Zoo Husbandry of Bearded Dragons

I recently visited Hartley's Crocodile Adventures in Cairns on a holiday and they had an awesome outdoor enclosure with beardies and frilled dragons. For beardies they had two small males and one large female. The female was minding her own business basking but the two males were having a serious head-bobbing competition on a small tree in their enclosure. They flashed their beards and poked out their tongues at each other (precariously on this branch) before running down to the floor of their setup and chomping on some carrot. I watched for about 20 minutes :lol:

I thought it was interesting that the zoo decided to house Frilled dragons with Beardies, as I would have thought the frilled dragons would eat the beardies, and I thought it was interesting that they would decide to house multiple males together, especially with a female present. The outdoor enclosure was also open to the sky, which I thought was weird as the lizards would presumably be under the threat of Kookaburras and other predatory birds.

What I really liked about the exhibit was it was large, about 6m2, and had two small trees (one live, one dead wood) roughly 2m tall for the lizards to climb. It also had a large pond and several rocks for basking. There were no lights but I assume they get everything they need from the natural sunlight and the tropical climate of Cairns.

Anyway, any thoughts on the zoo's husbandry practises?

That's interesting info, thanks for sharing your observations! I'm sure they get all they need from the natural sunlight so that is a big bonus for the location. I'm not sure about their interactions but if they have enough space, they may be able to act as they do in the wild. Did you notice what they were offered for food?

I've seen a similar setup in Omaha. The dragon enclosure is about the same size but it's in a big geodesic dome that is used as a desert exhibit. They use what looked like flood lights and mercury vapor bulbs for heat and UVB. Only 1 dragon was in the exhibit last time I was there but I've seen 2 there in the past. They have a loose substrate with a salad available and I saw crickets jumping around the logs. The thing I noted was the large size of the enclosure, lots of levels to climb through, and there were different lighting areas. Some basking spots as well as some hides and areas away from the lighting.

Last time we visited Cairns (in 2005) we were only really driving through before heading for more northerly destinations and didn't visit that tourist attraction.

Seen one crocodile farm , reptile park , you've seen them all.

Is common in reptile parks in tropical Queensland, NT and WA , to keep beardies and frill necked dragons in large out door pits that are landscaped , might be 6 - 8 beardies in a 20mx10m pit, often the pits , with multiple elevated basking spots (boulders , large logs and several hides ) . commonly they are covered with bird wire to keep predatory birds and snakes out.
There will be multiple drinking stations and feeding stations to reduce conflict.
Quite common to have a few different species who are similar sized lizards in the same pit , ie beardies, water dragons, frill neck dragons, and bluetongue skinks and other skinks sharing the same display pit. The pits are all modelled on how Erik Warrel Reptile Park (the Australian original) was originally set up when it was still in Gosford) and before needing to be relocated.http://reptilepark.com.au/animals/reptiles/

In cooler climates (NSW, SE Qld, Victoria) there are still reptile display pits , but the reptiles are commonly brought indoors over winter.


I've regularly seen eastern water dragons who are even bigger than filled neck dragons happily cohabiting with Bluetongue Skinks and Eastern Water Skinks , and I have a bunch of delicate brown skinks cohabiting with water skinks , no sign of aggression or predation on the smaller lizards. So central and or eastern bearded dragons (may have been a mix of in the display in Cairns) and frilled neck dragons in the same large out door display pit doesn't surprise me.
Problem / aggressive dragons of either species wont have been left in the pit long before being removed to be housed separately or rehomed or perhaps released (if taken from the wild originally , and the zoo keepers will know exactly were their display specimens came from).

Wow, there seems to be quite a variety of husbandry techniques...I'm honestly feeling a bit inspired! It's a bit sad that NSW temperatures don't allow for year-round outdoor enclosures, I was thinking about building one, maybe a water dragon would be better for that though as they are native down here. The Zoo did have an outdoor water dragon exhibit as well, but they were housed with water monitors.

CooperDragon":3rg677rl said:

I'm not sure about their interactions but if they have enough space, they may be able to act as they do in the wild. Did you notice what they were offered for food?

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They had a dish of yellow squash, carrot, apple, red flower petals and some sort of green plant stalk, it looked like a celery stick but I couldn't be sure. There was no dusting on it but that might of been because the plate was almost empty and I was seeing the bottom of the dish.

No dust is a good thing. A nice variety of veges is plenty healthy on it's own. It's the bugs that need supplementation unless a variety on par with what they get in the wild is offered.

