School Teacher in South Carolina setting up Beardie/Gecko Ta

[BeardedDad]

What a wonderful thread!

Hows it all going?

My childrens school also keeps pets but they are rabbits,fish and chooks lol, i think a beardie would b much more interesting!

 

[dragons1222]

hey

this is great. i just saw this now but i think it is great that you are keeping reptiles. so many people are terrified of them and i think starting them at a young age to show apriciation for such wonderful animals is great

i own 3 beardies and 5 leopard geckos along with several other herps(you can see on my siggy) and i took them into my brothers 5th grade class last year and they all loooved seeing them and getting to hold and pet them
and also learn about where they live and how they are taken care of at my home

so i am sure you kids are loving it too

got any pics of him in his new home? and make sure to keep us updated as he grows

also what i do for my geckos is just use an under tank heater. they dont have any light bulb so it stays fairly dark even during the day and then is dark at night so they still come out quite a bit during the day

 

[lsteigerwalt]

Thanks for all the posts and suggestions. I feel stupid having not thought of paper towels. I was getting paper from the lounge and cutting/folding it to make it fit. Keep It Simple Stupid comes to mind,lol. I have noticed that Roscoe has gotten a little shy if you will. When I put my hand in to take him out instead of sitting there and letting me pick him up he runs away. Once I manage to pick him up he wants to wiggle and jump out of my hand. Yesterday he actually jumped off my leg and hit the floor trying to run as fast as he could but since its shiny tile he stayed in one place and look funny going no where. Any suggestions on why he might be acting this way? Any ideas on what I need to do or is this common behavior?

Leroy
Trying to upload pics but the school filter wont allow it Having to do it all from home...

 

[VEGASLIZARD]

It is normal for them to have some relocation stress. Babies also tend to be pretty flighty at first and real daredevils. It is not uncommon for them to want to jump from heights that you might think would be suicidal for such a little guy. If you handle him every day he will eventually calm down. One trick people try on here with skittish or unfriendly dragons is to put a piece of clothing in their tank that you have worn so they get used to your scent. You can also try hand feeding and of course the beardie burrito. Most beardies like to be wrapped up and snuggled. You can use just about anything as a blanket, the softer the better. This and the hand feeding is what got my flighty baby to be supper tame when she was little. I still wrap her up every night and she sleeps in her blanky all night long.

 

[lsteigerwalt]

Roscoe seems to be doing better now. I think he was getting stressed cuz I had the lights on all the time and he had no where to sleep. I put a big log in there now that he can run under to get out of the light and sleep. He is a pic we took last week. Have some more to upload as well.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42604358@N04/3928618723/

 

[VEGASLIZARD]

He's a real cutie pie. BTW you can put pics right into your post by uploading them to photobucket and copying the image code into your post. Glad to hear he is doing better. If they can't get somewhere dark then most will have a hard time sleeping and will get stressed out from sleep deprivation just like we do. The log is great. You can also have the kids make him some Do it yourself caves, etc out of styrofoam and grout. There are lots of videos on youtube that show how to do it. Here is the link to one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx68drYztlk&feature=related

 

[VEGASLIZARD]

He's a real cutie pie. BTW you can put pics right into your post by uploading them to photobucket and copying the image code into your post. Glad to hear he is doing better. If they can't get somewhere dark then most will have a hard time sleeping and will get stressed out from sleep deprivation just like we do. The log is great. You can also have the kids make him some Do it yourself caves, etc out of styrofoam and grout. There are lots of videos on youtube that show how to do it. Here is the link to one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx68drYztlk&feature=related

 

[diamc]

This thread was unlocked as requested by the OP so that they can continue to post here.

 

[lsteigerwalt]

Hello everyone,

Sorry its been so long. My kids keep me busy. My class is now up to 22 students. Roscoe is doing awesome. I even let someone take him home over Thanksgiving holiday and they took great care of him. The dubais are diong good and we have only fed maybe 5 nymphs from the original 300 we started with. My kids are amazed at how fast he is growing and how gentle he has become. He lets the kids pet him without any problem. We dont have any geckos yet but thats ok. My kids have been busy planning gardens since we are starting "victory gardens" like they did during ww2. Will post some pics soon. Its still locked at school but Im working on getting the tech dept to open access so we can upload pics. Thanks again for all the help people have been giving us....


Leroy

 

[VEGASLIZARD]

Can't wait to for pics to see how big he has grown! Sounds like you have a great bunch of kids and they are lucky to have such a cool teacher!!

 

[zebraflavencs]

Leroy, Glad to hear things are going well with Roscoe and the youngsters !
Janie

 

[chrisallen]

Sounds GREAT! Glad the kids are enjoying him.

 

[Livey]

Wow thats an awsome idea, i wish thye had somthing like thta when i was at school, we just had a hamster ¬_¬
but wont anyone see the gecko? i thought thye were nocturnal?

 

[landoflor]

i was wondering how the dragon was doing. i also want to say that there need to be more teachers like you to better educate our next generations.