Meet Skwirt!

[paparoof]

Howdy!

No stranger to pets in general, but BRAND NEW to the world of Bearded Dragons. I must say I am impressed with the community of beardie lovers I've found online. Seems everyone truly loves their pets. That's pretty cool.

We picked up Skwirt Saturday morning and the kids have already fallen in love. His temporary housing is a 5-gallon aquarium I had in storage, but don't worry, I was up all night last night working in the garage on his 4x2x2 estate. It should be ready for move-in by Wednesday evening.

So far his diet has consisted of crickets and collard greens and I already have him lapping water from a needle-less syringe - I saw it mentioned somewhere that training him to do that will be very helpful should he ever fall ill and I would need to administer medicine.

The one thing that's worrying me is that he hasn't pooped yet (as of 6:30 Monday morning). He's eating, but having never been through this before, I don't really have anything to measure against to know if he's eating enough. He certainly seems alert and happy to me. Maybe he's like a dog I used to have that would just never poop on road trips - just needs some time to acclimate to the new home and adjust.

I would appreciate it if someone here could tell me how long I can safely wait before I start worrying. I've read the word "impaction" enough times this weekend that I've already been dreaming up scenarios of poor care by the pet shop employees prior to my purchasing him.

 

[OurDragonErnie]

Hi Paparoof,

I'll start by Congratulations!! I got our little guy (maybe girl) when my son took an interest in them. Of course, I now claim him to be mine!

There are so many things of importance when it comes to their digestion. I'm sure you've read many of them but I'll ask to get this thread started.

How much and what size crickets are you feeding? The crickets need to be super tiny for the size dragon in your picture.

What type of lights do you have? Do you have a UVB source? Regular lights do not have UVB. For the dragon to metabolize the calcium they need to build bones, they have to have real or simulated sunlight for most of the daylight hours.

What type and temperature of heat do you have?
You need a cool side (80) and a warm side (100-110) to the tank or enclosure which would be pretty hard to get in a 5 gallon tank. The dragon's tummy needs to get really warm after eating to facilitate digestion but they also need a place to cool down.

Are you dusting with a calcium and vitamin suppliment? They really need this to grow properly and develop their bone structure.

What is the flooring in the tank (substrate)? Particulate substrates are too dangerous for my choice. I like ceramic tile. Easy to clean and they can't accidentally swallow any of it!

Those are the first things most people on here ask to get a feel for what the set up is like.

Ok...Good Luck and watch this site for responses. The people here love their dragons and will help with whatever you need!

Sandi

 

[paparoof]

The only light currently is a 100w Exoterra Sun Glo Tight Beam. No other heat source. I've actually got three thermometers in the tank (cause I'm a total nerd), top of the rock hovers around 105, the coolest spot in the corner is low 80's. UVB will be in the big enclosure once its finished. Substrate is paper towels for now. Haven't decided on what it will be in the big house. I don't like repti-carpet - it looks like something my grandmother had in the basement back in the 70's.

The crickets are smaller than the distance between his eyes - I asked the kid at the pet store for "the smallest ones you got". He's been eating three or four, twice a day. I cut the collard greens into bite sized pieces and he'll take three or four of those at each feeding as well. That's all he's been eating. I tried putting him in a clean five gallon bucket with crickets figuring he'd go hog wild, but he only wants to climb out immediately. I have not dusted the crickets. Spose maybe I oughta?

 

[Chris]

slate or tiles would look nice and be good fr a baby!

you can use playsand when hes older. :lol:

his eating should pick up once hes settled in his home.

yes, you should dust them, 5 times a week with phosphorus free calcium with vitamin D3 and twice with a multi vitamin. that gets redused as he gets older,...
most of us use pink label repcal and herptivite (blue label)

give him a soak in some warm water, about teh temp you'd bath a baby, put a face washer on the bottom of the sink (i use the bathroom sink) for grip, fill it up to his shoulders and give him 10 -15 mins. the warm water should get him to poo.

if not massage very gently his lower right hand side from halfway down that tiny body towards his vent. thats where the bowels live and should also help. be very gentle, your baby is tiny!!!!

enjoy ur baby! hes really pretty! very nice markings,..!! :lol:

offer 3 feedigns a day @ his age, when he settles down he should be able to eat 100-150 'right sized' crickets a day.
offer salad daily too, he wont eat much of it to start but it will form good habits fro when hes an adult.

teh salad list!

