$299 4x2x2 enclosure from our sponsor: customreptilehabitats.com/products/ses-series-4-pvc-enclosure?sca_ref=1243605.vkGok8F1Gf& Australian Desert Substrate: amzn.to/3ubfEAd All Lamps and other equipment to use: www.amazon.com/shop/reptilesandresearch/list/2LR7HU6HBRYE3?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfreptilesandresearch_XGSSDKA5690RQG7KTR5M These links are affiliate links meaning i get a small commission at no extra cost to you :)
Just purchased a beared dragon 2 days ago. I found your channel from another girl on TikTok. This information has been absoultley helpful. Thank you! ❤
I’ve got a baby bearded dragon. 1 month ago. We were told he was 2 months old. When we got him from the pet shop, he was not eating at all independently. Anything that we offer he would run away. He would lick it and then run. We waited for a week to get him settledd in the enclosure. But he did not eat anything at all in that week. Live cricket, worms anything even salads. Nothing. He would just bask half the day then hang around away from the heat lamp . He lost almost 10 grams after a week. A friend of ours told us to try and force feed him. After this he gained the 10g back. It’s been 3 weeks since we have been forced to feeding him as he would not eat anything at all. Any advice?
Excellent synthesized careguide. Personally, I think I would have preferred if you clearly stated how the large starting enclosure should also not be bare or lightly filled. I too worked 10+ years in reptile stores, bred beardies and have kept reptiles for 25 years (Quebec, Canada). It is hard to convince people to go with the larger enclosure AND fill it up properly. The issue is people think a few sticks, a hide and a fake plant is enough to fill a 4x2. In a few cases, the juvenile can get added stress in this new and too exposed environment, improper basking options, and that's where the opposed way of thinking and bad stories comes from. Here most non-specialized stores still only carry all-glass terrarium options which makes it worse and so much more expensive. We are slowly seeing better options coming in the specialized reptile stores. Anyway I wish I had careguides like this back in 1997 when I got my first anole 😊 Keep it up, it is inspiring to see the opportunity you offer for the community to get closer to science-based care.
When it comes to loose substrate I see people recommend to keep a baby beardy on paper towel or tile until around 6 months before moving to loose, is this something you recommend or is straight onto loose as a baby fine?
Hi, Thanks for the video! I have a question that i have been unable to get answered, its kind of technical: Is a 150 Watt Basking Bulb okay for a 36x18x18? Because technically I have measured all spots of his tank and generally his basking rocks gets to 90-92F and his hammock above that will get hotter at 105F. However he will climb a little higher into the hammock, further left of the bulb instead of sitting where the bulb is most intense on the hammock so i assume he is thermoregulating while up there. His log has 2 high points, one under the basking bulb at 104F and 85F under the UVB Bulb. The cool side gets to 75F and under his hide gets to 70F. He does go back and forth once maybe twice a day to thermoregulate under his hide. He's not able to touch the bulb and soon ill install a UVB strip and his cool side may get to 80F. He does move around his tank throughout the day to chase crickets and get the dubias in his bowl. Moves around to eata Mustard Greens in the mornings and the insects later. He does seem to bask often and for hours at a time still and sometimes under the UVB bulb too. He also sleeps on the hammock which is 1 of 3 basking spots. To me it seems i'm doing great but do these surface temps seem ok? Humidity is 26% during the day and 40% at night. Also: is a little bit of white poop okay? Does that mean im giving him too much calcium or is he unable to metabolize it? Or is this due to bad UVB? Because i have a Coil UVB Bulb.
I have a 150 watt basking bulb on top on a dubia enclosure. The basking spot which is a zoo med grapevine branch is not reaching 105 degrees. It’s barely reaching 90. And the hot zone is about 85 degrees for ambient and it seems like the cool zone is the same. Is there any advice you can give for this issue ?
My baby basks most of day check basking spot were at 42.6, he does occasionally jump off but most of day prefers to bask.. the bulb is also as per the new power density bulb 💡 graphs
How many w/m2 is the power density? Is that just the incandescent or is that other lights on as well? Finally what’s the air temperature in the enclosure?
