10 year old grandson

[zabeardie]

A bearded dragon would be too much responsibility for a 10 year old unless he has help from you or his mom and dad. With help from an adult, I think it's very doable and will be great to teach him about responsibility and how to take care of another living thing. A bearded dragon will be more rewarding than a gold fish.

Someone has to order live crickets for him every week or two. You need to get them from a reputable company. Don't use crickets from Petco or Petsmart. They are very dirty. They treat their pet animals poorly. I can only imagine how they treat their feeders.

The bearded dragon needs a fresh salad every morning. This is not that hard, but baby bearded dragons need their veggies chopped up very finely. You probably don't want a 10-year old doing this. You can chop the veggies and keep them in a plastic container in the fridge for up to a week easily. So someone only has to chop the veggies once a week.

The lights can be on a timer so he won't have to worry about turning them on or off everyday. Somebody needs to mark on the calendar to change the UVB bulb once every 6 months.

Kids are great with computers these days. He could join the forums to ask for help, too!

Um, I, being a kid, strongly disagree with this. I got my beardies at age 10, and have always taken care of them, payed for their equipment, food, and everything (with HARD EARNED $$$). If your child is responsible, has fine motor skills, and is really into this kind of stuff, he/she can take care of 1 bearded dragon no problem. These tasks you mentioned, are a piece of cake if you teach 'em how to do it. And you don't necessarily need to have your ten year-old cut veggies, he can use the high-tech electric blender... Trust me, if he/she really cares, he/she will do everything! If you start out helping them a lot, you will find that you're doing more and more work every week. (This happened to my fish tank. :lol: )

Just putting my thoughts in, Peter

Being a kid, I strongly agree with this.
:lol:
I also had beardies at a young age, however they were my brothers, he got them when I was... 7?
He was like almost addicted to beardies and when he when on vacation this summer, he paid me $40 for 40 days of babysitting and still even thought I am only 11, I took care of them, fed them, handled them comfortably, etc. I do strongly agree to this comment. :lol:

 

[Melomel]

Well thank you for your response. I will keep that in mind. We talked about it last night and he really wants to try. So maybe it will be a bearded dragon.

 

[mudskipper]

I'm not disagreeing with you guys because I was like you. But I have seen that there are quite a few parents on this forum that are here because they ended up inheriting the responsibility of taking care of the bearded dragons from their kids. This is true for other pet forums I have belonged to as well.

To the original poster, only you know how your grandson is. I think it's a great idea to give pets to kids. I grew up with all sorts of pets and I took care of them all myself. However, the same thing couldn't be said for my siblings or cousins.

 

[Onlymediocre]

I think beardies are an awesome pet. My kiddos are a bit younger, 4 y/o girl and 8 y/o boy, And I know a lot of growing up takes place in the 2 yrs difference, but I couldnt see my kid being able to take care of a beardie by himself, especially a baby... The beardies are my "pets" (babies) so they dont have anything to do with their care. My son does want his own pet, so well be picking him up a snake later this month at a local reptile show (at least thats the plan) bc they are relatively low maintenance. Baby beardies are cheap to buy but EXPENSIVE to keep, they eat and eat and eat... unless you plan on breeding ur own feeders Id def suggest getting a juvie or adult, they may cost a little more upfront but they eat more veggies/ less live feeders. Also, my main reason for commenting, no one has mentioned to be careful when picking out your older dragon... Lots of ppl dont know how to properly care for their beardies, and this leads to health problems... Make sure it is healthy b4 you buy it. You dont want to get a sickly adult dragon and then have to spend the time and money trying to save it instead of loving it. Ask the person ur getting it from if its had a uvb light (reptisun 10.0 or arcadia 12% tube bulbs, not compact coil ones) If its gone without a uvb theres a good chance it had MDB (metabolic bone disease) it may have twisted bones, a bump where its tail starts, this can be reversed/stopped if caught in time... Whens the last time it used the bathroom? (should be daily or every other day-ish, make sure it goes regularly) What have they been feeding it? how often/much? Does it look healthy? Do they bathe it? is he/she alert? Do they supplement with calcium and a multivitamin? Make sure you see it eat b4 the purchase. You can look around on this forum and get a good idea of how a beardie should be kept and what a healthy one looks like. Ask when the last time it seen a vet or had a fecal done was... I could probably go on and on.. AND im by NO means trying to deter you from getting a bearded dragon. Just trying to make sure you have an idea of what to look for in one, Id hate for you to get one that has parasites and/or is sickly and have to struggle to get its health turned around. Your doing a great job alrdy by finding this forum, its packed full of information. I wish Id of done a bit more research b4 buying my 1st dragon. But was lucky enough to find it b4 my beardie had even climbed outta his box from the pet store. Best of luck, and I bet your grandson is WAY excited!

 

[wolfysluv]

Just like anything else, it depends on the child, and the life they lead (how busy they are). I got a snake for my 9 year old way back when. Granted it was a much easier animal to care for, BUT he was so awesome at it, I let him buy more and more. THEN, by age 10 he bred a pair!!!! I helped him raise the babies until we found a home. That was not easy as there was a special needs guy who needed to be fed very carefully each day. He was awesome about it.

A lot of tanks and enclosures is not easy to care for AND he had a pet ferret. He was great. I realize I got lucky though, and not so many parents end up with that situation. So, all I can say is make sure you will love the beardy too and can care for it if it doesnt work out. I made the mistake of letting the same boy get a salt water tank late in HS. It didn't work out and he was terrible about it. So "I" had to do it and I hated it. Because he was so great with other pets, I never saw this coming. So I never asked myself, would you be able to care for it ya know? At least fish are not a big deal, and it was easy to eventually rehome fish and disassemble it.

 

[zabeardie]

Just like anything else, it depends on the child, and the life they lead (how busy they are). I got a snake for my 9 year old way back when. Granted it was a much easier animal to care for, BUT he was so awesome at it, I let him buy more and more. THEN, by age 10 he bred a pair!!!! I helped him raise the babies until we found a home. That was not easy as there was a special needs guy who needed to be fed very carefully each day. He was awesome about it.

A lot of tanks and enclosures is not easy to care for AND he had a pet ferret. He was great. I realize I got lucky though, and not so many parents end up with that situation. So, all I can say is make sure you will love the beardy too and can care for it if it doesnt work out. I made the mistake of letting the same boy get a salt water tank late in HS. It didn't work out and he was terrible about it. So "I" had to do it and I hated it. Because he was so great with other pets, I never saw this coming. So I never asked myself, would you be able to care for it ya know? At least fish are not a big deal, and it was easy to eventually rehome fish and disassemble it.

Wow, your son has [Great] responsibility. When I was 9, I probably couldn't even take care of a garter snake.

:lol: :lol: