Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I only have my one special little beardie Edgar that has gone through alot in his lifetime . We guess that he is aroung two years but unsure . I just wanted to check that I am doing everything right . First off I have him in a 40gal aquarium , which is only temperary until I can free up my 55gal for him . He has a Full sepcturm lighting , heat lamp and a undertank heater . The hot spot is around 95-100 and a cool side of 80 . He is on the product Yeasterdays News , which I have had problem with . He gets a mixture of greens and veggies everyday and is fed a variety of insects (crix , kingworms , mealworms and silkworms ) every 2-3 days .He also gets a pinkie mouse every few weeks .I power his food with calcium and vitamins every third feeding . He is fed his insects in a feeding container as I am afraid to feed him on any substrate . He gets a bath every three days in luke warm water. Is there anything I should change in the way I have been caring for him ? I would love to hear your opions and suggestions . Thanks

A regular full spectrum bulb doesn't put out much uvb. You n eed to get a bulb that specifically says it produces UVB rays. Repti-sun and repti-glo are pretty much the best florescent tubes to go by for uvb production.

I recommend removing the Yesterday's News completely. Though great for rodents, it can be deadly for bearded dragons. The pellets swell up alot if wet and can cause blockages if your dragon accidently ingests some. Also, since I have used teh stuff for rodents in the past, i do find it a bit dusty (not as bad as carefresh). I suggeset using just plain papertowel or unprinted newspring for a substrate for bearded dragons.

The basking temp is alright, it does fall within the 95-115F range, though if your coolest basking temp is below 95F, raise the basking spot a bit or lower the light, t his way the dragon does have access to nearly 115F. I have observed dragons tend to like the higher temperature for digesting right after eating and to warm up after waking up.
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PHLdyPayne

Thank You for the advice . He has a reptile UVB bulb , which is really what I meant to say. I will up the basking spot a little bit too. As for the yeasterdays news I will remove it , even though he never eats in the enclosure . Do you have any suggestions to a good substrate other than papertowel or news paper . I would like something attractive , but poses no risk to my beardie . Thanks Again .

As for substrate.. people may be angry when I suggest this but I'd use sand. I use sand for all my desert herps and they do well on it. I never feed on herps on the substrate due to the chance in impaction.

And since your beardie doesn't eat in this tank... then I would think sand would be fine. And it's attractive
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Corn Snake
0.0.1 (Apollo)
Bearded Dragon
0.0.1 (Smaug)
Leopard Gecko
1.0.0 (Wallace)
Black Bear Hamster
1.0 (Bilbo)

Non-stick shelf liner works well for me and is easy to clean. I used to have sand, but found it absorbed alot of odor and cleaning was a pain! You can find the shelf liner at Walmart in all sorts of colors. Check it out, I think it looks great.

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2.1 Chavez, Lou, Lucy

Thanks for the suggestions . I like the fact that shelf liner is easy to clean and safe , but I prefer the look of sand .Overall though my beardies safety is way more important that looks so I think I will go with the shelf liner . Thanks for the great advice.

Oh and that is a great enclosure , what are the dimensions and how many beardies are in there ?

Thanks, its 48"x18", and at the time I was housing some babies in it, I can see 7 little heads in that pic. Now I have this beauty in there, she's my favorite, this was taken a couple months ago, she's almost 6 months old now.

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2.1 Chavez, Lou, Lucy