@ReptilesandResearch it won't let me post the picture graph I was sent of the correct bulb for my enclosure...I run the dragon 14% arcadia... the exo terra basking flood... it is incandescent. The bulb abd distance measure should be sitting in between 200-300 wm2 around 250s... , I'm going to be installing the jungle dawn LED soon when I move the baby to a 6x2x2.. but with being a baby I guess no rush I'm still building it.. the air temp around the basking area is 38c in cool end 27c
@ReptilesandResearch won't that raise temp of spot? It's so difficult to make it perfect abd so much contradicting info about.. i loved your interview with Dr Jonathan Howard.. don't suppose you could speak with him again on Feeders as there's so much controversy on them.. don't feed meal worms is a common one as they can't digest shell.. or that they offer no nutrition.. but in outback I wud imagine they eat what they can get hands on?? But a vid on insect types an nutritional value cud be good
@@karlcooper8547 try changing to something with a lower thermal mass, if it’s slate, try wood for example. I feed mealworms on occasion, I don’t know why people think they have little nutritional value though
Thank you for all of the excellent information. When you say to grow your bearded dragon slowly, is there a specific rate of growth to go by? Like is there a specific number of grams per month that you should stay under in terms of how quickly they are gaining weight, or do you just go by their appearance?
When you feed baby beardies as recommended here, how often should they be pooping? Pet stores and breeders often say multiple times a day but I am assuming this is because of overfeeding. I just want to know what to look for to avoid/look for constipation/impaction. My baby beardie hasnt gone in a couple of days and I'm going to try a bath later if it doesnt go to see if that helps but I'm wondering if this could be normal with much smaller feeds than typically administered. Thanks!
I had a question about Bearded Dragons I have been searching but cannot find an answer to: I noticed that ours likes to lick at rocks, and was wondering if bearded dragons would like (or if it would be a bad idea to) including a salt/mineral lick stone in the tank.
The main reason bearded dragons lick things is to take in information about their environment. The would be trying to bite things after the lick if the intent was to consume.
I am confused so a reptile can't be trusted to keep from burning itself but I am supposed to trust that I need to get it hotter if it won't leave the basking area? Then when I get it hot enough to "get its core temperature up" but it burns or cooks itself?... then what? How about just get the basking spot to at least 105 degrees F and leave it at that and not worry about how long the animal wants to sit under it?
The reason i say use behaviour to guide it is because technically speaking surface temperature holds no bearing to what power density the bulb is giving off. For example, if I have two identical heat lamps that are giving off 300 W/m2 and one has grass beneath it and the other has jet black slate then the surface temperatures are going to be completely different even though the output from the bulb is identical. What the bearded dragons actually using to warm up is that infrared emitting from the bulb. So yes I can say buy a ISM 400 power meter and measure the power density but then it starts to get technical and beginners can get lost. By telling them to adjust wattage based on behaviour what im actually telling them to do is adjust the power density without using technical jargon and risk overwhelming people. I have also made a specific video thats very technical: ua-cam.com/video/IjYGQ2vut1Q/v-deo.html In regards to burns i dont think i talked about burns apart from recommending a safe distance of 12 inches. The reason that large monitors etc get burns is because they have insufficient equipment provided, often a single lamp thats too close or just cant get the core temperature up whilst the surface of the skin is burning, but the animal feels cold inside. Again the animal needs to get pretty close to burn the surface of its skin like that. Its more common in larger animals just because of the sheer mass of them. A bearded dragon is just going to thermoregulate and move itself away because its 12 inches away and can get its core temp up. Hope that helps and the linked video help with any confusion 😄
@@ReptilesandResearch no it definitely does thanks for the explanation so I guess a better way to measure proper heat may be to heat gun the animals skin under the heat source instead of the surface of something else to see what kind of heat is actually touching them versus a rock or a piece of wood
@@gtrdeath28064212 I suppose that would help you determine if the surface of the skin might burn but the BEST thing to do is to measure the output of the lamp
Hi Liam, great informative video! I got a question about uvb light and it needing to be 1/3 to 1/2 of the enclosure. I am planning on getting a 150x60x60cm enclosure (5x2x2 i believe) so my uvb choices are Arcadia pro t5 24w, which is 60cm (or just over 1/3 of the enclosure) or the 39w which is 90cm (so, a bit over 1/2 of the enclosure) which option do you think is best? I will also put in a 100w basking lamp and a 70w metal halide.
