Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[jak2108]

This is now 29 hours since our 4 week old spike arrived in his new home and hes only ate 7 crickets and a little carrot peelings (the crickets were hand fed right in front of his nose and he didnt seem that fussed and only took 2/3 each time of 3 attempts). The guy in the shop said he would eat 15 crickets twice a day.

Spike seems to like to stay right at the top of the bogwood which is about 3 inches from the UV tube..........is this ok?
The other place hes likes to stay is right at the top of the plants which hang down from the top and he always goes there in the night to sleep.......I thought he may be seeking the highest points for the heat..........i have a thermometer at the coolest end of the tank which reads 76-78 and the other end of the tank is the basking lamp with part of the bogwood beneath it (basking site about 7-8 inches away from the lamp). I placed a thermometer on the basking site and recorded what the temp rose to before the thermostat kicked in and this was 102 I turn the temp down to 70 on the coolest end thermometer at night....are my temps ok?

I have never seen spike right under the basking lamp always up high on the bogwood in about the middle of the tank under the UV

The other reason i thought he may be hiding and seeking the highest points is because hes a baby it instinct for them to hide and seek advantage points in order to survive. This is all good but if he doesnt get down off the log and out of the trees hes never going to find his grub!!!!

Ive thought about taking the bogwood and the hollow log (which hes never been in)and the plants out so the crickets have nowhere hide but then neither has spike!!! Would the crickets burrow into the bark on the floor to hide and if so would sand be better (id prefer sand but the missis wants the bark!!)

Is all this behaviour normal for the first X amount of days or have i got an anorexic beardy!!!!

[Nelson]

Sorry but I dont know how better to put this.

Calm down

Im going to hazard a guess and say the bogwood is the highest point in the viv that s/he can get too?

And dont worry about the food intake, it'll eat what it wants.

I should add turning the temps up to 115deg at the basking spot would help.

[Chiagara]

Would def have to agree with Nelson on this. Calm down, he's only been in your viv for about a day and a half. When I brought my first pair of Beardies home, about 7 years ago, the first thing one of the little buggers did was scale the plastic plants to the mesh grill at the top/back of the viv and hide behind the UV reflector! He stayed there for about 36 hours and then decided he was hungry so he came down and ate. Beardies at this age are very scittish plus add in new surroundings and I think it was pretty good going to get him to that many crickets so quickly.

I have read somewhere else that a very young Beardies viv should be fairly empty as they can sometimes get cut off from the basking spot and as far as a hide goes, it more important for such a young Beardie to soak up the UVB and not spend too much time hiding away.

With all that said, once again, calm down. If you stress out then you're fare more inclined to do the same to your Beardie by not leaving it alone. Let it adjust and all will be well; hopefully

Hope that helps,
Chiagara

[jak2108]

Thanks for your advice but i am a bit of a stress head!!LOL

Yesturday i took the bark on the floor out and replaced it with calci sand and removed the bogwood and put the other half of the hollow log in so theres not as many nooks for the crickets to hide in.

Spike was down on the floor straight away to investigate the new substrate and i now think hes much happier.

This morning i fed him 8 crix dusted with supplements and he ate them all straight away!!!

I think the main problem was the crix i had from the reptile shop were way too big!! I called in a different pet shop yesturday and showed them the size i was given for my 4 week old and the girl said its a wonder the crix didnt eat little spike!! I now have a box of BABY brown crix and spike loves them!!!!


Im going to give him a couple more now

Thanks again for your advice

[serpent]

The easy way to get the right size cricket is to look at the size of the gap between his eyes when viewed from above, this is the max size of cricket that you need.
I would guess if he is 4 weeks old that no 3 cricket is about the right size, I would also recommend that you remove the hollow log as it is somewhere the crickets can hide and he wont be able to find them.
I have hatched out just over 100 beardies this year and all that I have in the viv is two branches about 2 inch thick and a water bowl. The UV is about 3 -4 inches from the branch and the hatchlings spend most of their time just basking either under or on the tube. The hot spot is 114F and the cool end is 84F.


The adults have a spartan tank as well...so crickets cant hide ANYWHERE






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