It's been almost 2 years!!!

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March 26th is the day we brought Spike home. My 7 year old son picked her out at our local Exotic pet store and named her Spike. She was in an enclosure with other dragons around her size and away from the smaller ones. We were told that the babies she was in with were moved because 'they were growing faster than the rest'. Spike ran right to the front of the glass and started scratching when my son walked by. Needless to say, she got his attention and we took her home. She had a full body shed 3 days off getting her home, too. ('She' does look female (I looked when we brought her home, but not since) Spike is now, roughly 3 months old and weighs 31g at 9 inches long.
We have had some set backs with her lights, which you guys have so graciously helped me with, and her lack of eating for a little while due to her relocation stress, but she is definitely a hearty eater now. BSFL being her favorite.

When we first brought her home:
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Throughout the month:
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New tank:
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Cuteness:
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10 minutes ago, waking up and warming up:
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Sorry for all of the pictures! ^-^ :D
 

smackey2

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Hm. KM Dragons didn't even pop up in my search when I was looking around last night. They do definitely have some beautiful enclosures. The one for the black throat monitor was pretty neat. I like the ramp. :) I might have to give them a try.


I used to be able to sit down and do blueprints (My dad was a welder and fabricator for a coal mining company and worked on a lot of their equipment, plus random projects of his own, and caught me how.) But, the problem isn't in making my plans for the enclosure I want for Spike, it is actually building it and getting it put together nicely. Drawing up the plans, I might be able to do, even though it has been YEARS since I have made one, but the actual building process is what I am afraid of messing up. I think I might ask my Uncle since he still does a lot of wood working in his spare time if he might be able to help me out. I don't mind buying one, but if I can pass it and have one, or someone help me build one, I think I might give it a try first. If not, KM Dragons may very well be where I go. Thanks!
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
We ended up going to an aquarium shop to order a 125 gallon tank (6 feet long, 18 inches wide, and just a little too tall at about 23 inches). The next standard size up was 6 feet long and 2 feet wide, and we would have preferred that in terms of floor space, but it would have been too tall for me to reach the beardie if he was at the bottom of the tank, and we would have had to have one custom made ($$$) to get the length and width without the extra height, so we settled for a standard large aquarium size and shape. We had it delivered because that much tempered glass was just a little too heavy for my husband and me to handle. It works pretty well -- I can reach our beardie comfortably when he's on his basking platform -- that's where he spends most of his time anyway, and my husband is a little taller than me with slightly longer arms, so he can pretty much reach the beardie no matter what corner of the tank he he's in. There are lots of different options out there, but it's still not easy to find the one you want -- usually everything but. :banghead: Sometimes you stumble on it where you're least expecting it. :eek:

My husband is pretty good at building things, and he built light racks to clamp the heat lamps on for both of our reptile enclosures. And believe it or not, we use Legos instead of blueprints to build little 3-dimensional models of whatever we want to build before he actually builds it. He has built things that I wouldn't have even thought of asking him to attempt. During our first few years of marriage I couldn't let him get too bored or he'd build another piece of furniture (bookcases, cabinets, etc, as well as both of the terrarium platforms, one of which used to be a couch that he designed) until there wasn't any more room in our little house for any more furniture. Now he wants to build a greenhouse-garage in the backyard, but that's another story... :wink:

Before I learned my lesson about keeping cats indoors, I had several of them disappear, and I agree with you -- not knowing whatever happened to them is the worst. :cry:

Oh yes dubia roaches can climb, and a very good job they do of it too. Supposedly not on really slick surfaces like glass or some types of really smooth plastic, but they have no problem whatsoever with human skin, clothing, or beardie scales. They're pretty good at escaping the beardie's tongue by running underneath him, too. Before we put him back in his terrarium after feeding, I have to check to make sure he doesn't still have a few of them crawling around on his underbelly. :roll:
 

traildrifterphalanx

Sub-Adult Member
I've honestly been racking my brain trying to figure out how to upgrade my dragons' enclosures..
I am relatively handy (painted every room solo, removed doors, installed a wall-mounted TV alone and fed wiring through the wall, removed and installed my own dishwasher, fed a water line to the fridge, etc etc) but I am a new homeowner and lack a lot of the basic tools needed (saws, etc) and live alone. So.. building my own enclosures also means buying the means to do so... Home Depot will cut materials for you around my area, but I doubt they'd get any more involved than just a clean line cut.
I'm very torn. I like the glass enclosures so I can see them through the sides, but I don't like the idea of only having access through the top, so a large aquarium has never been considered.

