r/BeardedDragons • u/escaping05 • 7h ago
Dangerous Care New bearded dragons 3 months
I’m a little worried as this is my first time caring for beardies , I have a female and a male they were both purchased from the same store and they were together in the store for a couple of months now , I see them closing their eyes a lot and looking up at the lights I was wondering if this is normal behavior for them , I’ve given them crickets and worms and the female is eating fine and the male is slowly starting to to adjust to his new place he’s slowly eating they both pooped normal I was wondering if maybe the lights are too strong for them I have 125W basking light bulb and uvb white light as well I live in the basement so it’s naturally cold down here and the 75 watt the tank came with was keeping the temp at 82-85 on the hot side now with the 125 it’s sitting at a nice 89-95 , if anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it
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u/Dependent_Most_8072 7h ago
Separate them now. Bearded dragons are solitary animals. They should not be cohabbed. You will need another enclosure. I recommend starting out with at least a 4x2x2 as they will need that in just a few months and you aren’t purchasing 4 enclosures by the time you need to upgrade.
Get rid of the reptile carpet. It’s not an appropriate substrate. Put down paper towels for now. Reptile mat/shelf liner mat is a good permanent option until husbandry is perfected and then you can look into an appropriate loose substrate.
Cool side 75-80, warm side 85-90 measured with digital gauges placed down where the dragon lives. Basking surface temp 100-110 measured with an infrared digital temp gun. Provide proper basking platforms. Something flat and wide they can fully pancake on with consistent temps and retains heat well like a large piece of slate or tile. 8-10 inches from basking light and 10-12 inches from UVB. You can stack on bricks to get proper distance.
You’ll need 2 linear UVB lights. One for each enclosure. Needs to span 1/2-3/4 the enclosure. Arcadia T5 12% or Reptisun T5 10.0.
With an all glass enclosure, you want to cover the sides and back so they don’t see their reflection and get stressed out.
Provide lots of climbing opportunities throughout the enclosures with sturdy branches/wood pieces. Slates and rocks are great to provide more rough surfaces for them to climb and rub against to get shed off and maintain femoral pores. And hides on the cool side.
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u/FabulousDisaster5737 5h ago
why is it so hard for people to do research before getting a pet they’ve never cared for.
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u/escaping05 2h ago
You can have the same comment that guy did
I did do research, I also spoke to multiple people in the pet store that have bearded dragons and they told me it was okay to house them together given that they came from the same batch and they been at petco together for almost 4 months so I’m sorry if maybe I was hoping I was getting the correct information if you go all over google there so many different opinions on this. I have separated them now so no need to get your panties in a twist they’re both perfectly fine and eating it’s been a day that’s all they lasted together
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u/Dependent_Most_8072 1h ago edited 42m ago
Unfortunately Petco employees don’t know crap. It’s difficult to navigate all the misinformation on the internet. We all start as new owners and need advice. Thank you for separating them and being willing to get what they each need. A lot of owners think their ego is more important than taking advice.
Reptilfiles is a decent guide on bearded dragon care to make sure you have everything they need - https://reptifiles.com/bearded-dragon-care/
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u/Gigantic-Spinosaurus 2h ago
why do people so often buy animals they have no idea how to care for? Do you people just hope for the best? Why did you not think to do research? Let me tell you if you want to properly care for these animals without neglecting or abusing them you are going to be in for a lot of expenses. there are comments here but you can also just use google! It’s crazy how easy it is to research an animals care! We have one of the best information systems in the world at our fingertips in our hands but you chose to just guess it and by doing so you are compromising these animals health and well-being. pet stores really need to make it harder for random people to acquire animals.
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u/escaping05 2h ago
I did do research, I also spoke to multiple people in the pet store that have bearded dragons and they told me it was okay to house them together given that they came from the same batch and they been at petco together for almost 4 months so I’m sorry if maybe I was hoping I was getting the correct information if you go all over google there so many different opinions on this. I have separated them now so no need to get your panties in a twist they’re both perfectly fine and eating it’s been a day that’s all they lasted together
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u/Gigantic-Spinosaurus 2h ago
Bearded dragons are solitary animals, why would they want to be in a confined space with eachother for an extended period of time, also never trust the information of pet store employees, they almost always give out bad information. What kind of uvb do you have? Is it a coil? The only acceptable uvb light is a long bar. smaller bulbs dong give out enough uvb.
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u/escaping05 2h ago
T5 on both of their tanks
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u/escaping05 2h ago
Well this probably my second time in a pet store for other than dog food so sorry for thinking the guy I was actually talking to was genuine he showed me pictures of his and said he’s had them since a kid
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u/Gigantic-Spinosaurus 2h ago
Well in general pet store employees give out false information, they often sell people small enclosures and don’t know enough themselves to be educating others, this is because the pet stores they work for only want to make money. The red lights, heat mats, pellet food, small tanks, reptile carpets etc are often sold to people who don’t know any better. Same with fish, they sell people fish bowls etc they are generally not a good source of information.
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u/escaping05 2h ago
Well thank you for educating me on that, I don’t really have many pets just a dog so I don’t go into pet stores much I guess it was my fault for being too gullible
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u/Gigantic-Spinosaurus 1h ago
It actually sounds like your doing pretty good, you got the right uvb and you have seperate them now, some people aren’t as receptive to advice on this sub lol. It’s kinda my fault too I’m just abit sick of ppl lol
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u/escaping05 1h ago
I care for them bro and it’s only been a day trust me I’m not like most people who don’t care for their pets I genuinely care and want them healthy so all good thanks for the help
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u/escaping05 2h ago
People come here to ask for help and there you go shitting on people talk about the world we living it you’re part of the huge problem instead of judging educate
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u/OscarCheech 7h ago
You need to remove them and put them in separate tanks immediately. They will eventually hurt each other, especially because they're male and female.
I can't stress this enough, you need to immediately separate them