When I was a teenager, I visited the private collection of what is surly one of Canada’s top herpetoculture pioneers. I was shock to see how small his enclosures was and that most of his specimens where kept single, I remember thinking to myself this is wrong, I will do much better and allow my animals much more room.
The first priority in herpetoculture is food intake, any adaptation witch leads to better feeding is progress. You can play with temps, hydration, space, foods in 1001 ways, but once you hit the nail on the head and your lizards are feeding with appetite, then your on a roll, at this point stop messing with the parameters, now it’s time for inn deep observations and well tot out changes, this is where I am at this moment.
The barrels don’t work good with these dragons, this subtle 14in more in height is enough for males to act territorial, this leads females to feed less and stop cycling.
When trios are kept in these barrels, the Alfa female dominates, she feeds more and do much better then the subordinate female, subordinate animals are passive because they are submitted, this is why you see them as being tame, they are actually in slow death, much like the third chick in the nest. There are reasons why mama let’s him die.
The reality is that I am sacrificing the 3r female for 6 good clutches, amateurs would treat this female for all kinds of worms and such, and animal lovers would put her in an other cage and allow her to get back in shape, then female no2 starts going down hill. Now do you understand why I prefer the small cages?
Hear a photo’s examples I made especially for you tonight, same barrels but different dragons, however same dynamic. Alfa male doing excellent, Alfa female gravid with 4th clutch this year, second female gravid with clutch no2 this year, third female never cycled and slowly dieing. If I take her away then second female will take her place, then if I take second female out first female will be bullied by male. These are the realities of herpetoculture, as much as we would like to, theirs no way to recreate nature. Giving these dragons an entire room will not change this, they have much bigger territories in nature then anything we can offer. Zoo displays are designed for visitors not the animals they hold, large well decorated vivarium's represent the views and taste of the keepers not the kept, I find it funny when peoples critic my plain looking enclosures, and think I am such an amateur, what they fail to see is that the cages are focused on the needs of the species they hold, I adjust my husbandry depending on how well and regular the animals cycle.
