To owners who's beardies lived longer than 10 years

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Cor

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What was your set up like , what would you say are the biggest contributing factor to long beardie life. We love ours and I want him to out live us ?
 

Claudiusx

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Naughtica lived almost 11 years.

Her setup was just a reptisun 10.0 (on top of the screen.....) for about the first 6 or 7 years of her life. The remainder of her life had the bulb in the tank.

She ate a big salad every day of collards and mustards as the staple, with yellow squash added basically every other day.

She got 6 superworms 3 times a week.

She was basically never bathed until her last few years of life. Even then it was infrequent.

And she demanded a basking spot of 98. Nothing warmer nothing cooler lol.

She had no health issues at all besides possibly some parasites at one point. Reptaid I believe it was called was a bit of an experiment but I used it with her and it seemed to have done its job.

Regrettably she went to someone else's care for her last year of life. I always regret that and wonder if she could have lived much longer had she stayed with me (she went with a family member)

Other fun facts.

She was housed on sand for half her life before I switched to tile. 6ish years.
Shes a mom, she had 1 fertile clutch of eggs from another dragon I had at the time
Despite her reptisun 10.0 being over a fine mesh screen, she developed perfectly and was very healthy.
I really disagree with the notion of more uv is better, but that's a whole 'nother subject.

-Brandon
 

Cor

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Thanks for sharing her story and tips. Do you think baths are bad? I give mine almost everyday to try and poop train
 

Claudiusx

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I dont think they are bad, I just dont see them as overly beneficial.

If your dragon enjoys them though that's benefit enough :)

I bathe Tombo and Moro about once a week right now, but only cuz they are constantly shedding and Moro will actually drink in the bath.

-Brandon
 

CooperDragon

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If they inhale water it can cause problems, but if they are supervised and the water is shallow (about elbow depth or so) it's not really a problem. Sometimes they will drink from a bath. They aren't worth the stress if they don't like baths. A lot of them do enjoy a soak in warm water though, and that's fine. I tend to reserve baths for when they walk through their poop or stink etc and need to be cleaned up a bit. I throw in a bit of Dr Bronners Baby Mild soap which seems to work well.
 

CooperDragon

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They do get cold if they are left wet, but I usually just burrito/towel dry them and give them time under their heat lamp after the bath and it's fine. I keep the bath water temp fairly warm. Just enough to feel warm but not hot on the inside of your wrist. Bath time doesn't usually last more than 10 min or so in most cases so cooling off isn't a huge concern.
 

KarrieRee

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Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
I was told by my reptile vet to bathe once or twice a week for hydration- and when they are not eating that is a very good idea -- other wise they dehydrate- so since I dont want him dehydrated I have been giving him a bath every few days for about 10 minutes - last time he was in to vet a few weeks ago he was very good on being non dehydrated
Karrie
 

kingofnobbys

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CooperDragon":r5t6istm said:
If they inhale water it can cause problems, but if they are supervised and the water is shallow (about elbow depth or so) it's not really a problem. Sometimes they will drink from a bath. They aren't worth the stress if they don't like baths. A lot of them do enjoy a soak in warm water though, and that's fine. I tend to reserve baths for when they walk through their poop or stink etc and need to be cleaned up a bit. I throw in a bit of Dr Bronners Baby Mild soap which seems to work well.

My oldest dragon so far was Rex. Nearly 6 years old.
My oldest skinks are George & Mildred (eastern bluetongue skinks , near 10 years old now, reared by me from about 2 moths old) , and Wriggles (rescued wild injured eastern water skink who was about 8 years old , I'd known and befriended in my yard as a baby , spent 5 years as a pet).

I currently have a very small and shallow water dish in with Caesar and Cleo, I never have more than 5mm depth of water in it, enough for Caesar who loves to have splashy bath occasionally and even occasionally takes a few sips.
Cleo is has only being the dish a few times (each to leave a poo in the water), but when she last shed she also enjoyed a splash about until Caesar saw her in "his pond" and joined her , not enough room for him , so she was evicted from the pool.

My other dragons have not had water dishes once they reached 6 - 8 months old and were separated.
If the dragon's diet contains live insects that are gutloaded and salad , they should be getting most their hydration needs from their food, my policy is to drip some water on the dragon's snout, if it's thirsty, it'll respond by drinking the water drops and I'll continue til the dragon stops licking he water. I'll do this 2 or 3 times a week depending on the dryness of the air / weather.

Baths were rare events for Rex, Puff, Toothless and Peppa, though Peppa loved to have a bath and obviously enjoyed the experience. Bathing my larger dragons was done in a plastic flat bottomed portable baby bath and I regulated the water temperature to 28 - 32 degC. When hatchlings and juveniles, bathing is done on the coffee table ( bath towel under a suitable sized clear sided tub ) .

Water in bath never deeper than to cover the side spike frills and never two dragons in at once and always under strict supervision.

My policy is that when the dragon climbs out , the bath is done.. Peppa loved her baths so such she refused to get out, I'd get her out and she'd want to go straight back in.
 
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