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Long story short I'm at least temporarily taking care of a bearded dragon that got abandoned and seems to not have been treated all that well. He is super friendly but I've never taken care of a reptile before and want to make sure that unlike his previous owner, I treat him right. Is the warning about compact UVB bulbs in the OP still valid 7 years later? The lamp housing he came with is a two-bulb deal that houses conventional-shaped bulbs. From the OP It sounds like the 10.0 bulbs that are desired for a desert-dweller like a bearded dragon are generally a few feet long, he's currently in a maybe 40 gallon tank, maybe 30. Would there be bulbs small enough to keep a good temperature gradient in his tank? I also set up his terrarium by the window so part of it gets direct sunlight in the afternoon, he seems to love basking there but are there any safety precautions I have to take there? I positioned it so that there's still a shady spot if he gets too hot, but the thermometer shows it staying under 100F which from what I've read is safe for a basking spot. I live in a town small enough that the pet stores don't carry herp supplies, I'm going to drive out of town to the nearest Petco after work and get some reptile sand to replace the green carpet-y thing that is currently in there, potentially get a better bulb, and basically do anything else that is urgently needed for his health/safety. I'll probably post some pictures of the setup in the morning so people can hopefully spot anything else that needs to be taken care of immediately.
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May 11, 2022 08:21
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 03:43 |
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Okay, I'll see if I can find that or the Reptisun from the OP at the local store. Actually, reading it again, do I want the UVB bulb to go the full length of the terrarium? Is it UVB bulb and light bulb full length of the terrarium, heat lamp only in one section?
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May 11, 2022 09:04
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Looks like Zilla omnivore mix. Here’s the setup, the cardboard is because the terrarium is half mesh, half open, and I’m worried about him climbing out or the cat climbing in, although she’s happy to sit on my lap while he’s on my shoulder. You can see the light rig, that has both the UV bulb and heat lamp in it. There’s also not much to stimulate him in there. https://imgur.com/a/k2sJgSC
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May 11, 2022 16:23
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There are thermostats on each side, so I can see what the temperatures are, thankfully. I'll get the pulse thermostat, I live in a pretty cold climate so I want to make sure that he stays plenty warm. As far as live feed, how often should I feed him crickets (I assume?) because the Petco is about an hour away so if possible I'd prefer to keep that to a once or twice a month trip assuming I keep him, which I kind of want to do if I can at this point. I dated a woman who had a bunch of lizards last year and IIRC she had the live feed mailed to her. Just five minutes he was happily munching away at his feed while staring at me, so he's eating and he's lively most of the time. Is there a good crash course for beardie owning out there? I never really had any interest in lizards but nobody else could take him on short notice and I really like him.
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May 11, 2022 18:28
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Okay, turns out I'm keeping this beardie. The vet says she's pretty young, but she's also got a couple of infections, one on the tail and one around the cloaca, so betadine gauze for now, if it doesn't get better then antibiotics. What size of terrarium in terms of gallons should I be looking at for a single beardie? I'm thinking like 30 or 40? My guess is that's about the size of the fish tank that she was living in, just better suited to use for lizards. Do they tend to gnaw on stuff in their environment? I'm thinking about 3d printing some furniture and climbing stuff for her, I've got a food safe plastic but that doesn't mean it should be food. Is there a way to predict when they are going to poop relative to when they eat or anything? A few days ago I saw her happily munching away and a few hours later she took a massive dump down my back when I had her on my shoulder, all over my desk chair and freshly washed sweater. If there's some kind of rule of thumb of let them be for a few hours after they eat that would save me doing laundry.
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May 14, 2022 18:19
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I’m in civilization until this evening so I’m planning on going to one of the better stocked pet stores, maybe even specifically reptile store. I took her to the shelter so I could legally adopt her so if the previous owner that abandoned her comes back she has no legal claim, and I’m picking the beardie back up tomorrow or Thursday. Would a 150w ceramic be appropriate for nighttime in a very cold environment where the room will frequently get down to 50-60 degrees even in summer at night/early morning? I know for the daytime heat lamp 75 is recommended. I’ve got one of the dual bulb Zoomed lamp fixtures so I guess I could put the heat lamp on one, ceramic on the other, and timers to turn each on?
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May 17, 2022 17:14
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Okay, I’ll see if Petco down here has that stuff, there’s a reptile store a little ways away but they have a bad reputation apparently for neglecting the animals they sell.
