So I'm a little ashamed to say that I thought I had done my research and knew what I was doing when I got my beardie a year and a half ago. Then recently I joined this reddit and learned just how much I didn't know about caring for our little reptile friends. Then within the past 2 weeks, my little guy lost his appetite and was getting very thin, so I took him to the vet and the vet told me several things, some of which was surprising and not something I had heard here. Now, I am not one to doubt a professional vet, but I also understand they have to have knowledge of all kinds of animals, and lots of reptiles have different needs from some others, so I just wanted to run some questions by you guys to make sure it sounds right.
-
He said to get rid of the overhead heat lamp and get a floor heating pad for half of my enclosure. I hadn't heard of anyone doing that before. Is this normal? Will it provide enough heat? Any suggestions on which one to buy?
-
He said biggest mistake was not gut loading my crickets. I had never heard of this. Is this a normal thing that everyone does? I've always just gave my crickets the water cube things and the grain it whatever it is, from petsmart.
-
He said not to use a heat rock. Is there a reason for that? My beardie seems to like laying on that a lot so I hate to get rid of it but will if it's not safe.
-
Not related to the vet, but my beardie seems to only be interested in crickets. He will occasionally eat some cilantro, but nothing else it seems. The vet said I need to get him eating squash and other veggies. But how am I supposed to do that if he doesn't want them?
[link] [comments]