@@louisdavies4832 i did not. I ended up taking a gamble on the 90cm variant which was a bad idea as i could not mount it diagonally. Because of my 3d background being in the way, it stretched too far into the vive so i switched to a 60cm which fits much better. Hope this helps!
I’m confused. I’ve always heard absolutely NO lettuce, but you are saying Romaine and butter lettuce is ok. Can you give me the breakdown on why it is ok now?
I have never said its not okay, like many other types of lettuce, Romaine should be fed only in moderation, as it is mainly water and not high in nutritional values. However, it has slightly higher levels of vitamins A, C, E, calcium, and fibre than Iceberg Lettuce and so is a better choice to feed. Water itself is a nutrient so it can be a good delivery package for hydration. Just dont feed lettuce and nothing else. I always say cycle the veg and have a well balanced diet.
$299 4x2x2 enclosure from our sponsor: customreptilehabitats.com/products/ses-series-4-pvc-enclosure?sca_ref=1243605.vkGok8F1Gf&
Australian Desert Substrate: amzn.to/3ubfEAd
All Lamps and other equipment to use:
www.amazon.com/shop/reptilesandresearch/list/2LR7HU6HBRYE3?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfreptilesandresearch_XGSSDKA5690RQG7KTR5M
These links are affiliate links meaning i get a small commission at no extra cost to you :)
Just purchased a beared dragon 2 days ago. I found your channel from another girl on TikTok. This information has been absoultley helpful. Thank you! ❤
Your advice is among the best I've heard. Subscribed!
I appreciate your videos so much, thank you!
Excellent video, thanks.
Your videos are a godsend thank you. New sub
I’ve got a baby bearded dragon. 1 month ago. We were told he was 2 months old. When we got him from the pet shop, he was not eating at all independently. Anything that we offer he would run away. He would lick it and then run. We waited for a week to get him settledd in the enclosure. But he did not eat anything at all in that week. Live cricket, worms anything even salads. Nothing. He would just bask half the day then hang around away from the heat lamp . He lost almost 10 grams after a week. A friend of ours told us to try and force feed him. After this he gained the 10g back. It’s been 3 weeks since we have been forced to feeding him as he would not eat anything at all. Any advice?
How is he doing now?
Excellent synthesized careguide. Personally, I think I would have preferred if you clearly stated how the large starting enclosure should also not be bare or lightly filled. I too worked 10+ years in reptile stores, bred beardies and have kept reptiles for 25 years (Quebec, Canada). It is hard to convince people to go with the larger enclosure AND fill it up properly. The issue is people think a few sticks, a hide and a fake plant is enough to fill a 4x2. In a few cases, the juvenile can get added stress in this new and too exposed environment, improper basking options, and that's where the opposed way of thinking and bad stories comes from.
Here most non-specialized stores still only carry all-glass terrarium options which makes it worse and so much more expensive. We are slowly seeing better options coming in the specialized reptile stores.
Anyway I wish I had careguides like this back in 1997 when I got my first anole 😊 Keep it up, it is inspiring to see the opportunity you offer for the community to get closer to science-based care.
Today is my birthday and I got a bearded dragon today
Happy belated birthday
i got a baby beardie for my 16th bday this year too :)
When it comes to loose substrate I see people recommend to keep a baby beardy on paper towel or tile until around 6 months before moving to loose, is this something you recommend or is straight onto loose as a baby fine?