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May 17, 2022 21:37
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I could only find an on/off thermostat, but I got one of those, a 60w ceramic bulb, a 75w heat lamp, and an 18" fixture with tube UV lamp and brought the beardie home. I have the ceramic set up on the thermostat with the thermostat set to 75F and the probe at the cool end. The heat lamp and UV lamp are on a timer to match daylight hours. So far this has the cool end reading 70-75 throughout the day and the warm end at 85-90, not directly in the basking light. The shelter got some mealworms for her and I went to the grocery store and got some kale and blueberries for her. She has munched on the kale a bit, hasn't eaten any blueberries yet, but yesterday she ate some of her dry food and chowed down on like three mealworms so she's probably full. I hope she likes blueberries, a woman I went on a couple dates with last year had a bearded dragon that went crazy for blueberries. She's a little underweight, I don't think she ever got fresh food or live prey with her last owner so she might not have cared about her food beyond not starving. It also seems like some people exclusively feed them fresh vegetables, is that required or can I use a mix of dry food and fresh food? Being able to put out a big bowl of dry food and water to let her free feed when I have to be gone a few days would be ideal. I still need to put together some substrate and get a bigger tank, as well as get some more decorations and furniture and hidey-holes in there for her. Some of the guides I was reading were saying 120 gallon for a beardie, but it seems like the cheapest you can find that for is like $350, is that needed or is it more of a luxury? I also don't know if I'll have room for a 120 gallon tank when I move, I know I don't now. I think a 70 gallon would fit on my dresser though. I do have her out several times a day.
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May 21, 2022 05:53
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I feel like I should be able to google this but I'm not sure what to look for. Do I need to give my beardie a wide variety of vegetables at once or is just one type at a time okay? My main vegetables for personal consumption tend to be spinach and broccoli which apparently aren't good for them so I can't just give them the vegetables that I eat and I don't want to get a bunch of different types, mix them up, and then have 90% go bad because she only eats a few tablespoons per day.
22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 03:25 on May 31, 2022 |
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May 31, 2022 03:23
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Interesting idea, never thought of freezing it. She mainly eats at night anyway so that would give time for it to thaw out. I have to give the poor girl injectable antibiotics for a couple of infections she had before she got to me, I should have asked this to the doctor but is there any best time to do that from your experience? I'm wondering if feeding her a bunch of mealworms and waiting for her to be lying in the cold area in the evening would make her less energetic so she won't fight to get away as actively.
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Jun 5, 2022 21:49
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Ok Comboomer posted:no advice on injectable antibiotics but most animals seem to tolerate meds better on a full stomach in general She has thankfully gotten used to it to the point where she didn't even jump and try to run the last time that I gave her an injection. The discoloration is almost completely gone but the swelling is still there, frustrating. Two questions: 1) the vet recommended a felt mat or tile rather than sand, he said that they can eat the sand and get blockages. I would think play sand would work since kids eat that poo poo all the time and don't have to go to the hospital but kids also have larger digestive tracts than a bearded dragon. 2) any recommendations for one of those I think they're called pulse thermostats? The ones that can adjust the power of the heat lamp to maintain temperature. It's getting warm enough that during the day if it's on for the full normal time even the cold end gets up to 90, but if it's off then the hot end is only 70. For now I'm setting the lights to go on and off every hour to try to keep it within acceptable ranges but that's not a good long term solution. E: Oh yeah, 3) she's shedding a tiny bit but not much, is that normal as a leadup to a shed or something? She's gaining a lot of weight in a good way so that could have to do with it. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Jun 15, 2022 |
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Jun 15, 2022 20:27
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Okay, I'll keep felt or something for the feeding area. I like to put the mealworms a little bit away and at odd angles to her so she gets a bit of a hunting feel snatching them up. I'll look at a dimmer thermostat since this is for her heat lamp, the ceramic heater at night is not a problem. Well, buy once cry once, I got a dimmer. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jun 16, 2022 |
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Jun 15, 2022 23:19
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Little Bearded Bobbi is shedding quite a bit today, and she wasn't as eager as usual to snatch up her mealworms. It looks like that's normal, right? Lethargy and low appetite while shedding? I figure I'll still at least try to feed her as much as usual and if she doesn't eat it she doesn't eat it.
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Jun 26, 2022 04:15
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I got a new 4x2x2 enclosure for Bobbi the Beardie that I'm going to put together when I am in my new place in a few weeks. A mix of play sand and coconut coir is good for her substrate, right? I'm currently using pure sand but I think that size terrarium would need two full bags and I just don't want to put 100 pounds of sand in for practical reasons. Are there any concerns with using a heat pad with a PVC enclosure? My current one is glass, I'm not sure how PVC compares. It also seems like I'd need a low profile heat lamp setup if I was going to put it inside the enclosure, are there any good options? If not I'll just leave the heat lamp on the outside and move the UVB bulb inside so it's not getting blocked by the screen anymore.
