# Beardie Advice Needed



## Mr Cairo (Jul 14, 2009)

Hi there im New to bearded Dragons and hope someone may help 


We picked up an approximatly 6 month bearded dragon from the pet store Sunday and placed her in the new enviroment 


she seemed to settle quickly last night and ate some crickets just fine then slept ok through the night 


Monday though she had not eaten any veggies (some rocket some butternut squash a small amount of pear some cress and some cuttlefish grated on it sprayed with water) at all and as far as i can tell has not drunk any water (i gave her a spray with some water just in case) she has also not had a poo as far as i can tell in over 24 hours


is this all just her settling into a new enviroment i go to see her several times an hour and talk to her a lot and sometimes she will sit and let me stroke her but she seems tense and will bolt away very easily 


am i hoping for too much too quick is this all just a setteling down to a new home thing .. i worry a lot that she has not eaten and was puzzled that she was so docile and is now so skittish 


LITTLE UPDATE 

at the moment (about 36 hours since coming home) she has had a poo and will just lay about the habitat basking she still shows no interest in food and as far as i can tell has only eaten i cricket since yesterday morning she is showing zero interest in greens


she is not very active at all but did fall asleep quickly last night again (she is so adorable when she is sleeping) does she prefer a small cave/hide to sleep in ? as at the moment she just curls up at the far end of the Habitat away from the heatlamp but out in the open


i give her small spray with water once a day just to make sure she is getting moisture as she is not eating but i do worry that she is not eating i know that i will expirience a huge wave of relief when she does finally start to eat 


i still talk gently to her several times a day and stroke her very carefully she now closes her eyes when i do this (i read that this was a sign that she could be picked up) 

also the stick that she has in her habitat has a lot of nooks in it i was convinced that i had removed all the crickets from there but still find one every now and then would i be better served with a smoother stick with less hiding places .... i understand that the crickets will bite her as she sleeps

By the way no one told me how goddamn beautiful these creatures were i have fallen in love with her so quicky and sorry that i have so many questions i am just terrified of doing this wrong and hurting her ..


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## HadesDragons (Jun 30, 2007)

Beardies can suffer from "relocation stress" when they are first moved into a new home - it can take up to a week or two for them to settle in. You can help by keeping them quiet and not stressing them too much - as tempting as it is to always be watching her and picking her up, it won't be doing her much good whilst she's adjusting to her new home.

A smoother stick might be a good idea whilst she's settling in - once she has her appetite back you might find that she eats everything before it gets a chance to hide!

Do you have any photos of her and her cage? They should show if anything is obviously wrong, so we can give you advice on any changes to make. : victory:


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## BellaCullen (Apr 23, 2009)

i got a rescue on saturday and he has been the same its like hadesdragon says they can get a little fussy over being moved, it took my other beardies about 5 or 6 days to start to eat live food and about another 3 weeks to even look at there veg! now they can't get enough of it lol


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## StephanieDragon (Dec 24, 2008)

*Eating*

i know this sounds rediculous but when my dragons first came home i had a sililar prob. I threw a duvet cover over the viv to give them ultimate privacy and i started to hear little muchies. I found once mine got over the initial shock of eating in a different home it was clear sailing and now i cant slow them down, they both eat for England. I dont know if this is the case with your beardie but it worked for me and definatly worth a try.


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## Tinx (Jun 5, 2009)

ooh i'm glad i read this thread now.....got 2 babies on sunday and they started off eating well but it seems to have slowed down a bit. 

they are both pooing fine (poppy loves to poo on basking stone :devil: and spiderman in the salad bowl :lol2

poppy is the bigger of the two and can eat 8-10 crix in 15 mins whereas spiderman only eats 1 maybe 2 (she is a bit smaller). i feed 3 times a day.

temps are fine and am starting to think spiderman is a vegatarian who likes to poo on her food :lol2: 

Jac x


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## Mr Cairo (Jul 14, 2009)

HadesDragons said:


> Do you have any photos of her and her cage? They should show if anything is obviously wrong, so we can give you advice on any changes to make. : victory:


This is her Habitat as it stands at the moment she appears to spend 99% of the time where she is in this photo

the temp in the tank was set at 86 by the petstore but after speaking to out local reptile vet i have started pushing that up to about 90 

she very rarley seems to spend time basking on the stone though 

this morning for the first time in over 60 hours she ate some crickets , im not sure if i did the right thing but i did not let her go mental and just gave her 8 crickets and stopped as i hoped she may have taken some of the veggies 

tonight i will feed her until she stops eating

someone said that i should be physically dropping the tank temp at night to about 76 but im not sure i understood that right i figured the tank was big enough that at one end it would be warm eenoug for her and at the other cool enough to sleep 

she seems to have no issues settling at night i tend to leave the UV on from 8 am to 8 pm 

anyway heres a photo and thanks for the advice so far .... sorry the photo is so bad its a naff camera


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## Freespirit (Jun 30, 2009)

You should be taking the temperature at the basking spot too. Should be 105-115.
All lights should go out at night.


