CrownedCorpse
Bearded Dragon Egg
- Messages
- 1
- Location
- Connecticut/Massachusettes
So, I am a first time owner of a reptile(I've wanted one for a long time, so I've done some extensive research, and have family who's owned a Nile Monitor lizard before as a resource), let alone a Bearded Dragon, and recently adopted a 2 yr old Beardie about a month back (named Inkol, he's my inky and I love him v much) who was neglected pretty badly by his previous owner. He's around 11-13 inches, antisocial, and underweight. I'm not sure how much he weighs, he doesn't like being held at all and i'm working on socializing him again after not being touched for a year and a half. Before I got him, his last owners were feeding him kale often, and only two dozen crickets every two weeks, and they didn't clean the cage very often. The girl who owned him stopped taking him out of his tank after he started trying to get out of her hands and explore when he was around 6 months old, and she would tap on the glass when he scratched at it or climbed on the screen top.
His color looks much better and less dark than he was before, his patterning is coming out some more, and his beard is more orange than dark. He's a little fleshier, and he's more animated and interactive with his environment. His stool is a good color and consistency and fairly regular (2-3 times a week or so).
I have him in about a 40 gallon tank with a hidey hole and a basking platform and a water-bowl that he splashes in until it fills with sand, a 75W UVA bulb that stays on most of the day and a source of natural sunlight for the morning and the early afternoon from an adjacent, east facing window, as well as a 150W night heat bulb. He's eating a steady diet of yellow squash, dandelion greens, and four or five superworms a day and a few crickets every day, rolled in calcium-carbonate D3 twice a week. He's excited about food time, and today I pet him for a whole minute before he flattened out and got squirmy and tried to eat my finger. (A big accomplishment!)
SO, I'm looking to make sure I'm doing okay with helping him get back to healthy, and am looking for tips on socializing him more. I've ordered a leash for him to let him run around when I take him out, so I can have him out and active without having to hold him all the time, since he's not too keen on that yet. Keeping him from jumping and nipping whenever I open the cage is not necessary, but would be a nice bonus if only so I don't worry every time he falls back down :'D
His color looks much better and less dark than he was before, his patterning is coming out some more, and his beard is more orange than dark. He's a little fleshier, and he's more animated and interactive with his environment. His stool is a good color and consistency and fairly regular (2-3 times a week or so).
I have him in about a 40 gallon tank with a hidey hole and a basking platform and a water-bowl that he splashes in until it fills with sand, a 75W UVA bulb that stays on most of the day and a source of natural sunlight for the morning and the early afternoon from an adjacent, east facing window, as well as a 150W night heat bulb. He's eating a steady diet of yellow squash, dandelion greens, and four or five superworms a day and a few crickets every day, rolled in calcium-carbonate D3 twice a week. He's excited about food time, and today I pet him for a whole minute before he flattened out and got squirmy and tried to eat my finger. (A big accomplishment!)
SO, I'm looking to make sure I'm doing okay with helping him get back to healthy, and am looking for tips on socializing him more. I've ordered a leash for him to let him run around when I take him out, so I can have him out and active without having to hold him all the time, since he's not too keen on that yet. Keeping him from jumping and nipping whenever I open the cage is not necessary, but would be a nice bonus if only so I don't worry every time he falls back down :'D
