Bearded Dragon

[Platygirl11]

So, my brother is going to give me his bearded dragon (he doesn't want it) and I was looking for general info on how to take care of it, substrate, heat, ect.

 

[DarkEntity]

Go and post this on a reptile forum, you will get more responses and also ones based on actual knowledge of the Lizard in question. I keep snakes but havent kept a Beardie myself.

 

[KingOfTheSea]

How old is it? How long has he had it? What has he been feeding it?

You will need a UV bulb and a spot light for heat and maybe a heatmat depeding on how cold your house gets. Fully grown its going to need a 3x2x2 although 4x2x2 is better.

You feed them veg and insects (crickets, locusts, and all different kinds of worms).

You can type "bearded dragon care sheet" into google and you will get thousands of results.

 

[reeeedfish]

I have a bearded dragon and I have had him for over 5 years. Make sure the substrate is sand like. No gravel. Feed crickets and lettuce leaves. They are very tame and Great Pets. Oh, and you will need two lights. One normal and one basking light. Hope this helps.

 

[Platygirl11]

We've had it since early june, no idea how old it is,it gets pellets, mealworms, and crickets dusted with calcium powder. It molts regularly, dislikes being handled, and seems to be healthy to me. He has three lights, 2 on during the day, and one weird purple one at night. He also has an UTH. Substrate is alfalfa meal pellet-type-things.

 

[Buddyboy67]

As they get older they settle down and become very tame and will love to be handled..keep handling him as much as possible to get him used to it. As he matures up his veg intake and include all greens (except lettuce as it has no nutritional value), peas, spinach, broccoli, dandelion leaves and flowers..they really love these, especially dandelion flowers. Continue to feed it insects as well and gradually work it up to adult locusts,...less chance of these escaping and colonising your house like crickets,lol...

 

[Platygirl11]

Talk about loving being handled, he bit me! Hopefuly he'll get used to it eventually.
Raw broccoli? Or cooked?

 

[Buddyboy67]

Always use raw veg..once cooked it loses most of it's goodness..at a push, lightly steam them and once cooled offer it up....
He will stop biting as he matures, love their little terrier attitude when young,lol....

 

[tropic_john]

I didn't know bearded dragons moulted!

 

[Buddyboy67]

All reptiles, amphibians slough, moult skin, to increase in size as they grow or to remove pathogens or damage to their epidermic layer when mature

 

[always4lora]

one of my LFS's has one in there, it's his pet. It's in a 48x15x12 he said thats all they require size wise, of course i had to ask him to let me have a hold , i was suprised how rough they felt but it was very tame .

 

[goodbyekitty]

And boy do the shed. Seems like you got it pretty down. I'm not sure about the UTH. I don't particularly like those as they can get hot and burn from below. Do you have a basking light? If so, you can remove the uth. You just said you had "three lights." I think zilla makes those alfalfa pellets you mention? I've used those. I also use the desert 50 lights they make for my beardies as well as other animals. Don't know which brand or type you're using? But I'd recommend these in any case as they are the ones I use. As well as any mercury vapor bulbs like mega rays or power suns.

You have no heat rocks I take it? Good. And what about considering getting a ceramic heat bulb? I hear they're good.

 

[Buddyboy67]

Good point there..try moving the heating mat to the back wall and allow it to bask under a spot bulb..lizards have a "third eye", heat receptor pad on their heads and don't realise that they can be getting burnt from below.....heated from above they can move to a cooler spot when they get too hot.....

 

[Platygirl11]

Yeah, he has a sun light and a basking light, and a purple bulb which produces very little light that switches on at night (timer).

 

[foreignlegion]

And boy do the shed. Seems like you got it pretty down. I'm not sure about the UTH. I don't particularly like those as they can get hot and burn from below. Do you have a basking light? If so, you can remove the uth. You just said you had "three lights." I think zilla makes those alfalfa pellets you mention? I've used those. I also use the desert 50 lights they make for my beardies as well as other animals. Don't know which brand or type you're using? But I'd recommend these in any case as they are the ones I use. As well as any mercury vapor bulbs like mega rays or power suns.

You have no heat rocks I take it? Good. And what about considering getting a ceramic heat bulb? I hear they're good.

I heard some people saying that way back when, (I don't even remember) they used to make GOOD heat rocks. That they had temperature controls. Rheostats I believe and thats why they were popular, but that now they are just on and off which is why many don't like them. i'd rather use a basking light or a mercury vapor bulb. I don't have any because of money issues. And I, too, use the Zilla desert series tubes for my bearded dragon and my uro. They work great so I think I'll stick to these and save a buck.

Oh and ceramic heating is really good. Flukers makes a good one.