Ideally, I'd like a 4x2x2 for both dragons, stacked, but I'd prefer a screen top still so the bulbs aren't exposed and in my eyes. I figure a lip around the lighting would help make it stackable, but then I'm clearly back into building my own, and needing tools. :banghead: I'd also prefer the sides be glass as well. I'd say just the 1 side that faces me, but what if I relocate them or I move and now the other side is facing me? uuuuhuhuuhuuggghhhh
 

smackey2

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
I am very torn. I could more than likely go to the locally owned store where I bought Spike as the lady there is quite nice and ordered a lot of things for customers that she doesn't normally carry on hand, but I feel like having one built would be a little better. But, eh, I don't know.

I haven't quite made up my mind whether to have a 120 gallon ordered, or attempt to have my own built. If my uncle will help me, then it would be a piece of cake, but if not, then I don't know. Just ugh! haha.

All I know right now is that in the near future, Spike is going to out grow the tank she is in and I want her to have as much room in her enclosure as possible once she is an adult.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
traildrifterphalanx":1x4veupe said:
I've honestly been racking my brain trying to figure out how to upgrade my dragons' enclosures..
I am relatively handy (painted every room solo, removed doors, installed a wall-mounted TV alone and fed wiring through the wall, removed and installed my own dishwasher, fed a water line to the fridge, etc etc) but I am a new homeowner and lack a lot of the basic tools needed (saws, etc) and live alone. So.. building my own enclosures also means buying the means to do so... Home Depot will cut materials for you around my area, but I doubt they'd get any more involved than just a clean line cut.
I'm very torn. I like the glass enclosures so I can see them through the sides, but I don't like the idea of only having access through the top, so a large aquarium has never been considered.

Ideally, I'd like a 4x2x2 for both dragons, stacked, but I'd prefer a screen top still so the bulbs aren't exposed and in my eyes. I figure a lip around the lighting would help make it stackable, but then I'm clearly back into building my own, and needing tools. :banghead: I'd also prefer the sides be glass as well. I'd say just the 1 side that faces me, but what if I relocate them or I move and now the other side is facing me? uuuuhuhuuhuuggghhhh

If you're handy and have a new home, I think that at some point whenever you can swing it, you might want to seriously consider investing in some good decent basic tools. You don't have to buy them all at once, just a few at a time when you need them for a project, and remember, when the project is finished you will still have the tools to use for the next one. That's what my husband has done over the years, and having the tools around has come in handy for home repairs that he's been able to do himself and saved $ in the long run by not having to hire professional help.

That being said, our experience with our local Home Depot has been that if you buy lumber or other such things that often need to be cut to size, they will do maybe one or two simple cuts (included with the purchase), and then I think they charge a small fee if you want more than that. But I'm not sure if they all have the same policies or if each store is a little different.

There are disadvantages to the aquarium option, and access only through the top is one of the main ones, but we went with that because it was the simplest, the idea being that the more elaborate you make the enclosure, the more things can go wrong. One thing that also made things a little easier for us was that we had time to decide because we didn't have the beardie yet, and we had decided to get an adult for our first one, so we didn't have to worry about having a little beardie that was rapidly outgrowing his or her tank. We had already made that mistake with our snake, and by the time we got him out of the little baby sized tank and into a larger one, he spent several days coiled up inside of an invisible boundary the size of the old tank before he finally figured out that he now had enough room to stretch out.

So good luck with your new enclosures everyone -- whatever you finally decide to order or build, I hope that you'll be happy with the result and that your beardies will be comfortable.
 

traildrifterphalanx

Sub-Adult Member
I would LOVE more tools and I have a large enough garage and a built in workbench already.
My birthday is this Tuesday. Feel free to mail me home depot gift cards :lol: I would love to be creative and use tools to build my own idea
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
traildrifterphalanx":3a1k3pue said:
I would LOVE more tools and I have a large enough garage and a built in workbench already.
My birthday is this Tuesday. Feel free to mail me home depot gift cards :lol: I would love to be creative and use tools to build my own idea

Good ones to have are :
>> a jig saw
>> a compound circular saw
>> power drill/diver.

