Best questions to ask when buying a new baby beardie?

Hello,

I am curious on which questions to ask when purchasing a new baby beardie and hot to see if a business if actually reputable with reptiles and exoctics ( besides reading reviews on google, bing, etc..). The reason for this caution is because I bought a baby beardie on vacation in TN and I bought it from a mom and pop store and his environment was perfect, but he never really acted right and he passed away at 3 months old and i only had him for a week. I am pretty sure that the dragon was sick before I even purchased it. I don't want to lose another. Please help?!

Hi there....you can always Google the breeders name and look through ALL the links that pop up. You can also see how long they've been in business...long time breeders are usually trustworthy and have reviews. Some are listed in the Fauna classifieds BOI [ board of inquiry ] If someone has healthy looking breeders, babies, a good care sheet + references then it's probably a good breeder. Always go with babies that are at least 6". Never buy a 4" baby if you can help it, that's the size [ average ] that they hatch out.

I'd ask :

how old are they (a hatching date would be great) ?

what insects are they eating (size, type, now many each meal, how often per day)?

are they eating their greens and veg/salads yet and what is the breeder's recipy for the daily greens and veg/salads ?

any injuries ? (what is the ongoing treatment for any unhealed injuries) ?

what basking stop temp are they accustomed to ?

What warm zone temp are they accustomed to ?

A reputable breeder will offer all that information upfront with little or no prompting as well keeping all their hatchies until they are at least 6 weeks old and scoffing down insects like there is no tomorrow and already taking some greens and veg/salad daily.
They will also provide a printout out copy of caresheet and give the buyer a good thorough run down on how to set up for the new hatchy.
They will also be happy to give advise for a while (over the phone and internet).

Would be nice to be able to see the parents , and the hatchie rearing setup , but some breeders are very reluctant to let strangers into their home to see what is there - for obvious security reasons.

I got my bearded at 3 weeks old, 4" from a local breeder. But was to see set up and parents. I was concerned with his size, but he was VERY open to future questions and was confident he works survive. 4 weeks letter and now 8 inches I'm thinking of starting a roach colony, LOL

Dragongrlwi, it's great that your baby turned out fine and sounds like it's thriving. Although a 4" dragon may very well survive + thrive, there are very valid reasons for not buying at that size. The first being that they really do hatch out at 3.75 -4" average, and some breeders will sell them as soon [ within days ] of their hatching. They have no time to see how the babies are doing in a group, and so even if the baby MAY be 3 weeks old and doing fine, it may not be and there is no real way to be positive. Once they are at least 5" long, you can have no doubt that it is at least 3-4 weeks old. Selling 4" babies is just to send them in to [ often times ] very inexperienced hands with a very, very fragile creature. Many new owners get their crickets at a pet store that does not have the tiny 1/8 or 1/4" crickets that the babies need and so they end up buying crix that would be fine for a 6" baby but are too large and cause impaction + death in a 4" baby. Selling 4" babies to the general public is simply to save the breeder money by not keeping them a little bit longer. So it's still really best to look for at LEAST a 5" dragon.