New here. Got some Frilly Q's

[Kingii]

Hi All,

This is my first post, so thought i would tell you a little about myself before asking a question. My names Tom, i live in England, very close to London. I am 18 and i have been keeping reptiles since i was 12. My first was a Lawsons/Rankins Dragon. Now i keep Corn Snakes, Sinaloan Milk Snakes, Hognoses, Trinket Snakes, Crested Geckos, Gargoyle Geckos, Leopard Geckos, a Lawsons Dragon (a different one to my original one, he sadly died of old age, he was an adult when i got him) and a Frilly!!

I got my Frilled Dragon in August of this year as a 5 month old unsexed juvenile. I am currently keeping him in a vivarium measuring 3x2x2 feet. I am aware that this is not adequate for him as an adult. And i am planning on specially ordering him a vivarium measuring 5x3x5 feet early next year.

This is his setup

The viv itself is 3 x 2 x 2 feet, thats length by width by height. Its fitted with a Basking lamp set to one side. The temperature at the moment on the horizontal branch is 43C/102F the temperature on the floor on the hot side is 33C/92F. Temperature on the cool side is 27C/81F. Night time temps in my room, never drop below 72F and are usually around 75F.

He also has a UV tube, this is not turned on in the picture as it produced too much glare, but it is a 10%. It is attached to the roof of the viv but he climbs all over the place, and often is within 6 inches of it.

For substrate i am using Orchid bark as that is what was recommended in a few care sheets i read and by the owner of the store where i shop, (he also breeds frillies) and in a book.

I have given him a large water bowl to increase humidity, and will spray them lightly once a day.

For decor i brought a massive piece of circular cork bark and sawed it down and wedged it in the viv to create a tree and the two other branhes on either side are wedged firmly in place. They have a cork bark cave to hide in. and i covered the ceiling with fake silk ivy, which i stapled to the roof of the viv.

I have been feeding him 6 large locusts every other day. Basically 4 times a week. Of these four feeds, i dust twice with calcium, once with Vits and Mins, and once just not dusted. The locust are fed various green vegetation, i usually buy mixed greens from tesco. I was originally feeding him everyday, but often found that he would only eat 2 or 3 and leave the others, so decided to feed him more but less often

I spray the viv once a day, and the water bowl is very large and evaporates quite quickly, i have to top it up every other day. I usually clean it out at this time as well. As he usually flicks substrate into it.

Does this all sound ok?

The thing is i have never seen him drink anything ever. I read somewhere that they will often not drink from water bowls, but prefer to drink from sprayed water. But when i spray him he just runs and hides. Any info on this?

Also finally how do i sex them? I brought him, as an unsexed juvenile. I have been called it male, but tbh i have no idea. Any easy ways of doing it?

Also has anyone had any experiance introducing frillies together, i mean if i was to get another one, and if say this one is female, and i add another female, would they fight? I know that males would

I shall try and get some good pics of him in a bit and post them up.

Sorry for the long post.

Thanks

 

[denise v]

Hi ....your fd set up looks good , but will need a larger viv. Your dragon is alittle young to sex right now but if you really want to know a vet can do that. Mine will drink out of his water/soaking dish. I find if you use the spray bottle with warm water & lite mist,spray from above and spray water in his dish the movement of the water will help him find the water plus the spray works good when they're young.

 

[Kingii]

thanks for the reply. I know i will need to get a bigger viv, it just didnt make sense to me getting a massive viv and then putting a little baby frilly in it lol. So yeh i am planning on ordering a 5x3x5 foot viv, thats Length x Width x Height. Going to be expensive but its so worth it

What age will i be able to sex him/her

here are some pics

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Very pretty!! How is the temperament? I am looking into get one.

 

[denise v]

Very nice & healthy looking fd. If I understand your post right you said it's about 5 mos. you might be able to tell now if you ever sexed a beardie, you would do it the same way.fd facing away from you in your palm, then lift the tail just above the vent you will see one lump in the middle (female) two lumps on both sides(male) but it can be tricky. I find males are more outgoing and will make a better pet(just me) females are shy and harder to bond with. Yes, you can keep two females together.

