Bearded dragon help.

[Eddie's Dragons]

I just received a leatherback bearded dragon from craigslist.
and i just fell in love.
hes around 4 months old.

hes in a 20 gallon long.
paper towel substrate.
feeding him crickets.
mealworms.

and veggies.
with a little banana.
hes loving the romaine.

im using a red heat bulb.
and uva/uvb light.

the basking spot is around 105 degrees.
is this enough?
and how many crickets should they be going through?
im planning on getting roaches for ease of care.

and less of a mess.
any tips.
hes around 12 inches including tail.
and is quite the charecter.

hes a male.
so id appreciate some name suggestions.

any help is much appreciated.
thanks in advance

[rizaroo]

live food as many (bugs as he) can eat in 10 mins twice a day. Last meal of the day should be fed at least 2 hours before the light goes out. Kale, collard or mustard greens are better then romaine lettace. You can offer red bell pepper also.

[Sublime Reptiles]

ditch the mealworms, they are not that nutritional and high in chiton. Unlike some species like leos for instances that can easier pass the chiton, beardis however the way their intestinal tracks lay, they are more prone to impactions from them. Just stick with crickets, silkworms, and roaches.

When it comes to feeding greens you want to offer 3 of these 4 greens: mustard, collard, turnip or dandelion greens, these should be the stape. Greens like Romaine hold little nutritional value and honesty dont even make good treats. Better treats are endive, escrole, water cress.

Things to avoid is spinach and carrots, these are hgih in oxalate acids, in easier terms of puting it, they cant absorb the calcium you give them because of it, so avoid these.

When it comes to fruit, you want no more than 10% of their weekly plant intake to be fruit. And remember what is a grape to them is like us eating an entire water melon....tons of sugar.

As far as your temps goes, this depends on the type of thermometer you are using. If it is a dial or a stick on, your temps are not correct, these can read anywhere from 7-21 degrees incorrectly. So if you are using this you will either want to get a digital, or consider a mercury as these are the accurate ones to go with. But yo want your basking area to be around 102-110, 105 is where most people land. As far as your UVB, what brand is it and how close can your beardie get to it? Are your lights on a timer? Whats his light cycle?

Your beardie is close to the right size for its age, normally they average an inch a week for the first 3 months of their lives , so normally around 3 months old they are 12", then it i a bit of a slower growth, roughly 2" a month. But at your beardies age, they should still be consuming alot of crickets, 50+ a day over the course of 3 or more feedings. Normally around 5-6 months you cut back, but this can depend on the size of the animal, if it is a smaller 5-6 month old I dont suggest cutting it back as you need to get it up t its size (if it had a slow start from incorrect feeding). But usually at around that age you will cut back to around 40 crickets a day, and so on and so forth. Normally by 12 months inage they can be eating about 1 dozen crickets a day, then by 14-16 months around 6-8 crickets a day is all they need.

[Nook]

There's a forum dedicated to bearded dragons.. If you want, I can PM you the link. Not sure if I can post it here. There's also various caresheets.

[Eddie's Dragons]

sure go ahead and pm it to me.
ok.
so i cut out the lettuce carrots and mealworms.
can i offer waxworms as a treat?

im using a thermometer with a probe.
its about 104.6 degrees on his basking spot.

he goes through about 2 dozen crickets a day.
not sure what brand the uva/uvb light is.
its about pretty close to his basking spot.
maybe 7 inches away.

i keep him close to a window so he can get indirect sunlight.
and his day cycle is around 12 hours.
and at night i turn on his heat bulb.

i offer him two water bowls.
is it normal for them to open their mouths when there basking?
it reminds me of a dog panting.

and thanks for all the help.

[Nook]

Waxworms are good as a treat, and a treat only. Some dragons will go on a hunger strike, and refuse all other foods, and wait for the good stuff. Depending on which UVB bulb it is.. they all vary on how far they have to be from the animal, so I would double check to see if you can find out the brand.. I can usually find it on my tube light I use for Jekyll's UVB. Is it a UVA or a UVB bulb? Or a combo? If it's a coil bulb, I would get ti changed ASAP as there have been several reports of eye problems due to those. As for the temperature, to me 106 sounds a bit too warm, but temperatures will vary between hatchlings, juveniles and adults and also a preference on the animal itself. If you're seeing him gape (the 'panting' you described) a lot, then it's too hot, but if it's only now and again it's alright. Just make sure to have the temperature gradient in his enclosure, so he can escape the heat if he wishes to.