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## Mr Cairo (Jul 14, 2009)

Freespirit said:


> All lights should go out at night.


 
Even the heat lamp light ?


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## AuntyLizard (Feb 7, 2007)

Mr Cairo said:


> Even the heat lamp light ?



Yeah all heat and lighting off at night.

Liz


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## Paul B (Apr 16, 2008)

yes all out at night as long as the temps dont drop below 60f.

110 at the hot end (spot lamp) and 75 ish at the cool end.

10% UV on 14 hours a day. 

take the calci sand out today. If you have to use sand use Play sand from Argos. Its cheaper and less dangerous.

P


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## Mr Cairo (Jul 14, 2009)

thanks so far guys all the research i did beforehand and still im like a fish out of water 


anyway last night for the first time she really went for the crickets she must have eaten about 12 and im feeling a little happier

im trying for a veg in the morning and crickets at night approach the only thing is at the moment she is not showing any interest in the veg in the morning 

do i try veg and if she wont eat substitute crickets or do i try and tough it out and keep the veg in there and only give her crickets at the end of the day 

sort of have the veg as the only option through the day to see if she will go for it 

its a mix of Collard/Spring greens , Butternut sqush . small amount of carrot , small amount of pear and a little tomato sprinkled with grated cuttlefish for calcium 

i really want her to get started on those veggies as the petshop assured me that she loved them i would kind of be happy with a 50/50 mix of veggie and crickets 


one other thing ... how many of you put a water bowl in there at the moment because she is not eating the greens i have been misting her once a day for moisture 

anyway she really seems to be setteling now so im thinking wed i may try and get her out for the first time ..... been waiting to hold her and so has my son 

thanks so far


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## stevenw (Feb 28, 2009)

a water bowl is not really needed in the viv perm ... they tend to get the moisture they need from food , i only spray mine occaisonally as before mainly when shedding seems to be bothering her ... 

try a small amount of little mealworm (3-4 max imo) put them under the salad in the bowl the movement of the worms will get your beardie at the salad bowl and most of time they will end up with a salad mealworm combo ... i found with blaze my eldest this got her going greens wise .

hope it helps


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## Mr Cairo (Jul 14, 2009)

put a few mealworms in her salad last night and she managed to pick them out without touching any sald 

but this morning she took a little collard and some apple with no prompting ... she is alos slowly getting used to us picking her up now 

anyone have an opinion on these Cricket Feeders ....

http://pet.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pPETS-3761629dt.jpghttp://pet.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pPETS-3761629dt.jpghttp://www.petzoo.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=622

are they any good ?


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## AuntyLizard (Feb 7, 2007)

Those cricket keepers means the crickets are in the viv all the time which is not a good idea.

try one of these you can put your crickets in there they climb up the tubes and you just have to pull one of the tubes out empty some into a sandwich bag sprinkle with calcium dust and empty into viv.. Thats what I do anyway lol.



and you can buy them from any rep shop or from rep shops online.

Liz


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## mjp1pink (May 3, 2008)

*Beardie*

Hi, glad to hear your beardie is eating, my beardie loves his veg/salad, I buy the italian mix salad and a bowl day goes down a treat.

Have you taken the sand out yet? This can cause compaction. Repti sand is not good, even if the pet shop recommends it.


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## Mr Cairo (Jul 14, 2009)

Hi there bit of an update 

yup the sand is out she now has a nice tiled floor in there and its much easier to keep clean , she is making headway on the greens but she really does prefer the greens (collard , peas , Romaine leyttuce , Cucumber) over anything else 

i use one of those cricket feeders but find that the larger ones are able to climb and escape so now they are kept outdoors in the cricket feeder in a large draw to keep them contained 

she is getting used to being handed and so far things are going ok 

trying to work out the correct amount of Vitamin and calcium is hard as there is so much cotrary infor out there 

at the moment i put calcium on her foor and crickts everyday and spray her with a vitamin spray every other day 

she seems happy so fingers crossed 

she just shed as well so i purchased a childs sandpit and fill that with warm water and just let her go mental in there she seems to like it 

weather is warm at the mement so tonight when the wife is here we are going to put her in the sandpit (minus sand) out on the garden for her to get some nice natural sunlight


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