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Feeding Baby Dragons.

J

Jonas@Balls2TheWall

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Hey everyone!

I just bought my younger brother a baby dragon last week for his birthday and am finding that feeding dragons is a bit more complicated than what I am used to with my snakes.

I cant seem to find a straight answer on the net on what I should be feeding him.

Whats better, Crickets or meal worms?
What are the best veggies to feed him?
How much of each should he eat daily?
If crickets is the way to go, how do you keep them alive for longer than 2 days. Its becoming a big waste of gass having to go get the little fella crickets every day.

Any help/advise is greatly appreciated.
THANKS
 
Hi Jonas and congrats on the new baby beardie for your brother. I am going to go in order of what you put down, so here we go.

Crickets are much better then meal worms for baby bearded dragons because the mealworm has a harder chitin or exoskeleton. Mealworms can cause what is known as impaction to a young bearded dragon. Impaction can be fatal.
Most baby bearded dragons don't like veggies until they are older, but if you are refering to greens they like collard, turnip, dandelion,and mustard greens. These are a must as a staple food. They should be chopped up no larger then the space in between the dragons eyes, so they wont choke and the same goes for their insects.
I feed my baby dragons 2-3 times a day and mist them with water 2-3 times a day and soak them in water 2 times a week. I feed the staple or greens to them as soon as the lights go on because that is usually when they are the hungriest. About 4 hours later I offer crickets one at a time to make sure they consume all the crickets that they can eat. After another 4 hours I offer some more crickets. Only dust the crickets once a day with the calcium supplement. Calcium supplement should be given 5 days a week and mineral/vitamin should be given 2 days out of the week. These are vital supplements to ensure the proper growth of your baby dragons bones. They can be applied dueing the shake and bake method with the crickets.
Depending on the quanity that your dragon goes through a week you can buy a plastic container to house crickets in and drill air holes in the lid. There are products that you can buy such as cricket feed that you sprinkle into the container and they also sell a product called gut load. Gut load comes in 2 different ways, a powder or gel. The gel also gives them water. You can place some on a container lid such as sour cream or cottage cheese and place it in the container with the crickets. Also get some egg crates for them to climb on, so they stay away from there waste. The egg crate if its tore into pieces also helps get them out and much easier for you to place in a bag to do the shake and bake method for the supplements. Replace the gel when it starts to get cricket poo in it or if it starts to dry out.
I hope this helped in what you needed to know. There is also a wonderful website called www.BeautifulDragons.com. This is where I go if I need to brush up or have questions.
 
Andrea thanks so much for all the advise.

Im going to print it out and paste it in front of the beardies cage for my little bro never to forget. lol

When you say you spray your beardies 2-3 times a day do you mean the cage or the actual dragon?
 
I got a dollar store spray bottle and twist the nozzle so that it mists them. They get really mad if you put it on spray, but their in seventh heaven if you mist them. I mist the dragon inside of the enclosure or outside, but if you do it inside then you have to eventually clean the glass.
 
LOL Tell him yes because they drink it and it keeps them rehydrated. I still mist mine and I give them water bowls and baths. He might not be use to it and that is why he is getting cranky, but make sure if you mist him or bath him that he stays away from drafts. Make sure if you mist at night that its 2 hours or more before you turn the light off otherwise they can catch a cold. Dont worry, they eventually start to calm down. LOL
 
Oh ok. Thanks

Last question I promise. Are normal soft white light bulbs good enough for heat? Or do I need to buy the expensive reptile ones?
 
They can be used for heat, but I prefer the Black Light Heat Bulbs by Flukers or the Ceramic Bulbs are the best though. They cost alot more, but they actually work the best in my opinion. What size of tank are you using though?
 
I actually have some ceramic bulbs but read somewhere that they were not the best for dragons. If I put the ceramic bulb and the uvb at the same time do I need any further lighting?

I have a 10 gal for now but he will be moved to a 30 long or 40 breeder as soon as he gains some size.
 
I never had an issue using a ceramic bulb on my dragons, but the lowest wattage I believe is 60 watts and that is way to high for a 10 gallon. What type of UVB bulb are you using? The ones like a regular light bulb or a long tube such as a fluroscent? By rights your suppose to use a UVA and UVB, over head heat source does much better then a undertank heater for dragons, and a basking light.
 
