Bearded Dragon Questions?

Babies shed often...depends on growth rate but sometimes every week or so. Bathe babies 3 times a week for hydration. Daily misting is fine.

Babies frequently do not eat vegies. This will change as he gets older, but keep offering anyway so he gets used to them. One day you'll see him nibbling.

No waterfalls--too much humidity. A small bowl is fine. They will rarely drink but some will. The bathing, misting and eventually vegies will provide all the water he needs. Properly gutloaded insects (crickets should always have a bowl of water) also help.

Coloration sounds perfectly normal. Vitamin sprays are useless. Use a Calcium/D3 powder to dust the insects each feeding.

A common cause of stunting is poor heat and UVB. UVB needs to be within 12 inches of the basking spot, and use one made for reptiles like Repti-glo or Repti-sun 8.0 or 10.0.

Breeding is possible, but it takes a lot of time and money and commitment. You need incubators and the ability to take care of 30 or more baby dragons...all needing separate housing after a few months. Beardies, especially breeding pairs, should never be housed together...it is too stressful as one will always try to dominate the other. Fighting is common.

Keep soaking and spraying him. Never pull off shed skin as it can damage new scales. Use a wet q-tip and gently try to roll the skin off. If it doesn't come off, see a vet.

Here is a copy of my care sheet:

Bearded Dragons

Beardies should have at least a 40 gallon breeder tank. Breeder tanks are wider rather than being tall. This allows for more floor space. The larger the tank, the better for your beardie. Mine is in a 75 gallon.

Do not use sand or other loose substrate on the bottom of the tank. The risk of intestinal impaction is very real and very common. Also, loose substrate allows for the quick growth of bacteria and harbors parasites. It is difficult to clean well and usually smells before long. Good choices for substrate are non-adhesive shelf liner, which is rubbery, cheap, easy to clean, and looks great. This is what I use in my lizard tanks. Other choices include reptile carpet and ceramic tile cut-to-fit. Sand is NOT natural! In the wild beardies are not forced to live, eat, and poop all in a confined small space.

You must have a heat lamp and a way to regulate temperatures. The easiest way to provide this is to use a reflector dome with a regular household light bulb. You can change the wattage to increase or decrease heat as needed. Plug the heat lamp into a thermostat (they sell these for reptile lamps) or a dimmer switch. This way the temp can be carefully regulated. Baby beardies need 105F and adults 100F. Use a digital probe thermometer to measure the basking temp. These are sold as indoor/outdoor thermometers in most garden departments. Set it to “outdoor” and place the probe on the basking platform. You cannot use stick on or dial thermometers, as these only measure air temps and not basking temps. They can be off by more than 20F! If the temps are too cold or too hot, you’ll end up with a sick and stressed dragon. Place the heat bulb over one end of the tank so the other end can be the cool end. The beardie can self-regulate his temperature this way by moving from one end to the other. Most beardies spend a good part of their days basking. A basking platform can either be anything the beardie can climb onto to bask. I prefer the artificial logs or bridges, as they are easy to clean.

Beardies must have a UVB bulb! These look like fluorescent bulbs that fit into fixtures made for them. The larger the better. These bulbs must be within 12 inches of the basking spot to be effective. Both heat and UVB bulbs should be on for 12 hours a day. It is best to use timers to accomplish this as they allow for the creation of a natural day/night cycle. Good UVB bulbs are Repti-sun 10.0 or Repti-glo 8.0. These bulbs should be changed every 6 months as they lose potency long before the light gives out.

Feeding a variety of insects is always best. In the wild they will eat up to 50 different types of insects. Good choices include crickets, superworms, phoenix worms, silkworms, hornworms and occasionally wax worms (high in fat). Avoid mealworms as they are too high in chitin (outer shell) and can cause impactions. All insects must be properly “gutloaded” before being used as food. This means providing correct food and water or moisture for them. All insects fed must be no larger than the space between the beardies eyes. If the prey is too large, this can lead to impaction and possible paralysis!

Salads must also be provided. Several greens and vegies should be in each salad. For a complete list of safe recommended vegies, see the Beautiful Dragons website below under the “Nutrition” link.

Provide your beardie with a small bowl of water. Do not use a large bowl as this will raise the humidity too high in the tank, which can lead to upper respiratory problems.

Beardies benefit from bathing and soaking. This not only helps with shedding, it is a good way to keep him hydrated. Simply use a large Rubbermaid container. Fill it to beardie shoulder height with warm water and place the beardie in it. Some beardies love water and others never learn to enjoy a bath. Let him soak for 10-15 minutes. Baby beardies can be soaked 3 times a week (they dehydrate much more quickly) and adults every 1-2 weeks. Daily misting with a squirt bottle is also beneficial.

Beardies should have a stool sample checked by an experienced reptile vet twice a year. They can carry a lot of parasites which can cause loss of appetite, diarrhea, and illness. Some of these parasites, such as coccidia, can never be totally eliminated. Under stress their numbers can rise and cause problems. Your vet can advise you when treatment is needed.

For more info on care, health and feeding, please check out my favorite sites:

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/home.htm...

http://www.bio.miami.edu/ktosney/file/BD.html

http://www.beardeddragon.org/

http://www.bearded-dragons.com/tips/

you are doing good with spraying him every day. he sounds young being only 6-7 inches mine was 2 months onld and 12-14 inches. try givving him brightly colored fruits and vegtables. they get their attention more than just green ones. baths, i let mine swim in a pool 6 inches deep once a week for 10-20 minutes, they also like to bath themselves in their water dish so maybe you should get a larger dish. about the water moving thig, it's not that he wont drink stationary water he will if he gets thirsty. He just likes that having to go after the water. because of their basic instincts with hunting. so no you do not need to have a water flow system. he is not an odd color. mine was bright blue on the nose powder blue face then faded to teal then green body. they come in several colors depending on where they originated from. mine was from aisa. their are several sub species and that causes the different coloration. breeding a captive reptile can be very difficult, the female can become egg bound and die. the males can also be very aggressive towards the female since they usually live solitary lives in the wild. the color dosent really matter, people will take them in all colors. you can try aiding him in his shedding, rub the area once a day to try to help remove the skin. just don't try to force it. the skin underneath might not be fully ready yet. if it is still these in a week i would suggest you removing the skin or bringing the dragon to a vet.

OK, lets start off with the shedding questions. My guys shed almost every 2 weeks when they were growing as babies. But every dragon is different. Probably the "powder blue" you're seeing in his coloration is his skin getting ready to shed. They tend to shed in patches, and a nice long lukewarm water bath really helps get the itchy dry skin off. **DO NOT PULL THE SKIN OFF**, this can cause damage to the scales underneath. IF you can't help yourself, get an old, soft bristled toothbrush and gently (going "with" the scales) help lift off the old skin (this is also helpful if you have a poopy dragon tail lol).

As a young dragon grows up,. you'll notice highlighting even on your basic gray pet store bred dragon. This is natural, my barbata/vittaceps cross has "eyeshadow" and kind of make him look like Boy George...I have 2 Dauchiu oranges and a Petco normal who also has the yellow highlighting.

As for breeding, throw that idea right out the window. Just checking kingsnake's classified you can see we're being overrun with individuals breeding their dragons...unless you dragon has excellant bloodlines that you can trace back about 5 generations and exceptional colouring, I really wouldn't recommend it at all. It's expensive and very time consuming (And you never make your money back!).

Good luck with your baby! Check out www.beardeddragon.org & www.reptilerooms.com for caresheet references and www.beautifuldragons.com for a really helpful guide for beardies favorite foods! ~Michelle