Introducing Beebz

[xp29]

I built my first beardie a massive enclosure, it was 6 foot by 3 foot by 3 foot. The little ingrate only use about a third of it lol . The funny thing was i lived in an apartment and built it inside, when i moved it just BARELY fit through the door lol.
I don't remember off top my head for sure, but a rankins may be ok in that smaller tank (if your looking to stay with the beardie theme)

 

[Axil]

I built my first beardie a massive enclosure, it was 6 foot by 3 foot by 3 foot. The little ingrate only use about a third of it lol . The funny thing was i lived in an apartment and built it inside, when i moved it just BARELY fit through the door lol.
I don't remember off top my head for sure, but a rankins may be ok in that smaller tank (if your looking to stay with the beardie theme)

Ha! I'm surprised you got that behemoth out. I was originally thinking of going 30" across but after measuring my daughter's bedroom door nixed that idea real quick. I went 25" just in case the enclosure was a little wider than 24". Just finished putting it together and it's 24 and 1/16. Which *might* mean I have room to shove my lamp holders behind it which would be nice.

What's less nice is the enclosure has two support bars spaced out 12" from either side. This means I can't mount my uvb light directly to the hood as intended, and I can't use the support bars as that would center my 34" light and not give Beebz much in the way of shade.

So it looks like I'm gonna be using wire after all. Which means the light will be lower than I anticipated.... which means I probably didn't need to buy the arcadia 12% after all . If they had given me one more support bar in the middle it would've solved all this, but alas, there is not one.

That aside I like the enclosure from dubiaroaches.com. I was a little nervous as there are no screws, it all just mallets together. After building it through I can say it's very solid, and was very easy to build.

Beebz perked up a bit after lunch:

But is currently looking a bit ornery:

And... as I write this she's attacking her tempature probe... wierdo

*edit* oh, and I don't necessarily want to stick to the beardy family, I do want to stick with the same climate though. Definitely not looking for anything that requires really hunid conditions. Was thinking perhaps a leopard gecko. I thought Rankins still needed more room but I'll check that out too.

 

[xp29]

You might ask Claudiusx about the uromastyx, they may not need as much room (and they don't need insects). They look friggen cool to, like little dinosaurs . Their skin looks rough but it feels like soft leather when you handle them.

 

[Axil]

So Beebz stand and enclosure are done. That's the good news.

Unfortunately the two 75w halogens I got don't even begin to provide enough heat. And the stain that seemed completely dry and odor free in my cold garage definitely has some smell to it my house. So it will be another couple days until Beebz is ready to move in

However since the smell was minimal I let her take a quick tour:

She does not approve of the smooth walls:

Apparently Dragons are capable of supporting thier entire bodyweight with the base of thier tail. Pretty impressive.

Beebz hasn't eaten much (by her standards) today. Only 10ish roaches for breakfast and lunch. She had two hornworms (her first time trying them) and 2 roaches for dinner. I was hoping she would work up an appetite on her field trip to the new enclosure but apparently not.

Hoping her appetite will pick back up tomorrow.

 

[xp29]

You could use the seagrass hammocks to give the walls texture for her to climb. The larger one are like 5 or 6 inches wide and like 24 inches long.
I use them in all but one of my habitats. Don't try to trim them though (i made that mistake) they unravel. Well i guess if your artsy you might could weave the ends back together. (I'm not and i couldn't rofl )
Your habitat looks sweet.

 

[Axil]

You could use the seagrass hammocks to give the walls texture for her to climb. The larger one are like 5 or 6 inches wide and like 24 inches long.
I use them in all but one of my habitats. Don't try to trim them though (i made that mistake) they unravel. Well i guess if your artsy you might could weave the ends back together. (I'm not and i couldn't rofl )
Your habitat looks sweet.

I'm glad you mentioned that. Because I Have one! I Bought it years ago for Rex, our first Beardie.

In my travels I ran across an article talking about how hammocks are super horrible, and can collapse,strangle them, pull off nails, not natural, just terrible, etc. So I was like "well crap".

Beebz does have a smaller corner one in her little enclosure, she uses it (less now) and I didn't take it out. I guess just about anything  could be dangerous, but it's really frustrating seeing enthusiasts and even experts with relevant degrees giving totally contradictory information.
I guess it shouldn't surprise me, info on dogs and even human children is similar. But I grew up with dogs, and felt somewhat qualified to sort the wheat from the chaff there.

