Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my drogn eat paper towels...i dont know why he does it..

any one got any opinions on why he eats the paper towels?

I would recheck all of your husbandry issues. Especially, UVB lighting, Calcium, and Diet.

If you want to list what you're doing here, I or others can offer suggestions.

ok i got the UVB,heat light,temps up around 95-100 in the basking spot,10 gallon tank,plenty of braches and a hide(wich he never uses lol)

i feed him collard greens,mustard greens every morning befor i go to school (an hour after his light comes on)and i feed him crickets,wax worms and silk worms

A 10 gal tank is way too small for any size bearded dragon. The basking spot should be between 105 - 110 since it looks like your dragon is only about 8" long. But I am hesitant to recommend you up it since there is no cool side on a 10 gallon tank. At his age/size he should be eating live food twice a day. You can feed him crickets or silkworms (I don't recommend wax worms they are too high in fat) before you go to school, then put his salad in while you're away and then feed crickets or silkworms again 2 hours before the lights go out. Day should be 14 hours, night 10 hours. The live food should be dusted with a Calcium supplement with D3 but must contain no phosphorus or Vitamin A (I use Rep-Cal ultrafine with D3) every meal but one which should be dusted with a multivitamin.

Very Important get him a larger tank. I would recommend a 30 or 40 Breeder with a floor space of 36" x 18".

Also what are you using for UVB? You said you have it but what is it and how old is it?

yeah im trying to get a bigger tank for it soon

and i think its repti sun 5.5 or something...thats what the people in the chat recomended and its only about 3 months old so its got a little longer till it need s a new bulb.

but there is a hot and cold side in the cage...i use a snall heat lamp

There is just not enough temp. separation in a 10 gallon tank. Especially for a juvenile dragon. Also the lack of floor space is causing a lot of stress too. You really need to do something about it now. Pet shops should not sell dragons without at least a 20 Gal. Long tank. This is the minimum size for a baby. A 20L is 30 x 12 x 12High. At this point I wouldn't buy anything smaller than a 30 or 40 breeder as I mentioned before since a 20L will be too small in a few weeks.

The minimum enclosure size for an adult is 4 x 2 floor space or 8 square feet. You may want to consider buying an adult size tank now it you don't want to buy two.

The stress of your tank size is most likely what is causing the odd behavior.

ok thanks forthe info

a good place to look for a cheap cage is craigslist.com those things can be pricey so i would try there for a better set-up for your guy...good luck!

Only a couple reasons I can see a dragon eating paper towel. It is getting papertowel in it's mouth accidently when trying to catch insects, or it is just tasting his environment and it is sticking to his tongue. If he seems determined to eat paper towel, switch him to newsprint (not newspaper, but unprinted newsprint, butcher's paper or brown parcel wrap paper). This should stop him from accidently ingesting the substrate.

A 10 gal tank is rather small for a bearded dragon, even a small one. You can set your dragon up in a clear rubbermaid type container that is bigger, to use temporary till you can buy a 20-35 gal long tank or if the rubbermaid container is big enough, keep him in there till you buy or build the adult cage. This is pretty much what I am doing with my bearded dragon. It won't take long for a baby bearded dragon to get way to big for a 10 gal. Mine is in the equavalent of a 20 gal long but already she's too big for it, hence why I am trying to get her adult cage built quickly LOL.
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PHLdyPayne

Hi
i would recomend youre baskingspot be littlebit higher 95-100 is to low
make it 110 thats better .
byeeeeee
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