Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I think I'm having a problem with the cage being too big. It's a 90 gallon aquarium, so it's 18 by 48 on the floor.

Rather than raising them individually in 10 gallon aquariums, I have them all in the big tank. There are bins and aquariums around when I need them.

One will eat anything I give it, and it's twice the size of the smaller ones. Another one is a little behing the biggest, but still much bigger than the other three. One of them will stay off to the side where the temps aren't real high, and sleep, and be dark.

A couple times I didn't like what I saw, so I took this little one outside in the sun in an aquarium, and give it a little psychological UV treatment, and then put it in its own 10 gallon tank. It sits on top of the basking perch and colors up good.

What I think I'm seeing is that the little beardie is intimidated by the others, and is afraid to hang out with them on the basking rock, but can't thrive in the corner. Otherwise, perhaps the cage is just too big and some of them mischeivously hang out in the corner rather than the basking spot.

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ETChipotle

Great tank, but way to big for these little guys.

They get OVERWHELMED ! And I hope that you were feeding them in something smaller as they would exhaust their little SELVES, trying to catch crickets in there.

Thats also the problem with keeping more than a few together.

There are always some that are bigger, and much more aggressive than their other cage mates. And yes the smaller weaker one or ones will not thrive.

I would definitely keep the little guy thats being intimadated and not basking, in the small tank, by himself. You will probably see a big difference.

And hate to say this , but I would also move the others into a smaller home for now. They grow fast, and will have to all be seperated soon anyway, my friend !

Good luck with them, and let us know how they do, make sure the littlest gets that HOME ALONE and maybe some extra TLC
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Eve

I dont believe it's too big, its' just a matter of dominance. You might want to sepaerate the dominant one from the others..maybe put him/her in a seperate smaller tank because they're taking all the food an dscarign the little ones to the corner. But as for size, I dont believe that's an issue. In the wild are they too overwhelmed with the amount of space that they have? No..they're not, they just have more room. Let me ask you this..have your dragons ever run into the glass? I dont know about your answer but me, yes, plenty of times, whether it be to a cricket that escpaed outside their cage or running toward my fish aquarium and running into the glass trying to get to the fish. They really dont know how big their cage is...a lizard in a small cage in a huge room, would feel the same as a lizard in a huge cage in a big room..they cant see the boundaries of their cage...the size just allows more room for them to run aorund and exersice for proper muscle growth.

the bigger the cage, the farther they will be from the glass edges most of the time, and this also can relieve some of the stress from refelctions in the glass.

.
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Hangin with the Herps
ZZ

Those are baby collared lizards who used to live in the same cage.
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ETChipotle

I would say make the cage smaller than that for a while and as they grow expand the cgae. They can be overwhelmed. Also, i suggest not mixing species, from your picture it looked like you had bearded dragons and collared lizards in there. There is a cross-parasite issue etc. Just FYI.
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David - Kevin
--KDRKreatures--

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The ones that are doing great will stay, the others will be put into smaller cages where they seem to do better.

The cage was previously filled with collared lizards, and it's an old picture. The collared lizards never saw the beardies and vice versa.

I put the cage back together with washed sifted sand for the beardies. I have it set up the same way because I was familiar with how the temperatures worked for the collared lizards, and they have very similar needs for temperatures.

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ETChipotle

three beardies basking

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ETChipotle

Dragons are wild in the nature..they wouldn't be intimidated by thousands of acres of desert to roam would they? Why would that change in captivity???
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**KILL 'EM WITH KINDNESS**

Read up a few at my replies...like i said, they have soo mcuh room in the wild and besides, they cant see glass, they dont know their boundaries. I dont think I've ever heard of an animal that wanted LESS room to live in.
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Julie

0.2 Bearded Dragons
0.0.1 Panther Chameleon
1.0 Jackson Chameleon
0.2 Leopard Geckos
1.1 Crested Geckos
1.0 Blue Water Dragon
1.2 Japanese Fire Belly Newts
1.1 Aquatic Frogs
0.1 Collared Lizard
4.4 Seahorses
0.1 Chinchilla
1.0 Dog

in a 12X12 room by himself or a gymnasium by himself? When you were a kid and it stormed at night did you pull the covers up and get nice and tucked in to feel more secure?

If you know anything about keeping snakes you know they like the smallest hide they can fit into. Honestly I don't understand how you can make the statement you've never heard of an animal that wants less space to live in. What about a kangaroo and is baby? The baby kangaroo lives in it's mother's pouch for the first part of it's life. Why? because it feels secure there. Sure, at first it needs the resources in the pouch to survive but not for the whole time it's in there.

From what I understand baby beardies will seek the comfort of close surroundings. Just because they live in the wild doesn't mean they don't find spots where they feel secure.

For instance, if I was abandoned or lost in the woods without any shelter I'm going to look for something like a cave if I can find one. Just because I'm in the wild doesn't mean I'm going to spend all of my time in the most wide open area I can find.

That argument against smaller cages for baby beardies just makes absolutely no sense if you really think about it.
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Rob Talkington