Hi, Thanks for the video! I have a question that i have been unable to get answered, its kind of technical: Is a 150 Watt Basking Bulb okay for a 36x18x18? Because technically I have measured all spots of his tank and generally his basking rocks gets to 90-92F and his hammock above that will get hotter at 105F. However he will climb a little higher into the hammock, further left of the bulb instead of sitting where the bulb is most intense on the hammock so i assume he is thermoregulating while up there. His log has 2 high points, one under the basking bulb at 104F and 85F under the UVB Bulb. The cool side gets to 75F and under his hide gets to 70F. He does go back and forth once maybe twice a day to thermoregulate under his hide. He's not able to touch the bulb and soon ill install a UVB strip and his cool side may get to 80F. He does move around his tank throughout the day to chase crickets and get the dubias in his bowl. Moves around to eata Mustard Greens in the mornings and the insects later. He does seem to bask often and for hours at a time still and sometimes under the UVB bulb too. He also sleeps on the hammock which is 1 of 3 basking spots. To me it seems i'm doing great but do these surface temps seem ok? Humidity is 26% during the day and 40% at night.
Also: is a little bit of white poop okay? Does that mean im giving him too much calcium or is he unable to metabolize it? Or is this due to bad UVB? Because i have a Coil UVB Bulb.
I have a 150 watt basking bulb on top on a dubia enclosure. The basking spot which is a zoo med grapevine branch is not reaching 105 degrees. It’s barely reaching 90. And the hot zone is about 85 degrees for ambient and it seems like the cool zone is the same. Is there any advice you can give for this issue ?
My baby basks most of day check basking spot were at 42.6, he does occasionally jump off but most of day prefers to bask.. the bulb is also as per the new power density bulb 💡 graphs
How many w/m2 is the power density? Is that just the incandescent or is that other lights on as well? Finally what’s the air temperature in the enclosure?
@ReptilesandResearch it won't let me post the picture graph I was sent of the correct bulb for my enclosure...I run the dragon 14% arcadia... the exo terra basking flood... it is incandescent. The bulb abd distance measure should be sitting in between 200-300 wm2 around 250s... , I'm going to be installing the jungle dawn LED soon when I move the baby to a 6x2x2.. but with being a baby I guess no rush I'm still building it.. the air temp around the basking area is 38c in cool end 27c
@@karlcooper8547 I’d want to see 300w/m2 minimum. Maybe raise his spot slightly and see if that changes his basking pattern
@ReptilesandResearch won't that raise temp of spot? It's so difficult to make it perfect abd so much contradicting info about.. i loved your interview with Dr Jonathan Howard.. don't suppose you could speak with him again on Feeders as there's so much controversy on them.. don't feed meal worms is a common one as they can't digest shell.. or that they offer no nutrition.. but in outback I wud imagine they eat what they can get hands on?? But a vid on insect types an nutritional value cud be good
@@karlcooper8547 try changing to something with a lower thermal mass, if it’s slate, try wood for example. I feed mealworms on occasion, I don’t know why people think they have little nutritional value though
Thank you for all of the excellent information. When you say to grow your bearded dragon slowly, is there a specific rate of growth to go by? Like is there a specific number of grams per month that you should stay under in terms of how quickly they are gaining weight, or do you just go by their appearance?
I just go by appearance and reaching adult size in 2 years rather than 6 months like some power fed dragons
When you feed baby beardies as recommended here, how often should they be pooping? Pet stores and breeders often say multiple times a day but I am assuming this is because of overfeeding. I just want to know what to look for to avoid/look for constipation/impaction. My baby beardie hasnt gone in a couple of days and I'm going to try a bath later if it doesnt go to see if that helps but I'm wondering if this could be normal with much smaller feeds than typically administered. Thanks!
I never really count when mine poops, as long as it IS pooping then I don’t even worry
@@ReptilesandResearchmy adult dragon took 9 months to poop one time.
@@jacobpellow2485Did you get that checked out?
I had a question about Bearded Dragons I have been searching but cannot find an answer to:
I noticed that ours likes to lick at rocks, and was wondering if bearded dragons would like (or if it would be a bad idea to) including a salt/mineral lick stone in the tank.
The main reason bearded dragons lick things is to take in information about their environment. The would be trying to bite things after the lick if the intent was to consume.