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

 

[paparoof]

Hey I REALLY appreciate the response. When I got home from work today there was a nice tidy pile of doo right in the middle of the paper towel. Fears abated. So how often should I expect him to poo? Once a day?

Wait a minute... did you say 100-150 crickets a DAY? Was that a typo? Looks like I need to go find a website about breeding crickets now....

 

[OurDragonErnie]

Hi again! I can't imagine breeding crickets so I bought 1000 from http://www.premiumcrickets.com tonight. I started a link about an enclosure for them in the Feeding section. The 1000 were only $14.50 from this company. They would have been over $100 in my local petstore and probably dirty, unfed and unhealthy.

Oh...and NO. That's not a typo! My little guy is only around 8 1/2 inches and a little over 3 months old. He eats 45-50 crickets, 30 Phoenix Worms and 10-12 fairly large silkworms a day along with nibbling on a salad! Who would know from looking at their little bodies that they can put away so much food!

 

[paparoof]

Wow. I definitely missed that little tidbit in my research. Oh well, Skwirt wants crickets? Skwirt gets crickets.

Tonight I fed him a couple crickets and collard greens by hand. Absolutely ADORABLE.

How bout this question: how often do they shed?

 

[Chris]

hehe, teh one thing all dragon owners have in common is their joy over poop!!!

poop, generally @ least once daily, or 2 or 3 times, hes very young and an eating machine.

sorry, no typo. they grow very very fast,...!! :lol:
dont worry, by teh time they become adults their diet is only 20% bugs, so food bills wont be huge fro that long....generally adults get 50 adult crickets or roaches a week which is equivalent to 35 superworms,..but thats fro later,...in adults too much protien leads to liver and kidney disease,...

http://www.premiumcrickets.com/
till u get breeding,..just put a container of moist soil in with them covered in mesh they cant eat thru, rotate a new container thru weekly, wrap teh removed coontainer in a plastic bag (make sure the soil never dries out, make it damp not wet.) and in a few weeks you';ll notice the eggs hatching.

use vaseline around the rim of whatever container u move the baby crix to,...all mine escaped @ that stage and i moved to roaches,..

roaches are great feeders and great fro breeding, much easier than crickets....

tehy seem to be selling phoenix worms too, they have 23 times the calcium crickets have, are soft bodied and perfect for babies. they dont need dusting and can be added fro variety, but expensive as a staple, but very good.

 

[OurDragonErnie]

From what I've read in different posts, the shedding totally depends on the dragon. My guy sheds SOMETHING about once every two weeks. When we first got him, he shed his tail the first week. Then the next week, it was his body. The third week it was his face, beard and legs. He's never shed his whole body at once. I think it depends completely on how fast that particular dragon grows. He shed his body last week and was actually about 3/4 of an inch bigger once it was completely gone. This week he's shedding his tail, the scales around his mouth (poor guy) and his nose holes!! I can tell when it's coming. He's normally a pretty chilled out kind of guy. But the day his shed starts, he runs around the tank throwing himself against his bricks and log. He flips and dives and scrubs his face on anything he can find. He also doesn't want to be held and I have to chase him around to catch him for a bath. (Which helps alot by the way )
They are super interesting little creatures but definitely need more attention than alot of the reptiles I've had in the past. I have to be really careful when Ernie spends time outside the tank. He just met one of my cats tonight and it went a lot better than expected! Neither one seemed to mind the other one sitting side by side in the window. (Of course, I was kind of sitting in that window too )
Have fun !!

This is my little guy a couple weeks ago in the window where he can keep an eye on everything.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k163/OurDragonErnie/Ernie001.jpg

 

[Chris]

when my girls were younger they were shedding parts pretty much constantly...its very much related to growth rate. when one was sick and didnt gain weight fro 5 months she didnt shed fro 5 months either.