So NEED HELP!

[reptileking]

So I'm buying a Bearded Dragon from this guy for $100 he's a 3 year old beardie and tame! I am in need of help with a feeding question and heating question!

So I know you are supposed to feed them plants and insects ( I know what to feed them ) but when do I feed them the insects and when do I feed them the plant?

Also
How do I heat the cage, Meaning what lights to use ( What light bulbs and brand or kind ETC. ) Links to the bulbs would be helpful or links to everything needed to heat the Bearded Dragon would be even better!?

 

[LZRDGRL]

Here's a good care sheet. That's the one I used when I got my first beardie:
http://www.a1reptiles.net/Bearded-Dragon-Care.html

Good luck with your new friend! Post a pic when you have him :main_yes:

Chrissy

 

[EccentricME]

Offer veggies everyday in the morning. I make a "large" salad and my beardie eats out of the bowl all day. Check out this site it gives a lot of good information on what they should eat. http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html At 3,from what I understand, they will probably only want to eat once a day. Crickets, Repti worms and dubia roaches are good staples. They also can have superworms, butterworms, silkworms; mealworms are not suggested. The beautiful dragons site takes about dusting with calcium/vitamins take notes. lighting is very important. The basking side should be around 95 degrees you can achieve this with a regular house light bulb much cheeper and last longer than the pet store ones. cool side 75-80. Night temps no lower than 65 degrees use a cerramic heat emitter bulb for heat @ night if needed. No red bulbs! This annoys beardies. UVB lights are very important to beardies without them they could get metabolic bone disease. One of the best ones to get is the reptisun10.0 tube. You can buy a fixture for cheek at any hardware store/walmart ect. Other brands of bulbs have been known to cause problems. Also don't have anything obstructing the UVB and your dragon, screen glass ect = blocked UVB change every 6months. Hope that helps!
Also check out www.beardeddragon.org thay have great forums over there that I have learned so much from! Someone over there told me to come here for gecko info

 

[GeckoCrossing]

That care sheet at a1reptiles is pretty bad... particle substrate, 5.0-10.0 coil bulb? i stopped reading after that...

But here is the care sheet that I have made up myself after 3 years of keeping a beardie and browsing multiple forums:

Live Prey
Silkworms (Best), Phoenix Worms, Crickets (Gut Load and Dust) or Roaches (Dubia or Lobster to name two). NO mealworms. They are high in phosphorous which binds calcium and can lead to MBD.
Superworms and Waxworms are both considered treats. They should never receive more than 3 or 4 a week as they are very addictive and very fatty. And never to any dragon under 16 inches.
Mice or anything else alive, or frozen, should never be fed to a dragon.

Veggies - Best to combine a few to keep it varied.
Alfalfa Plants, Bok Choy, Cactus Pad/Leaf/Pear, Chicory, Collard Greens, Dandelion Greens, Endive, Escarole, Mustard Greens, Swiss Chard, Turnip Greens.
Fruit - Once or twice a week treat, NO Citric.
Scallop, Summer or Acorn Squash shredded over the veggies.

Dusts
Calcium - Rep-Cal Phosphate free with D3, Absolute Calcium, Minerall, Calypso.
Multivitamin - Rep-Cal Herptivite, Reptivite

Feeding
Juveniles - 80% Protein 20% Greens. Feed as many crickets as they can eat within 10-15 minutes, 2 or 3 times a day. This should add up to between 40 and 200 crickets per day! 6 days a week dust one feeding with calcium (D3, phosphorous free). On the 7th day dust one feeding with a multivitamin. Greens should be available all day from waking up until 1 hour before lights out.
Adults (18 months) - 80% Greens 20% Protein. 20-50 crickets a week. Calcium dust one week then a multivitamin dust the next week.
Crickets should be no larger than the space between the eyes of the dragon. And never leave crickets in a habitat with a dragon after feeding is done. They cause stress and can seriously injure a sleeping, or even awake, dragon.
When feeding crickets you must wait at least one hour after lights come on to feed, and 2 hours before lights out should be the cut off for feeding.

Housing
0-12 months - Minimum of a 20 gallon long.
12+ months - 36”L x 18”W minimum. 48”L x 24”W is better. 18” to 24” in height.

Humidity
Bearded Dragons are a desert dwelling reptile therefore require no humidity. They get their hydration from licking it off their surroundings. The best way is to give them 10-15 minute baths with a water temperature of 90-100 degrees Fahrenheit 3 or 4 times a week. Water should be no higher than shoulder level. If the dragon freaks out put a cloth or something in with him to give him purchase. Baths also help during shedding, so you can increase baths to a daily thing during sheds to help with them.

Substrate
Any non particle substrate is advisable to use for any size of bearded dragon. Using a particle substrate can lead to death due to impaction and also bacterial infection. Paper towels, Reptile carpet, non adhesive shelf liner or my personal favourite, coarse ceramic tile are good ones. Tile should be baked at 250 degrees in the oven for 15-20 minutes to kill all germs and bacteria. Just wrap it in aluminum foil.

Heat/Lighting
Bearded Dragons need a hot and cool end in their habitats. The highest point in the hot end should have a SURFACE temperature of 105-115 degrees Fahrenheit and the cool end should be about 75-85 degrees. For the hot end it varies from dragon to dragon. My female actually preferred her basking spot about 120. I had a slanted surface for a basking spot and she'd always be at the highest spot. An infrared temperature gun is best for measuring surface temps. Just point at the surface and click for an accurate reading. Can order one from http://www.tempgun.com/main.html
For UVB they will need a fluorescent ReptiSUN 10.0 UVB tube light (the best tube light on the market). They should be able to get within 4“-6” of it without being able to touch it in case of burns. And it should not be filtered by a screen or lid. Mesh lids are okay though. Tube UVB lights should be replaced every 6 months as the UVB given out starts to decrease. Coil or spiral UVB bulbs are not good. They have been proven to cause damage to lizard's eyes and even gone as far as burning them. You can also use a Mercury Vapor Bulb (MVB) which gives off heat and also a lot of UVB and they last a year before they start losing their UVB given off.
For a basking light you can use a clamp lamp with a halogen flood light bulb. Be careful with wattage here as the halogen flood lights give off more heat than a normal household bulb of the same wattage.

Cleaning
For cleaning the dragon’s habitat use baby wipes and dry with a paper towel for spot cleaning. Once every month completely clean the habitat and all ornaments/food dishes with a steam cleaner, if you have one, or with a lemon/water solution if you don‘t.

 

[reptileking]

Thanks guys, Did it take you guys a while to get used to feeding them both veggies and live prey?

 

[GeckoCrossing]

Not for me. It was pretty easy. I usually had lights come on at 0600, warm 15 minute bath at 0630, veggies in at 0700. Live prey when I got home from work at about 1500. I had a separate feeding tank for her, a 20G long that was tiled, grouted and sealed. I'd just put her in it, turn on the lights and drop in crickets or roaches until she was done. Fresh veggies in her tank again after live prey and taken out an hour before her lights went out at 2000.

Edit: And since your beardie is an adult, you can feed the live prey two different ways... either spread out over a week, about 8-10 crickets a day. Or you can do all the live prey at once in one day. I spread mine out because I loved to watch her eat lol