New Bearded Dragon owner

[Katacara]

Howdy, well that does it I am officially hooked on my cham Peepers!! I have had him a month now, and the only real problem I have run into is having way to many feeders! So what to do with all the leftovers ... Why get a beardie of course

I'm so excited!!! I read what I could online, but couldn't find a good forum like this for them, so I thought I would check in here.

From what I can tell care for chams and beardies is very similar with the big exceptions of misting and needing live plants.

I am still a bit unsure of what a good supplement schedule would be. Could someone help me out with that? He/she is approximately (I think) 1 month old, but not more than 2. So still very young. I want to make sure that my new baby grows up happy and healthy!!!

Thanks in advance for your help with this!!!

 

[kinyonga]

Same schedule for dusting as chameleons. You can feed it a salad of the same greens, veggies and fruits I list all the time to feed/gutload the insects with.

Beardies are great lizards! In love their waving and head bobbing/push-ups and personalities!

 

[Katacara]

Great!! I'm glad I'm on track with this little "guy"!!! He is so cute and funny to watch, already a big ball of personality!!!

 

[kinyonga]

One of the most common things I've seen in beardies is MBD...just like chameleons so its important to get the husbandry right! Good luck!

 

[Katacara]

Thanks, when I have his cage fully set up I will post some pictures for feedback. I will be working on it again tomorrow.

 

[Katacara]

Ok so I have everything pretty much setup right now. Any advice on my setup would be great! I'm also having trouble catching the "leftovers" running around the cage. Is it ok to let them stay in there for him to eat at his leisure? Thanks!!

 

[funnyCAT140]

Every thing looks good. Just make sure your checking temps and humidity, I like the thermometers that stick to the wall for the larger inclosures because temps and especially humidity are all over the place. Are those paper towels as a substrate or sand it's kinda hard to tell in pic.

 

[Katacara]

They are paper towels till he gets a bit older. I read that it's not good for young ones to have substrate because they tend to get impacted more easily. Is that incorrect? I would love to be able to use sand now.

Do I have to be catching and removing the extra crickets? It seems that no matter how many or how few I put in there he always likes to leave some for later.

Thanks!

 

[kinyonga]

If you leave the crickets in the cage put a little dish of chopped up greens and veggies in the cage so they will have something to eat besides the dragon.

Which light is the UVB?

 

[funnyCAT140]

They are paper towels till he gets a bit older. I read that it's not good for young ones to have substrate because they tend to get impacted more easily. Is that incorrect? I would love to be able to use sand now.

Do I have to be catching and removing the extra crickets? It seems that no matter how many or how few I put in there he always likes to leave some for later.

Thanks!

In my opinion I would never use sand for any bearded dragon, it's just not worth the risk of them getting impacted. I would use outdoor carpet, you can get scraps for free at flooring warehouses, or use the mats that look like sand. If you absolutely want a loose substrate then a thin layer of Eco earth would be fine. You can leave the crickets in there as long as they have veggies to munch on.

 

[kinyonga]

I used sand for years and the beardies never had an impaction.

 

[Katacara]

I have a uvb bulb and heat bulb in each fixture. I originally had just the deep fixture with a heat bulb and uvb (10), but the other half of the tank was very dark so I added the smaller fixture with a 2nd uvb (5 as that was what I had on hand). Then today I noticed that the temp was still to low, and he stopped using that half of the tank so I added a 2nd heat bulb.

Thanks for the sand tip! The next time I change my snakes eco earth I will leave some out to cover the floor of his cage? Should I still wait till he gets bigger before changing over to the eco earth?

 

[funnyCAT140]

I used sand for years and the beardies never had an impaction.

A lot of beardies are fine on sand I just don't like to take the risk.

 

[Katacara]

Ok, good to know that if I'm in a bind it will be ok to use for a little while.

Thank you both for all your help!! This forum is so great!! And most of the people are really good also!! It's just a fun, informative place!!

 

[funnyCAT140]

I would still wait to use Eco earth until he's a little older cause it's still a loose substrate. Congrats on your new beardie and I hope you guys have many awesome years together!!!