how do I look after a beared dragon?

hello and congrats on the addition to your family!

first things first to offer in tips..... read any and all material you can find... talk to, or listen to other owners <or adoptive parents? just sounds nicer> find a vet to get yrly check ups for the dragon and as you get to know him/her.... trust your own judgement..... just like people... there may be 'general' traits/qualities about a dragon but it is not always 'how it is' < in other words... listen <<pay attention>> to what the baby says as well as the 'humans'

alright.. bearded dragons <as you know> are desert dwelling lizard.. temperatures for the habitat should range between high 70's cool side/area and mid-high 80's for the warmer area or side.. with a "basking spot" of 90-100 during the day.. at night the lowest temp should be no lower than 70 degrees...

-please note; not the whole tank should be one temp.. there should be areas/spots for the bearded dragon to go to be warmer.. or cooler..

you should/must have a hiding spot that is somewhat humid...the spot is for 'privacy/hiding' the humid to assist in the sheds... increase humidity <spray bottle of water spritz habitat as needed.... the rest of the tank does not need to be kept humid < keep in mind... they originate in deserts >

bowl of water.... for drinking.... clean/change this daily...

handle the dragon carefully....

bearded dragons are usually very trusting and may not 'cling' as well other lizards, so always take care to support your dragon.... on the flipside of that they do not enjoy being too firmly held......allow yours to 'rest' in your palm... with your fingers gently curled over the back. Dragons are curious <--very animals...........create a enclosed <controlled> area for him/her to do some exploring on his/her own.....

another; very very important!! is the lighting.... "not all lights are the same"... and without the uva/uvb.... full spectrum lighting... you are dooming your baby before he/she has a chance... the uvb is vitally important to utilizing the calcium to grow/create bone... the uvb is where vitamin D3 is obtained.. they can not make it on their own <internally> and will 'leech' the calcium needed to grow out of their own bone.. the disease that is due to lack of calium <metabolic bone disease=MBD> is horrible and painful from what I have read... and from what I have read, far too common a mistake for first time 'parents' lizards to succumb to this disabling and deadly killer...

let's see...

You must feed very small prey to baby bearded dragons. While the rule-of-thumb for feeding lizards says that it is generally safe to feed prey that is 2/3 the size of the lizard's head, this is not advisable with baby beardeds (0-4 months). When fed prey that is too large for them, serious physical problems often result: partial paralysis, seizures, ataxia (loss of motor control), inability to self-feed, gut impaction, even death. Start with feeding pinhead crickets and tiny, freshly molted worms, moving only slowly and gradually to larger sizes, phasing in day-old pinks when they are ready for them. Despite the fact that most stores sell animals that need them, most don't sell pinheads, so you will have to order them directly from a cricket breeder; you can order mealworms from them at the same time.

The bearded dragons are omnivores, with plant foods comprising about 20 percent of their diet. Since these lizards consume a wide variety of invertebrates and small vertebrates in the wild, a variety of protein sources must be offered in captivity.

quote from;

http://www.anapsid.org/bearded.html

another tip; enjoy your new family member/friend to be.. have fun creating his/her habitat for his/her comfort and sense of security.... !! :)

below are some sites I like.. there are lots more out there I am sure.. but; these will get you started in info about beardies and raising them....

link to 'main lizard page' of this site... note on left there are tons of links to other areas of this site... including - cleaning, disinfecting, behavior, general info.. feedings/prey...

http://www.anapsid.org/mainlizards.html

really for the most part, I enjoy this next site for the pictures more than anything... lol.. some info here that is not always found elsewhere.. and tons more photos.... lol

http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Lizard,%20Bearded%...

2nd page of the one above;

http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Lizards,%20Bearded...

a few caresheet links <all same site, broken into the various pages... scroll under the ads, which they have towards top of article/sheet>

http://www.reptileknowledge.com/care/housing-beard...

http://www.reptileknowledge.com/care/bearded-drago...

http://www.reptileknowledge.com/care/bearded-drago...

http://www.reptileknowledge.com/care/bearded-drago...

bearded dragon forum;

http://forums.kingsnake.com/forum.php?catid=43

next is a forum/store/caresheets of all kinds/question and answer area-pretty neat site from what I have seen so far;

http://www.reptilechannel.com/reptile-store/defaul...

supplies/stores;

http://www.reptilesupply.com/

http://www.petsolutions.com/Zoo-Med-Naturalistic-T...

http://www.bigappleherp.com/REPTILE-SUPPLIES

Well to be honest you really should have looked into this BEFORE getting one. As you didn't I'll give you as much info as I can.

I trust you've got it's tank all set up properly? Please tell me you looked into how to do this. You're tank should be roughly 3'x2'x2' (for an adult, if you've got a baby then a smaller tank is better, but you will have to upgrade it by the time the beardie is 18 months old or so).

Ideally you should have a red heat lamp at one end of the tank, controlled by a thermostat (preferably a night/day one) and surrounded by a cage. You need a daytime average tank temperature of roughly 80 F, with the basking area at about 100-105 F. At night you can drop the average temperature quite significantly, even down to 60 F.

