Making life easy

[NFM07]

My husband and I get up early and I would like to try and make things as easy as I can once we get the dragons. Few questions to try and get to that point.

Can dubias and reptiworms can be kept in the same cup overnight and fed in the same feeding bowl? (Worried about dubia eating the worms)
Should food be offered while they wait to be food? Should it be while they wait over night or in the tank with the beardie?
Do Dubia's need to be gut loaded?
How many hours should come between lights on and feeding time?
What would be "to early" for lights to come on for the beardies?
Any tips to make owning a dragon easy on those of us who dont enjoy waking up early to start with?


Thanks!

 

[trinity040400]

Just to start off with I am new at this myself. I give toru salad every day and leave it in her cage until the next morning when I replace it with a fresh one. I do this as soon as I wake up in the morning. To save time I will precut whatever I am going to give her about every 3rd day the night before. So in the morning all I have to do is take out her bowl dump the old stuff in the trash and dump fresh stuff in.

I have a timer set to turn on the lights for me at 7am so I can sleep a little longer on days I go to work late.

I feed her crickets so im not sure about the roaches, but I feed her crickets at 5pm and lights go out at 8pm.

They say it is importaint to feed them live food either 1 hr after the lights go on or 2 hrs before they go off at night. The way my scedule is at work I dont have time to feed her crickets in the morning.

I hope you find this useful and good luck! :mrgreen:

 

[NFM07]

Thanks. I am up around 6:30 am so I figure lights on at 5am. That will give them over an hour to wake up and get ready for breakfast. Dinner will be around 6pm and lights out by 9pm. Is that enough sleeping time for them or should lights out be sooner to allow more time to sleep?

 

[MissT]

You need to give them 14 hours of lights on and 10 hours off. So if you are switching lights on at 5am they need to be off by 7pm. I would do lights on at 6am and off at 8pm then put the salad in right before you leave for work - chances are they wont touch it until they have warmed up anyway

 

[NFM07]

Thank you, that sounds like it could work also.

MissT can you answer any of the other question in my starter post?

 

[MissT]

I will do my best to answer them....

Can dubias and reptiworms can be kept in the same cup overnight and fed in the same feeding bowl? (Worried about dubia eating the worms)

Im not sure about keeping them in the same cup - I would keep them in 2 separate cups and then place them in 2 separate feeding bowls... or you could leave a bowl of repti-worms while you are at worm and then feed dubias in the evening

Should food be offered while they wait to be food? Should it be while they wait over night or in the tank with the beardie?

You should offer the dubias food - if your keeping a lot of dubias then you can set up a plastic bin with crushed dog food, salad and water crystals. If you mean, in the cup, I would just give them salad. They dont need food when they are in the tank with the beardie.

Do Dubia's need to be gut loaded?

As above...

How many hours should come between lights on and feeding time?

They need at least an hour to warm up before they eat... however, if you are going to be going to work, then just leave the salad and worms/dubias on the cool side of the viv and your little ones will hopefully wait until they warm up before venturing over there... I know none of mine go near their salad until they have been basking for at least 3 hours!!

What would be "to early" for lights to come on for the beardies?

As long as you have a 14 on/10 off (or a 12on/12off) then it wont matter how early you get them up.

Any tips to make owning a dragon easy on those of us who dont enjoy waking up early to start with?

Prepare salad in advance - I use a plastic tupperware container and wash and rip up 2 - 3 days worth of greens in advance if I know im going to have early starts - then I just rinse them off again as I am putting them into the salad bowls in the morning - sometimes, if I know Im not going to have any time to spare in the morning, I will put the salad into the bowl the night before, cover it and place it in the fridge ready to place in the tank in the morning. You could also prepare salad toppers the night before and then just mix them up with the salad in the morning.

Hope this helps

T

 

[Carnivorouszoo]

I house/store reptis and dubia separately but they are fine to feed in the same dish. I've done it and don't see why not.