Temporary Routine Change

[kyle217]

My gf usually tends to our beardie in the daytime as I'm out working mon - fri. Unexpectedly she is having to spend a few nights in hospital and I have no choice but to work so I can meet my deadlines.

Our beardie currently has UV & Heat Lamp switched on at 8am, UV gets turned off at 5:30pm and Heat Lamp gets turned off at 8pm. We usually feed her at 10am so she has had 2 hours under UV beforehand and feed her again at 2pm so she has sufficient UV exposure before it is turned off. Because I leave for work at 7:30am I am unsure how best to manage this. As far as I can see my options are to either a) turn her UV light on at 6am, feed her at 7:30am and then return home at lunch time to feed her again, but I will be unable to get home until 6:30pm thus she will be having 3.5 hours longer under the UV than usual or b) Turn her UV on at 7:30am, don't provide any livefood until I return home at lunch time but give her longer with the livefood so she eats more, but then not get fed on Live again for the rest of the day or c) put her into Reptile Boarding for a couple of days.

A few more points to note. She’s eating roughly 50 crickets a day, 25 a time in 2 10 minute sittings (morning & afternoon) and fresh veg will be available throughout the day. Both 'keep at home' solutions require her to spend more than her usual time under UV.


What do you guys suggest, bearing in mind this will only be for 3 days maximum.

[Pendragon]

To be honest I've never fed mine more than 15 crix in a day, I have my uv and spot come on at 9am and go off at 10pm, although the spot should go off idealy at 8pm, but that's anothere story.

I feed him between 5 and 6 oclock in the evening, I don't think there should be any probs with him digesting, so long as he isn't stuffed with food, I'm not in the 50, 60, 70, crix a day camp.

Here he is, at 10 months old, photo taken last month, weight 452g




Jay

[ToxicSiren]

They will be fine for few days. Just turn uv and heat am on before you leave and throw in a box of locus and veg. When you arrive home see if they hungry..then give em a hour of heat. Thats what we do if we are out for long day and ours are fine. They can go for weeks without eating. x

[kyle217]

I go by the 'as much as she'll eat in 10 minutes - twice a day' guidelines for livefood. She's still a juvenile though so her ratio of livefood & veg is still 80:20... when she's an adult she'll be getting substantially less livefood a day.

I try to follow daylight with my UV on/off periods and I maintain the heat lamp at 12 hours a day.

I thought that If I get some timers then my extended UV hours issue will be solved and the only break from routine will be feeding her once a day instead of twice. I can't see this being problem...?

[ToxicSiren]

She will be fine, bds are tough. x

[kyle217]

Originally Posted by ToxicSiren

They will be fine for few days. Just turn uv and heat am on before you leave and throw in a box of locus and veg. When you arrive home see if they hungry..then give em a hour of heat. Thats what we do if we are out for long day and ours are fine. They can go for weeks without eating. x

Thanks for the reassurance... I'm still new to rep keeping and can't shake the constant 'I'm doing it wrong' paranoia lol.

[ToxicSiren]

We all go through that no matter how long you have kept reps. But really bds are tough cookies. They could easily go days etc without food. Just throw a load in before you go to work. She will find it fun too as she has something to hunt through the day. x