Greetings and Salutations! Some Qs also.

[MatthewLee]

Hi I'm Matthew. My girlfriend and I live together and have a love for animals. I saw a Bearded Dragon at a pet store and I thought they were very neat, so I started doing some research. To my suprise when I got home my girlfriend adopted one for me!
We couldn't tell the sex based on the how-to online, so I'll call him/her Tony/Toni.
Right now he is about 4-5 inches. We are confused on a couple things.

What is the best substrate? Guys at the pet store told me CalciSand, Online says different things. I'd do newspaper but I dont want to go cricket hunting.

Do Crickets have to be the staple? They are pretty expensive, loud, and high maintence for food. Can I keep them outside in another tank? We live in chicago, so it might get kind of cold and rain.

Also, whats the most cost effective, low maintence insects?

This may be ridiculous but, since they are omnivourous, can they eat meat like ground beef? Make a little burger for him haha.

If we get two males, from very young, can they be kept in the same tank?

 

[fresnowitte]

Hi I'm Matthew. My girlfriend and I live together and have a love for animals. I saw a Bearded Dragon at a pet store and I thought they were very neat, so I started doing some research. To my suprise when I got home my girlfriend adopted one for me!
We couldn't tell the sex based on the how-to online, so I'll call him/her Tony/Toni.
Right now he is about 4-5 inches. We are confused on a couple things.

What is the best substrate? Guys at the pet store told me CalciSand, Online says different things. I'd do newspaper but I dont want to go cricket hunting.

Do Crickets have to be the staple? They are pretty expensive, loud, and high maintence for food. Can I keep them outside in another tank? We live in chicago, so it might get kind of cold and rain.

Also, whats the most cost effective, low maintence insects?

This may be ridiculous but, since they are omnivourous, can they eat meat like ground beef? Make a little burger for him haha.

If we get two males, from very young, can they be kept in the same tank?

First of all:
Welcome Matthew! :wave:

No do not use calcium sand! Very Bad Idea
Some other suggestions would be;
news paper, paper towels, repti carpet, tile, a not particle substrate for young beardies play sand can be used I've heard but only for adult beardies.
You don't want to feed them bugs that you catch outdoors. Very Bad Idea
And no crickets do not have to be the staple.We have changed to cockroaches, silkworms, butterworms, hornworms, pheonix worms.... I can't stand the crickets they drive me crazy and they stink.
The bearded dragon is a solitary create best to house alone. Never should 2 males be housed together.
If you go to the caresheet and articles at the top of the page it might help you.

Barbara

 

[InannaGod]

Welcome to beardie paradise!

Grrr! I hate *****s at pet stores! Never use Calci-sand, it is very, very bad for beardies. If your beardie is an adult, playsand is pretty good. It looks nice, its easy to clean, and beardies love it. But never give sand to a baby, thay will eat it and get extremely sick. A lot of people like to use non glazed tiles.

No, you don't have to use crickets. Like fresnowitte said, you can use other buggies. As for the noise, you can actually get de-winged crickets. Over here in NH, at least, they are fairly inexpensive. They make absolutely no noise. They live right in my room in an adorable pink tub that was laying around the house...lol!

Uhhhh, no, I would not feed them burgers! lol! I can't quite imagine a wild beardie happening upon ground beef... funny thought though!

Males together will murder each other, so you'd be better off not keeping two together.

Good luck with your beardie!!!!!!!!!

 

[InannaGod]

that was not a swear!! I said a not smart person!!!!!!! sorry!