So question about a beardie baby

[LaPrice]

Ho'kay we impulse bought a itty bitty beardie last night at petsmart. Why? Because this guy is slate grey to dark black or purple in coloring. I'll have a picture up momentarily but this guy looks like a coastal almost because of how dark he is all the time. But i'm curious if you guys think he's worth more than the 60 we paid for him XD. Dunno if this belongs here, but we arent selling this guy though we may consider breeding when it's older and when we have the money

 

[sweetiepie9]

Welcome to the wonderful world of beardies. Does your baby have alot of energy? Does he/she have a little belly to indicate that it was fed properly? Lighting is really important for babies, they need at least 105F on their basking spot (where they sit under a light that warms them up). They need good UVB lighting as well, Reptisun 10.0 is the best tube light on the market. Babies need to be fed 3-5 times/day with one feeding w/calcium & vit D powder, then multivitamin 3x per week, all with small crickets (no bigger than the space between their eyes) and also need greens put out daily. There's a great care sheet on this forum, check it out.

Good luck with your baby, pics will be great.

Have fun
Deb

 

[MasterYoda]

don't get a spiral globe with UVb it will cause a form of conjuctivitus

 

[drgnfly2265]

I think that price would be in the eye of the buyer. A lot of people that I have heard of pay a lot of money for bright colored beardies. Like the bright yellow, orange, reds, and also leatherbacks. I paid $20 for my beardie, the vender sold her for that much because she has a lot of her tail missing, but she has the greatest attitude :wink:

 

[jon21388]

pics?

 

[jeserah]

Ho'kay so. Here's the earth. Chilling. Dang, that is a pretty sweet Earth you might say. RAUNG.

Congrats on your new beardie! Can't wait to see photos!

 

[LaPrice]

XD the little guys not my first baby guys . I've had my 5 month old Charizard for about 2 and half months or so. but the small crickets manage to get out of our box so we have recently bought normal sized crickets until our new feeders arrive (like yesterday, so far they dont mind). BUT! we cut them in half, sounds awful but at this size they fit between the space between their eyes. They also still squirm so the itty bittys will jump on them readily. We also got them to eat kale much easier than Charizard, blackbeard ate it readily which surprised us as the petsmart he was at fed them pellets and crickets. we will also soon have phoenix worms to feed them, the small ones. so no more cut-in-half crickets! Just to clarify i do know that cutting large crickets in half isnt a great substitute for making sure they dont eat crickets too big for them, my boyfriend was just a bit short on money until like yesterday. I bought the worms on monday so they should be arriving tomorrow or saturday at the latest

I wish i had good pictures, my phone doesn't zoom so i have a picture of the 2 rescues and "blackbeard" as i have dubbed him that is too small for you to see him (even though his beard is the only light part on him). My boyfriend tried to send me some, didn't go to my aol account or my cpcc email. I will post some tomorrow, never fear!

don't worry they will be moved into separate tanks (and Charizard has his own). but their no more than 2 months old and we figure their still young to be separated and have shown no aggressive or stress issues. though my little yellow-green guy likes to arm wave, constantly. They all have plenty of basking space and we make absolute sure that everyone gets fed, though blackbeard will probably be fed separately because he is an inch smaller than they are.

don't get a spiral globe with UVb it will cause a form of conjuctivitus

I have not heard this before, what are the signs?
the itty bittys have a reg. reptisun 10, but Charizard is under a reptisun 10 compact. So far he's doing fine, but i know to watch if he starts acting weird in any way. but when we replace the bulb (sooner or later depending on him showing negative signs) we will be getting a normal reptisun 10 bulb

 

[Gail]

All the really dark/blackish babies I've even seen turn lighter as they grow. Never seen a really dark adult unless it was mad.

