We acquired our first dragon "Rocky" in Nov. Breeder said he was 1 1/2 mo old then, so now at 3 mos he is growing really fast, already 12" long. He is in a 15 gal tank now, is it time to move him into a bigger tank? He is somewhat hyper, won't let us handle him, nips at us when we try to take him out of tank. We have to cover him with a cloth and then pick him up to get him out. My 11 yr old got him because the dragons were supposed to be more tolerant of handling and now he is scared to try to handle him...can someone recommend some tactics for dealing with this situation??
Also, he's a voracious criket consumer! We give him 20-24 1/2 crickets a day, half in am and half in evening and he eats them as fast as they go in. Are we giving him enough? How long will he need to eat this much each day?
Thanks for any help! He's a cool little dude...but we'd really like to be able to handle him a bit more....
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Various questions from a new owner!
Replies (3)
A 15 gal. is too small for anything but a true hatchling. So I'd take care of that right away. At 12", I move mine into adult enclosures. An adult enclosure should be at least 4' x 2' or 8 square feet. I find that dragons in conditions unacceptable to them are often aggressive to their captors. So getting him comfortable in a proper size enclosure should cause some improvement in his attitude. As far as the crickets go you need to feed him as many as he can eat at each meal regardless of what that number is. I would say he should be eating more than 24 at each meal not per day. You could consider buying in bulk for the next couple months as pet store crickets get expensive for growing dragons.
THANK YOU to all who answered my post. Information was very helpful! I increased his cricket intake and his behavior has changed considerably, he's not freaky anymore and does not nip when you reach in the tank, seems very content. And finally located an affordable 4'tank so he will have a larger home soon!
I have been working on taming a somewhat skittish dragon by the following. Handling less in turns of picking him up but petting him a little any time I need to get in the cage. Picking him up twice a week in a towel which seems to keep them amazingly calm and petting the exposed head for 15 minutes at a time. Finally hand feeding him worms to get him use to seeing me as his source of food!
