When a Beardie comes in with supplies, it usually looks like this in my front room-- like someone threw up supplies!
These two tanks had walnut shell in them! Yuck!!
That had to be the first thing to go-- after I picked out the crickets that weren't being eaten.
I use a small dustpan and scoop the nasty stuff in the trash. I found old poop, cricket parts, weird things I couldn't recognize, pieces of shed, etc. As I breathed it in, I wondered how a Beardie could survive when inhaling all the dust while digging in the walnut shell.
Once it's clean, I wipe the whole tank down with a lemon antibacterial wipe. I want to kill any and all germs or parasites that bred in the walnut shell. I let the antibacterial wipe dry on its own. Then I wipe the whole thing down a couple times with a clean, wet washcloth.
I had pieces of linoleum already cut to a 40 gallon tank so I put that in the bottom of the tank.
When I pulled the first Beardie out, I cut his nails. Oh! They were long!!
He did not like it!
Once his nails were trimmed, I let him run around the room while I cleaned. Teddy and Kreature watched.
I washed off all the logs and branches in the sink to wash off all the dust. Then I repeated the process with the second tank and Beardie. The whole cleaning process took just over an hour.
Once the two tanks were set up, I moved them farther away from Kreature's tank. He was a little too interested in them.
Luckily I had just ordered extra UVB bulbs and had brand new ones to put on their tanks.
Using two zip ties looped around the light fixture and each other, I hang the UVB lights on the back of the tank with two plant hooks.
I didn't quite get the lights hung because I had to run to the vet to pick up Sunny, but they are at least on top.
Both beardies had coil UVB lights. The long tubes hanging inside the tank (not being filtered by a screen) are the best way of getting UVB to a Beardie.
Thankfully, both beardies came with names! :) It's always a relief when I don't have to pick more names. I'll post about them tomorrow.
PS. I keep my tanks pretty empty. When you have 15 tanks to care for, it's much easier if you keep them plain. These two will probably get a hammock added in and a few more dishes. I just used what they had so there was familiar objects for them.
