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Newly Hatched

AncientCritters Feb 02, 2006 09:34 PM

Hey everyone. Im pretty much a lurker to the beardie forum but I thought id share pictures of my new baby. Just hatched her a few days ago. I have a adult trio and this is the first time I tried to hacth the eggs. Well I picked the biggest egg and hatched it. I wouldnt know what to do with a bunch of babies so I only tried one. Anyways here it is and if anyone has anytips of feeding a baby it would be great. Right now im just feeding 2 week old crickets and soaking everyother day

Thanks
Robert

Replies (5)

heartmountain Feb 02, 2006 09:48 PM

You need to be feeding 3-5 times per day and misting 3 times per day. You say you have a trio and you picked the largest egg this time to hatch..... so I take this to mean that you have them living together, breeding at will creating stress on your females for no reason at all. If you don't know what you'd do with all the babies that's fine, then don't breed them.
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Heart Mountain Herps

AncientCritters Feb 02, 2006 10:27 PM

On top of the soaking there is plenty of misting going on also. I guess what I was asking is what else other than crickets might I feed. I tried the greens that I feed the adults chopped real fine but I see no intrest in that. Maybe some pellets?? Anyways I had my male for a couple of years and this summer I got two females and another male from a woman who said her kid wasnt taking very good care of them. This is where the fertile eggs are coming from. Got five clutches from the two of them. Im fully able to care for my critters properly and no they arent all together. All I was asking for was a little help on a new hatchling being that I never had one this small and thats all I need.

heartmountain Feb 02, 2006 11:05 PM

I start them on salad before I ever offer bugs. It may take a week or so for them to start eating it but they will eat it, it just makes it easier in the long run, no waiting 1 year before they'll eat their salad this way. I also add soaked repcal juvie pellets to the salad. After that crix, roaches and small silkies.
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Heart Mountain Herps

PHLdyPayne Feb 03, 2006 02:33 PM

Sounds like the person who you got the three dragons from kept them housed together all the time or at least mated them. Good that you are keeping the males separated from the females. What are you doing with the eggs y ou haven't hatched? Are you freezing them before throwing them out to make sure they don't hatch at the dump?
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PHLdyPayne

PHLdyPayne Feb 03, 2006 02:32 PM

For newly hatched baby dragons, feed 3-4 times a day small crickets, no bigger than the space between the dragon's eyes. Offer insects for about 5-10 minutes or till they stop eating the crickets, whichever comes first. Dust the crickets every feeding with a good reptile multivitamin and calcium with d3. The cage setup can be the same as the adults, except much smaller (10-20 gal is good to start, t hen moving to 35gal when about 6" long, nose to tail tip). Line with papertowel to make cleaning easier and avoid all risk of impaction.

Very small silkworms can be used or newly hatched roaches of various species.

Very important to mist several times a day, the dragon, not the cage and have a small dish of water available (too small for the dragon to get into,so it doesn't get contaminated). The dragon probably won't drink from it anyway but some do anyway.

Make sure you have a basking temp of around 100-115F as babies seem to like higher basking temps than adults.

Offer greens as well, finely choppeed as you are already doing. hatchling babies are really not interested in greens but dropping their crickets onto the salad usually gets them to eat some greens anyway with their crickets. Soaked pellets can be added to the salad as well.

Make sure you have a fresh UVB bulb for the baby as well. They do need access to UVB for proper health and growth.

You can pretty much stick to the above routine till the dragon reaches about two months old, then you can cut the feedings down to 2-3 times a day. At about 4 months old, just feed twice a day crickets and dust one feeding a day. After about 8 months you can go to one feeding of insects a day and salad available all day. Once adult, you can feed salad every day and insects 2-3 times a week, dusting once or twice a week.
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PHLdyPayne

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