When you get your Beardie, the best thing is to take him out of the box right away and put him in a warm bath for about 10 minutes, then into the cage with a food bowl and soaked moist pellets or a dusted salad. Let him get used to things for a day or two before handling him. When you do handle him start slow and only for short periods (a few minutes here and there). Attitude and appetite will tell you when he is ready to be one of the family.
I use washed play sand for a substrate. Lighting is on from sunup until sundown.
I keep their feeding routine here varied to make things more interesting for them. Breakfast is served about an hour after lights on in the morning. That gives them time to warm up. They also get a lunch around 2pm
I use Rep-cal pellets. You can soak them in hot water for a few minutes until they plump or fruit juice for 20 min. Cranberry, apple, grape, orange... make sure no sugar added. I use leftover pellets and greens to feed crix.
Veggies - lots of greens and squashes. You can go to www.beautifuldragons.com they have the most complete list of foods around. That’s what we use as our guide.
If you want to feed crix, make sure they are the right size. You can feed as many as you like. I feed mine only 5-10 a day as they have the other foods as well. You can let him decide how much to eat too. Give him as much as he can eat over a 10 minute period, a few at a time. Beardies will eat less crix as they get older. After they are a year old you will only want to feed him a few crix every other day or so. If you are feeding prepared foods like the T-rex or Rep-cal, then you should dust the crix with the T-rex cricket dust. This helps to balance the phosphorus:calcium ratio. If you are not using prepared foods then use the appropriate calcium supplement regularly (withD3 for indoor, no D3 for outdoor).
Make sure you have his enclosure set up and ready for him before he arrives and the temperatures are ok.
Hot side: right under basking light, 105-115 Cool side: 80-85 A place to perch/climb under the basking spot A place to hide to get out of the light, a shady spot or a cave. I recommend a quarantine period of 90 days.
*T-rex products have come under fire lately so be cautious and keep an eye on your BDs. Make sure they get hydrated well.
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Bennett
www.beardiedragon.com
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Signature edited for TOS violation.
Edited on August 22, 2004 at 23:32:52 by phwyvern.
