Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum and to Mountain Horned Dragons. I adopted an adorable baby yesterday, he's 4 days old and cute as heck. I was choosing from a whole clutch of babies, and this one was the most agressive eater. I watched him chase down and eat 3 crickets and figured he was my safest bet for a first Dragon. One of the other ones was cute too and was trying his best to catch the crickets. I have my new baby set up in a 20 gallon tank with lots of plants to climb on. When I misted the tank today, I saw him take a drink from some water that had pooled in a nitch on his driftwood. Then he hopped down and started hunting for crickets. I saw him catch/eat one of them right away and was very happy.

Here are some pics...

Here is a picture of his mom

I have small crickets and have ordered 1000 mini mealworms. I was thinking of trying to find some very small earthworms and trying them too. I don't know whether the baby is a boy or girl. I don't have plans to breed so it's really not important one way or another other than satisfying my curiosity. Thanks for looking at my photos!
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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Anery Corn Snake (Suezo)
0.0.3 Eastern Milk Snakes (Uno, Dos, Tres)
1.0 Ball Python (Slytherin)
2.0 Smooth Green Snakes (no names yet)
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
0.2 Mississippi Mud Turtles (Squirt & Shyanne)
1.0 Green Iguana (Norbert)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Tank)
0.0.1 Mountain Horned Dragon (working on a name)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
0.1 American Toad (Bump)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.5 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)

Welcome and congratulations on the baby. I personally would never sell one so small but it sounds like he is a vigorous one. They are such cuties when they are little and he will be little for a long time since it takes them 2 years to reach max growth.

Hope to see more of you here on the forum. This forum is slow a lot of the time but we do go through periods of pretty good activity.

Be sure to post any questions and good luck with the new little MHD.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

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Signature file edited. [phw 9/13/04]

Thank you Marcia, I found your site while doing research and took my care advise from it as far at how to house and care for my new baby. My friend who had the baby Dragons also referred me to your site, not realizing I'd already found it. He had contacted you in regards to proper care of the hatchlings and was very pleased with you and your site. He is not selling the babies to the general public yet. He made an exception for me because he has been to my home and knows how much time and love I put into caring for my "kids". I will surely continue to check in to this forum and see everyones wonderful photos and read all of the interesting stories and discussions. I will post photos of the baby as he/she grows (slow as that may be)... Thanks for your support and for your wonderful website!
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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Anery Corn Snake (Suezo)
0.0.3 Eastern Milk Snakes (Uno, Dos, Tres)
1.0 Ball Python (Slytherin)
2.0 Smooth Green Snakes (no names yet)
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
0.2 Mississippi Mud Turtles (Squirt & Shyanne)
1.0 Green Iguana (Norbert)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Tank)
0.0.1 Mountain Horned Dragon (working on a name)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
0.1 American Toad (Bump)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.5 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)

Welcome to the forum. Wonderful place with wonderful people looking to encourage and educate about these great animals. Appears that you are off to a very good start.

Looks like you have quite the extended family according to your sig

Given some of your other animals, you may want to consider picking up some redworms and starting a composting bin. Google vermicomposting and you will get plenty of information.

Sounds good! My Toad, Frogs, and Turtles love the worms I get from my makeshift outdoor compost pile. But freezing weather hitting soon, so an indoor one sounds smart. There are 1000 mini mealies sitting on my porch right now waiting for me to get home from work. I hope he likes them! His mom loves the bigger worms. Not sure if they are nightcrawlers or what kind of worms, but when I went to pick up the baby, they fed the mom, and she gobbled them right up!

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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Anery Corn Snake (Suezo)
0.0.3 Eastern Milk Snakes (Uno, Dos, Tres)
1.0 Ball Python (Slytherin)
2.0 Smooth Green Snakes (no names yet)
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
0.2 Mississippi Mud Turtles (Squirt & Shyanne)
1.0 Green Iguana (Norbert)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Tank)
0.0.1 Mountain Horned Dragon (working on a name)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
0.1 American Toad (Bump)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.5 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)

Yeah those are nightcrawlers

and I have an indoor composter (I tried to do it, it just did not work, i do not eat the right kind of food to kleep it working)
Let me find out what the cost of shipping is and I will let you have it for that if you want, then you can just buy the redworms (be careful you get only redworms not european Nightcrawlers that look the same) and the Coir and you will be set

If you want that is
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Elizabeth (ecb)

Make this world a better and more beautiful place that You have been in it
*Edward W Bok*

Elizabeth,

Why do you not recommend the European night crawlers? I had both enc and red wigglers in my bin. Some of the breeders recommend you keep both as one is a surface feeder and the other feeds deeper in the substrate. I believe it is the reds that top feed and I know from past experience that if they aren't happy in the substrate, temp, moisture content, food source, etc, that they will crawl out and be all over the place.

I haven’t had my bin for a while but had great success for over a year. I lost my bin when a few escape mealworms got into the bedding and it seems that they ate everything so efficiently that the worms just wasted away.

I’m curios about your take on this.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

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Signature file edited. [phw 9/13/04]

I was told NOT to get both, because the screen is too small for the Europeans to get through between the shelves
maybe I could have done better with both, they did not eat when I did put stuff down, and when i slacked off on putting food in, and the wrom count went down
I had a horroible problem with smaller fruitflies, and even when I put a new layer on top to reduce the airspace they still were a problem, I ended up putting the extra layer on top with no food in it and a fly stip in htere, it did not particulate down to the worms, and it got rid of the adult flies before they could lay eggs
as long as I had the flies under control even when i had some mold growing on the top of the layer (Burlap sack) it did not smell bad.

I made the support food when their numbers started to drop off, and put in the milky bread, but they never recovered
I am going to dump the compost and any existing worms in the back yard, where my daughter has her garden
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Elizabeth (ecb)

Make this world a better and more beautiful place that You have been in it
*Edward W Bok*

I'm guessing you have an actual worm bin then. I didn't have anything fancy, just a big sterlite tub filled with spagnum peat. I kept it moist and every time I had non-mean and non-fat food scraps I put them in a trench and covered them up. I did get some of the nasty little fruit flies but not too bad.

If I didn't have so many babies I wouldn't even be breeding food!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

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Signature file edited. [phw 9/13/04]

Thank you very much for your offer Elizabeth, but the compost bind sounds like alot of work. And Fruit Flies and Mold, Oh My! The way I eat I don't think they'd like any of my leftovers either LOL

I think I'll just buy them online as I need them. More expensive, but less work... I think my friend said they get 500 for $30 from the local bait shop, not sure how that compares to online prices. I'll have to check it out...
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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Anery Corn Snake (Suezo)
0.0.3 Eastern Milk Snakes (Uno, Dos, Tres)
1.0 Ball Python (Slytherin)
2.0 Smooth Green Snakes (no names yet)
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
0.2 Mississippi Mud Turtles (Squirt & Shyanne)
1.0 Green Iguana (Norbert)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Tank)
0.0.1 Mountain Horned Dragon (working on a name)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
0.1 American Toad (Bump)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.5 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)