mesh on the top of the lid. I'm really confused because I haven't seen any bugs on Sachi and I cleaned everything with bleach water, and let the food/water bowls and driftwood and repti cave soak in the water. The repti carpet is brand new...

 

[still_crimson]

At least it's little and round and red like the picture. It looks like the tiny little red bugs you see outside on the concrete sometimes.

 

[PatsyB]

Well....baby dragons eat A LOT of crickets! Sorry I know it's not what you wanted to hear. The rule of thumb is to feed them as much as they can eat in a 15 min time span 2 times a day at least, 3 is better. Crickets if kept in close quarters will eat each other. It was something I always thought happened and then one of my patients told me that there son had to do a project and was given two crickets in a jar and the next morning there was only one cricket! They thought it escaped until they learned one ate the other! So if you can, get something bigger. Istarted with a 5 gallon fish tank with a lid on it and would buy 100 at a time. Now, with 2 lizards and 5 frogs I buy 1000 in bulk online! The cricket quencher and the pellets are okay to feed them but you can also feed them veggies that you feed Sachi. I also have repti carpet in my tanks and I put some slate rocks on each of the corners where it started to curl and that tends to help keep the crickets from getting underneath.

Bearded dragons are cold blooded so they will start to feel cold after being out for awhile, it doesn't mean there is something wrong with her. When my little one feels cold I usually just scoop him up and let him sit on my chest to warm up a bit.

 

[PatsyB]

At least it's little and round and red like the picture. It looks like the tiny little red bugs you see outside on the concrete sometimes.

Like those tiny little red spiders?

 

[still_crimson]

Yea Patsy, REALLY tiny. Like a little bright red dot with legs lol. But it crawls pretty fast. I'm hoping that it's just a lone one that crawled on the towel that I put the stuff out to dry on outside. I'm terrified of having a bug infestation! As for the crickets, it's not that there were any missing but they looked... dried out. lol. But I will keep an eye out. I have yet to buy the food, hay, hay rack, and wooden apple chews for the guineas that are coming Saturday so it will prob be a while til I can upgrade cricket quarters. I will keep an eye out for stuff on craigslist and maybe I will get lucky and someone will have one that they are getting rid of. How can I tell if it's just something random that crawled in or from the wood? I have only seen one or two red ones, unless its the same red one that ran off before I could get it, and same with the weird tiny white one I mentioned earlier and last night. I have been sitting here staring at the tank and looked over Sachi real well while she was out and I don't see like tons of stuff crawling anywhere or anything. Also the red one I saw after I fed crickets. Don't know if that matters or not. But I can never get it because by the time I take all the lights off and slide off the lid it's crawled off somewhere, and hard to see without the lights on top cuz it's so tiny.

 

[still_crimson]

Also for how long do I feed him this way and when do I know to move up to the next size crickets?

 

[PatsyB]

It's possible the red one crawled onto the stuff you had outside. There is another member on the forum who recently had his bearded dragons with actual mite bites. I asked him if he ever saw the bugs actually crawling around the tank.

She'll want to eat lots of crickets for a few months then she will taper off. You can kinda tell when they are ready for the next size up. They should be the size of the space between their eyes. Mine started to get bored with all the little tiny ones running around the tank, that's when I knew they needed something bigger.

 

[still_crimson]

OK, cool. I have literally one friend that lives in this town (well two actually but his wife is currently in Iraq). Anyhow I remember he upgraded from a 10 gallon tank to a 29 for his oscar, so I gave him a call and asked to borrow it. He said he is gonna look in his storage unit and see if he can find it and will get back to me shortly. That way all I have to worry about is a lid. If I am able to use the 10 is there any advice on how to get them out without a bunch of escapees since I would have to take the whole lid off?

 

[still_crimson]

Oh and that member on the forum you mentioned, what did he/she say?

 

[PatsyB]

Nice thing about crickets is they can't climb glass. So you won't have to worry about them crawling out. They like to have hiding spaces so I cut up egg cartons and put them in the tank. The crickets will hang out on it and when I need to feed my beardies I just shake them into a cup, give them a dust and a shake and into the beardie tank they go!

 

[PatsyB]

Oh and that member on the forum you mentioned, what did he/she say?

I haven't heard anything yet.

 

[PatsyB]

His name is Colin, the thread he posted was about red marks on his bearded dragon.

 

[still_crimson]

ok. cool, thanks. right now I have a tiolet paper roll in the critter keeper, but even just opening the small lid on top I have to be careful cuz they jump. I had one escapee so far but was able to catch it. lol. Also regarding calcium dusting. I have read both that I should do it every feeding, and then i read every other feeding, and then i read every other day.

 

[still_crimson]

OK, thanks. I'll see if I can find it.

 

[PatsyB]

Every other feeding is good. Personally, I like to do a light dusting at least one meal a day. I watched one of my frogs die from MBD and I get very nervous about them not getting enough calcium and vitamins.

 

[still_crimson]

Aww, I'm sorry to hear that. Yea I wasn't sure but I sprinkled a little bit on top of the veggies today and dusted every single cricket she ate. I need to give her veggies again, they are so dried out. I'm not sure if she ate any of it yet though. She had a few bites last night. Also no poo as of yet today, but she just got done eating crickets right before I hopped back on.

 

[still_crimson]

OOh, I also wonder if the red bug could have come from the lettuce? It's organic so no pesticides... I rinsed it but I may not have seen it unless I sat there and stared. I remember a few years ago finding some tiny red bugs in lettuce...

 

[still_crimson]

Also worried about my cat possibly stressing her out. He tried yesterday once or twice tapping on the lid, but since he just lays next to the tank and either watches her or curls up and goes to sleep. (I'm guessing because the glass is warm due to the light) lol. They only spot I have for Sachi is on my kitchen table. And no, we don't ever use the kitchen table for dinner. lol. It's my art spot.

 

[PatsyB]

We don't use our kitchen table either LOL! It's good the cat has a spot next to the tank the watch him though. My cat used to try to get on top of the tank because she couldn't sit next to it. If the cat is really stressing him out he would have stress marks on his underside. My cat stresses me out when I watch her watch Luci, but when I look at him he has no stress marks and is perfectly fine with her. You may find the cat is more interested in the crickets!