You can still make a nice outdoor enclosure to keep your dragon outside for part of the year. Google " outdoor bearded dragon cages " and you'll get some ideas.

Hello,

I would absolutely LOVE to see some of that interaction, between the Frillies & the Beardies,
how awesome. I would imagine that especially the barbatas might come into contact with
them more than vitticeps since they are more coastal?
I think if you can definitely make outdoor enclosures for at least part of the year, that it is so
beneficial for them, whether or not you house them in the same area or not.

Tracie

Drache613":2nuke5l0 said:

I would imagine that especially the barbatas might come into contact with
them more than vitticeps since they are more coastal?
I think if you can definitely make outdoor enclosures for at least part of the year, that it is so
beneficial for them, whether or not you house them in the same area or not.

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That's a good point actually. I don't know why they weren't housing barbatas. Maybe Centrals are just easier to get (and more colourful).
I do put my dragon(s) outside in a mesh enclosure when it's a nice day but I think a 24 hour outdoor enclosure could be really good in summer. Do you know if they need digging medium or leaf litter to insulate overnight? Sydney nights in summer can be as low as 18.

That's not too cold but if you'd feel safer you could just bring them in on the coldest nights. Would your cage be off the ground or just an enclosed area of fencing over the ground ? I think the first option would be safer, with some type of nesting box /hide. Also, do you know what animals are in your area that might be hunting at night and had the ability to possibly break in to the cage....maybe that's not a concern in your area though.

AHBD":2ihhz50u said:

That's not too cold but if you'd feel safer you could just bring them in on the coldest nights. Would your cage be off the ground or just an enclosed area of fencing over the ground ? I think the first option would be safer, with some type of nesting box /hide. Also, do you know what animals are in your area that might be hunting at night and had the ability to possibly break in to the cage....maybe that's not a concern in your area though.

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I'd prefer a ground enclosure just so I could get a proper pond in and some proper plants. Ground predators aren't really an issue, the biggest problem in Sydney are pythons, kookaburras and raptors, which I'm pretty confident we can keep out with a simple chicken-wire covering. A hide is a must though, just for backup and so the lizards can get out of the sun or hide if they want to.

TheRamiRocketMan":1cph3izh said:

AHBD":1cph3izh said:

That's not too cold but if you'd feel safer you could just bring them in on the coldest nights. Would your cage be off the ground or just an enclosed area of fencing over the ground ? I think the first option would be safer, with some type of nesting box /hide. Also, do you know what animals are in your area that might be hunting at night and had the ability to possibly break in to the cage....maybe that's not a concern in your area though.

Click to expand...

I'd prefer a ground enclosure just so I could get a proper pond in and some proper plants. Ground predators aren't really an issue, the biggest problem in Sydney are pythons, kookaburras and raptors, which I'm pretty confident we can keep out with a simple chicken-wire covering. A hide is a must though, just for backup and so the lizards can get out of the sun or hide if they want to.

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Don't forget cats, those vermin are everywhere in suburbia , because laws on keeping cats are so poor and most people just let their cats roam 24/7 , and a cat will kill everything in sight and will get into a pit unless you make it cat proof with double mesh so they can't reach the resident reptiles with their claws.

Chicken wire mesh wont keep a determined cat , dog, fox, or python , black or brown snake out, needs to be closer mesh than chicken wire mesh.

Went to Gembira Loka Zoo in Yogyakarta today. Nice little zoo with a reptile area which had a dragon in it. All of the enclosures are outdoors. The dragon's setup was tall but relatively small. There were rounded pebbles for substrate and some rough rocks to bask on. The top and back door were screen. Sides wooden and the front glass. There was a coil bulb at the top much to far away to be of any use (and it was off anyway) and there was another coil (I'm guessing 26w by the size) hidden in a vine that came down to around a foot(ish) above one of the rocks. It was also off though (mid day). I'm not sure why and didn't see any employees around to ask. The dragon was small but seemed healthy. Nice muscle development on the arms and legs. Nice bright orange colors and no black beard. Somewhat alert but had what looked a bit like lazy eyes. Seemed alert to what was going on around him but didn't seem too interested. There was a water bowl in the middle but no food in the tank at all. He looked pretty well fed so probably gets set meal times I guess. I took a video to show the whole setup. Forgot to turn the camera pano like a newbie (sorry!).



https://vimeo.com/238725835

With so called "zoos" like that not even knowing or bothering to provide proper setups , what hope will Noobs who have zero knowledge have of doing so ?