Questions from a soon-to-be beardie owner

[archeryguy1701]

Hi everyone!

Within the next few weeks, I'm going to be a first-time bearded dragon owner. I was informed that I'm receiving a habitat for Christmas, and so I've spent the past month trying to do a ton of research and make sure I don't bugger this up. I'm really excited about getting a beardie, but I have a handful of questions that I've either not found answers for or I've found differing opinions on. I ran across this place a few weeks ago, and I figured this would be a good place to ask!

~A large amount of my research talked about crickets being a staple of the beardies diet. However, I've run across a bunch of posts the last few days from people saying that they do Dubia roaches instead of crickets. While I would have no problem dealing with either feeder type, I was wondering if there was a big advantage of doing one or the other? Some of the posts would talk about the roaches being more sanitary (less clean up, less die-off, less smell), easier to handle, and they'll breed quickly enough that you may not need to buy dubias again after your first batch or two. Based on the little bit I've read, I'm leaning towards the roaches, but in your guys' opinions, is there a significant upside/downside in crickets vs dubias?

~If I were to go with dubia's, do I feed them to the beardie the same way I would crickets (as many as they want in a 10-15 minute period)?

~A lot of posts I've seen have talked about it being a good idea to avoid pet shops and try to get your beardie from a breeder. I have been unsuccessful in finding a local breeder, which would mean that I'd have to order online if I were to go that route. Is there something to look for when picking a breeder online, or am I basically rolling the dice and hoping I pick a good one? Is there possibly a list of "trusted" breeder websites out there?

~I've read that if you keep your beardie in a high-traffic location, you need to cover their aquarium when their lights go out so your lights don't bother them. I planned on having the beardie in my living room. Covering the habitat up wouldn't be a problem, but I tend to stay up and watch TV/ play video games relatively late (at least, later than the dragon's lights would be on). Would having external noises keep the beardie from getting its rest, or is blocking out the lights the important thing to worry about?

~I was seeing that you need to feed young dragons live prey 2-3 times a day while an adult should only be fed once a day... at about what age do you knock their prey down to once a day? I just want to be sure I properly feed my beardie for his/her age.

~What is a good beardie salad composition? I've seen lots of lists of what you can and can't feed a beardie, but I haven't seen a ton of salad suggestions. Are there any good salad makeups that you like?

~Last question for now (I know, finally! ).... storing salads. Obviously, a beardie won't eat everything I buy in one sitting. Do you tear/chop salad ingredients as you need them or do you pre-chop and store it somehow? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, what do you do with your salad ingredients before they're to be fed?

Thank you all in advance for any information you can provide! I'm really excited about doing this, and if this little adventure goes well, I hope to be around here for a long time!

 

[wmwelch]

I will take a stab at some of your questions. I started feeding my first beardie crickets, but I soon switched over to dubias. Crickets are smelly, loud, hard to catch, and grow and die too quickly for my taste. Plus my beardie just didn't eat them as well as I would have liked. Plus they tend to get loose in your beardie's house, and I had to worry about catching them so they wouldn't bite my little guy. Also I tended to lose a number of them in my house no matter how carefully I tried to transfer them into my storage container. I then switched to Phoenix worms which he began eating with gusto. After that I offered him dubias, and they became his new favorite food. Plus it is not difficult to breed dubias. So no more crickets for me. I leave his dubia buggies in a bowl, and he can eat them when he wants, but you can go with offering them 3 times a day for 10 or 15 minutes as many as he wants to eat. They also don't bite your beardie.

For breeders you could check the For Sale section of this site, plus there are many beardies listed on a regular basis under For Free on this site that need new homes if you might want to go that route.

As for salads, some people pre-tear the greens and store in a bowl maybe with some paper towels to absorb the moisture, others run it through a food processor, while I just leave my greens in the plastic bags and tear them on a daily basis. I might cut off the ends to fit my collard greens in the fridge better. I have found that some greens last longer than others, so I don't like to mix them. As for a recipe, I don't really have one, the greens make up the base of my salad, I add a bit of vegetable on top such as some type of squash, and an occasional small amount of fruit.

The lights will definitely keep your beardie awake, but my beardies have snuggled up inside my vest or under a blanket on my lap with the tv on and gone to sleep with no trouble.

Wendy

 

[ziggydoodles]

Welcome! You definitely came to the right place for information, this site helped me out a TON when I got my beardie Doodles last year

To answer your questions, as best as I can...

