new to beardeds!

[West Coast Jungle]

10 gal is fine for now but he will grow out of that eventually.

[ADEE]

haha, no not ear holes, those would be holes not markings.. in the first group of pics i posted, i believe the last one in that group you can see them actually in the first one too you can see them they just look less vibrant there than now... its like black markings behind his head on the skin of his neck (better discription?) they are perfectly round and almost jet black in color now... i have been offering crickets in small quantities and the little boogers do like to hide within the drift wood.

as for his pacing the cage, is that just him being silly or wanting more room already? i knew he would need to move up within a month or so but we already had the 10gal laying around. i did find a nice poop today and he had great urates and poops the day we brought him home, so how fast is their digestive track lol.. he also had nice urates today too.. perhaps hes doing better than i thought? as for the romaine is it *okay* to give him, not a staple obviously but he did eat some earlier

[West Coast Jungle]

haha, no not ear holes, those would be holes not markings.. in the first group of pics i posted, i believe the last one in that group you can see them actually in the first one too you can see them they just look less vibrant there than now... its like black markings behind his head on the skin of his neck (better discription?) they are perfectly round and almost jet black in color now... i have been offering crickets in small quantities and the little boogers do like to hide within the drift wood.

as for his pacing the cage, is that just him being silly or wanting more room already? i knew he would need to move up within a month or so but we already had the 10gal laying around. i did find a nice poop today and he had great urates and poops the day we brought him home, so how fast is their digestive track lol.. he also had nice urates today too.. perhaps hes doing better than i thought? as for the romaine is it *okay* to give him, not a staple obviously but he did eat some earlier

Romaine is fine, mixing up greens with radaccio, escarole or endive is better. They do have fast digestive tracts so he seems to be eating something. As far as the scratching at glass that is common depending on the personality of the dragon. I's probably the best exersize he gets. They get energy from heat so if he is doing it during the hottest part of the day then he is probably just getting used to his new enclosure. make sure you mist him down everyday or offer fresh water. Some dragons don't drink on their own and need to be soaked or misted. Small dragons are more prone to dehydration since they need fairly high temps. You also want to make sure you have a good UV light system for him.

[ADEE]

ok well hes not eating. he hasnt eaten anything since we brought him home besides that one poop that was taken out of the enclosure there is nothing in his cage (besides urate which he did again today good) and of course to no surprise craig from gold coast rep is not returning my calls. im going to replace his uv light today to be on the safe side... what should i get specifically? hes now down to 13g im really disapointed in how this is panning out

thank you!

edit: we did offer him water yesterday, we dripped it on the top of his head and he licked it off really well, seemed like he drank alot to me.

[SatanicIntention]

Have you tried dicing the veggies very small and getting colorful things like red/yellow bell peppers, maybe putting a little fruit juice on the food, or soaking some BD pellets in the fruit juice. Maybe some meat babyfood just so he can get some protein and calories.

[ADEE]

i plan to pick up the actual juvy baby food today.. i had tried peices of banana, we tried cantelope and romaine going shopping for him today would not be a problem. Do I just dab it on his mouth like with the crested? and let him lick it off?

[SatanicIntention]

Yeah, just dab it on his nose so he licks it off. You could easily give him a warm soak too for awhile so he stays hydrated. They like misting too.


How warm are his temps and what kind of UV bulb is it? Hopefully when you get a bigger tank you can buy one of those mercury vapor bulbs. www.reptileuv.com has awesome prices and they last much longer than those fluorescent tubes.

The next time he has a bowel movement, I would take it to the vet. He likely has internal parasites like coccidia and you won't want it taking over if he gets stressed. It can make him really sick.

Sorry you don't have Savanna and Caution anymore I have about 30 rats right now and none of my snakes know what rats are(except for the boa, but that's a rare ocassion and they are f/t rats). I just feed all of the snakes mice and they could care less if the room smells of rat. I like the mice sometimes(my frizzies, long hairs, and those adorable brindles), but after they bite me I have no problems feeding them off.

[ADEE]

i know sadly it wasn't really my choice.. my husband was the one pushing the issue..sooo we will just leave that alone before i get again...


anyway, i dont remember what type of uv bulb it is to be honest with you.. we got it a bit ago when we had the snakes and found out we didnt need it so we put it away, what type is it so i can pick up a new one and insure we have it perfectly right (if you remember the hard work i went through to make sure things with caution and savanna were just as they were supposed to be uh that makes me so mad about those snakes) anyway, if you can outline exactly what light i should be getting i will pick it up on my way home from work. we do plan to move him over to a larger tank but not within a month or so. i really want this guy to get settled and eating well before we move him into a larger tank. i do plan to pick up some of that sheet rock (?) to put in the tank as well.

oh, his temps were 90.6 degrees ambient on the warm side and humidity is 38%.. i also need to get another temp thing with the sensor for the cool side, i tossed one of them awhile back.

[ADEE]

if it is coccidia what do they do to treat them? when i get a nice poop ill be sure to buzz it over to my vet, thanks for the suggestion! i hope it doesnt cost me an arm and a leg lol

[SatanicIntention]

I'd get his temps up to about 110-115 on the warm side. 90 just usn't high enough for the babies. The cool side can be 80-85.

As far as bulbs, I'd get a mercury vapor bulb and just suspend it above the cage so it doesn't get too hot. The ZooMed ones are way overpriced though(generally $60-$70, whereas the ones from ReptileUV are only $45. I've heard the coil bulbs work ok and give off a fair amount of UVB. ReptileUV has a study on their website that was done on alot of the UVB bulbs and their outputs. It's pretty surprising(that alot of the bulbs available are crap). Might want to go read that and see what bulbs you have available in your area.

As far as fluorescents, the Zoomed ReptiSun 10.0(I think that's what it's called, don't quote me) are ok and give off a good amount of useable UVB. You could easily get one of those and use it in conjunction with a nice bright white bulb(the True Color bulbs are great and aren't yellow). You can get a white-light bulb at WalMart or Home Depot. You want something nice and bright, and not yellow, that will increase his mood and make him feel better. They like bright, bright light.

I'd try for the combo lighting until he's in a bigger tank, and then you can go MVB bulb. Hopefully increasing his temps and the overall brightness of the tank will stimulate him to eat and do beardie-like things.