Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Last year I allowed 1 of my girls to breed and I completely fell in love with the babies. I became way too picky on who I would allow to adopt my precious babies and they are now way too spoiled to be adopted to another home. As a result, I am left with 17 spoiled babies, plus the 3 spoiled adults I started with. I've come up with some ways to care for them a bit easier, but it's still incredibly expensive and time consuming. I'm not complaining, but I was wondering if any of you have come up with your own way of taking proper care of large numbers of beardies.

They are about a year old now and don't much appreciate being in their cages. In fact I currently have 2 on my shoulder, 2 sitting on the back of my chair and 3 lounging on the chair I prop my feet up on! I live in Arizona so I am able to let them spend a lot of time outside in their specially constructed playground enclosures and they go swimming about once a week.

Any time or money saving ideas out there?

Lisa

hi
hehehehh
funny storie .
so next year again 17 babies?

i think i see you end up in youre living room filled with playsand under a baskingspot .
with all the dragons around you .

that told lorna to me b22 you will end up that way .
lucky am not the only one.
whe can start a beardie talk group for talking over r beardie problems
heheh
some times it help when you talk to people ;P

byeeeee
-----

www.dragoncave.nl

LOL!!!

I already have a basking light in the living room! I think I am in trouble!

The beardie support group sounds like fun... I think I need one for my husband too. He had to work late the other day and came home to find me curled up in bed with 7 beardies!

Lisa

Living Room? What's that?

I only have a family room and a dragon room with 12 enclosures in it.

And my family room has a hanging MVB light, and basking light over a log for free roaming dragons to warm up in the winter.

Oh goodie!!! I get to tell my hubby that we are not the only home on the planet that has lights and basking spots set up for the beardies that dislike being in a cage! And we also do not have the only Beardie Room on the planet either!

My mom was planning a visit and I told her I had booked her a hotel room. She asked why she couldn't stay in one of the 2 "spare" bedrooms in our house. I told her that we no longer had any spare rooms in our house - but we did have 2 beardie rooms!

They are so expensive, so much work and can be such a pain in the butt sometimes, but they are so precious!

Take Care!

Lisa

heheheh
i see you both r grazy to .
only you both need is playsand on the floor

byeeeee
-----

www.dragoncave.nl

Wish I did. I have 12 or 13 and the time I spend on them is dramatic. It doesn't help that they are all different sizes and ages either. I guess I could stock less than 5 -6 types of live food including 3 that I breed myself (more work lol) Or maybe I could not give everybody a salad everyday like others have suggested in the past. Nah, just like mine to much, like you have to spoil mine too.

I let mine breed, I just would never incubate all the eggs. Just one of my females alone laid over 130 eggs this year.

This weekend is build more cages weekend. lol.

I'm with you. I think mine would stage a setious revolt if they didn't get their salad every day. I tried adding pellets to their diet thinking I could get out of salad duty a couple of days a week and maybe cut down on my cricket bill, but they were not pleased! They will eat anything on the planet except pellets. One even ate a picture of a rose from a gardening magazine! I tried dumping some small phoenix worms on the pellets to entice them, but they carefully picked each and every worm off the plate while dutifully spitting out any pellet piece they accidently got in their mouth!

I tried raising crickets and stuff, but it was just too much added work and took up too much space. Five different types of live food? I am impressed! Mine get mostly crickets. I give them other stuff several times a month for variety, but crix are the staple.

Thanks and I hope the cage building went well!

Lisa

Superworms are the easiest of any live food to maintain. I am about to try breeding them but currently I just buy 1000 and they last for months. Every dragon I have or have ever had loves these best too.

I breed silkworms which are very easy but it takes a few months to get started and get the hang of it. Once you get going $60 worth of food (10 lbs) lasts over 6 months so it's cheap too.

I have a roach colony more by chance than by choice. Bought 50 a long time ago and have had a lot of trouble getting on top of their reproduction rate. Part of the problem is that most of my dragons are not enthralled by them. I took in a 15" sub adult that just hates people but loves roaches so I'll be out of the roach biz. soon thank god.

And of course the old stand by crickets. I an used to them but they are a hastle. I stock 3 sizes right now since I have dragons of all sizes. Oh well another couple months and hopefully they'll all be eating full size.

Butterworms make a good treat. They are one of the highest in calcium.

I have hornworms throughout egg laying season and if I have a sick or underweight rescue. Threw out 2 cups last week since I had to give my sick rescue away and all but one of my adults is brumating.

It takes me weeks to build my cages in between work and dragon and house chores. lol. I have some undesirable 2.1 trios right now so I'm hurrying to complete them. lol.

I knowI usually have at least a dozen or so at any one time. I go to the organic/natural food stores and talk with the produce person, they usually have greens that are unsellable for whatever reason. I have no proublem getting organic greens for my lizards free on a regular basis. then as far as crickets, I order direct from a bug supplier or pick them up at shows. If you don't know of one, a show would be a good place to find a local one. I think they have a section in kingsnake or the back of reptile where you could find bug suppliers. If you have friends wh also need bugs you can split the cost for shipping cutting cost even more. I hope this was of some help.

Best,
Steve

I never thought to ask about getting salad fixings for free. I did get my local grocery store to add dandelion greens to their organic section. I know they are probably not a huge seller so maybe I can get them to give me the ones that they can't sell.

I have a good arrangement with a reptile store for my crix. With the long, hot summer in Arizona, the casualty rate for crickets even when sent overnight is often very high. The reptile store adds my cricket order to theirs and then they pick up all the crix at the airport and I pick up mine at the store. It costs a bit more, but its reliable.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Lisa

No Proublem, I had to figure out what worked for me with my ethics towards the animals. I've had people say I keep my dragons in resort type settings and I have had people say I have to do everything a certain way. Like one example was using totally organic greens, crickets, bedding and so on. I do buy organic from time to time. But I also don't feed them anything I wouldn't eat, well as far as greens at least. It's definately a learning experience. When you think about parting with some of them. I have found a thoroghly satisfy way is to adopt out to a teacher who is willing to house the animal in their class. I have found a couple of teachers who have been awesome with sharing the animals with the kids. They usually take great care of them, they get alot of attention and I know for me I get to share my hobby with others. I know I don't do it for the dollars.

Best, Steve