Baby Beardie Travel

[Musicmeg]

Hi, everyone. My name is Megan. I will be getting a baby beardie in a month or two and have a question. I searched the forum first and have sort of gotten an answer, but it seems opinions may differ. I am a college student (not fresh out of high school) and I have winter break from the middle of December to the end of the first week of January. I do not yet have a beardie and am trying to decide the best time during the break to get it. I would like to get it at the start of they break so I have more time to care for it and we can have more time to get used to each other. My issue is that I will be driving to Las Vegas for Christmas which is about five hours away. I will have only have had the beardie for two weeks and I am concerned about stressing the baby. I will be putting it in a twenty gallon long when I get it (until it gets bigger) and would take the same setup traveling with me. Would staying in the same enclosure reduce the stress of relocating so soon? My other option is to get the baby when I get back. This only gives me a week, maybe less, with it before I return to school. I will still have time to care for it and handle it, but I would like more time to enjoy my baby thoroughly before I get back to "work". I am open to all your suggestions and advice. Thank you!

 

[beardie parents]

Hi, Megan. Welcome to our site. I will have to think on that. I do think it depends on the beardie you get. Will you be taking it back to school with you? It will be better all around if you can take care of him/her some every day. When we go somewhere, we take our girls with us whenever we can. We can't always, especially when we go to a town about 100 miles away for grocery shopping in the middle of the summer. This town is usually upwards of 100+ degrees during that time of year. We even took them camping a couple of years ago. They were adults, tho. With Rosie, we got her at the end of September 3 years ago and a few days after we got her we had planned a day long trip riding our quads but since she was about the length of our Dish Network satellite remote, we left them home (Goldie was longer but not by much) .

Here's Rosie a few days after we first got her:

Here's both of them some weeks after this incident:

Here's Goldie a month earlier:

You will sooo enjoy having beardies, especially when they are used to you. If you are blessed like we have been, you will get beardies that are used to being handled. Rosie seemed to enjoy being held from day one. If that's the case, you may or may not have a problem taking him/her with you when you go to Las Vegas, but you may. It's hard to say for sure. If you don't want to take it with you to Las Vegas, you might not want to get it until you get back, unless you have someone experienced with beardies to take care of it until you get back.

 

[Musicmeg]

Thank you so much for your reply! Your beardies are adorable. I own my home and live close to school so I will only be away while I am attending class and someone will always be home with it. I am not sure yet where I will be getting my beardie. We have a couple reptile shops with great reviews and I am considereing them.I have checked them out in person and ones store in particular looks great. Nice and clean. I am hoping the will let me handle the beardies so I can pick one that seems OK with being handled. I am not sure if this is typical of reptile stores though. I have kept fish and dogs for years, but this will be my first repti. I am doing tons of research and am very excited about getting my beardie. I have already named it Googlet. LOL.

 

[beardie parents]

Are you into shopping online? I ask this because there is a couple of breeders that sell really healthy baby/juvie beardies. One is named Tom and he lives in Pennsylvania area. I know he has a website. I just found it (took awhile) it's tnddragons.com He has some beautiful beardies and I know he sold one to Barbara (fresnowitte) a year or so ago and it's doing really great. I want you first experience with beardies to be a good one and, sometimes, it's not always a healthy beardie you purchase at a pet store like petsmart. This is just a suggestion as I know Tom's beardies are up there in cost.

 

[Musicmeg]

Thank you for the suggestion. I agree pet store beardies are often not healthy and it is important to me to get a healthy one. However, my husband and I discussed this and we would rather not order online. The place I am considering most is Arizona Reptile Center. They have a great reputation and breed their own beardies. I was there last Thursday. The babies were small and I would prefer them a little larger so I am not too sold on them yet. I need to look again later in the day after the beardies have gotten good and warm. Another place is Reptiles and Reefs. The funny thing is they really don't have any reefs. Just one sad tank with tiny invertebrates. LOL. Lots of reptiles though. Their reviews have been OK, especially since they have been under new ownership, but after looking at the dates of the good reviews, I suspect they were planted by employees. They are all withing two days of each other. I still want to check them out and decide myself if they are OK. Cleanliness is important too me. If it doesn't look good they are out. There is a store really close to our house with a young male beardie bred by one of the employees. He looks awesome and would have come home with me if I had an enclosure set up at the time. I am sure he will be gone by the time I am ready. He sure was stunning though.

 

[FranktheTank]

Hi! Sorry too butt in, but I live in AZ and my first beardie came from a local pet shop in the same areas. It's called Wild Side Pets. They breed their beardies and the have a variety of ages. It's a family owned buisness and every employee is well versed in the knowledge of reptiles. I've been to AZ Reptiles as well, and I really just felt more comfortable going with Wild Side Pets. They are located in Mesa and well worth the trip. There is a reptile expert there by the name of Jason, I would ask for him. Hope this helps, My beardie, Frank is doing great. He came to us well socialized and healthy. They carry everything you need to take excellent care of your beardie!

-Kaleen

 

[beardie parents]

It sounds like you live in Arizona. There is a place near Bisbee, AZ (down by the border with Mexico) called atomic lizard ranch. It may not be close to where you live. Here is their website but it is down for maintenance but I'm sure it will be back soon.
http://www.atomiclizardranch.net/

 

[Musicmeg]

Thank you so much for the suggestions. In all my searching for some reason I did not discover wild side pets. I will definitely give them a look. Bisbee is a bit far, but I am willing to consider them still. Thanks again!

 

[beardie parents]

I understand that one but, for me, it's about a 30 minute drive, just down the road.