Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Pondering some more things for you fine people to answer....

1)I read that you shouldn't use play sand for baby beardies. If this is true what age or length is suitable for such substrate?

2)Handling and taming? How tame are beardie's as juveniles and do they appreciate daily handling? Do they bite or scratch?

3)I have a PETCO a half hour away. Has anyone ever bought beardies from them? If so were you satisfied?

4)Lastly when I eventually purchase my new family member I want him most importantly healthy but colorful as well. Which breed is the most beautiful keeping in mind something for beginners like myself...Thanks for all the answers.It's appreciated!!!!!

Pondering some more things for you fine people to answer....

1)I read that you shouldn't use play sand for baby beardies. If this is true what age or length is suitable for such substrate?

-if you want to use playsand you can do so after the dragon reaches at least 10 inches. I keep my adults on wheat bran i find it to be the best and safest particulate substrate.

2)Handling and taming? How tame are beardie's as juveniles and do they appreciate daily handling? Do they bite or scratch?

-usually juvi's are fairly tame, they tend to be a bit more flighty at that age, i find they like wandering quite a bit and exploring about their humans, after a dragon settles into a new home daily handling is just fine and is a good way to ensure you will have a tame dragon as they get older As for biting and scratching, well depends on the dragon, i have never met a mean dragon that would bite you, i have seen a defensive dragon, rememer you are a giant in their world. Carrick bit me the other day, but only because i was handfeeding black berries, he just loves those things! they also stain and my fingers looked just like the berries i imagine some dragons will squirm if they dont feel secure in your hands, they like to be held close to the body and with as much of their body supported as possible, never knew one that intentionally would scratch, but those nails tend to get sharp on bare skin when they are climbing about on your neck

3)I have a PETCO a half hour away. Has anyone ever bought beardies from them? If so were you satisfied?

-i would take a look online and at the classifieds or for breeders in your area, there are many good breeders, i woudlnt buy from petco, i have seen how those dragons are kept and i dont think buying from them and supporting that treatment is a good idea. try

www.sundialreptile.com
www.jerseydragons.com
www.dragonsbynature.com
www.dachiu.com

these are just a few, they all have beautiful and healthy dragons and i would reccomend buying a dragon from any one of them

4)Lastly when I eventually purchase my new family member I want him most importantly healthy but colorful as well. Which breed is the most beautiful keeping in mind something for beginners like myself...Thanks for all the answers.It's appreciated!!!!!

-i would go for pogona vitticeps, but rankins or lawsons dragons are beautiful too and dont require such a large enclosure, so it really depends on what is right for you. I like oranges and reds myself, but then i think they are all beautiful just the same from greys to yellows and reds and orange, they have just soo much personality! best of luck let us know how you make out and if you have any other questions

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reiko
photos

n/p

thats Carrick, he is a German Giant X Gold

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reiko
photos

>>thats Carrick, he is a German Giant X Gold
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>>reiko
>> photos
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All I can say is ..... Oooohhhh drooooool
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www.BeginnersBasics.com

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Life is what happens when you are making other plans.......

I think that petco is a terrible place to buy ANY type of pet. I have NEVER gone into one of those big chain pet stores and seen the dragons getting proper care. I actually went today(ran outta crickets again) and say some of the sickest looking little hatchlings....they could barely keep their heads up...it was SO sad, and they wanted $60 for them. To give you an idea about how little they research the care of their animals...I asked for some superworms and they went and got them outta the freezer...The lid of the conatiner they were in said "DO NOT REFRIDGERATE".... I tried warming them up, but they were all dead... Who cares about superworms, but its just an example. The little 2 week old dragons were on wood chips with medium sized crickets rinning around, and their temp gauge said 83 in the basking spot....it was terrible. This is a standard experiance with the big stores though. DON'T do it. You will regret it. I can also guarentee you that breeders sell their worst quality stock to the pet stores, and keep the better animals to sell for themselves. You can get SO much more if you buy off of the classifieds section here. DON"T supprt petco, if you buy a lizard from them you will encourage them to buy and mistreat more. PetSmart is JUST as bad. They don't have time to train the employees to care for the animals properly, so they have a standard lizard setup, standard snake setup, standard spider setup, ect. They don't take into account where these animals came from...desert, jungle...its all the same to them.

Petco does not sell dragons with colors. They sell the runts and the colorless from the breeders, or the ones that don't eat well and are growing slow. They are the WORST quality.

You have already found Kingsnake.com, use it. This is the best place to buy a dragon.
http://market.kingsnake.com/index.php?cat=51

You shouldn't buy a baby under 6 weeks old, by that time playsand is ok. I use it on babies after they are a week old, and have not yet had a problem.

Play with you baby several times a day and get it use to being part of your life. Don't keep it out more then about 10 minutes at a time until it is over 4 months.

They won't hurt you, if you get it from a good breeder and it has been handled since hatching. It will understand people don't hurt...they are very easy going. I usually have several of them clinging to me as I walk around my house. They won't scratch you on purpose, and they don't scratch like cats...it doesn't really hurt. Babies don't hurt at all when they scratch or bite..adults can be a little painful. Mine have NEVER bit on purpose....its always was a food releated accident.

DON'T GO TO PETCO!
Jen
Beautiful Dragon Hatchlings!!!!! - - - - - -Click Here - - - - - - -

I bought my dragon, and 2 leopard geckos from my petco.....I don't have any complaints with my animals, the only complaint I have with my Petco is that the animals are kept on woodchips, as you said, and they don't feed them the proper sized crickets. The Petco we have here is pretty clean, and has fairly intelligent employees. I guess it just depends on where you live.

Jessica

it was a fluke and I would never have considered buying an animal from there either but I went to get supplies one day and I noticed that the tanks were set up correctly and looked really great! then I noticed that out of around 15 baby beardies in the setup the one on top of the pile on top of the basking lights was in shed and under the shed was some beautiful orange coloration that went down the back and down the tail, I couldnt resist!

Ive also seen here on this forum that some petcos get some of their babys from sandfire dragon ranch, so maybe I found a jewel in the pile! LOL~! the lady that worked there was glad that I came along to buy Dakota because although she has a ton of animals was tempted herself to add this pretty baby to her collection of pets.

Dakota is a love and is getting more colorful every day!

I paid 75% less for Dakota than I did for Delilah that although her blood lines are supposto be great is normal to kinda hypo looking at times and apparently some of her sibs turned out the same as well. I must say that Delilah is the apple of our eye and regardless of her color a love....

Sue
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Life is what happens when you are making other plans.......

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Life is what happens when you are making other plans.......

woodchips, improper sized crickets, the FACT that they do NOT supplement, the complete lack of greens other then iceburg lettuce, the fact that as a chain they are responsible for SO much suffering, the fact that their in store care sheet has incorrect information even though they sell several GOOD bearded dragon books, any ONE of these reasons is enough to avoid buying form them at all costs. I am sure that they have in several stores had a quality bearded dragon before, but why buy from them and encourage the suffering that goes on in all the other chains.

for one, they encourage impulse animal buying...they sell to people who had never heard of a beardie before going into the store, then they buy one and have no idea how to care for it...

I know that everyone here knows that for the most part these animals do not get what they need, SO WHY WOULD YOU EVER ENCOURACE THEM

Jen
beardie babies!!! Click!!