Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is just a post detailing some observations that I've been making with my animals............here goes!

1. Since adding the bit of extra heat, nothing so far......surprise surprise.........
2. This one is particulary interesting...........I've been supplying a steady run of crickets, some get popped quickly, while others get no attention. Now here is the interesting part. Today while watching my animals up in their tree, they will watch the crickets as they huddle around each other under the 25 watt lamp I'm supplying. The animals will make no attempt at a relatively easy snack. However, there were a few crickets that had fallen into the water dish, and completely turned over. Now these crickets made somewhat of an attempt at escaping to no avail. As soon as the dragons(one at a time)noticed this, they would fall down to the ground, run into the dish and pop the cricket. This happend on twice today, and it really gets me wondering. Are they more interested in eating out of a dish, then to catch free roaming crickets? This really is perplexing me, and I just can't get over it.

Does anyone have any idea's for this type of behavior? Marcia, did you feed these animals crickets out of a dish? I'm still learning about these animals, but I find their behaviors interesting to say the least!

Trying to get everyone thinking, maybe you can all post interesting observations that you've made.

Anthony

Ok, I'll be the first to admit, these probably aren't great observations, but hey, it's all I have right now.............

They are observations! That is important. That shows that you are paying attention to your animals and trying to read their signals in order to find their needs. That is good and if you are asking us questions or sharing your observations you are still fueling exchange of ideas! All good things, right?

And to answer your question on how I feed, yes, I do feed from a bowl! I didn't feed crickets but they did get roach nymphs or mealworms from a dish. Nightcrawlers would be cut in half and allowed to crawl on the bottom where they would drop down and devour them. Silkworms were scattered throughout the viv where they could hunt them at will.

So, the feeding method did vary with the insect but the only insects that were similar to crickets were fed from a dish.
-----
Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

I remember posting about this before!
The canopy is supposed to be a safe sanctuary for the dragons, a place they can sleep without disturbance, crickets in numbers are quit annoying and can even be intimidating for small and adult dragons. This is why most of my cages have bare bottoms, only the water bowl touches the floor, all the branches are suspended 4in above the floor. However sins I started using cork as flooring material and stop using big cork boards, the crickets have nowhere to hide and the dragons can see them easy, this allows me to count the crickets I am feeding and see if they are all gone, I can add more if needed, but if theirs to many crickets and I feel they will stress my lizards, then I can take them out.

Right now the crickets have control over your lizards basking.
They will nip at your sleeping dragons and this will cause them to fear the crickets.

Hope this helps.

I agree with Jobi. A thought as to why they go for the ones in the water bowl. The crickets are thrashing about and the movement attracts your dragons attention. There are times when I dangle a worm in front of a dragon and it will ignore the worm untill the worm starts streatching up and down. Once the movement starts the worm gets eaten.

Thanks guys, sorry I haven't been on in a while, working the graveyard shift! Dragons are doing great, I still need to get some photos up............they are feeding great too! I've replaced the bedding with cork flooring. Using a glue gun, I've attached the cork to the tank floor, it's working marvelous! The best part about it, I don't have to mist the often, because the cork keeps the humidity well. Anyways, this is all for now.

Anthony

Hello anthony.

Tow things iv changed for the best, I don’t glue the cork to the floor anymore, because as you will notice this material expands as it absorbs moisture, therefore leaving it as a simple matt allows for better fit and easy cleaning. It is I great flooring material for dragons no dough.

Also I stop feeding mealworms entirely, they are simply no good for a higher metabolising lizards, I know my lizards will do a lot better on crickets alone.
I really dislike breeding crickets but I still don’t know of any better food.

Mealworms are convenient for the keeper, they are easy to breed and always available in the proper size, however try this and you will see what I mean, feed them only crickets for a week, they will soon start feeding with appetite twice a day. Now feed them mealworms 3 days in a row, see how they are bloated and have no appetites, this will lead to metabolic disorders.

Don’t know if I will be able to post again, however keep an eye open for my up coming website on hipsylurus, it will cover acathosaura and gonocephalus with locality photos and ecology data.

Jobi,

I most certainly will! Sound great. The only problem that I have with crickets right now, is that every few days, I take out the dragons and clean the enclosure. This is just a wipe of the floor and removel of crickets that managed to get out of the bowl into the tree. I'm having no problems with shed as my female just started to flake yesterday and today she is fully shed on her body, so this flooring is good. I witnessed my male after misting yesterday jump to the floor and rub his entire body on the floor cleaing himself. Very amusing to see! But I'll keep an eye out for the it, and if you can, post a link here! Thanks again Jobi!

Anthony

n/p