The care for a growing bearded dragon...Can anyone please share their thoughts and opinions?

Question

I just got a Bearded Dragon last week and i have been holding it and playing with it for about an hour everyday.He is small so i have him in a 10gal. tank for now with a bendable vine,some leaves,a small wooden hut,and newspaper as substrate, a water bowl and a food dish with some moist pellets and a veggie mix, a combo head light with a uvb florescent light, a 60watt daylight bulb on 1 end (how long do i keep it on?) and a infared bulb on the other(just to change temp when it gets cold at night) I just want to know (even though i have done so much reading on them, id like to get more info from real owners) What else am i missing? How much should i feed him ( I work alot so i feed him as much as he can eat once every night).what should the humidity level be?, When can he eat his veggies in his dish becuase he barely touches it (only when hand fed a piece of pea), when should i change tanks and what size? IM sorry for all the questions but i just want him to be happy with me.THANX

Answer 1

I disagree with almost everything in the other answer

Romaine lettuce is never appropriate to feed to a beardie they need GREENS lettuce is almost all water and can cause upset stomachs besides having little to no nutritional value.

For a hatchling a 10 gallon is acceptable however depending on it's size by the time it's an adult you'll want a minimum of a 55 gallon tank.

for heat you only need a normal household bulb, i have no idea what a uva would do for a beardie as it's completely unnecessary. 10 hours is good on both heat and uvb

Get rid of the infra-red beardies can see red so it will disturb their sleep, unless it drops below 60 at night you don;t need a heat source at night, if it does you should use a ceramic heat emitter.

he needs greens (collard, mustard etc) and i have linked a nutrition list in my source that you can look at. Pay special attention to it because no matter what anyone argues or tries to say the nutrition table will say why it's good or bad for beardies.

beardies also don't really tend to drink from water bowls and mine doesn't even have one.

Answer 2

You should have a 20 gallon tank. 10 gallons is much too small, it will stress your lizard out.

In addition to UVB, try using UVA bulbs. UVA helps their psychological needs. They sell basking lamp/UVA combinations, buy one of those.

You should have a 75w to 100w if you want healthy temperatures (the temperature needs to be between 90 and 110).

For vegetables try romaine lettuce, my bearded dragon eats a whole dish of it!