The thing that makes me most nervous about the hammock I think is how much I can trust the suction cups. I did have the one in Beebz tank randomly let go when I brushed against it once. This despite the fact she climbed on it all the time and it held firm. I don't really want to make any permanent alterations to the enclosure like drilling in eyehooks or anything. How do you attach yours?

Also, any idea how much of an issue a lingering smell from a low voc wood stain is? It's not much. I feel totally comfortable having my daughter (the Hooman one, not the new scaly one) sleep in the room. But i dunno how much of an issue having Beebz live in an enclosure directly on top of it is.

I'm having to balance that risk against her remaining in her 18" wide enclosure that is just way way too small now. It currently has a fan blowing across it and all the heat lamps I bought pouring heat onto it to dry to fix it.

*edit* found and linked the article

 

[xp29]

In Zens i have wooden dowels on the screen with have twine holding it up on one end, on the other i drilled that back hide and used the leather bindings that came with the hammock to tie it off. The one that is suspended is tied to the one acting as a ramp and has the suction cups on the lower end. They do come loose ALL THE TIME thats why its tied tonthe other on. The ones in my other habitas are all tied into place. But those are a wire cage i converted.
With heat and fans the smell should be gone in a few days i would think. I don't think stain has near as much smell as paint. Polyurethane should cure pretty fast as well.
The pic is before i added the hammocks, i don't have one after the fact, but i suspended them under the ledge. Sinatra uses his, Sweet Pea could care less lol.

 

[Axil]

In Zens i have wooden dowels on the screen with have twine holding it up on one end, on the other i drilled that back hide and used the leather bindings that came with the hammock to tie it off. The one that is suspended is tied to the one acting as a ramp and has the suction cups on the lower end. They do come loose ALL THE TIME thats why its tied tonthe other on. The ones in my other habitas are all tied into place. But those are a wire cage i converted.
With heat and fans the smell should be gone in a few days i would think. I don't think stain has near as much smell as paint. Polyurethane should cure pretty fast as well.
The pic is before i added the hammocks, i don't have one after the fact, but i suspended them under the ledge. Sinatra uses his, Sweet Pea could care less lol.

I'm thinking maybe I tie one end to the support bar and shove the bottom under a paver or something heavy. She may will jump off though.

She leaped from the top of that basking platform I made in the new tank and belly flopped right onto the paver ~10im below. Totally on purpose, she didn't fall. So I'm a little leary of giving her the ability to climb all the way to the top of her 2ft enclosure.

Maybe I'll use twine to suspend it lower. Or maybe she is tougher than I think she is.

So do you think I should leave her in her small enclosure until the fumes are totally gone, or is it better to give her the space if it gets to the point I have to get my nose near the stand to smell it?

 

[Axil]

So many fans:

For some reason my wife and daughter don't find my running around yelling: "I need mor power, captain!" as hilarious as I do.

 

[xp29]

I think if you can't smell it just standing there it's probably ok.
Beardies are semiaboreal so her jumping is probably not super dangerous but i might would put a folded towel beside the higher part for a day or two till i was sure how she will behave.
I would leave her in the smaller one until i didn't need fans to not smell the new one.

 

[Axil]

I think if you can't smell it just standing there it's probably ok.
Beardies are semiaboreal so her jumping is probably not super dangerous but i might would put a folded towel beside the higher part for a day or two till i was sure how she will behave.
I would leave her in the smaller one until i didn't need fans to not smell the new one.

Sounds good. Fingers crossed it doesn't take more than a day or two. She has been grumpy and lethargic the past couple days, and her tail is about to shed again.

She also has decided she only wants to be hand fed. My daughter wants to make her choose to eat from her bowl or skip the meal. She has also made the point that as she is 12in long now she is probably no longer a "baby" and only needs 2 feedings a day anyway.

I have convinced her that Beebz doesn't need any more stress since she is dealing with the fact her enclosure is in a new room, and she will be moving again soon,  and she is about to shed again.

i guess this is good practice for spoiling grandkids some day.

 

[xp29]

I think you might be right

 

[Axil]

So for anyone following the Beebz saga there has been a development. Turns out Beebz is a boy. His nightly bed time story (no, seriously, he actually gets a bed time story. Stop looking at me that way) will feature less "beautiful Dragon Princesses" and more "Gallant Dragon Princes"

Thank you to those that helped correctly identify his sex. Hopefully his Majesty will someday forgive me for failing to identify, what is obviously a paragon of male Dragon physique.