hi all collecting my baby complete with viv on friday any suggestions on how to settle him in and keep the temps ok,he is about 10 weeks i think

anyone ?

The best piece of advice I could give is to be careful whose advice you listen to, everyone will give different opinions on how to look after them and for different ways to keep them! We had a beardie for a year and it unfortunately had to be put to sleep about 2 months ago and we made the mistake of taking all of our advice from 1 place - our local pet shop (avoid Ramsey pet shop!!)! Beardie's are full of character and love attention. They love to be able to see what's going on so ensure that your viv has a good view of the room, especially where there are going to be people around! Also, handle them as much as you can. We've just picked up 2 beardies that are 6 weeks old and are being very careful about what we do and who we listen to, we won't be making any mistakes this time!!! Last piece of advice is to ensure you change your uv bulb every 6 months! Hope this helped and good luck with the beardie!! Marcel.

marcel- thanks for the info i have done loads of research but am still feeling nervous as i want to do the best and give him a good and loving home x

One of the best pieces of advice is to give your beardie at least 1-2 weeks to settle in before trying to handle much as s/he will need this time to adjust to new surroundings, setup, feeding schedule etc. Be sure to feed at least twice daily with live food as much as s/he will eat in 10-15 mins, dust one lot of live food daily, general rule of thumb which I and most people use iscalcium Mon-Fri and vitamins such as nutrabol Sat & Sun, offer veg every day even if s/he doesn't seem interested in them they should be available. As for temps 110-115f - basking spot and 80-85f cool side you are best using a digital thermometer with a probe or temp gun to check temps the stick on ones are crap and can be up to 20 degrees out

Feel free to ask any specific questions you have, and good luck you're going to love having a beardie, I know I do LOL

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2.1.0 Bearded Dragons - Gizmo, Psycho & Harriet

thanks so do i just leave him in the viv for a couple of days i do i get him out occasionally?

Leave him in the viv for 10-14 days without even touching him. Let him see your hand going in and out of the viv to clean and feed etc, but don't approach him. Completely ignore him, and act like he isn't there. If he sees that you have no interest in him, he will stop seeing you as a threat. Handling them straight away can cause them to be slow to start feeding properly.

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as above...

listen to people on ere cause they helped me alot just by reading other peoples posts, as i done alot of research but alot of people contradict one another, stick to long term owners, and breeders though they know alot

i found that "Bearded Dragon- Pet Owners Guide To The" by Aidan Raftery was a good start up book.

best people to ask questions i think are the breeders i.e Fire & Ice Dragons, Hades Dragons etc breeders are very knowledgable (Don't let this make them big headed lol)

don't be afraid to ask questions on ere as people will always help, this is a really good community.

Are you going to set the viv up before you bring him home? Id definately advise letting the viv warm up for a couple of days before bringing your beardie home otherwise he'll have to wait whilst you set the viv up and will be going into a cold viv!

BDs are the best!

Don't worry about how much you handle them and don't listen to what people tell you about this (me included), go by how YOUR beardie reacts when you get him home and into his viv. If he's not happy about being handled you'll know. We've had our babies now for 5 days and have been handling them lots from the moment they got home and they've now got to the point where they come to you once you open the viv up & they'll sit with you for as long as you want them to. If you find that your beardie isn't comfortable with you handling him then obviously leave it a little while before trying again, however, I certainly wouldn't suggest leaving it as long as 2 weeks! they are very sociable and very friendly lizards! marcel.