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dragonchick88

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We are setting Drako up in our 55 gallon aquarium with a screen top. We just put sand in it yesterday, its childrens play sand that looks to be sifted. We also have a heat lamp with a 75 watt heat bulb. I plan to put a UVB bulb on the cooler side as well. We are goin to add logs and a hide box this weekend.* As a reminder: He is 6 months old and about 10" long, is this set up ok for him? I plan to keep him in this tank by himslef for his entire lifespan. Im thinkning it might be alittle big for him but I thought it would be ok since he is growing rather fast.
 
Sounds good except for a few things, he could probably do without the hide box because young beardies will often just go in and then not come out. The 75 might not generate enough heat, so i would go with a 100. Also, i would wait until you see where he spends the majority of his time before you determine where to place the UV light, that way he will get the most out of it as he can. Other than those small things, it sounds excellent, glad to hear that you are going to put him in the bigger tank now. And 10 inches at 6 months is kind of on the small side, I have a baby that is 2.5 months and at 10 inches. Granted hes a freak :hehe:, his clutchmates are at about 7.5 inches. I will try to post a pic of my setup when i get home in a couple days, i just have to try and figure out how to resize the stupid things :hot: .
 
I would as suggested earlier axe the hide box.

For the light bulb just don't change wattage and be done with it. You will have to check temps with a variety of wattages before you will find one that is just right.

Also, just because the sand seems sifted does not mean it was. I would sift it just to make sure. An once of prevention.................

Good luck!!!
 
I would just do paper towel to be safe. I know that it isn't pretty and sand has a nice look, but I found that it's SO MUCH BETTER to be safe than sorry when it comes to potential impaction (one of our babies is impacted, but from too large of prey... but it's not fun or easy to try and relieve him of the impaction, so please keep that in mind)... Also, before you just go out and replace your heat light, test it out. It will probably do the trick. We have a regular clear 60 watt houselight bulb and it emits the right temp so just give it a try! :)
Also, beardies do like to hide out. I don't see anything wrong with a hiding place for them. They like to sometimes sleep under their paper toweling (ours do anyway) so to me I don't see anything wrong with a box or something for them to hide in... just my opinion though.
 
The problem with hides is that the dragons go in and never come back out. Often a dragon can and will stay in it's hide for over 24hrs. They don't even come out to eat. Thats the only reason to avoid them.
 
*UPDATE* My fiance sifted the sand today, as for the UVB bulb, I got the longest one possible, it covers a good portion of the tank too. And the 75 watt, we have kept the light on for a whole day and the highest it has ever got to was 108 degrees. The hide, wel we have him in a 20 gallon long right now and he has a hide but he very seldom uses it anyways except until 10 O clock which is really wierd cause thats when we put them to sleep. I guess he is used to the timing and all so he knows when its his bed time! :) we put a new background also on it 2day, desert type. Also about his age and length, I dont believe he is 6 months because the pet store people told us that but I have a thought he might be just a tad bit older cause he really is big by muscle and weight wise.
 
Well it sounds like you have everything under control. As long as he is good with his hide box and the 75 gets that hot, you should be good.
 
With a distance from ceiling to floor in my dragons cage being 24", a 75 watt bulb doesn't do very well to warm wooden furniture & rocks almost 10" up from the floor directly under the bulb. It seems that a 100 does better and a 150 seems the best, although my cage is 6 feet long (6' x 30" x 24"). My favorite bulbs are 100 watt floodlight mercury vapor's, and my dragon seems to revel in the higher heat level they provide. For a small tank, they do come in 60 watt sizes and since they offer both light (UVB & UVA) and heat, I prefer them to having a seperate heat lamp and UVB bulb. Supposedly they don't need to be changed every 6 months like a normal UVB bulb. My 100 watt MV bulb lasted for a good 3 years before it died.

My dragon doesn't have a hide box, but has a thick piece of grapewood I think it's grapewood) that offers climbing, perching/basking and hiding areas. I ordered a large piece from LLL Reptile that was better than anything I'd have hoped for :)

Lastly, I used to use sand and never had any problems, nor did my dragon ingest it. I ended up not using it because it often became messy and when Le'Chuck dug or tried to get out, it flew everywhere. Not to mention how heavy it made the cage. Now I use sand colored shelf liner. It's really easy to clean and looks nice and best of all, is very cheap and can be found almost anywhere.
 
We use Tightbeam Basking heat lamps that have UVA rays, which from what my vet said is good for the physical and mental health of a dragon, but yea the light gets up to 108 degrees and the vet said the temp should be between 105 to 115 degrees for drako. As for the sand, well it wasnt my idea, im actually alittle nervous using it but since drako goes to the vet every month I will have the vet check him more often for impaction so i catch it before it to late.
 
The sad thing with impaction, as with our baby, sometimes even if you catch it, there is nothing you can do for them besides try everything under the sun and they still won't go. We're still trying to get him to, but over a week or two later and ours is still only pooping urates...
I don't think sand is worth it. If you are nervous, you should talk to your fiance and tell him that sand isn't the best option even though some may say otherwise. Realistically, paper towel or news paper, as unattractive as it may be, poses no real risk to them safety wise, so I don't really see a need for sand (we had our adults on sand, but it started to make me really nervous so we put them back on paper towel, plus, paper towel is MUCH nicer cleanliness wise)
 
Now I use sand colored shelf liner. It's really easy to clean and looks nice and best of all, is very cheap and can be found almost anywhere.
Click to expand...

I also use this, it is cheap so if you dont want to scrape crap off of the liner you can just throw it away and replace it. The liner comes in 20 foot rolls, so it lasts quite a while. I am very happy with this stuff and i would advise you to consider it. Like you said better to be safe than sorry!
 
In my opinion sand is just fine but if you choose to use paper towels or newspaper be careful the crickets or other bugs don't hide in it. It easy to assume that your dragon has been eating but in reality all the bugs are hiding in and under the paper.
 
We dont plan on feeding our babies on the sand so im not exactly sure if they will get impacted by it or not, * hope not* They seem to enjoy diggin in it more than the lizard litter we had them on before, the newspaper thing didnt work for us because Louise my german giant could poop some giant things and I MEAN GIANT THINGS and the stench would just go through out the house becaus eit didnt really help prevent the smell. Plus she would just dig in the corners and roll and tear the paper apart and I would have to just go buy more and more paper every week.
 
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