just got my first bearded dragon!

A friend of mine from years ago came into my work the other day to get copies made and it turned out her brother was trying to get rid of his bearded dragon. I own and starting to breed leopard geckos but I have been looking at getting a bearded dragon or a crested gecko..so here was a free adult dragon! I told her I love to take him.

Alright so its now about 10 at night and I picked up up at about 9:15 and Im alread worried about him.
1. when I picked him up he threw up on me. They said he had never done that before. I picked up up by scooping him up from under neath, not grabing from the top..thats how I have always picked up medium reptiles that would let you hold them.
2. he has been on a diet of meal worms and had just eaten some gaint meal worms.
3. they had him on some kind of walnut substraght.
4. his skin looks extremly dried out and he has a lot of stuck on scales that look like they should have come off days or longer ago
and finaly
5. one of his eyes is damaged but it looks like its healed over and it healed badly.

So here is what my plans are and I want everyones ideas, ok?
My plans are to no longer let him have meal worms and let him keep eating the veggies and crickets he also eats. He has been on vitamins and Im going to get rid of the ones he came with and use my newer ones that I know havn't expired or been sitting forever. I have him in a 29gal now, but before you freak out, this is only a holding cage untill his larger cage is gotten-for that there will be 2 cages. I live in FL so Im going to build him a 2'wx3'lx2'h outside wire pen with a plastic tray bottum and repti carpet for my patio. And 2 Im ither going to buy or let my friend build me a 1.5ftwx3ftlx14inh inside cage with front sliding doors. I already have the right lighting and belly heat set up for him and I can just transfer those to his new digs. Im also going to get a weight on him tomorrow and take a closer look at that eye. his tail also has some old kinks in it. he is about 5years old and is named Baxtor.

So any tips? I have been looking online at care sheets and am making a shopping list for greens and on wednesday I want to build the outside pen so he can go out during the day and come in at night untill I get his larger inside cage..which I need to make room for since I just got another leopard gecko rack..
o and if anyone has some helpful links, please do share!

thanks,

missina
http://missina.cjb.net

Well, congratulations. Hopefully you can get him straightened out with some of his issues.

Just a couple of things caught my eye with the current situation. First, ditch the belly heat. Beardies sense heat from above, not below, and can very easily burn their tummies because of it. You didn't really say what the right lighting was, but for that size tank, you'll need a Reptisun 10.0 flourescent tube (UVB), and a standard household lightbulb that produces heat...about 75 watts.

Second, I don't know what substrate you have him on, but the walnut stuff is NOT good. Beardies can get impacted from particulate substrates, especially if they're dehydrated, which is what it sounds like your guy may be. At least temporarily, keep him on paper towels. When you get his cage done, ceramic tiles work really nice...and they're super easy to keep clean.

Third, sounds like from the wrinkly skin that he's dehydrated. Try giving him a warm bath up to his chest for about 10 or 15 minutes a couple of times a day. You can also syringe feed him (no needles, of course) Pedialyte mixed with water. All of our dragons like the apple flavor, if that helps any.

And yeah, ditch the mealies, too. Superworms (zoophobas) are much more appropriate, wormwise. There's a really good list of nutritional beardie foods at www.beautifuldragons.com that includes most of the proteins, greens, veggies and fruits and whether they should be fed frequently or not. A guy his age should be eating mostly greens such as turnip, mustard, or collard greens.

It may very well be that he got some of that substrate in his eye or something similar. Hopefully after you've soaked him you can better tell what's going on there. Either way, that's something I think I'd have a vet check out...just in case.

We'd love to see some pics of him when you can!

I put him on repti carpet-its what I use for all my larger tanks.
I have the right lights Im pretty sure, one is a tube light but Im getting ready for work right now so I will look when I get home tonight to be sure just what type, i use to use it for newts in a 20gal long tank. the othe light is a reptile day light that oddly enough some one was using for a leopard gecko so i got it for free. and ok I turned the under tank heater off!
I gave him some roman this morning and so far he is just looking at it..and then over towards me and then back at it..like he is disgusted lol
and you might be right, he may have gotten some of the old substraght in his eye because it was sticking to him when I got him home still.
Photos will come tonight or tomorrow. I have tomorrow off but will be gone all day today with work and college!

Missina

Wonderful on all of the above! Sounds like you did some research before you took him in, and that's just great!