I am confused so a reptile can't be trusted to keep from burning itself but I am supposed to trust that I need to get it hotter if it won't leave the basking area? Then when I get it hot enough to "get its core temperature up" but it burns or cooks itself?... then what? How about just get the basking spot to at least 105 degrees F and leave it at that and not worry about how long the animal wants to sit under it?
The reason i say use behaviour to guide it is because technically speaking surface temperature holds no bearing to what power density the bulb is giving off. For example, if I have two identical heat lamps that are giving off 300 W/m2 and one has grass beneath it and the other has jet black slate then the surface temperatures are going to be completely different even though the output from the bulb is identical. What the bearded dragons actually using to warm up is that infrared emitting from the bulb. So yes I can say buy a ISM 400 power meter and measure the power density but then it starts to get technical and beginners can get lost.
By telling them to adjust wattage based on behaviour what im actually telling them to do is adjust the power density without using technical jargon and risk overwhelming people. I have also made a specific video thats very technical: ua-cam.com/video/IjYGQ2vut1Q/v-deo.html
In regards to burns i dont think i talked about burns apart from recommending a safe distance of 12 inches. The reason that large monitors etc get burns is because they have insufficient equipment provided, often a single lamp thats too close or just cant get the core temperature up whilst the surface of the skin is burning, but the animal feels cold inside. Again the animal needs to get pretty close to burn the surface of its skin like that. Its more common in larger animals just because of the sheer mass of them. A bearded dragon is just going to thermoregulate and move itself away because its 12 inches away and can get its core temp up.
Hope that helps and the linked video help with any confusion 😄
@@ReptilesandResearch no it definitely does thanks for the explanation so I guess a better way to measure proper heat may be to heat gun the animals skin under the heat source instead of the surface of something else to see what kind of heat is actually touching them versus a rock or a piece of wood
@@gtrdeath28064212 I suppose that would help you determine if the surface of the skin might burn but the BEST thing to do is to measure the output of the lamp
Hi Liam, great informative video! I got a question about uvb light and it needing to be 1/3 to 1/2 of the enclosure. I am planning on getting a 150x60x60cm enclosure (5x2x2 i believe) so my uvb choices are Arcadia pro t5 24w, which is 60cm (or just over 1/3 of the enclosure) or the 39w which is 90cm (so, a bit over 1/2 of the enclosure) which option do you think is best? I will also put in a 100w basking lamp and a 70w metal halide.
Hey, I've got the same size Viv. Did you get an answer to this?
@@louisdavies4832 i did not. I ended up taking a gamble on the 90cm variant which was a bad idea as i could not mount it diagonally. Because of my 3d background being in the way, it stretched too far into the vive so i switched to a 60cm which fits much better. Hope this helps!
@@Hydragon1 brilliant thank you
I will be binging your other videos today, so I may find the answer anyway? How much bug would you feed an adult bearded dragon, and how often?
He says 5 insects 2 times a week for an adult...
That was in his bearded dragon beginner guide video.
@@DoorsToHideBehind156 lol, thank you! I did find the answer later that day after watching the other videos.
The minimum size for a baby beardie is the large adult size for a Leopard gecko!
Thanks for answering the question of "How many times can you waffle '4 by 2 by 2' until people turn the video off?"
thanks for the engagement 💪😂
I’m confused. I’ve always heard absolutely NO lettuce, but you are saying Romaine and butter lettuce is ok. Can you give me the breakdown on why it is ok now?
I have never said its not okay, like many other types of lettuce, Romaine should be fed only in moderation, as it is mainly water and not high in nutritional values. However, it has slightly higher levels of vitamins A, C, E, calcium, and fibre than Iceberg Lettuce and so is a better choice to feed. Water itself is a nutrient so it can be a good delivery package for hydration. Just dont feed lettuce and nothing else. I always say cycle the veg and have a well balanced diet.
i have a problem with my humidity i can get below 70 ever
@@iiiuuj if the enclosure is dry and clean it won’t matter too much, you can always increase ventilation too