 Beardie set up question - newbie *sigh*
Hi all,
a few weeks ago I bought a little beardie from a reptile shop. The owner of the shop had set up the enclosure for me - 80cm x 45cm x 50cm. It has a mesh top. The original substrate was bark chips but I chucked that because it started to smell and was impossible to clean easily. Plus the crickets would hide in it. I have paper towel down for now.
I have cardboard on top of the mesh above the heat lamp but I think the whole cage is just not set up right for heat gradient. I thought she would know what she was doing being the owner of the store and all - specialising in reptiles!
It has a 60watt purple spot globe for heat and a 26w compact max 10. for UV.
As far as I can tell with the crappy thermometer she sold me, the tank is the same temp. from one end to the other. Hovering between 25 and 30. The only time the temp. rose above that was when we had a stinking hot day here - Oh I'm in Victor Harbor if that's any help.
I feel like an idiot because I didn't do any research before buying this set up and I have the feeling I'm going to have to do some major rearranging.
Looocie (yeah three o's lol) spends most of her time in the plastic greenery and doesn't eat any vegies. I've been putting thawed, frozen mixed veg and dark leafed lettuce down for her. I dust her crickets with calcium/d3 powder but she doesn't seem to eat many of them either. I'm thinking it's cause the temp is too low in the enclosure.
I've been spraying her with water and also dripping water onto her mouthal region lol.
I'm going to buy more crickets today and try breeding them myself too. I'm pretty sure that most of the last lot of crickets I bought from the shop were too big for her even though I asked about that.
Thanks in advance for any help - sorry I blathered on for so long *sigh*
Mel. xx (feeling like a very bad beardie mum at the moment)
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