Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recenty purchased my bd from a local pet store a few days ago.
his tank is about 95 and 80 on the cold side. my problem started yesterday when i came home i noticed his hind legs were twitching,he mainly eats crickets,i seen him eat his veggies.i did not feed him crickets that day,i thought it might be constipation?i put him in worm water and put him back, it seemed to help a little,he did go,but it was his beeding that came out i use dessert blend lizard litter (groung english walnut shells)and dust his prey with repto cal,i also use a timer for his heat light,i also use a heat rock that i turned off. their is no visible burns on him.he is doing better today, he ate a dusted cricket,my bd is about 7 inches in length. any info will be greatly appreciated.

I'm glad you decided to ask here for help. One thing I noticed first hand is that his legs were twitching. That's sounds like a calcium deficiency. Besides the powdered vitamins, your dragon also needs calcium supplements. If not taken care of, your dragon will get worse and actaully have seizures and die. I've seen dragons sieze, and it is not pretty. Also, you have your dragon on ground walnut shells. Ouch. That is a big no no. Especially for a 7 incher. Get that baby on paper towels or newspaper. You risk impacting him if you don't. Esp, if that's what he's pooping out already. What's the tanks setup? How big is the tank. I know the temps, but do you also have a UVB/UVA bulb too? Is he eating greens yet?
Jamie

i have a 20 gal long tank with 75 wat uvb/ and a 10 inch uva from the local home depot. he just went to the bath room ,it was a big one about a inch to a inch and a half pure dung. today im gonna change out the tank the twitching seemed to be minimal now .pretty much to stopping ,the bedding i bought said it was safe for beardies even had a picture of them on the cover,i want to use some kind of healthy bedding so i can scoop out the tank.he also has a climbing branch to bask in/and on the cool side a bark shell to hide into.id figured a 20 long for now until he got bigger so he dont have to loose interest in chasing his pray.sould i put some dark backroung on the cool side to help with temp?also i feed him strawberries and collard greens which ive seen him eat once.

that fact that he had leg twitching and pooped out the walnut shells makes me think that he was devoloping an impaction. Luckly he passed it out before any permanate damage was done. The walnut shells are a horrible substrate, I know the bag says its safe but do you really think the company who sells it care if it hurts an animal? all big companys are out to make a buck without regards to the harm its products can cause.

A baby beardie is best kept on paper towels. Once he is over 10 inches you can try him on regular washed, sifted playsand that you can get at home depot, lowes, ect.. for around $5 for 50 pounds. Never, ever use the reptile sand that come from a petstore, its just as bad as the walnut shells.

The UV bulb you have doesn't put out any UBV and thats what you need. You will have to spend the extra money and get one made especially for retiles. A repti glow 8.0 is great, so is the reti sun 5.0. Stay away from any light made by ESU, they are crap.

here is a fantastic care sheet, check your set-up against it to see if you need to make any improvments.

Kakadu caresheet

THANKS FOR THE TIP.I ALREADY EMPTIED OUT THE TANK AND PUT A LITTLE BIT OF NEWSPAPER IN THE CAGE.ON MY HOT SIDE I HAVE A BRANCH FOR HIM TO CLIMB AND BASK IT ACTUALLY GETS UP TO 100 BUT IM GONNA UPGRADE LIKE YOU SAID MY QUESTION IS ON IS COOL SIDE (80 DEG.) SHOULD I HAVE A REGULAR 10" LIGHT THEIR? I PUT THE 10" REG. LIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS CAGE. IM GONNA TRY TO KEEP MONITERING HIS VEGGIE EATING.I JUST PUT GREENS WITH CARROTS . ANY OTHER TIPS WILL BE APPRECIATED.

You want the basking spot around 100-115F for young bearded dragons. The cool end of 80F is fine. Getting rid of the crushed walnut substrate and using just papertowel or newsprint is best for baby bearded dragons as already mentioned. That walnut stuff can also cause damage to the lining of the intestines as well as impaction.
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PHLdyPayne

Hey Waldo, Just wanted to know what the problem is with ESU lights. I have been using a Desert 7 slimline from them with no problems....

ESU's lights don't have a very high uvb output. Not all bulbs are created equal. I'm too lazy to find a link right now, but do a google search and look at a uvb testing, and you'll see. For flourescents, your best bet is a repti-sun 5 or 10 or a repti-glo 8.0. The Mystic flourescents from Big Apple have a pretty good uvb output as well, but the light intensity they put out is so weak, that I decided not to use it anymore. Also...I heard that the uvb diminishes rather quickly. So...either one of those 3 and you can't go wrong.
-Nicky
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Stare at me with empty eyes and
Point your words at me
Mirror on the wall will show you
What you're scared to see
I can see, yeah, wish I couldn't see at all
I can feel- Wish I couldn't feel at all
Hate to see- Wish I couldn't see at all
Hate to feel- Wish I couldn't feel at all
So climb walls,
Thin my blood now
And I crawl, back to bed now
-Alice In Chains
2.1 Bearded Dragons: Gordo, Layne, & Chiquita
2.2 Cats: Zeus, Remi, Kiki & Delilah
1.0 Betta: Mr. Purple

But how long have you been using that bulb without problems?

Here is a link that shows the UVB output of many bulbs on the market, as you can see the ESU 7% is very, very low. You may as well not be using a UVB bulb at all with that one.

http://home.comcast.net/~holachapulin/Researchmain.html
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Amanda
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2.0 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
1.0 pictus gecko (Nicodemus)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.1 ferreta (Playstation & Genesis)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

oh yeah get him lff the walnut shells... a friend of mine just lost one bd to impaction... and a breader friend of mine told me that the same day that one of his dragons that he sold is sick bc of that crap. i would say keep him on paper towels till he is atleast 10 inches long and then put him on some kind of repti sand or something.