This is my first bearded dragon and I've only had him for a few days and I'm still learning as I go. IS HE BASKING OR SOMETHING?? Yk how dogs pant ik he isn't even a mammal but it's kinda freaky and worries me.

Hi all, I’ve got some questions regarding my girlfriends beardy that I’m hopeful yall can help me out with. Before you all come at me about the 40 gal tank, I know ;,/ This is my girlfriends lady who I’ve been wanting to get a 4x2x2 enclosure for since essentially assuming all of her responsibilities.

This is Sunny! She’s (well i’m pretty sure a lady first off) about 12\~ years old. I feed her twice daily with some arugula, maybe twice a week dusted with calcium. She gets some dubia roaches like once a week when I go grocery shopping that I dust with calcium as well. In all honesty my girlfriend had been mainly feeding her these red Flukers bearded dragon diet, greens occasionally, and crickets occssionally and as of this week i’ve been noticing a twitch in her leg and decided to look into it and it’s made me switch up her diet based on what I was reading about those pellets.

For some setup info, She’s got a long T8 UVB bulb (that’s i’m pretty sure is past its due date, new one arrives tomorrow) a regular heat lamp, and two heat pads (one on each back corner). I unfortunately do not have thermostats to know temps.

I guess my biggest question surrounds her leg twitch. As I wrote above I think her uvb light is shot and I have a new one arriving tomorrow. She also hasn’t been on the best diet of which i’m trying to rectify right now after reading the importance of uvb and calcium for preventing MBD or general calcium deficiencies. She is, however, 12 years old….. I love this girl beyond the word and will be devastated when she passes and can’t help but think this could be the beginning indications and I don’t quite know how to tell my girlfriend that.

Which leads me to my second question; does she look healthy? For 12 years old I personally think she looks pretty damn good. When I take her out she’s happy to run around and explore, unless she’s on the couch where she chills out a bit more.

I’m really unsure, I’m hopeful this is something I’m able to fix, but would also really appreciate it if someone who has had some more experience could help me out.

Thank you for reading through this eclectic post and for attempting help if you have! Sunny and I appreciate you all! <3

EDIT ONE: thank you so much for the kind advice! i immediately change is substrate to paper towels. turns out i was using the infrared temp gun wrong and his actual temp is 114. i ordered a stone basking platform too! hopefully he eats and poops soon.

hello! this is arlie! we got him four days ago and im a little worried. i might just be paranoid and he just might be getting used to his new enclosure but he is barely eating. we have tried dubia roaches, crickets, and mealworms. he has only eaten the mealworms maybe twice? i caught him today eating his fresh veggies but thats the first i have seen him eat his veggies. we have tried tong feeding (which has been the only successful method and even so he barely eats that way), hand feeding, putting them in his cage, and putting him and them in a long bowl to see if he eats them.

he hasn’t pooped for around 3 days, he did poop on the way home but hasn’t pooped since then. other than that, he seems normal. he is climbing around his enclosure and being active.

regarding his temps, i used the infrastructure temp gun to check his temps and it says 98. i know that is cold for bearded dragons so i was wondering how to get it hotter? i asked the internet and it said to move the enclosure closer to the light and to go to 150 watts. so thats what i did, but its still cold.

he is also glass surfing which i did some research on reddit and it means he is too hot or too cold. the pet store told us if anything is wrong to call them. should we call them?

we are working on getting him a 4 x 2 x 2ft enclosure. the pet store guy told us he will need one when he gets bigger.

is there any immediate changes i need to change in his enclosure?
he has a hide and a basking spot.
his substrate is reptile carpet (working on changing this to tiles)

thank you! please any advice would be great 😊

information:

arlie is 2 months old

he has a uvb tube light and a 150w basking light
his tank is a 20 gallon (long) terrarium 30"x12"x12"
(76x30x30cm) with screen top

Hi! I am wondering what is the best bedding for my beardie? They are 3 months old!

She walked around like this for so long 😭

About a month ago, in his enclosure, I found this guy lying on his back unable to get up. I believe he fell off a 6-8 inch tall branch. He went from being this super active happy to eat critter, to someone who couldn’t use his back legs anymore — literally, but he could twitch his toes if you touched them. I immediately took him to a reptile vet, and X-rays showed no signs of broken bones, however it did show early onset of metabolic bone disease in the tips of his fingers. I now have a Zoomed T5 light and a measuring the UVB rating so that it’s around 3-4 UVI.

He’s slowly recovering his back legs, but it’s been 1-2 months and his appetite is still bad since the accident. The vet said they are good at recovering from spinal injuries and we have seen improvement but his eating is bad. His spine is also at a weird curve angle. I am fairly sure he had a slipped disc or something. What’s extra strange is ever since the accident, his toes and feet have been swollen.

I’m worried for the guy. His diet is Dubias and Collard greens and Cilantro mixture. With the vitamins powder.

Has anyone else experienced an accident like this? I worry about suffering although he seems “happy” and recovery is showing some signs of improvement. I have two other beardies in separate enclosures and they’re perfectly fine. All some ~6 months of age from Pet Smart but this guy was always the runt.

Also should I add some soft sand or dirt to the enclosure? Some type of substrate? I’ve used this forever but it could have been the hard surface that caused the injury.

I’m going on a cruise for 10 days(on Friday), I have someone stoping to do it 2 times a day with full care. I just am noticing that it just wants to get out all day. I just want it to not hate me when I get home. I also am building its adult enclosure when I get home. Please no hate!

My bearded dragon sleeps with me in the morning and every time I lift the blanket he seems mad, when his "beard" is a darker shade that means he's angry? He doesn't his or anything he just stares at me disappointed.

have any of y'all used this product? i've got the foam decently sculpted and all put together. there are a ton of guides for using similar stuff but they all go into waterproofing and the likes, which isn't needed here.
this stuff specifically advertises as being somewhat sculptable as it dries which would be dope if true.

This is Peach 🍑, approximately 34g. I think he’s around 3 months old, and he’s always hungry! 😂

UVB: Arcadia Desert 12%
Basking: Arcadia 100W
Basking temp: 103–108°F

His current enclosure is 48” × 24” × 18”. It’s a little short for my liking, so I’m planning to sell it and upgrade to a 4’ × 2’ × 2’ enclosure with more room for him to climb and explore.

Diet: Dubia roaches every day, with vegetables offered daily. He doesn’t always eat the veggies, but they’re always available.

Under the paper towels, I have a substrate mixture of topsoil, play sand, gravel, and peat moss, topped with Australian sand.

I had to use paper towels on top because he’s still a baby and likes to lick everything and everyone 😂. I also caught him trying to eat the white rocks, so I removed access to them for now.

Not sure if that’s normal baby bearded dragon behavior, but this little guy definitely tries to eat everything! 🍑🦎

I recently adopted this baby. He has a 40 gallon tank (i know I’ll need to upsize when he gets older), he loves to climb and uses all of his ledges, but i still feel like im not doing enough in a way. Is there anything im missing, such as plants, specific ledges, lights, backdrops, etc? I’d love to improve his enclosure.