Also, I saw someone else post the forum I was talking about on another post, and they didn't get in trouble for it. Here it is : http://www.beardeddragon.org/bjive/index.php -- bd.org is a forum dedicated to beardies, and they can offer tons of advice. There should be a couple of caresheets about, as well.. All in all, it isn't hard to figure out what's correct and incorrect, if you just do your research. =)

Enjoy the little bugger. They are a blast to have.

[Eddie's Dragons]

Im pretty sure its a combo bulb.
its 104.6. but yes.
i have cool side and a warm side.
i see him thermoregulate from time to time.
he only gapes every now and then.

thanks for all the help.
i appreciate it

[Sublime Reptiles]

Wax worms are something I personally rarely offer, if youre offering them maybe once a month, more than that realize they are high in fat and if offered too much they can cause fatty liver disease. Better treats are silkworms, which actually can be converted to their main diet as an adult, but for growing beardies not much is known about them being a main diet. But like i said you need to bump up the cricket intake.

Like Nook said, depending on the bulb, you may need to move the basking area under the light farther away, and this even goes for the florescent tubes, like the Reptisuns and Reptiglos 10.0 those are far to close to the basking area and need to be moved back. But heat at night is not needed for these guys, and so long as your night time temps are staying 65 or more, youre perfectly fine without it. Also here is a tip, if your light bulb burns out, dont go buy a new one at the pet store, instead hit up thehardware store. The lights are exactly the same, both are halogens, just be sure to get the flat bottomed one as these as basking bulbs, round bottomed bulbs scatter heat in many directions instead of a concentrated beam that you want.

And the gapping...you know how alligators and crocs gap while basking? many reptile species do this. It is helping them to thermoregulate themselves, they may be basking, but they may want to cool them selves down quickly, so by opening their mouths and breeding through them, it pulls in cooler air into their systems to help cool them down.

Any other questions feel free to ask, I have been working with these guys since 1998, I know all sorts of tips and tricks

[Eddie's Dragons]

Ahahah.
thanks so much thongwedgie.
so he should be going through 40 crickets a day, eating mustard greens kale, zucchini, squash, and red bell peppers.

yeah.
i saw the halogen light bulbs in home depot.
ill buy them there instead.
it was like 7.95 for two 50 watt ones.
so ill snag them up.

as for tank size.
hes in a 20 gallon long.
and hes on paper towel.
can i move him onto sand when he gets older.
or the risk of impaction is to great?

im really growing attatched to this little guy.
and want the best for him
ahaha.

thanks a bunch

[Sublime Reptiles]

The thing about sand is although at 14" a beardie can be switched to it, regardless of the animals size there is always a chance of impaction. And to top it off, particle substrates house and grow bacteria really quicly, thus you need to change the entire substrate at least twice a month. I personally use carpet, but if you are wanting a natural look, try using tile which is easy to clean, but will give you that rock look, or even linolum (or however it is spelled). You can also use non adhesive shelf liner, news paper or paper towels. And beardies are fairly intelligent, they can be litter trained, my female at one point in time used a kitty litter box full of sand, with the rest of her tank carpet, but I got tired of her flinging the sand everywhere and took her out. So this is something you could consider trying.

You want to try to offer 3 types of greens daily, the mustard is good, but try also using collard, turnip, or dandelion greens. And if you cant find any of those, you can use endive or arugoula, water cress as a substutite for other greens. They all balance each other ou with differen nutritional valu in vits and minerals. Kale is an OK treat, good for a few times a week, but I wouldnt turn it into a staple green.

The size of tank you have is good for his size, normally at around 14" you will want to upgrade him into hs final home, which will vary on his adult size. Beardies 18" or smaller do fine in 40 gallon breeder tanks, for 19" or larger they do best in a 75 gallon. I couldnt imagine my girl in a 40 breeder being she is 22" she would have anywhere to go! So it is something to consider. But there is nothing wrong with housing a 17" beardie in a 75 gallon tank, just to large becomes an issue for smaller beardies in the younger stages.