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Jul 17, 2022 19:38
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The room with my terrarium has been getting hot during the day sometimes, so that even with the heat lamp off it gets up to 90 at the cool end. Is there any way to cool down that side for my beardie? The only thing I can think of is one of those ice packs and sticking it on the cool side so that she can get closer/farther from it depending on what makes her comfortable.
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Aug 7, 2022 19:54
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Thanks, will do. I ordered some soldier fly larva last week and just put in an order for more after seeing how small they are but forgot to get a sifter. Since they're so small it's more of a pain to pick them out of their substrate with tweezers like I had been doing with the bigger superworms before I found out those are fattier than regular food should be. Is there a term I should be looking for to find a sifter that has big enough holes to let the oat bran(?) that they use for substrate through but small enough to keep the larva in there so I can dump them in my lizard's bowl? She seems to love them at least, so that's good. They kind of give me the creepy crawlies compared to the bigger worms for some reason, not sure why. Also, is poor eyesight common for a beardie? She keeps attacking the tweezers even when they don't have anything in them yet and I'm picking up a larva that fell out of the bowl. Like she associates them with food but can't tell that there's no food in them at the moment. I'm worried that I might be missing some kind of nutrition. I give her Brussels sprouts and had been giving her super worms, I'd dust the brussels sprouts with calcium once a week or so because she seems to be one of the few that will eat calcium-dusted veggies and that's easier than dusting worms with them. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Aug 9, 2022 |
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Aug 9, 2022 19:34
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Ok Comboomer posted:captive reptiles often go blind/get cataracts either because of dietary nutrient deficiencies and/or too much prolonged UV/too bright of a bulb Any nutrients in particular? Do I need to give her some supplement other than calcium? I do see her staring across the room at me fairly often and her eyes aren't cloudy at all. I've got the UV light on about 16 hours a day, is that too much? I figure that a desert creature like a beardie expects all day long hot sun, and I've got hides for her to go into if it gets too bright for her. Especially in the summer I figured that having the heat lamp and UV light on mimics that.
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Aug 9, 2022 20:49
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How sensitive are lizard lungs? I'm setting up a 3d printer but I have a studio so I can't keep it in another room. The fumes aren't bad but they do exist and I don't want to damage her lungs. It's not a problem for mammals but I know some cold blooded animals have more sensitive lungs. I might be able to vent it out a window if I need to. E: I think I have a skylight in my new place I'm moving into so I could crack that and run a vent to it, although that might pose a problem in the winter when it gets cold and snowy. Maybe I could fit one of those chimney stacks or something, but I still might need to put a heat element in there or something on a thermometer to keep it at temp. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Aug 18, 2022 |
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Aug 18, 2022 19:27
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I got my beardie in her new terrarium but she seems really restless, I don't know why. It's bigger, a 2x2x4 instead of the 18x24x36 that she had before. Is there anything that they tend to like to play with? I've got a couple things for her to climb on, a water bowl that she mostly splashes on rather than drinking from, and a plastic t-rex skull I guess she could also climb on.
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Nov 18, 2022 04:18
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learnincurve posted:Also because I suspect every single one of us is a girl/enby, if you haven’t been here already this is where all the women on the internet who keep lizards and snakes are, it’s a safe space and no transphobia tolerated. Is that a theme? It seems like every woman at the vet has a beardie.
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Nov 28, 2022 00:43
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What age do beardies stop growing? When I got Bobbi in May the vet thought she was about a year old but since then she has grown another few inches at least. She used to fit in a 36x18x18 enclosure without her tail having to curl but now she's nearly 2 feet long.
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Jan 24, 2023 17:44
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Okay, that explains it. I hadn't really noticed her growing until I was thinking "She used to fit on my shoulder a lot better." I don't think the 48x24x24 is too small or anything, she has plenty of room to run around and climb and sun, she's just getting huge.
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Jan 25, 2023 18:22
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 03:43 |
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I feed my beardie soldier fly larva. I've got a sifter thing that I use to shake out the oat bran that the larva come in before I pour the larva in her bowl. Would it be bad to pour the larva and bran directly into her bowl, giving her more of a "hunting" experience having to dig through to find all of the larva? I don't want to risk her health but if I can make feeding more mentally stimulating for her that seems like a good thing. I wouldn't think oat bran would pose a health risk but also some fruits and veggies that I assumed would be harmless are apparently bad for them.
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Jul 18, 2023 17:47
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