My partner and I recently bought a 6 month old bearded dragon from a pet store. Although we did as much research as possible before buying Jango, we still found ourselves with bundles of questions in the first few weeks.
Our pet shop where we bought him did their best to answer our questions, but openly admitted that they weren't all experts on exotic dragons. And when we tried to look online for information, most of the people were getting angry at others for what brands and what foods they were using, rather than recommending what was actually suitable.
Not knowing what to do, we went to our local zoo for their daily reptile talk. The reptile keeper was amazing! She took us out back to see their dragons and showed us how she baths them- puts them in a small cage that sits on a lean with a UV light and slowly introduces them to shallow water, (videos online show owners shoving them in a deep bath which is quite hard to watch). She leaves them in there for several hours, it is a fantastic way to help constipation and shedding- which is great when your beardie has a temper when shedding like ours!!
One of our main questions was about lighting. We'd been a bit skeptical about Repti Glo lights because so many people were complaining about how bad they were online. However, even the zoo uses them and we found out that all the complaints were from years ago. This was great news as we live in New Zealand and shipping other brands of lights here would have cost us about $300 US.
She also told us not to worry about how stressed people get over pesticides. If you live relatively far away from farmland, wild plants and insects should be fine to feed your dragon. We fed Jango a cockroach before and he loved it- fantastic protein for him and I'd rather not have them around the house!
The best thing from the visit was when she took us outside and showed us the gardens where she gets their food. She gave us dandelines and their flowers, oxtail, puha and wandering willy- (but only a couple of leaves as it acts as a diarrhetic!)
She also doesn't worry about supplements because the dragons were getting such a good diet. And our dragon never touched the stuff while he was at the pet shop. A good way to save $$ with what certainly can add up to be an expensive pet.
I would strongly recommend any new owner to go and do what we did-go and talk to someone in your area who knows their stuff. Every climate is different and its great to know whats suitable in your area. We are 90% more confident with our boy and he seems to be lapping up the changes. Books and internet can teach you a lot but they can't answer all your questions!
Our pet shop where we bought him did their best to answer our questions, but openly admitted that they weren't all experts on exotic dragons. And when we tried to look online for information, most of the people were getting angry at others for what brands and what foods they were using, rather than recommending what was actually suitable.
Not knowing what to do, we went to our local zoo for their daily reptile talk. The reptile keeper was amazing! She took us out back to see their dragons and showed us how she baths them- puts them in a small cage that sits on a lean with a UV light and slowly introduces them to shallow water, (videos online show owners shoving them in a deep bath which is quite hard to watch). She leaves them in there for several hours, it is a fantastic way to help constipation and shedding- which is great when your beardie has a temper when shedding like ours!!
One of our main questions was about lighting. We'd been a bit skeptical about Repti Glo lights because so many people were complaining about how bad they were online. However, even the zoo uses them and we found out that all the complaints were from years ago. This was great news as we live in New Zealand and shipping other brands of lights here would have cost us about $300 US.
She also told us not to worry about how stressed people get over pesticides. If you live relatively far away from farmland, wild plants and insects should be fine to feed your dragon. We fed Jango a cockroach before and he loved it- fantastic protein for him and I'd rather not have them around the house!
The best thing from the visit was when she took us outside and showed us the gardens where she gets their food. She gave us dandelines and their flowers, oxtail, puha and wandering willy- (but only a couple of leaves as it acts as a diarrhetic!)
She also doesn't worry about supplements because the dragons were getting such a good diet. And our dragon never touched the stuff while he was at the pet shop. A good way to save $$ with what certainly can add up to be an expensive pet.
I would strongly recommend any new owner to go and do what we did-go and talk to someone in your area who knows their stuff. Every climate is different and its great to know whats suitable in your area. We are 90% more confident with our boy and he seems to be lapping up the changes. Books and internet can teach you a lot but they can't answer all your questions!
