Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I teach high school biology. I have a ton of different herps in my classroom & have researched beardies. My biggest questions are about how well do beardies tolerate lots of movement, noise & handling. Also, I have heard about "smell" from beardies... this is an obvious concern. How bad is the smell? Feeding / food is not an issue. Thanks for your valued opinions!

I have visited schools with Beardies in the calss. As long as the husbandry is correct I have not seen any problems. Every BD is different but I don't see handling being a problem for an older juvie or sub aduly. Deffinately not for babies though. Smell depends on the type of food and thclenliness of the cage. clean early, clean often bo problem. Where are you located? I am going to be offering BDs to qualified schools this season, either for free or at special pricing.

the site is not fully operational yet but have a look at this page.
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Bennett

Home Of The Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

I am near Atlanta GA. I think I already have a supplier here in GA, but I appreciate your offer! How do you keep the beardies from nipping each other's tails & toes? What foods are most likely to cause smelly feces? Would you recommend a dragon that is around 10 months to a year old to start with? (I would also like to breed them.)

the folks at georga dragons are real nice folks. you should probably talk to them too. I don't put more than 5 to a tub. give them room and lots and lots of food. start feeding an hour after lights on if not sooner. 3 meals a day.

Crix are probably one of the worst offenders as are worms when it comes to smell. I am going to be using a lot of roaches this season as well as pellets and dragon dust.

I would say 6 months or older you will be able to tell the temperment of the animal and handling won't be a problem.

As to breeding, remember that breeding season generally coincides with summer break. that means NO VACATION FOR YOU!!!
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Bennett

Home Of The Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

Thanks for all the great tips. I don't really get a vacation anyway, I go in at least 3 days to check out the zoo (mostly the frogs & fish) I leave in the class over summer! The beardies would go home with the other "high maintenance" pets.

About the smell my beardeds cage is starting to smell and I clean it daily.It doesn't make the room smell just when you walk past the cage you sometimes get a nasty whiff of it.I don't feed crickets either.

Like Bennet said, as long as you are on top of your cleaning smell should not be an issue. I find that my BD's actually don't really have a scent to them. The thing that smells is their feces. Everytime I see a load dropped it is removed. If it is left in their cage it will stink and then they will eventually run through it making them stink. Another contributor to stank is the type of substrate used. Personally i've used both sand and shelf liner. The sand tends to build up a smell if not changed every couple of months even if poop is removed daily. The shelf liner does not absorb any fluid so smell is not a prob. The 10g cricket cage I have always smells more than my two BD enclosures.