Future Owner, Very Excited

[ReIgN]

Hi all...

Well I'm just introducing myself at the moment although hopefully I will have a new addition to the family very soon.

Having recently moved in with my girlfriend we have been on about getting a pet for ages but we couldn't think of anything appropriate until recently. We went down all the usual trains of thought like hamsters and gerbils and even house rabbits but nothing seemed a good idea until now. We really wanted something that would have a little personality all of it's own and none of the above seemed to offer that, either just sitting there eating or sleeping when you wanted to see them and keeping you awake when you didn't so the other day on an impromptue visit to the local garden centre we came across a wee beardie. He was sat there looking at us and almost hung on our every move. We were captivated.

My girlfriends best mate's fiancé owns a reptile shop in Worcester (UK) and has said that he would do us a good deal if we were to buy everything from him so we've now set our hearts on a little beardie of our own.

I think I've spent nearly every spare minute over the last few days looking at numerous different care sheets and the like to try and get all the information we need on feeding, housing and such but one thing that I don't seem to be able to find is how do you know when your beardie has reached different stages in it's life? Short of actually buying an adult which would defeat the object and probably lose half of the fun of growing the little fella how will we know when they have gone from baby to juvenile to adult? :study:

Well we're off to the shop on saturday to find out all about the beardie and the kit that we'll need and hopefully the little beardie will be with us the following week. It's going to be kind of a birthday present for me so I'm extra excited and I can't wait to bring our little baby beardie up to a big and strong adult.

Anyway I guess I better sign off for now. Look forward to getting to know some of you and your little buddies better in the future. See you all soon.

Matt (ReIgN) :mrgreen:

 

[fresnowitte]

:wave: Welcome to BD.org!

Barbara

 

[beardiebandit]

beardies are the best reptiles i have ever had any experience with. they grow way faster than a snake and they have personalaties that are three times bigger than thier physical size! i have four beardies myself! they are very curios and like to roam around and once they get big enough you can let them woner the room like i do. and they only poop about once a day so if there is poop in the cage you know you dont really have to worry about your carpet getting all nasty! lol!

i have one adult a sub adult and two babys. as they get older they get to the stage where they actually enjoy being handled! Kada (my adult) will sit on my shoulder and watch everyone as i go to the pet store or the drive thru at mcdonalds!

now Dino(my young male) he is a little bit more high spirited. he likes tp explore the car as i drive! lol! as a male gets into the sub adult stage you will notice his beard will blacken up if he gets excited or aggrivated.

King Kupa and Olive Oyl(my babys) are about 5 1/2 - 6 inches. so they are wee little ones! they are cute! : )

ive also noticed that they like to watch lights and cyling fans! Dino sat on my shoulder and watched the fan for like 30min last night! lol!

this website is going to be your bible when it comes to taking car of your new baby. there is a wealth of knowlege at your finger tips!

 

[ReIgN]

Wow, I never realised you could do so much with them. Although I think you're weather is probably a little better suited for taking ya beardies out than our's is over here?

We're both (my girlfriend and I) really excited about the prospect of getting our dragon. I've already had a brief browse on the site and the care sheet was very helpful, infact that's how I stumbled across the site whilst searching good old google for information on the breed.

I'll keep you all posted on the progress and as soon as we take ownership I will get some pictures up for you all to see. Not sure if there are any exotic colours at our local shop but I know they are well bred and well looked after as the guy is pretty passionate about what he does and he is also a good friend so hopefully he can cut us a nice deal to soften the blow of initially buying everything.

My girlfriend is all set to feed the little fella when I'm at work and I've showed her the information from the care sheets so hopefully the little guy will have a decent start in life and we can get it to a nice size fairly quickly.

What sort of time scale denotes juvenile/sub-adult and adult??? :?

 

[Catalyst]

Congrats on the upcoming new baby dragon

There is no hard and fast rule for dragon groupings as far as those age ratings go, its more of a general idea type of thing. A baby is usually from hatching up to 4-6 months. A juvenile then goes from 4-6 months up to about 10 months (and for some people baby/juvenile is all one stage), and then they are a subadult. A dragon reaches adulthood at 12-18 months depending on who you talk to. By 12 months the majority of their fast growing is done, but they do continue to grow until about 18 months of age. By 18 months of age your dragon should be on their adult diet.

Just a few money saving/beginner tips while you're buying your supplies:

- avoid coil/compact UVB bulbs, you want to go with either a good mercury vapor bulb or a flourescent tube UVB light that will go across at least 3/4 of the length of your tank.
- you can use a regular light bulb or a halogen flood light from the hardware store for your heat bulb, no need to pay extra for a pet store heat bulb. All you need is something that will put off bright clear (not coloured) light and enough heat to get your temperatures up to where they need to be (100-110*F basking spot, 80*F cool side).
- stick on the glass temperature strips can be inaccurate, you'll want either a temperature gun or a digital thermometer with a probe on it for accuracy.
- there should be no lights on in the tank at night as these can disrupt your dragon's sleep. If it's going to drop below the low sixties F at night then use a ceramic heat emitter which will put off heat without any light, if it doesn't get that cold then your dragon will be fine without any heat source.

 

[beardiebandit]

catalyst hit the nail right on the head! lol! the only things i would add is watch the feeder size i use the distance between the eyes rule.(pretty much if the bug is bigger than the width of their jaw its too big) that can cause some pretty serious health problems from what ive read. havent seen it first hand yet but i would most def take their word for it! better safe than sorry.

and also keep the supplements up. like miner-all once a week and lightly dust the feeders with rep-cal. (ive noticed that most posters have different views on whats the best combination of suppliments) so use what works best for you and your beardie.

like catalyst said the tube style lighting is the way to go. i like it because where ever the dragons is it will be exposed to the uv light.

 

[ReIgN]

Cool, thanks guys.

Well we went to the shop yesterday and had a look and got to hold an adult male to get a feel for what we were getting in to and we're definitely going for one now. We're off to get the little fella probably on friday this week so all in all I'm really excited. The owner is doing us a really good deal. Everything we need for £160 with the beardie all in. That's for a 3' Vivarium and the heat bulb and strip light, basically everything we need to start us off.