Category: New Keepers

The first week is about one thing: letting your dragon settle. New keepers almost always handle too much, too soon, and worry when a dragon does not eat. Both are normal. Here is what to expect, day by day.

Before your dragon arrives

Your enclosure should be fully assembled, wired, and holding stable temperatures for at least 24 hours before your dragon arrives. Confirm your basking surface with an infrared temperature gun, not a stick-on gauge, and check that the cool end genuinely is cooler. A dragon cannot thermoregulate in an enclosure that is uniformly warm.

Have feeders on hand and already gut-loaded. Sorting out an insect order in week one is a stress you do not need. If you have not put your setup together yet, work through the bearded dragon shopping list first.

Day 1: arrival

• Place your dragon directly into the enclosure and leave them be.
• No handling. None. However tempting.
• Offer a shallow dish of water and a small amount of greens, then walk away.
• Keep the room quiet. No crowd of visitors, no other pets pressed against the glass.
• Expect hiding, glass surfing, dark colouring, or a flattened posture. All are normal stress responses to a new environment.

Days 2–3: observation only

Keep hands out of the enclosure except to change water and remove uneaten food. Your job this week is watching, not interacting.

• Offer insects once daily. If your dragon refuses, remove them after 15 minutes and try again tomorrow. Refusing food for the first several days is extremely common and not on its own a cause for alarm.
• Confirm your dragon is using the basking spot. A dragon that never basks usually means the temperature is wrong, not that the dragon is unwell.
• Note the first poop. It confirms your dragon is eating, drinking, and digesting.
• Re-check both temperatures at the same time each day.

Days 4–5: first contact

If your dragon is eating and basking normally, begin building trust, slowly.

• Rest a hand inside the enclosure without reaching for your dragon. Let them approach on their terms.
• Hand-feed a favourite insect. Food is the fastest route to trust.
• When you do lift, scoop from underneath and support the whole body. Never grab from above. That is how a predator approaches.
• Cap the first sessions at 5 minutes, then return your dragon to the basking spot.

Days 6–7: settling into routine

• Extend handling to 10–15 minutes if your dragon stays relaxed.
• Settle into consistent feeding times. Dragons do well on predictability.
• Book a well-check with an exotics vet in your area if you have not already. Find one before you need one urgently.

Normal versus worrying

Normal in week one	Call a vet
Refusing food for several days	Refusing food beyond 10 days, or visible weight loss
Darkened beard or body colour	Persistent black beard with laboured breathing
Glass surfing and hiding	Lethargy with no basking at all
Loose stool after a diet change	Blood in stool, or no stool for over a week
Occasional gaping while basking	Mouth open with mucus, wheezing, or clicking
Sleeping a lot the first few days	Tremors, twitching, or dragging a limb

The most common week-one mistakes

1. Handling too much, too soon. It is the single most common cause of a dragon that stays skittish for months.
2. Panicking over a hunger strike. Give it time and keep conditions correct.
3. Trusting stick-on thermometers. Use a probe and an infrared gun.
4. Changing the setup repeatedly. Constant rearranging resets the settling clock every time.
5. Feeding insects that are too large. Nothing wider than the gap between your dragon’s eyes.

---

Every dragon that leaves us comes with ongoing support. If something in week one does not look right, message us. No question is too small, and we would always rather hear from you early.

Everything you need before your dragon comes home, grouped by priority. Buy the “before day one” items first. Your enclosure should be fully set up and holding correct temperatures for at least 24 hours before your dragon arrives.

Before day one: non-negotiable

These are the items your dragon cannot safely go without. Nothing on this list is optional, and none of it can wait until “next payday.”

• Enclosure: 120 gallon / 4′ x 2′ x 2′ minimum for an adult. A hatchling can start in something smaller, but you will be re-buying within months. Buy adult-sized once and save the money.
• Linear T5 HO UVB fixture, 22″–34″. Arcadia 12% or Zoo Med Reptisun 10.0. This is the single most important purchase you will make. Coil and compact bulbs do not produce adequate UVB and are a leading cause of metabolic bone disease.
• Basking bulb: plain halogen flood, 50–100W. Regular household halogen works. Avoid coloured, “night-time,” and ceramic bulbs for daytime basking.
• Digital probe thermometer, two of them. One probe at basking surface, one at the cool end. Stick-on dial gauges are inaccurate and should not be trusted.
• Infrared temperature gun. The only reliable way to read the actual basking surface temperature your dragon lies on.
• Dimming thermostat or lamp dimmer. Ambient room temperature changes through the year; your basking spot needs to be adjustable.
• Substrate. For a new keeper: kraft paper, newsprint, or paper towel. Skip loose natural substrates until you are confident in husbandry and dragons are bigger in size.
• Basking platform. Slate, flagstone, or sturdy branch that puts your dragon 8–12″ below the basking bulb.
• Two hides: one warm, one cool. A dragon with nowhere to retreat is a stressed dragon.
• Shallow water dish and a food dish. Shallow enough that your dragon can step out unassisted.

Target numbers to hit

Zone	Temperature/Humidity
Basking surface	100–105°F
Cool end	75–85°F
Night-time	65–75°F
Humidity	30–40%
Light cycle	12–14 hours on, full darkness overnight

Food and supplements

• Calcium powder without D3, for dusting most feedings when a good UVB bulb is in use.
• Calcium powder with D3, used sparingly; follow the schedule on your care sheet.
• Multivitamin, roughly once weekly.
• Live feeders: crickets, or black soldier fly larvae. Feeders should be no wider than the space between your dragon’s eyes. We feed superworms once dragons are sub-adults
• Fresh greens: collard, mustard, turnip greens, dandelion, escarole. Not spinach, not kale as a staple, never iceberg lettuce.

Nice to have: first few months

• Kitchen scale reading in grams, for weekly weigh-ins
• Feeding tongs
• Reptile-safe enclosure cleaner or dilute F10
• Feeder bin with ventilation and egg-crate flats
• Extra branches, and climbing decor for enrichment
• Spare basking bulbs
• A travel or quarantine tub for vet trips and enclosure deep-cleans

Skip these

• Coil / compact UVB bulbs: inadequate output, and a known cause of eye problems.
• Heat rocks: a genuine burn risk. Dragons do not sense belly heat well enough to move away.
• Calcium sand and other loose particulate substrates: impaction risk, particularly for young dragons.
• Coloured/red night bulbs: dragons need genuine darkness to sleep.
• Stick-on dial thermometers and hygrometers: routinely off by 10°F or more.

---

Questions about any of this, or unsure whether a piece of kit you already own will work? Get in touch. We would much rather answer a question up front than sort out a husbandry problem later.