Is it too early to board my beardie?

[Butterfinger's Momma]

We'll be going out of town for a weekend (Friday afternoon - Sunday afternoon) when my beardie is about 5 months old. This will be 5.5 weeks after bringing Butterfinger home.

Will it be too stressful for Butterfinger to be boarded this young, and this soon after being adopted?

I have a couple options for boarding.

• My vet has a doggy daycare/boarding service attached (where my dog goes weekly), and they also board exotics (including my leopard gecko a couple times - they did a great job with her). My concern here is that it may be too loud with the daycare dogs barking, which could stress Butterfinger out.
• There is also a reptile store about 45 minutes away that can do boarding. I suspect this would be more comfortable for Butterfinger, despite the longer trip?

My main concern is that this would be too much relocation for such a young, new beardie.

My mom will be staying at my house to watch my dog, but she doesn't like insects. I might be able convince her to feed Butterfinger some dubias if I have them pre-sorted in a small container, but I'm not sure if it would be worth how much I'd owe her for that

We will not be traveling again (barring any unforeseen family emergencies) until fall, when Butterfinger will be boarded for 1 to 2 weeks.

 

[RangoRocky]

I would monitor the behavior up to it’s time for you to leave. If she seems fine I would board her at the pet shop. If she seems to have not settled in I would do my best to convince my mom to watch her. You can presort the food and roaches in containers just make sure they are vented so maybe your mom would only have to put the containers in the enclosures and wipe up poop.

 

[xp29]

I am personally of the opinion not to board at a pet shop. The reason being they have such a high turn over of pets any manner of nasty could come in on a wild caught and/or sick animal. All it take is them sticking you beardie in a habitat that had an animal with adenovirus that didn't get properly sanitized and now your beardie has the equivalent of hiv in humans. I generally won't even take mine in at all. And if i do i don't touch anything or put them down. Some really bad things can live a very long time in a habitat that isn't properly sanitized.

 

[Butterfinger's Momma]

I am personally of the opinion not to board at a pet shop. The reason being they have such a high turn over of pets any manner of nasty could come in on a wild caught and/or sick animal. All it take is them sticking you beardie in a habitat that had an animal with adenovirus that didn't get properly sanitized and now your beardie has the equivalent of hiv in humans. I generally won't even take mine in at all. And if i do i don't touch anything or put them down. Some really bad things can live a very long time in a habitat that isn't properly sanitized.

Yes, in general I would agree. I would never board at a petsmart, petco, etc.

However, this specific store specializes in (aka only sells) reptiles and amphibians. This is the location we recently adopted our beardie from, so I think any exposure risk has already occurred. They also have their own (not for sale) chameleon, adult beardie, and poison dart frogs in the shop, who have all been around for years. I believe they are very careful about sanitization.

But those are definitely good considerations for next summer, when we hope to bring Butterfinger out on a leash!

 

[xp29]

Yeah if your pet came from there its probably safe enough to take him/her there.
I love the name butterfinger, one of mine is named snicker doodle