Just got my first 3 dragons!

[DragonHeart124]

They are eating a few mouthfuls of it, but that's about it.

 

[DragonHeart124]

For those who check back for updates, my roommate and I have named the dragons and also have been informed of what type each are. The first and smallest one we have named Bolt, seeing as how she literally bolts around her tank. Unfortunately, all I know about her type was what the pet store worker had said which is that she was the "runt". I thought that runts only appeared with mammal litters but maybe I'm wrong? The 2nd female we have named Drago Rossa (italian for red dragon) and the other male my roommate named Godzilla. Both the 2nd female and male are red Italian leatherbacks. The female, if you can see in the small pictures, has more red in her scales than the male, however, I have been told that once they are back in full health that both will have a lot more red in their coloring.

Thanks again for all the help guys! I'll make sure to keep those who are interested updated in their progress as I am going to start writing a daily log!

 

[Jackerson92]

First and foremost: Good for you! It's refreshing to see someone that cares enough to give these little guys the love they deserve. I love hearing adoption stories so much.

I know you said they were 2 years old, but I really wouldn't believe that was possible. Even with stunted growth, they're way too small to be anywhere near maturity. Thora isn't even a year old and she's twice the size of the biggest one in those pictures (from what I can tell, the picture looks kinda small).

What people have been telling you here is all correct, and I'd listen to what they have to say. Especially what they say about the sand and crickets! My fiance got a baby a while back and had it on sand, like the people at the pet store said was okay. The poor thing got an impaction before he'd had it for half a year. To give some idea as to how this went, he slowly lost the ability to move his back half, and we'd routinely find him stuck on his back like an overturned turtle. Whenever he was fed (his appetite was terrible, by the way, and we just couldn't get him to gain weight), he would flip himself over trying to catch what little food he would chase. The poor thing had to be put down, all because of a beginner mistake that pet stores don't tell you about.

We got reptile carpet when we got Thora, and she hasn't had a single problem. Also for food, mealworms have very little nutritional value for dragons. Crickets are better, but dubia roaches are best if you can get a hold of them (if you can't, that's fine. They're more expensive and difficult to track down, after all).

Since you have 3 little ones, it could get kind of pricey to keep them fat and happy. Thora will easily go through 20 dollars in crickets in about 5 days or less. (ummm... good point to note that you should tend to your feeders just as diligently as you do to your dragons. Crickets can dehydrate within a day if you let them run out of water...) I recommend looking into a colony of your chosen feeders, if that's something you'd be interested in.

 

[Spikeshuman]

http://www.armstrongcrickets.com/?gclid=CJfJ_uuytLgCFUPl7Aod3zIAtg

A cheap way to feed multiple dragons, so long as you give the crickets water and food. When I had multiple cricket eaters to feed I kept them in a plastic walmart bin with two squares cut out of the lid to vent. I used the screens that actually came with the crickets.. (the cardboard box has screens for air) and duct taped them to the holes on the inside.. never had one escape. Kept them fed with carrots, flukers gut load, and kept them watered with http://answers.walmart.com/answers/1336/product/16829011/questions.htm. Just make sure when you buy water crystals that it has NO fertilizer or any other chemical in it. Should just be the water crystal, only ingredient Polyacrylamide. Make sure you use egg crates to keep the crickets from smothering eachother. If you buy them half grown.. they will last you a month or two. I have had a cricket live for 5 months in my uromastyx's house before I finally caught it and threw it outside.. and that guy had no water.. so they are pretty hardy.

 

[DragonHeart124]

http://www.armstrongcrickets.com/?gclid=CJfJ_uuytLgCFUPl7Aod3zIAtg

A cheap way to feed multiple dragons, so long as you give the crickets water and food. When I had multiple cricket eaters to feed I kept them in a plastic walmart bin with two squares cut out of the lid to vent. I used the screens that actually came with the crickets.. (the cardboard box has screens for air) and duct taped them to the holes on the inside.. never had one escape. Kept them fed with carrots, flukers gut load, and kept them watered with http://answers.walmart.com/answers/1336/product/16829011/questions.htm. Just make sure when you buy water crystals that it has NO fertilizer or any other chemical in it. Should just be the water crystal, only ingredient Polyacrylamide. Make sure you use egg crates to keep the crickets from smothering eachother. If you buy them half grown.. they will last you a month or two. I have had a cricket live for 5 months in my uromastyx's house before I finally caught it and threw it outside.. and that guy had no water.. so they are pretty hardy.

I have definitely considered keeping a colony of my live feeders but I did read that phoenix worms are the best live feeder and that they are relatively easy to take care of. would that be better than crickets?

 

[DragonHeart124]

or possibly even earthworms?

 

[zandi202]

Earthworms aren't for beardies. The only reptile I know of that eats them and is a favorite with are True Fire Skinks. There are probably others out there, but I'm pretty sure beardies aren't one of them.

 

[DragonHeart124]

Oh ok, because I have seen people saying that they have fed their beardies earthworms and apparently they love them so I wasn't sure.

 

[zandi202]

I could be wrong, don't get me wrong. I just haven't heard of anyone on here doing it or recommending it.

 

[saiyan25]

Isn't what your friend did illegal?

 

[Mariah94]

These babies need UVB as soon as possible. You will need to buy three different setups. You can order the UVB's from petmountain.com for roughly $25 each (this is the cheapest that I know of) and you can buy the fixtures for the UVB at walmart for $10.

For optimal UVB rays, the UVB fixtures need to mounted INSIDE the tank. You can do this using heavy duty velcro ($6 at walmart) or using command hooks.

UVB is essential to life, and since these dragons I'm sure have never had any before, it really does need to be a priority.

Thank you so much for the rescue. I can't believe these guys are two years old...absolutely heartbreaking.

Slate or paper towel is your best option. Slate in my opinion looks really good, and it's very cheap and easy to clean. I buy slate from home depot and go to the gardening section to buy basking rocks and blocks to raise a basking platform. I will post a picture of my 40g setup to give you an idea.



I just recently aquired the dragon in this enclosure which is why I know the prices. I spent $40 on the UVB setup, $25 on the UVB, $10 on the fixture, and $5 on the heavy duty velcro. I bought the slate on the bottom for $12 ($6 per piece) but you can buy tile for as little as .99c per piece, we went with the better looking ones this time around. The rock pieces from the gardening section were .99c per piece, and with the basking platform raised that high a 50w household bulb gives me 102 temps.

You will want the temps to be 95-105 for digestion.

 

[Mariah94]

The easiest feeder to keep colonized in my opinion are dubia roaches and superworms. It looks like your buds will be too small for supers so I wouldn't even try feeding those.

In my opinion, silkworms are the greatest feeder out there, however they are also really difficult to breed/raise.

Pheonix worms are great, my girls personally aren't huge fans of them. And they aren't terribly difficult to breed.

dubia, silkworms, pheonix worms are the best feeder staples in my opinion. I don't even use crickets.

Also you could order baby hornworms, they are soft bodied, easy to digest, and great for hydration. They grow huge very quickly though so you will want to make sure they are small. These are great to add in daily but not to be used as a staple/the only feeder