hey i have a few newbie questions

[skaterzero22]

i am looking to get a bearded dragon in the next few weeks. i already have a 20L to use while its still a baby.i know this is too small for a juvenile or adult dragon, its only temporary. i also have a 24inch fluorescent fish fixture that i would like to put a reptisun 10.0 in. will it work?

i also plan on using a 60w basking light. is this enough? any recomended brands?

any other good tips i should know about. got all the basic info off these and other forums so i believe ive got it down other than the lighting


thanks for all the help

 

[clear]

i would goto bearddragon.org and read the caresheets thats posted at the top, your learn almost everything you need to know.

 

[Euphoric]

The lights are fine, I only use zoomed personal reference in lights.

They need to eat dark leafy greens (Collard greens, spinach, ect) every day and should only be fed crickets once a week.

No lights should be on during the night, the need a time to cool off.

Use a log hide it works really well they can lay on top to bask and it helps thier nails and then they can hide if they want to.

Heat rocks are good to use if your afraid it gets to cold at night...

Annnd I think thats it! lol

 

[Ccrashca069]

The Reptisun 10.0 is perfect. Make sure to change it every 11-12 months. They also eat crickets and mealworms. We dust our beardie's mealworms once a week with Calcium with d3 and vitimans. Spinich isn't good as something to feed daily but once a week should be good. We feed ours kale, dandilion greans, mustard greens, and squash.
We keep the encloser between 85-100. I don't recemend heat rocks for any kind of animal. I seen too many herps get burns from them. We use a red heat light controled with a rheostat to adjust the temp. the beardeddragon website has some good caresheets.

 

[Echostatic]

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html there is a great nutrition guide. good daily vegetables to feed are collard and mustard greens along with squash. bearded dragons should never be fed mealworms as they are hard for them to digest and have 25x mroe phosphorous than calcium. this is bad because lots of phosphorous is going to hinder your dragons ability to use calcium. as you can see from that list, spinach is a questionable veggie and its use is discouraged and kale is something that should only be fed occasionally.

you shouldnt use a heat rock since they dont feel belly heat very well and can be seriously burned. all heat should come from above. that means no UTH pads too. beardies need a period to cool down at night. they can even drop into the low 60s without a problem. if your house gets cooler than that, you can either use a ceramic heat emitter or a UTH pad mounted on the *side* of the tank. do not use any sort of nighttime lighting, as they need complete darkness to sleep well.

the reptisun 10.0 bulb is a very good bulb. your dragon will need to be able to get up to 4-6 inches close to it and it will need to be replaced every 6 months, as opposed to the packages directions of yearly.

as for whether or not the 60w basking light will be enough, it all depends on your set up. you will have to play with how close the dragon can get to the light. you want the surface of your basking spot to have a temperature between 110*F and 120*F, and this can only be accurately measured with a digital thermometer with a probe or an infrared temperature gun. any sort of stick on thermometer will only record the temperature of the air around it and can be very inaccurate. your basking white should be a bright white light.

 

[skaterzero22]

thank you for all the replies. i really appreciate all the great info. just wanna make one thing clear and that is everyone believes the fish fixture should be fine to power the reptisun 10.0?

 

[Lena]

You should check out Bearded-Dragons.com's forum, great place to ask questions and get information from experienced owners.

I myself am a member.

And as long as that fixture is long enough and has the right caps, you'll be fine. Make sure that your reptisun 10.0 spans 3/4 of the cage and is over his basking spot.

 

[Lena]

They need to eat dark leafy greens (Collard greens, spinach, ect) every day and should only be fed crickets once a week.

This is incorrect, your little one needs to be offered live prey twice a day and as much as he'll put down in 10-15 minutes. Expect him to eat as much as 50-100 a day depending on prey size. Greens should be avaliable as much as possible. Please know that your beardie will be on an 80% live prey, 20% green diet until he matures, as he reaches adulthood he'll transition to an 80% green and 20% live prey diet.

They also eat crickets and mealworms.

Mealworms should only be fed as a treat, they are high in chitin which is difficult for beardies to digest. The only acceptable staples are silkworms, roaches, and crickets. Anything else should just be fed as an occasional treat.

Also..

-Heat rocks are bad but if it goes below 60F in your house over night, you may wish to use a UTH where he sleeps. However it's very unlikely that it should ever get that low. Just recognize that your beardie senses heat from above and thus your heat should be coming from above so that they can adjust themselves accordingly.

-For measuring tempuratures, you want to use any digital thermometer with a probe. Others can be 10-20 degrees off.

 

[Ccrashca069]

As you can see, everyone has there own ideals what you should and should not do with beardies just like leopard geckos. I do what I do because someone who has over 20 years experience with herps and currently has around 6 beardies gave me the info. So maybe buy a book on beardies and read it and then use your best judgement.

 

[Echostatic]

the problem with books on bearded dragons is that they are outdated. by the time the research is finished, the books were written and then published, the research is years out of date. much has been learned on their care since then.

i strongly recommend using www.bearded-dragons.com for information on beardie keeping, as they are the msot knowledgable group ive seen.

 

[ILoveGreen]

Great care info Echostatic!

If you get a book make sure the Copyright is 07 or 08...there are always better ways of doing things coming out.

Read as many care sheets as you can!

IMO... I wouldn't ever use a heatrock for any lizard or animal.....or sand as a substract.
And I agree that the light should be changed every 6 months...so write down the date you install the light on a peice of tape and put it right on the light hood so you don't forget.

 

[clear]

Most of the books you read even copyrighted in 07 or 08 are based on old information. Read a few forums and care sheets, ask a ton of questions and your learn

www.beareddragon.org
www.beareded-dragon.com

 

[ILoveGreen]

Ya sorry I thought of that after I posted it! Duh to me!