small practical things & tools

[ChileanTaco]

Are there any small practical things & tools you use for caring for your dragon(s)?
I don't mean the mandatory things like thermometers, but the more optional things that are still really helpful.

I start with:

* eyedropper: for giving your dragon some water
* feeder tongs: if you don't want to hand-feed bugs directly from your hand
* long tongs, e.g. bamboo barbecue tongs: for hard to reach places in the enclosure (I like it a lot, "extra-long hand" for removing such as shed, salad dragged into a cave, escaped bug, dragging food bowl to the front to clean it out and pushing it back in... I use it almost every day)
* bamboo spoon: for hand-feeding food that's just too liquid/sticky for putting it on the hand; won't splinter like plastic if the dragon bites down on it, not dangerously hard to the mouth like metal; I got me one with an extra long handle to deliver the food right to my dragon's basking spot
* small colander/sieve for cleaning out bugs and worms: I have one that's from kid's sand toys and this works best (larger holes than most that are made for the kitchen)

 

[hdochow]

we use plastic pipettes instead of eyedroppers just as a safety precaution. the rest of the items we probably have from the very beginning of rescuing sir henry, but he is not hand fed so they do not get used anymore.

 

[ChileanTaco]

@hdochow

we use plastic pipettes instead of eyedroppers just as a safety precaution.

That's good to know.
I have never actually used eyedroppers, just read about this here and I was not aware of any problems with eye droppers. Can you tell more? I have just seen pictures of those, never had one at all (neither for my dragon, not for its normal usage for the eyes) so I don't know what might be a problem.

Hand feeding I do sometimes as a treat, or for food that won't last long. For example for tuna (cactus fruit), I rather put it on a long spoon and offer it to him, instead of letting it sit around in a bowl all day long at those temperatures where it likely would get bad.
I don't do hand-feeding regularly, simply as I'm not at home during day. My dragon gets his normal food into one bowl for veggies, one bowl for insects right in the morning before I leave. (So I also never did the "feeding three times a day" when he was young.)

 

[hdochow]

they sometimes bite them. so i'd rather sir henry swallow a piece of plastic vs a piece of broken glass. here's the link to what we use.

 

[ChileanTaco]

Oh, I was not knowing they are made of glass as I never had one on my hands. Something tiny made of fragile glass also would scare me around of my beardie.

I'm also very careful regarding materials, like using a wooden spoon for hand-feeding wet fruit and veggies (like cactus fruit) instead of a metal one that could damage their mouth when biting down, or a plastic one my adult beardie likely would shatter.

 

[Jes]

I use cuticle clippers for cutting his nails