Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all, I just recently acquired some little beardies. I got these at an expo and the lady assured us they could eat rep-cal juv. dragon pellets..Well they havent touched them. We got them on sunday and they have only eaten just a very few greens(dandelion) and then on Monday they ate a bunch of tiny crickets(24 total).Now its wednesday and they have not eaten since Monday.This same lady told me I could use a plant light from walmart($4.00 each) and it would be sufficient for uvb light.Well I have since read otherwise and ordered a ZooMed powersun 100watt UVB and also 1000 pinhead crickets.

.What do I do till they get here.Is it okay just to use this useless plant light for a few days till the good light gets here? What about food. I bought some endive but they are not touching that either. I am also worried about water consumption. I spray teh tank plus I leave a dish of water but they dont seem to be drinking. Should I soak them so they dont get dehyderated?
another question, at night I turn off the light but when I get up they seem so lethargic.I have a heat pad under the tank for night use but I am worried it might be getting too cold what is a good night time temp.?
BTW one is 5 and 1/2 inches and the other is 4 and 1/4 inches I am not sure how old that is.These lttle guys are so sweet I would hate to lose them for any reason. Another thing is the food just drys out from the heat and gets scattered all over the tank what should I do about that, I dont want to keep scaring them to get it all out.I use newspaper as a substrate also..I am used to keeping snakes but have no experience with lizards.I just am soooo worried about these guys dying on me..any help would be greatly appreciated..Thanks, Sila

A good nighttime temp is about 70-75 and its normal for them to be lethargic in the morning because they are cool.You should try bathing and when you pour in the water pour it in slowly so it makes noise and a reflection and it catches their attention.The plant light is fine until the UVB gets here just dust their food with calcium if you have it if you dont thats ok because dandelions are pretty high in calcium so keep feeding them that.The crickets should be there in a day or two so just try and keep feeding them and if they dont eat make sure the dont start trying to nip each other.
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My Leo's
1.0.0 Normal
0.1.0 Tremper Albino
My Beardie
0.0.1 Red x Gold

They won't drink out of a bowl, so you can take that out. Do you know what your day time temps are? My dragon would never eat pellets, only crickets and veggies. You will have to separate them, unless they happen to both be female, bearded dragons are usually kept seperately. Soaking them is a good way to keep them hydrated. I never have nighttime heat for my dragon, their temps are supposed to drop at night. They do appear sleepy in the morning, this seems to be normal. My adult is pretty lazy all day actually.

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I hope you don't receive actual pin head crickets. I made that mistake the first time I ordered wholesale. I received crickets that were so small you could hardly see them. If you do indeed receive pin heads next time order 1/4 inch crickets. Thats a perfect size for babies.

Mike