You MUST also have a UV light, set to be on for around 12 hours each day. Beardies NEED UV to help them digest their food and produce important vitamins.

This is all you need for heat and light; do not buy things like hot-rocks as these are dangerous to the animal.

Substrate can be many things, I find that large wood chip works best; sand is not ideal as it'll ingest it when feeding and this could lead to compaction in the gut (not good). If it's only a baby then newspaper will do for now.

You should have plenty of things in the tank to keep it from becoming bored or stressed. It should have a hide (you might like to watch it all the time, but it won't), and I found making a shelf and using a cork 'ramp' is a nice touch; mine loves sleeping on the ramp. Under the heat lamp you should have a flat rock (you can buy these or use ordinary ones from the garden, but if you do that you must soak it in bleach and water over night, then in just water for 12hrs to ensure it's totally sterile)

For feeding, a baby should be fed on small crickets. These should ideally be put in a container and fed veg the day you buy them, to make them more nutritious. Ideally they should be dusted with a vitamin supplement eg nutribol when you get them too. Roughly 4 or 5 a day is plenty. It should also have a small bowl of fruit and/or veg available each day. All veg is fine; beardies all have different taste eg mine loves rocket, spinach and yellow pepper but hates most fruit. The veg should have a light dusting of nutribol too, once a week or so.

Do not feed babies mealworms, the shell is too hard for young beardies to digest and will hurt them.

Adults can be fed adult crickets, locusts (mine loves locusts), mealworms (these should be a treat as they're not very nutritious), and of course bigger portions of veg. A general rule for insect food is that the food should never be bigger than the animal's head.

Babies will eat more insects and less veg whereas adults eat about 50/50. If you find yours is eating either only veg or only crickets then give it only the type of food it isn't eating, to force it to eat properly.

Of course don't forget a bowl of water too.

The tank shouldn't need a full clean that often, but you should remove all faeces as soon as you can (beardie poo STINKS), and change the substrate maybe once every 6 months or so.

Finally, let it out as often as you like, they love to run around and explore and in the summer it's good to get them out in the sun. Just be sure not to keep it out so long it starts getting cold; you'll know when it's cool as it'll be less active. And don't get it out when it's shedding.

That's all I can think of, hope it helps. Beardies are wonderful animals and make superb pets, you won't regret getting it. Just PLEASE look after it properly, and if you can't then give it to someone who will.

If you want any more advice or have any questions feel free to email me.

to be honest you should have done a lot of research before buying one.

ask advice from where you got him, get a care book or search online as you will need to get the right heating and lighting, substrate and food.

for the best advice go to this forum, there are a really good group of people who want to help there or have helped plenty of people in the past so search through the threads:

www.repticzone.com

good luck

hi there

bearded dragons are fairly easy to look after

as long as u meet their basic needs

never use sand causes impactions best substrate is non particle substrate such as reptile carpet, paper, tile... etc

they eat insects but dont use meal worms or super worm(also known as king worms) they cause impactions as well and should only be use as a treat for adults

they are ominvores so they also eat greens, veggies and fruit ... they need uva and uvb lights

more on our website under the lizard section

hope this helps.....

They are pretty easy to keep, compared to some reptiles, but dont take chances on here, get yourself a carebook that will tell you temperatures and lighting guides, and go to your nearest reptile shop for the best up to date advice pronto. Theres a great one in Leighton Buzzard, but of course you could be anywhere in the world!

They eat mostly insects: grasshoppers, moths... You can wean them onto stuff like beef mince, but they usually need to see things move before they will bite at it.

They also eat selected vegetation. Especially fond of yellow or orange flowers e.g. hibiscus flowers. Can be interested in stuff like grated carrot, and pawpaw (papaya). They don't have to drink much, but make sure they have some for if they do. They will more lilely splash about in it.

They need to sun themselves to warm up in the morning. They like plenty of room to run around, and like things like branches to climb up.

They will instinctively hibernate in winter. This means they will dig a hole to bury themselves in for a few months.

They seem to know what they need and what they don't but it is hard to know how best to provide for them.

they are really easy to take care of and a very good pet you made a good chioce on getting a bearded dragon!! ... just make sure that you have the habitat set up with sand at the bottom....somthin for him/her to climb around on like a little tree branch and somthing to hide under and a little water bowel and a heat lamp or pad.. i have both in mine... i feed mine things like..crickets, bananas, lettuce...etc.. just make sure you handel him/her 10-15min a day maybe twice aday so that it is used to getting handled so when its older it will be easy to pick up if you wanta hold! good luck with your new pet! :)

bared dragon love to get in a berth with a little bit of warm wartier . it helps them with there toileting to

short and to the point...feed it bagged romain lettuce daily, buy 100 crickets every two weeks...that's how long mine last, and give him/her bearded dragon pellets...good luck with your new beardie...i'm sure you'll do fine...

I had one but it died, so I am really not the one to ask.....