 

[Kingii]

thanks for the reply. Actually s/he was 5 months when i got him so he is now about 8 months.

I would do that but s/he hates being picked up, doesnt like being touched or anything, which is a bit of a shame.

Yes i had heard that before, thats why i was hoping he was a he.

Thanks fo the info, i did already know that i could keep females together but i was asking whether they are territorial, like if i got another one could i just put the new one in a viv with my old one, or would my older one attack it thinking it was its territory, if that makes sense

 

[civicgrl88]

i would think it really depends on the individual but i could be wrong...certain frillies are more aggressive than others and some are more easily stressed out by company too...an adjustment period if anything would probably be best where you can slowly introduce the other for little bits at a time and redecorate the viv so its as if its different territory that they need to reclaim

 

[Twobeardieguy]

I always wanted to know about the bite?

 

[civicgrl88]

I always wanted to know about the bite?

ive been bitten by frank and a much larger frillie...it depends on what you are used to biting you lol to me it doesnt hurt but then again ive been bitten by 12ft snakes and baby gators and monitor lizards...id say its very comparable to a beardie bite with a little more of a pinch to it because of the 2 canine teeth frillies have

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Hmmm, thanks for that!

 

[utahraptr]

Awww you have a beautiful frillie! Te larger viv sounds great, your frillie will love it! Mine is 4ft long by 2ft wide by 5ft tall, and Everest (aka Evie) loves his home!

For sexing, you can check for the bumps like a beardie, but it might not be accurate - Evie was sexed by a vet when he was around a year old, the vet thought female but wasn't sure. We found out this past summer that Evie is a male.

The food sounds about right, Evie eats worms about every other day to every 3 days. He gets a dish of greens daily and will eat from that once in a while as well. He does enjoy some fruits, like watermelon or anything that has juice he can lick. He LOVES hornworms and goes crazy for them, and he does eat silkworms but isn't a big fan of them. He also eats crickets, but that's more of a winter food as we don't order horns and silks in case they die in shipping (we can get crickets locally).

For water, Evie does have a water dish and occasionally drinks from it. He hates to be misted, but does like it when I drip water from my hand onto his mouth. He's used to being held and will sit in my hand when I drip water on him. He also loves showers and baths - he gets one every morning. For a bath, we fill the bathroom sink with warm water up to his shoulders and let him soak in that. He'll drink from the bath water, and usually sits in there for several minutes, sometimes up to 10 or 15. He rarey poops in his bath, but if he does he gets taken out right away and the sink gets cleaned after each bath with a clorox wipe. For a shower, he sits in my hand while I turn the snk on low, and let the water run over him. He LOVES this, and will sit there enjoying the water and drinking.

You said yours isn't used to being held, but you might be able to just drip some water onto his/her nose and let him/her drink that way, instead of from the water dish. One thinkg I found with Evie is if I splash the water in his dish, he takes more interest in it and will drink from it.

If you want to try hand training, I'd suggest taking him (I'm going to say him for simplicity) out at night, ater you've shut off the lights and let him/her start falling asleep. Cover him with a small towel or shirt, slowly lift him up from the front (slide your hand under his front legs until his belly is resting on your hand). And then hold him for a bit, let him fall asleep fully on you. If you do this each night, he will hopefully start getting used to being handled, and then you could try petting him when he's awake. Once he's used to having your hand near him, you could try picking him up when he's awake (again from the front).

Another thing to try is hand feeding - some people are against it, but I hand feed Evie all the time. He's used to it and will jump down out of the upper portion of his viv when he sees me take out his food, and he'll sit there on the floor in front of me and pick crickets or worms right off my hand. He has even come up onto my lap trying to grab the worms before I can get them out of the contaner or dust them! He has bitten my hand once on accident (got excited and tried to grab a superworm but got part of my hand with it as well) but he didn't break the skin and it didn't urt. More like "Hey, slow down Ev, you bit me!".

Hope you enoy your frillie, they're a lot of fun and very interesting lizards!