I just thought I'd jump in here with a suggestion. I do believe the common house bulb is much better for heat. The brighter the cage,the better...a black light is not bright enough,and if you are talking about a che [ ceramic heat emitter,they not only don't produce light, but are potentially very dangerous because a dragon may want to leap on to it. Just my 2 cents...I would definitely go with the house bulb for heat, I use soft white all the time. Nice that Andrea has responded with a lot of good feeding+ watering advice. They do get used to being sprayed. I like to spray my babies lightly as well [ easy on the spray trigger ] and that she mentioned not doing it too late so the dragon won't get chilled.
 
You are better off with a larger tank...a 10 gal. does not allow for much heat gradient...it can get too hot too quickly. I'm not sure what a tb uvb bulb is...I like the Zoo Med 10.0 the best. As far as the house bulb for heat, you will have to adjust it according to what the temperature is. If you DO go with a 10 gal tank, [ I would go 20-30gal Myself ] then 60 -75 watts is probably good. It must get the basking area up to about 110...BUT, the cooler side MUST have a lower temp.of 75-80. So if you go with a bigger tank, you will need higher watt light bulb on one side...possibly 100 watt. Again, you must measure the temperature...even taking in to consideration whether or not the house is air conditioned or not. For example, I have central are so it is always cool in my house...a house that has no a.c. may be 85-90 degrees in the summer...so naturally you would use a smaller watt heat bulb to reach the right temps.
 
T8 is simply The measurement of the bulb (the long tube like ones)... I know that the 10 gal is not the best choice but its only temporary until I get my little Bro a larger one.

Thanks for the help! :)
 
Thanks Angie. I suggested the night heat bulb or the ceramic only if the house has A/C unit because at night the dragons should sleep, so no light is needed. A basking bulb should be used during the day, so you could use a normal light bulb with the t8. That would give it heat during the day and the t8 if I remember is a ReptiGlo 8.0 tube fluroscent, so you have the UVA and UVB covered. I would definitely try to save up and get a bigger tank as soon as you can because Angie is right about a cool side is needed and should be kept around 85 and the basking or heat side should at least hit a 100. The heat will help them to digest there food properly, so it is important for the little guy. Since right now that 10 gallon is all you have you can always turn the normal light bulb off and let it cool down before you swap to a night heat bulb for night time. I personally have done this, but got really tired of swapping bulbs at night and I just got another light fixture and did it that way. Looked tacky, but saved me a head ache every night. I would rather deal with tacky then my dragons getting cranky because they didnt get sleep because of how bright the tank was during sleep time.
 
I worried about night temps for a while but notices that my house never went under 65 degrees at night, I read that it can go as low as 60 with out putting the dragon at danger. (?)

Thanks for the help and I will try and get some pics of the little bugger when I get a chance :)
 
Jonas,
Night time temps shouldn't be allowed to drop below 60 degrees, whereas 70-75 degrees is more comfortable for them. Don't guess on temps - you could cook or freeze your Beardie!If the temperature drops below 65 degrees in your home at night, you might want to consider a nighttime heat source for your Beardie. You can not use a bright light of any kind for heat at night. Imagine trying to sleep with the lights on! You wouldn't sleep very well. Your Beardie could get stressed out, stop eating, develop behavorial abnormalities, and deressed immune function if you keep his lights on all the time. Nocturnal reptile heat bulbs produce a dim light which is usually available in blue, purple (black light) and red. Some night lights produce more light at higher wattages. I don't recommend using these bulbs on a permanent basis because it is believed that beardies can still detect some light that they are emitting.

The best heat source for night time is a ceramic heating element (CHE). CHE's are non-light emitting heating units. They get very hot but disperse heat over a very narrow (15" in diameter) and shallow area. The range for a 60 watt CHE is 8" down, the range for a 100 watt CHE is 10" down, the range for a 150 watt CHE is 12" down, and the range for a 250 watts is 14" down. CHE's are not effective in heating large enclosures, and a rheostat or dimmer switch may be used for small enclosures so it doesn't get too hot. It is very important that CHE's only be used in porcelain/ceramic light sockets as the amount of heat that they produce is enough to melt regular plastic light sockets.
I copied and pasted this from www.BeautifulDragons.com general care page. Please check this website out. Its very good and its free to look at with great information.
 
Hey Andreah

I actually have two thermometers for the beardies cage and can tell you that his cage has never dropped below 71 at night. I have been to the website you suggested and it is great! Thanks for sharing that and i already have the CHE in case I need to start using it. :)
 
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