new here :) but friendly ...but loads of info needed

good morning/afternoon/evening hope i have covered everyone ! and hi there !

obviously i am here to pose a question, as have no doubt it is us new reptilian owners that need you most !!

I recently acquired a pair ( apparently ) of bearded dragons a 7 yr old female and 2 yr old male....on purchasing this pair, i was told the dragons are a very loveable pair and will probably breed real soon !

in fairness i have not researched dragons at all.....and after a lot of whining from my kiddiwinks ( 13 & 14 yr olds ) i succumbed to getting some dragons...for them....with no research at all......a definite learning curve for me !!! and a definitive no in the future to my kids...on getting a new pet !!

i bought an apparent pair on a local selling site....when i viewed the dragon's i was informed that the male ( 2 yrs ) was in excellent health, and the female was very lazy ( 7 yrs ) i took the seller at face value...and presumed what he was selling was the real deal ! ( i apologize but knew no different !)

after we arrived home, complete with a hand made vivarium, and 2 reptiles in tow...2 1/2 hr journey...we let the dragons settle into there new home...the male as specified is without doubt in great health...very lively, and eating well, but the female is a different story altogether,.....she cannot use her front or back feet....and is a very dark colour/ shade, in comparatione to the male she just lies there! i went straight to my local pet shop who has advised me to change the substrate there living in ( was bright blue sand ) to a natural *according to pet store*....which is like a bark substrate ( the blue sand had leaked onto the dragons marking there skin to a bluish tone ?? ) after a day i noticed that the female was unable to move i thought their non movement was due to the move a fair distance...the male was eating and appeared to be healthy, but the female cannot move at all, or if she tries to move...she generally slips onto her back and needs to be relocated to a spot that she is able to handle, i generally put her on the basking stone...that came with the vivarium ...although after much research now i realise everything i was told seems to be totally wrong....the lad i spoke to in my local pet-store has a brother who owns beardies ...and has given me the info, which will help my beardies have a great life * fingers crossed*
when they came complete with set-up...and was given the info to care for them was told that sand was great for them,and easy to clean.
was told that the female was just lazy that is why she never moved !
after chatting to petstore assistant,,,was told the heated rock was not a great idea as it can cause burns, and that a heat lamp was a necessity item ! which i had to buy a clip on lamp, as the vivarium i bought was a reconstructed fish tank...no where to hold a proper heater.
was also informed of calcium powder...nothing the previous owners had warned me about !!

we now have a 3ft x 2ft x 2ft tank set up....with a heat lamp, and bark substrate ....fresh veggies everyday...although this seems to go un-noticed by my special pair of dragons
in the basking part of the tank the temp is between 100-110 variable
cooler part is about 70....

the male eats everything that goes into the tank...and appears to be very healthy as far as i know ( apart from a deformed foot ) but the female is still struggling....attempted to take her to my local vet...but my vet does not deal with reptiles....and was informed to keep her moist, add calcium to her diet, hand feed if necessary, and daily baths.
since starting the baths my lady is moving her bowels freely...thankfully !
i was informed this evening ...that the glass above the top of the tank has been restricting the UV flow ...and that the female will need the UV in the condition she is in ! to help her !
the tank conditions since aquiring this beautiful pair have improved as far as i am aware...but any help would be much appreciated at this point

i have to feed the female by hand as she has no interest in any bugs placed in her tank, but i wait until she rasps on her lounger in front of the heat lamp....and sneak a few bugs and salad in....she seems to be eating well at this stage, and has gained a good bit of weight....she was very dehydrated when we got her home, she has filled out a lot in comparision......today for the first time she went very light skinned, which i have never seen before...she had orange around her mouth and ears, ( very pretty lady )..but she has gone dark again since turning off the heat lamp this evening



please don't condone me for impulse buying...was informed these are the easiest reptiles to care for...but didn't take into account...buying a sick one and having a useless set-up,would cause the most amount of problems....would love to see my female , make great strides and be healthy again ! have spent a small fortune on trying to get the set-up she really needs, and that will benefit her the most!

i have probably missed out much needed info, please feel free to ask questions sorry for such a long post

Well the female is very old and I would never consider breeding her at that age and I would keep the male in a seperate tank most girls usualy stop breeding around the age of 5 or 6 and girls that have been bred usualy live to 8 or so years I would let your girl live out her life as a pet also if she is with the male he could be stressing her out. I noticed you said UV flow and that you have a 2 foot high tank you want a UVB(A) 10.0 bulb and they usualy give off rays about a foot down and you said about the glass top the tank should not be all glass they need ventalation if the sides are screen try to put the UVB bulb on the side. Also subsrate in my oppinion the best is news paper to line the bottom and paper towel on top(for a more cossey look) sand and walnut shells and wood chips retain parasites if your dragons have them which you should take them to the vet to get a fecal float and also those subtrates retain bacteria and are hard to keep clean and it realy reduces smell if you use paper!
Hope this helps good luck!
OEdwards

Have no intention to breed my lady, i am certainly not knowledgable in this area ...and would certainly prefer to see her enjoy the remaining time she has.... the male stays around her, just licking her from time to time, could that stress her out ? he goes off and does his own thing.....eating mainly !
should i still separate them ? they have been together since purchasing the male, as far as i was advised.
the female has never been bred according to the useless buyer i bought them from.

there was sliding glass panels at the top of the tank, it does have a hood ( wooden ) which has a reptisun 10.0 attached, from researching care for dragons i realised that the sliding glass was blocking the UV rays, i have since removed the glass. and hoping this will help my female improve, alongside the other improvements i have now made to there enclosure.
the female does seem to have perked up a lot, just moving the glass panels...but is still unable to move her legs.

Yes not being able to feed her legs could be a sign of MBD or possibly a calcium deficiency what supplaments are you giving her? And bark substrate can get in their system when they eat and cause compaction so keep that in mind!

oops when I said feed i meant use sorry

with the male in the cage he will try and breed with her at 2 years old he is in his prime for the most part but at 7 years she is far too old to breed and if shes showing signs of a calcium deficiency or MBD shes going to need alot of special attention
in the states we have www.beautiful dragons.com for some nice supplies to help with MBD and also provide us information i dont know if she can or will ship to Ireland but maybe you can find some of the products local
keep her under the 10.0 bulb it produces vitamins the basking temps at 100-105 will be good to help her digest her food i would stick to high protein insects dubia roaches and silk worms you can also use dusted crickets but i feel dubias provide more nutrients same with the silk worms but they will also provide a good amount of hydration for her
the info on the link will be a great reference tool for you to use
Owen covered substrate you def dont want to use and lose sub it gets in their digestive track and can cause problems along with holding bacteria's and parasites

she was in a great place, mainly from information from a LPS, which normally i would take no information from , but very hard to get a vet in Roscommon, after many hours of ringing around....have finally an appt in dublin...but came home after a few hrs away and found female had tried to move no doubt....to a cooler area, and found she had suffocated in the substrate...as her mouth was full of substrate.....am so sad i had lost this beautiful gal....harder after spending every waking hour with her....feeding her bugs and veggies every chance i got !! squirting her with water to keep her hydrated as the herp vet suggested till i got her there !!
thankfully the male is as healthy as they come, although no substitute !! ...thanks for your replies, they helped, just wish i could have done more.....but to be honest i didn't know enough earlier *

It is always a sad day when a dragon dies and yes no substrate but at her age she had already lived a long life and if you ever have questions or need support my email is below sorry for you loss