Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The reason I say honest, is that I know that you most of you would like to promote keeping a bearded dragon, as much as I think I would like have one again. I used to breed them (about 7 years ago - stopped about 5 years ago). I've since had a daughter who is 3, and to my surprise (and my wife's mild disappointment) she picked a bearded dragon over a parakeet (I guess she is mine

I am wondering if you think it is possible to keep it in a main room of the home without stinking (I Kept several at a time previously, and to be honest...they stunk with that many and crickets, etc).

Is it possible to keep it with a minimum of time investment - like just buying silkworms (and feeding greens etc of course) fullsize and maintaing and feeding. Money is less of an object at this point in my life - so I don't want to worry about having a lot of/and breeding the food sources. How much time do you think I will have to invest per day to keep it clean and healthy?

I know these are someswaht vauge questions, - but I'm just trying to weigh it out (and remember it) considering my wife will probably not want to help with it at all (maybe when she gets used to it and see's how mild they can be)

Also - if I do decide to get one - what do you think my best overall options would be considering how I want to keep it - Lower time investment - higher monitary investment (making it as effecient as possible even if spending a little more).

Substrate-
food sources
cage-

Any tips and techniques that makes it very enjoyable?

Finally - if you were going to purchase a BD just purely for coloration - where are the best couple places to look?

Thanks

Well, you could just get your everyday normal beardie from a petshop, but it crickets every other day, and it would just be a lot of time running to the pet shop. As for as keeping silk worms/crickets in bulk...if you have an area of the house that doesn't see much use, you could buy several hundred/thousand at a time and save yourself the trouble. For color...just check out the breeders. heartmountainherps(think I got that right) are good, I just bought a Flame X Blood from FireandIce Dragons that's doing well. Substrate...there's a big debate over that on here apparently that I just discovered last week. I'm going to be trying a dirt/playsand mixture (3 parts dirt, 1 part sand)that seems promising in the near future. I forget anything?

Chris
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0.0.1 Senagel Chameleon-Bud
0.1.0 Red-tail Boa-Xena
0.1.0 Green Anaconda-Lola
1.0.1 Bearded Dragons-Ruff and Alexis
1.0.0 Ball Pythons-Donnie

I wouldn't recommend the playsand. There's a big debate about this, but I suggest calci-sand. I've never had problems with it. You just have to change the water regularly to keep it clean of sand and make sure that they have a food bowl that's clean too. The playsand is not digestible. I also wouldn't recommend the crushed walnut shells. Those are reallly bad because they're sharp. I talked to my vet about substrates. He also said you could also use newspaper pellets, but I've never met anyone who had tried this.

Sekhautet

As said below calci sand is worse than sifted playsand. Above all I found the use of brown indented paper to be the best. Easy to clean, lays pretty flat, is not too expensive, and is indented for grip. YOu can find it at packing suppliers such as uline.com. I also know people who use the shelf liners with great success. I never had any problems with playsand, but the dust alone got to me.

The calci-sand debate seems to be pretty hot with all the reading I've done. Some people stand by it, some people don't. I've read of digestion problems with all kinds of materials. I've talked to breeders and zookeepers who swear by either the playsand or the calci-sand and then some others who won't use either.

I have never heard any breeder, or well known breeder I should say, say that calci sand is good to use. I would be curious to hear who advocates the use of it. There is really nothing to debate about it. Playsand on the other hand.......I can see a debate about it, but if you are really looking for the safest material you need something that is not going to be ingested at all. Again I never had a problem with playsand, but if you want the "safest" I would say paper or some type of removeable liner.

hi
i hatch round the 180 beardies and put them right away first day on playsand.
this is heated 350-400 degree and it cocodiose free they use it here for pignons to put in the house of pignon i not know name
i use it now 4,5 years and i have never got one babies killed due of impaction.
i have me green in a bowl on a flagstone above the sand.
and the cricks i give i freez til they just stop moving 20 sec 40 sec for small cricks bigger cricks 1,2 minuts.
then its a easy hunt and not wil eat sand so fast.
when i would see a beardie take bites from the sand then i would house im diferent but i never say that i have heard it.
here they only eat the white colord piece of cuttle fish i spread around on rocks they love the eat that.
byeeeee

I've had my bearded dragon for two years in our living room. He doesn't stink at all. He's great entertainment in a main room and he loves watching television. You can take your beardie out and watch with them. I cuddle mine in a towel while I walk around the house. He loves it because he's warm. He's also fun to watch run around on the ground, but you have to make sure that it's a beardie-proof environment. I wouldn't recommend leaving them out unattended, but they are fun to watch. You also can build a screen top to put them outdoors in warm weather. They need to have access to shade in case they get too hot, but they love basking in the sun. I would be careful of lawn pesticides, though. As for food, they eat a lot! They can be piggies, if you let them. I buy mixed green salad bags for mine, the ones with the dandelion leaves and other dark greens, he loves them (I pick out the spinach though, because it's bad for them), and frozen mixed veggies on sale. You can mail order crickets and keep a cage of them. We feed our crickets oranges and cereal, or you can buy a gut-loader/ cricket food. He gets strawberries as a special treat. The crickets do smell when a lot of them die, though.

I think that having a beardie is really low-maintenance. Cleaning the cage is easy with a kitty-litter scoop. And the rewards are great. You can also bathe them in about an inch of lukewarm water. Mine loves it! He also likes music, though not country-western. They can be demanding for attention when they want it, though. That's why they're known as the "dog" of the reptiles, and that's why they make a great first lizard, because they're docile and easy maintenance.

Hope this helps,

Sekhautet

This is what I do, and it makes things really easy.

I usually buy crickets once every two weeks, I buy a bunch of them, and I keep them in a relatively small rubbermaid container with small holes drilled in the top. I keep them in a room where I can't hear them, and the smell of the crickets is minimal when I put a lot of egg cartons in the container.

On top of that, i prepare a "salad" with dandelion greens, carrots, squash and whatever leafy greens look fresh in the vegetable section at the grocery store. I chop up a whole pile of it, and dry it up a little in the salad spinner, and it usually stays fresh for about a week and I just feed that to all my animals daily, and then crickets every second day. This works for all 5 of my animals, and it's not a big hassle, so if you're only doing it for one beardie, should be pretty easy. Hope this helps!

Oh, and baby food, squash, carrots, beef are great to give the beardie once in a while too, and that stuff is really easy to feed! Just spoon it on to a little dish and watch your beardie stuff his/her face.

It gums up and is not digestible! I have to say about your 3 year old wanting a beardie, both my boys have their own beardies. My kids are 4 1/2 years and 18 months. They are so good with the kids! And the kids have learned so much about them. I think it's great you are thinking about getting a beardie for your child. Are you planning on getting an adult or baby? As I'm sure you know babies are a lot more work than an adult.

Best of luck to you!

Thank you for all the suggestions and help.

I'm planning on getting a baby so she can see it grow up and also I think she might be scared a little of the bigger ones.

How do you guys feel about pellets? Are they more for the adults and not so much for the babies?

Thanks

I don't use pellets just because mine wont eat them. A lot of people use them though. Since babies do most of their growing in the first year they need to get mostly protein. My baby from 4 weeks ate about 80 crickets a day broken into three feedings plus a few bites of greens each feeding. He's now 4 months old and eats a good amount of greens but still sucks down about 50-60 crickets a day (now only two feedings per day) My kids beardies were both rescued at the age of 7 months old and my older son was very used to a large beardie since we had one when he was born that was 22" long. Bayou is the first baby we have had and he really is a lot of work, although very worth it.