Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I moved some of the babies that hatched into their own rubbermaid container. i put paper towels on the bottom. I put a small piece of mustard green and some pin head crickets. My question is that the pinheads are so tiny they go under the paper towel and since i cannot remove the pin head crickets that are not eaten, do i need to take the baby dragons out and to a different bin or will they be safe with some excess crickets.

also i have a megaray uv bulb and the ground temp on the paper towels read average 89 degrees. i took it with a temp gun. will this be ok or do i need to adjust higher or lower. I will post some pics shortly. so far we have 1 hypo trans silkie, one hypo trans leatherback and 1 i am not sure as it has a good amount of scales and side spikes.

thanks
alan

Place the crickets in a shallow bowl, this way you can remove uneaten crickets easier and they can't get under the paper towel. Pinhead crickets are not great jumpers so not many if any will get out of the bowl before being eaten. It may also be a good idea to use several bowls so the babies don't compete as much for food.

You need a basking temperature of at least 100F for babies...so place a couple wide stones, bricks, store bought logs etc. to serve as a basking site for the dragons. Make sure there is plenty of room for all the dragons to bask, without having to 'stack' ontop of each other (having a dragon on your back reduced exposure of heat and UVB light, so the bottom dragon is being robbed of these if a dragon sits ontop of it).

Also, make sure there is a cooler area of the cage the dragons can move to, you don't want the entire cage to be 90F, surface or air.

Another note, the babies may not eat for a few days now that they are hatched, as they are full of the yolk they absorbed. So don't be worried if they don't eat at all for the next couple days.
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PHLdyPayne

thank you. for now though, i have crickets in the tub already. since i cant remove them and they are uneaten do i remove the baby dragons or not worry about it. it is not a great deal of crickets but nonetheless they are there

a few more pics

Pinheads are really too small for even baby Beardies. I'd buy 1/8" with the thought that they'll be fed out before they get much larger than 1/4". I don't like paper towels for the same reason you are experiencing. I always used non stick shelf liner and taped the edges down with masking tape so the crickets can't get under.

Another thought if you have a bunch of hatchlings is to make an exclusive feeding bin. Then move each dragon in to eat 3 times a day and you don't have to fuss with so much cricket collection.

It also gets the babies used to being handled.

I appreciate the help. the pin head crickets are so tiny I am not even sure how to get them into the bin and know how many. they do look a bit to small for the dragons as well. I am going to try the 1/8 size. right now we have 5 out of the egg and all seem active and healthy. I like your idea of a feeding bin. I used a small shallow dish this morning to help contain the pinhead crickets.

Our first egg hatched out on monday and they continued hatching including 2 yesterday. we still have 5 eggs that have not started to hatch. is this normal?
thanks

Usually they all hatch within a day or 2. A breeder would be able to give you a better opinion on this. If the eggs still look good I'd just be patient.

Within 24 hours, all of my babies are out of the egg. If they don't smell and are not moldy, leave them alone. If they were bad, they would have gone bad a long time ago. Some may take longer depending on the temps. I do not advise helping dragons out of the shell. If they don't hatch, there was a good resason for it.

Be patient and good luck.
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www.moonstonedragons.com

It usually takes about 2 days,but it is not uncommon for 3-4 days...a few may even lag by a week. Those are a bit weaker usually.