He's well on his way to being a very happy little man.

alrightie now that all the cages are clean, the geckos fed and Baxtor has been soaked now I can post a few photos!
here he is sitting on his log with his eyes closed trying to ignor me

here he is hanging out by the water bowl

this is the eye that looks bad, what do you guys think?

this is were he is going to be kept until his new cages are built..one will be started and hopfuly finished tomorrow!

and last of all, is Baxtor really a boy? I can't tell lol


He spent most of today in his water dish and his skin does look much better. he ate most of his greens that I left for him this morning. he was very angry when he saw I was preparing meal worms but he didn't get any..he will live Im sure. I only have pin head crickets right now as all my adult crickets became food..I probably have about 4000 pin heads though!
ok thats all Im tired and still have laundry to do and plans to make for his wire-patio cage..like measureing the plastic try for the floor and seeing how much Im going to be spending on his summer day time cage.

missina

Oh, isn't he precious! I just love that full beard.

I can't really tell from the pic if he's a boy or girl. If you pick up his tail (holding it a bit closer to the base) and twist very gently and only a tiny bit...and you see two bumps on either side of the base of his tail...he's a boy. If he's got one large bump at the base of the tail at the vent, he's a girl.

Poor guy must have really been dehydrated to sit in his "pool" all day. I bet he's much relieved now.

His eye doesn't look too bad from that angle, but if you think he got substrate in it, try using some PLAIN saline solution (with nothing else in it) and rinsing his eye. He could have also been having issues with it if he was dehydrated, because that would have caused his eyes to be dry and not operate the way they should. Definitely keep an eye on it, and if it gives you issues, take him to the vet.

Dragons can eat crickets, superworms, roaches, pretty much whatever you've got squirming around. But since his tummy was acting up, good thing you stayed away from the mealies. Did he eat any of his salad today?

i had a baby cockatiel that had its eye scratched he was fine but thats the same way his eye looked and that is why Im not rushing him to a vet right away. it looks like its been like that for a while. I want to ask his former owners but I don't want to come off as "you messed up and now look what I have to fix" you know?
and yes he ate most of his salad I will let him sit in a warm bath again tomorrow and test to see what happens when I twist his tail a little. he is so much more relaxed then my leos. I have 1 leo who will sit and hang out without running off but all the rest..well..they are more eye candy then lap lizards lol
oh and it was so funny, when I was working on his photos I had him sitting in a tub of water on my desk in front of the moniter and when he saw himself he started to head bob. it was so funny!!!

Missina

What color did his beard turn when he was bobbing at himself, sort of gray or pitch black?

Pitch black, and it sounds like you do, indeed, have yourself a boy!

I'm so glad he ate his salad. That'll help him pass along anything that may be stuck in there.

He sounds like such a character already. You're going to have a blast with him once he's settled in.

It took a few weeks but when i get home from work around 3:30 this afternoon, Baxter is going to get to go into his new cage for the first time! I have a post about his new cage on another thread here http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=132328
and yes, his beard did turn black when he was head bobbing. He also bobs and displays at my dog and cat to lol
Now that he is going to have a larger cage- I was wondering if it might be ok to get a female as a companion (not for breeding just as another pet). I have read online were some people say it is mostly ok and some who say its not a good thing to do at all. Baxter has spend his whole life alone in a small tank. His name cage is 42in long, 23in deep, 24in high and has a legde that goes all the way up one side, around the back to the other side giving him more room to roam. I will be going to the daytona reptile expo in Aug and Id love to be able to add another dragon to my list of what I'm looking for. and it would be neat to have a more "high" color dragon to

well I better get to work so I can get home, find someone to help me bring this monster cage inside and put him in it and make his whole day!

missina
http://missina.cjb.net/

Baxter is one very lucky young man. I love the ledge, and so will he! Very cool stuff.

As for getting him a girlfriend, at his age, always having been alone, I'd say no girlfriend...he's probably so hot and bothered, he'd breed her constantly.

Sometimes, it is okay to house a male and female together, and the male won't ever bother the female. We actually had one pair like that...but it doesn't happen very often, and ours acted more like sister and brother because they'd been housed together since they were babies. We ended up housing the female with another female when I started back to work full time and wouldn't have time to watch them 24-7 anymore.

I can't wait to see some pics of Baxter in his new house. It turned out super nice, and he's just going to love it!