- I would definitely go Dubia roaches over crickets; they're less stinky, quieter, and they're more nutritious for your beardie. I would recommend starting a colony, and setting it up before you get your beardie, so your roaches have time to start breeding and you can hopefully spend less money on small feeders in the long run. If you use dubia as a feeder, you should feed them exactly like you would crickets, 2-3 times a day, as much as they'll eat in 10-15 minutes

- I'm not really sure about reputable breeders, because I got my girl from a pet store, but I know some breeders post in the For Sale section here, and there are a few other users here who I've seen have had good experiences with a1 reptiles and bloodbank dragons. I would always do your own research on a breeder though and not just trust what people say. If you do order from a breeder, note that they won't be shipping any animals until the weather starts warming up everywhere, most don't ship if temperatures are getting below 40s overnight, and a lot also have brumating dragons right now, so babies won't even be available until springtime.

- I personally keep my beardie in my living room, and she has 3 sides of her tank covered 24/7. This keeps a lot of excess light from coming into her tank when the lights go out, and she's never been too disturbed by my tv or my lights. If they do bother her she just shoves her head into her hide and sleeps there to block out the light. In my opinion I think keeping your beardie in a high-traffic area gets them used to you faster.

- I believe a beardie is technically "full grown" around 2 years of age, but I went down to offering live food once a day around the time she turned 1, because she was eating less worms per feeding on her own.

- Here is a GREAT nutritional chart for beardies, I always check it out before I go grocery shopping so I can get the greens that look the freshest for Doodles. Anything that's in green on this chart is a great staple veggie, and the best way to find what makes a "great salad" is just trying stuff out to find what your beardie likes. They're kind of like people, they don't all like the same things :lol: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

- I personally cut my salads for Doodles as she gets them, I store the greens in a bag with a couple paper towels wrapped around them (it seems to keep them for a couple extra days longer in my fridge). I just roughly chop everything with my kitchen scissors, it's much faster than tearing it. For a baby though you'd obviously want to chop things up pretty small, or grate veggies even.

I hope all of this helps, it's great that you're doing this much research before you get your new baby

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....it's a very exciting time waiting on your first beardie ! You've been given lots of good info thus far. I just wanted to add that many breeders can and do ship year round, even with very cold temps. They use insulated boxes with heat packs that keep the inside of the box reasonably warm. A-1 ships all year and has no problem shipping in the cold, many other breeders do as well. If you are buying from a private owner and having it shipped, they may not know the proper packing procedures to keep the dragon warm. Usually the only time a breeder may hold off on shipping is if there is a storm that could delay shipment, but generally it's very safe when properly packed. If you live in a state that is cold and the dragon is shipped from a warmer state, then be sure that there will be no problem on their end going from hot to cold. In other words, a dragon shipped from Florida where it may be in the upper 70's would have a hard time packing for a dragon coming to you if your temps. are near freezing. But all in all, shipping is very safe.

 

[archeryguy1701]

Thanks for the great info so far! I'm excited about this... PetCo had a reptiles week back in June where a habitat was on sale for extremely cheap and all reptiles were half off. I nearly took advantage of that, but I ended up going to Vegas, losing some money, and coming back at the very tail end of Rep Week, so I decided to hold off. I think that was probably the best thing for me and my future beardie because I feel like I'm far more knowledgable and prepared than I was 6 months ago.

 

[DeltaElite121]

I've had both of mine for a week, and all I can say is this: they're awesome, but DO NOT get a baby unless you have a lot of time to do things right. I'm not OCD about things, but babies need time to see you're the provider, and not the predator. They also need to get comfortable with you handling them (I handle mine regularly now, to my surprise... no issues). Because they're very curious, you also have to keep an eye on them as well as be very meticulous on keeping the cage clean. I ALMOST missed my female taking a shot at her poo earlier because she was curious what it was, and that was with me tending to the male for literally 45 seconds.


Lots of work, but it's so worth it.. if you want a lighter load, I'd suggest an older one (a few months old or so, but that's just me). That and they both eat a lot.. every day. Scary how much they stuff themselves for just being 5 weeks old now.

 

[archeryguy1701]

So, my hope was to get a slightly older dragon. That way, feeding would be a little bit easier and they would be a little hardier in case I do something wrong. But, the habitat I got was only a 20-long, which means I have little choice but to start off with a small one and upgrade living arangements later. :lol: So, this new development leads me to a brand new question...

As a younger dragon, the one I get will need to be fed 2-3 times a day. Now, I know that for the evening feed, I need to give the beardie his food at least two hours before lights out so he has time to digest. My questions is for the morning feeding. I've read that you need to give the beardie and habitat time to warm up before trying to feed in the morning, but I haven't found how long you should let them warm up. My initial inclination is to set the lights up to come on about an hour before I wake up.... will this give my beardie enough time to warm up, or will he need longer?

Thanks again to all for the great tips I've received so far!

 

[DeltaElite121]

I usually let mine sit under the lamp for an hour before I feed them. They're usually ready to eat by then.