New From Colorado With Two Dragons

[EarthUponWater]

Hello! I'm from Colorado and have kept reptiles for just over a year. I do mostly corn snakes and have almost 60 at the moment (waiting for eggs to hatch even though I didn't breed this year). I'm also a proud owner of three leopard geckos, a native Western Painted Turtle, a currently non-eating imported Forest Hingeback Tortoise, two tarantulas (Salmon Pink Toed Goliath Bird Eater and a Versicolor), a Pacific Garter (it's blue!!), and a pied-sided black rat snake. That only includes the reptiles! Lol.

Anyway, at the Rocky Mountain Reptile Expo yesterday (August 14th), I ended up picking up two bearded dragons, a male and female. After doing a quick search online yesterday while eating dinner, I found out how to sex them. So much easier than all my other reptiles! I am now able to tell the male and female apart within 10 seconds! If anyone here owns snakes, they know how nice that is!

I'm still browsing the forums for information, but thought I would post my first thread with a few questions. Thus far, this is what I know and what I had ideas for:

Because I just got them yesterday without planning on getting them exactly, I didn't have a cage ready. They spent the night in one of my extra 28qt tubs that I use for snakes. They were half asleep by the time I got them home at 6pm anyway, so I don't think they minded much. They are currently still in it until I finish clearing out some space in the snake room.

My original plan was to have them in a 40 gallon breeder together. Then I decided a 55 gallon and changed back to the 40 gallon when I read they need the floor space. I then decided that I would make a C&C cage (storage cubes and coroplast) like guinea pig cages (search online for pictures). I also decided that in addition to the C&C cage, I would turn the 55 gallon on its side with a coroplast wall to make a hot/possibly humid spot for them to be in. I also thought that I would have a heat bulb pointed in the tank directly with a bowl of water or humid hide, plus a branch or something for basking.

However, upon reading some posts in the general dragon forum, I've discovered that housing these two together probably isn't the best idea, even if they were both females. So, now I'm thinking about still building one C&C cage, but dividing it down the middle so that they still see each other, but are not together. I'll be browsing the enclosure forum in a few to get more ideas. Is there anything else I need to know about building a cage?

I've gotten mixed answers on substrate (like almost all reptile care sheets). Play sand is okay? I was considering polar fleece (like I used with guinea pigs), however I'm unsure about how their claws would react to the fleece. I can provide more information for using fleece as a substrate if needed to decide it's usability.

I'm not planning on feeding them until Tuesday so that they get over the stress of the Expo. They came from a pet shop, so they shouldn't be as stressed as a breeder's dragons would be after all the activity. I purchased some Dubia roaches for my spiders, turtle, geckos, fish, and possibly tort. May I assume these are also okay for dragons?

Lastly for now, someone was telling their son about how to tell if a dragon was stressed. He mentioned how under the chin turns dark. Is this a fact or something he pulled out of thin air? If it is true, what is the best course of action once I notice a dragon becoming stressed? I assume throwing it back into its "safety place" would do it, or will this just teach the dragon that all it has to do is act stressed to get what it wants? When corn snakes tail rattle, it's said that it is better not to give them what they want or they will learn to rattle every time they don't want something. I accidentally scared my female and she puffed up. This is normal as well, correct?

Here are pictures of my two, Sam N Ella.

 

[Bearmetal]

Welcome!

Your new dragons look great! Make sure to post sime pics when you finish setting up their new habitat. I love looking at how people decorate.

I'm very new to the forum and BDs as well, however in reading 100s of pages about the habitat, I chose to stay away from any kind of loose substrate due to the worry of impaction. Clearly some use sand, and it looks nice but it was not something I personally wanted to chance.

Tiles are good looking, durable, and easy to clean so I am planning to go that way. Reptile carpet can be good I hear as well though it has a higher chance of holding bacteria and wearing out.

 

[hcozart]

Love it, they look nice.

Here are some of my pointers from reading and experiance.
Dont house two together. If your male can see the female at all, he will spend the entire time head bobbing and black bearding ( thats what they do when they want to mate) and your female will spend her time waving. Tank divided, not being able to see each other all the time.

No humidity, they are desert animals so try to keep it low. I do not keep any water in their encolsures at all.

I also use tiles for the substrate. They are easy to clean, take them out and pop into the dishwater. Sand causes impactions, and reptile carpet habors bacteria sometimes.

BEARDIES love roaches so good choice.

 

[EarthUponWater]

Thanks for the info on the "black bearding". I'm not looking to breed the two, as I feel there are enough baby dragons in the world right now. I was planning on just feeding any eggs to my future king. I guess not letting them see each other is easier because then I can stack cages. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do very much for the humidity because that room needs to be humid. I suppose I could have them in my bedroom after I re-arrange that room. It gets a bit humid in there, but I have a tall gate I can use instead of closing the door.

A side question, are there any studies saying how long it takes for a reptile to produce vitamin D3? Or how long it takes to produce enough to be healthy? I wanted to eventually take Sam N Ella outside for some basking time, but wanted to know how long would be beneficial.

 

[EarthUponWater]

I'm bumping this up just to be annoying. Lol. Right now I have Sam N Ella separated in 10 gallon tanks. Both don't seem to care either way. I'm going to try to feed them for the first time today. I thought maybe some meal worms and some sort of veggie. What do you think?

 

[hcozart]

I do not personally feed meal worms, they could cause impaction. I feed crickets, phoenix worms, wax worms, hornworms, silk worms, and Dubia Roaches ( they love those the best). I would take them outside daily for 20 mins until you can get a UVB bulb in both of their cages.

 

[EarthUponWater]

What about meal worm beetles? Or is this roughly the same? I did get Ella to eat about 15 dubia and she still wanted more! I think Sam might be more of a "salad" man because it took a good while for him to even eat three. He kept flicking his tongue out at them, but would only eat them if I pushed him. Also, every website I visit says mealworms are okay to feed. Since Saturday, I've read at least a hundred different websites on Beardies. :?:

A side story, Ella was sitting on my boyfriend's lap while I was cleaning baby snake tubs. I asked him to name two of my newest snakes for me and handed them to him (they were in deli cups with lids). Ella decided to try to eat them. She kept trying to get at one of the snakes. Thank goodness for lids!