Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi i just bought an adult bd and i have my tank setup. i have her in a 50 gal breeder with a power sun bulb, a big basking branch,and a big water bowl shes seems to like it is there any thing else i need?

ps is it ok to have a bowl in there for water?

thanx

Well you should also include a food dish for veggies. Adults eat more vegetable matter that insects, but not completely veggies as they need some animal protein. a UVB/UVA bulb which they definitely need to digest there food and calcium. You should have some calcium vitamin D3 powder as well as a multivitamin like herpical to dust there insects and veggies with.

i have the caluim dust and dish for greens is there any thing else. shes keeps on scraping her head on the side of the water bowl and branch is there a reasone why shes doin that i think theres a peice of shedding shes trying to get rid of it. also she pooped in the water bowl and it white and liqudie im going to soak her tommarow shes drinkin at of the bowl and i sprayed her greens is that good?

thanx for help

What about insects, like crickets. You must gut load them first before you feed them to your beardie. You can give them slices of oranges for moisture, they also like pieces of carrots as well as some vegetable matter. You can give crushed cat food, or the cricket food they generally sell in the pet stores. Yes soaking her in warm tub would help to get off any possible skin that may be left on her face. what kind of substrate do you
use?? How old is your beardie??

oh spraying her veggies is very food especially if she wont drink from her water dish. If she deficates in her dish u really have to make sure you watch it and always have it clean. You dont want her drinking out of there if she has pooped in there. You could also direct the spray on her head, so that it trickles down her face and shell lap it up. This is naturally how they would drink in the wild.

i got her 12 crickests today, cuz i just got her i dusted them ang she ate every one. i use repti sand white i asked the guy from the petstore were i bought her fron and he said impaction is only for baby bd so i dont have to worry. tommorow im goin to the pet store and im going to buy more cricvkets and gut load them. also what a good temp i have a 60 watt uva/uvb and its only 90 degrees is there a way to make it hotter.

thanx

you should try a repi sun 8.0 for flouresent lighting and have it no more than 6-10 inches away, or they wont absorb the uvb/uva to assist in manufactoring their vitamin D3. and for heat you can use a number of different things incandesent bulbs are the best i find. Or 40-60 watt spotlight bulbs. You kinda have to play around to try and find one that works well for you. To get the correct temperature, You should have a thermometer to make sure u can measure the temperature corretcly. You cant just guess, if its not high enough they won't be able to properly digest there food. the temp can range anywhere from 95-115 the lesser temp for the adult dragons. babies need that high temp.

so can i have a the power sun plus a 50 watt basking bulb to increase the heat?

I dont necessarily know if you need both the power sun 100watt and the basking bulb. Try it though and see how it works for you just use the thermometer and make sure you measure the temp, but if you see him gaping then u need to lower the temp, and you can take the basking bulb away. I personally dont recommend the power sun though, i think its better to use the repti sun 8 or 10, and a basking bulb. Its all up to you though if you do make sure that you only use the fluoresent bulb for 6-9 months as the light may emit for some time but the uvb/uva has worn off before the year is done. As i say you should try different things though to get the appropriate temp.

ok thanx

No problem

I have mt beardie in a 75 gallon tank with a 150 watt vapor spot light(18 inch min distance) and a 150 watt ceramic heat emitter to reach the needed temp. This setup seems to work well.You might want to do some research first on the mercury vapor bulbs to see if they will meet youre needs and to find out the proper wattage,as far as the ceramic heat emitter they come in different wattage also.

DO NOT USE the calci sand at anytime. i know the pet stores say its fine but its not. compaction from sand can happen to any size dragons, but the calci sand is terrible and overprices. if you really want sand use sifted, cleaned, playsand from any hardware store. sift it out really good, clean it, and even baking it works well too. in my opinion, i hate sand period. i use non adhesive duck brand shelf liner from walmart. easy to clean. just clean up poop every time you see it, soak every week in 10 parts water 1 part bleach. make sure you rinse bleach off really well though.
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Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

i feed her mostly out of the cage and its repti sand not calisand

sand isnt the best to use in the first place, and the reptisand and calci sand are the worst expensive and not worth it anyways. if you are determined to use sand buy childrens playsand at homedepot. take it home, sift the big shells and other peices out, wash it, then bake it on a cookie sheet on.

now its easier to use the shelf liner, others also use ceramic or porcelein tiles cut to fit in the cage. if you use these get ones with some texture so the dragons can get traction.
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Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)