I've a 4 drawer Steel-line filing cabinet full of power tools of all kinds and fittings - took me 40 years accumulate these .

Right next to it is my fishing gear cabinet (another 4 draw Steel-line filing cabinet) and it's full of fishing gear - reels, tackle boxes full of floating minnow type and popper type lures, metal casting lures, squid jigs, floats, sinkers and sinker moulds, bulk boxes of hooks or all sizes, live bait aerator pumps, you name it, I probably have it .... been accumulating since I was a teenager.

Then inside the house there is the camera gear filing cabinet - zoom lenses, slrs, dslrs, photographic print paper, etc ...

Amazing the amount of gear for your hobbies you can accumulate in a lifetime.

I'd love to add a good floor mounted pedestal drill press and maybe a metal lathe to my tool kit one day.
 

smackey2

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
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Well, I guess she grew an inch without me really noticing. I couldn't get her to hold still the last time I tried, but I could have swore she was still going to be 10 inches. She doesn't look any longer to me, but apparently Spike is now 11 inches in length. :)

Last thing she has to shed is now her tail.


That seems like quite the collection of tools and items for your hobbies that you have. I am slightly envious.
 

smackey2

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
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She is definitely growing, that is for sure. I am a day late in getting her weekly weight, but she is still going up! Spike gained 11 more grams!
I know she is growing nicely, but for roughly 4 months old, she seems small to me. :/ I don't know, maybe she is hasn't hit a big growth spurt yet, or maybe she is just going to be a little dragon?
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
She looks healthy, so I wouldn't worry too much if she's not exactly the size that the charts say she's supposed to be, especially if she's had a good checkup by a good reptile vet and you've been told she's in good health. :)
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
You'll need a bigger scale soon! =). What I do is use a shoebox top. Put that on the scale then tare it/zero it out then put the dragon in the shoebox top. It helps prevent misreads if their tail is resting on something.
 

smackey2

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
The vet gave her a clean bill of health, but she does have another check up in August when she is about 6 months old. The vet said that most people only do check ups on their bearded dragons once a year unless something is wrong, but I figure there is no harm in every 6 months. I do it for our dogs too, especially to have their nails trimmed and to keep Reese UTD on his Phenobarbital for his seizures.

Haha. I know, she has about out grown the scale I have. Little booger. She has this little body, but this big long tail that seems too big to fit her. Lol.
I think I just worry when I shouldn't. She eats like a little piggy, loves her basking light, and her poops are healthy (even though I am not sure how such a little one can poop such a big one), so.

I think my problem is that I have never raised a baby bearded dragon before. I keep seeing about how fast and rapidly they grow, but Spike doesn't seem too much in a hurry to get bigger. Oh well, I suppose she will grow at her own speed.
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Their tails tend to be about half their length. Her body looks to be a good size, her arms and legs are well developed, and it looks like she has full fat pads on top of her head all indicating that she is quite healthy. They hit growth spurts at very different times, not unlike humans I guess, so as long as she's healthy she'll grow at her own pace and be just fine. Just keep records of her growth against her own past numbers rather than other dragons.
 

smackey2

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Spike just got her first real taste of a butterworm. I bought a 25 count just as an occasional treat kind of thing. I showed one to her and she looked at me like, "WTH is what supposed to be?" I put it down and it started squirming, so she had to lick it. She licked it about 4 times before finally trying it. She spit it back out at me. I figured I made a mistake and was going to put it back in the container when she bolted out of no where and just snatched it from me! It actually scared me at first. Haha. She ate all of her roaches for dinner, 15 medium one to be exact, and then two butterworms.
She seemed to like them so much, maybe that is my going to be my solution for when she is older to get her started on her veggies, just toss a butterworm into the mix.

I don't know if Spike is just picky or weird. This is the first worm I have gotten her to eat. Obviously I don't feed mealworms or supers, but I tried hornworms, silkworms, and even waxworms (treat) before. She did like her BSFL, but not so much now that she is on her roach kick.



**Edit**
I didn't weigh her when I first got her (March 26th), but I have been keeping track of her growth since April 18th. Then she was only 21 grams and roughly 9 inches. So, it isn't like she isn't growing. Actually, thinking back to April, she was quite small. In a couple more grams, she will actually have quadrupled her weight in just about 2 months. I guess when I think about it like that, it puts a bit more perspective on it. Hm.
 
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