still_crimson
Hatchling Dragon
- Messages
- 60
Hi everyone. My name is Jen. I just got a baby beardie today. I guess I will give the background info.
My apartment complex manager who knows I'm an animal person called me earlier today freaking out because some people in another building moved out at the end of April. They just got around to clean up in the apartment and found that the people left behind three betta fish. One in one mason jar and two bettas sharing another mason jar. Along with them was a baby dragon. He was in a 20 long zilla reptile cage with sliding lid. The screen however was broken. He has a uvb strip light, a 50 watt night light, but had no day lights. Electricity had been turned off for a while so he was without any. His cage had repti sand in it and while he had a water and food dish, driftwood, and reptile cave the cage was filthy and there was no water until the maintenance man came in and found him. There were dehydrated pieces of veggie and fruit in the cage. Well I took him in and sterilized everything, took the lid to a great lumber supply/maintenance store and had them put a new screen in. I've replaced the sand with repti carpet. In the apartment was gut load gel and pellet food for crickets, but that is all. So I got a small critter keeper and about two dozen crickets today along with calcium powder with D3. I've given him a bit of romaine and carrots and he has eaten a little bit, but I am holding off on crickets til tomorrow to make sure they will be nice and gut loaded. I took him to the pet shop with me to get appropriate size crickets and the lady looked at him and said he will need a little tlc but doesn't look severely malnurished.
Anyhow with both the day heat lamp and night heat lamp on the hot spot in the cage is only reading at a little over 80 degrees. So I am assuming I will have to get a bigger day lamp, but am worried about putting it on top of the cage because the screen is already sagging a little bit under the weight of the 50 watt day and night heat lamps.
In any case I'm feeling very overwhelmed right now as I have a 29 gallon fish tank, a cat, and am getting ready to adopt a pair of guinea pigs that I will be picking up Saturday. I hope this little guy or girl is going to be ok. And sorry for the long rant! I've never had a beardie before but know a little about them as I researched when thinking of getting one a while back. I opted not to at the time because I heard the lamps are prone to causing fires and didn't want to deal with crickets. lol. Any advice will be much appreciated.
My apartment complex manager who knows I'm an animal person called me earlier today freaking out because some people in another building moved out at the end of April. They just got around to clean up in the apartment and found that the people left behind three betta fish. One in one mason jar and two bettas sharing another mason jar. Along with them was a baby dragon. He was in a 20 long zilla reptile cage with sliding lid. The screen however was broken. He has a uvb strip light, a 50 watt night light, but had no day lights. Electricity had been turned off for a while so he was without any. His cage had repti sand in it and while he had a water and food dish, driftwood, and reptile cave the cage was filthy and there was no water until the maintenance man came in and found him. There were dehydrated pieces of veggie and fruit in the cage. Well I took him in and sterilized everything, took the lid to a great lumber supply/maintenance store and had them put a new screen in. I've replaced the sand with repti carpet. In the apartment was gut load gel and pellet food for crickets, but that is all. So I got a small critter keeper and about two dozen crickets today along with calcium powder with D3. I've given him a bit of romaine and carrots and he has eaten a little bit, but I am holding off on crickets til tomorrow to make sure they will be nice and gut loaded. I took him to the pet shop with me to get appropriate size crickets and the lady looked at him and said he will need a little tlc but doesn't look severely malnurished.
Anyhow with both the day heat lamp and night heat lamp on the hot spot in the cage is only reading at a little over 80 degrees. So I am assuming I will have to get a bigger day lamp, but am worried about putting it on top of the cage because the screen is already sagging a little bit under the weight of the 50 watt day and night heat lamps.
In any case I'm feeling very overwhelmed right now as I have a 29 gallon fish tank, a cat, and am getting ready to adopt a pair of guinea pigs that I will be picking up Saturday. I hope this little guy or girl is going to be ok. And sorry for the long rant! I've never had a beardie before but know a little about them as I researched when thinking of getting one a while back. I opted not to at the time because I heard the lamps are prone to causing fires and didn't want to deal with crickets. lol. Any advice will be much appreciated.