 

[MasterYoda]

don't get a spiral globe with UVb it will cause a form of conjuctivitus

I have not heard this before, what are the signs?
the itty bittys have a reg. reptisun 10, but Charizard is under a reptisun 10 compact. So far he's doing fine, but i know to watch if he starts acting weird in any way. but when we replace the bulb (sooner or later depending on him showing negative signs) we will be getting a normal reptisun 10 bulb

here you go! this gives you all the info you need on it. http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm :mrgreen:

 

[techdave]

YOu may not see signs of him with improper uvb for a long. I didn't have Tiamat under the correct uvb for awhile, so now he has a bit of an underbite, due to not having the right uvb. Didn't know it, because he was still eating right and overall seemed ok.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Please get a 10.0 tube for your older beardie, as the prev poster said, it can take awhile before you see any difficulties. We didn't think there was a problem with coils either, until one of our babies started having seizures. The minute we got her under a Reptisun 10.0, within 3 days she was better. So please change your UVB to a tube like the babies, you don't want your older baby to get sick. We eventually changed all our lights to MVBs, so far they work great. I liked the 10.0 but we had babies who had been hurt by other babies at the pet shop and the UVB was a bit stronger, helped them heal up better than the tube.

Either way, your beardie deserves the best UVB.

Deb

 

[DragonsNDoodles]

Dunno if this belongs here, but we arent selling this guy though we may consider breeding when it's older and when we have the money

I'm surprised nobody has said anything yet about this last part of your post.

Please don't breed a dragon if you don't know its lineage and health status in relation to its parents and genetics. All this breeding does is saturate the market with dragons of unknown heritage and most of the babies will probably end up in pet stores or with first-time beardie owners who may not treat them properly. In any species, breeding without knowing the genetics of your animal is irresponsible and negatively impacts the breed or species as a whole. I don't know if there is a reptilian version of the phrase "backyard breeder" but this would be similar. I'm not saying you wouldn't care about the babies, just that they have a bleak outlook with unknown origins. Most responsible herpetoculturists will only buy dragons from reputable lineage.

 

[LaPrice]

Dunno if this belongs here, but we arent selling this guy though we may consider breeding when it's older and when we have the money

I'm surprised nobody has said anything yet about this last part of your post.

Please don't breed a dragon if you don't know its lineage and health status in relation to its parents and genetics. All this breeding does is saturate the market with dragons of unknown heritage and most of the babies will probably end up in pet stores or with first-time beardie owners who may not treat them properly. In any species, breeding without knowing the genetics of your animal is irresponsible and negatively impacts the breed or species as a whole. I don't know if there is a reptilian version of the phrase "backyard breeder" but this would be similar. I'm not saying you wouldn't care about the babies, just that they have a bleak outlook with unknown origins. Most responsible herpetoculturists will only buy dragons from reputable lineage.

Interesting advice, i see your point on breeding with unknown origins. Though i doubt that 1 breeding could ruin the bearded dragon species as a whole, but i do understand this opinion. I know that bad genetics in pitbulls can make a dog aggressive, not a huge fan of pittys, but i do know that not all of them are prone to aggression.

I doubt we will breed anytime soon, or breed black beard at all. I know if we did we wouldn't hand them out willy nilly (not saying anyone does) so they wouldn't end up in a home where they may be neglected. Thats why we have the 3 itty bittys, i like petsmart but most dont inform people of what their getting into and how much time is required. We kind of rescued them, the first 2 were anyways. blackbeard was an impulse buy that we could afford now and long term. But i'll take your comment to mind, i may not agree completely but i do understand your point

pictures soon! finally remembered to grab my camera

 

[LaPrice]

Pictures

chillin with the other 2, we believe they are female. remember, we will be moving blackbeard into a new tank by himself because of size difference and because 3 in a 10 gal is a bit crowded, or will be very soon

being fed by himself, as we noticed right away he is intimidated by the other 2 when food is put in. so we feed him alone in a tote carrier and hes fine

i unfortunately do not have the picture of him when he was nearly black, he may have been stressed or cold. but he generaly stays the same color as he is in the pictures now. he also dominates the other 2, by jumping on their backs and scratching his face on them. they dont seem to mind, but he'll be moved very soon. We were also about to feed them, so excuse the lack of beardie bellies

 

[ziggy23]

Dunno if this belongs here, but we arent selling this guy though we may consider breeding when it's older and when we have the money

I'm surprised nobody has said anything yet about this last part of your post.

Please don't breed a dragon if you don't know its lineage and health status in relation to its parents and genetics. All this breeding does is saturate the market with dragons of unknown heritage and most of the babies will probably end up in pet stores or with first-time beardie owners who may not treat them properly. In any species, breeding without knowing the genetics of your animal is irresponsible and negatively impacts the breed or species as a whole. I don't know if there is a reptilian version of the phrase "backyard breeder" but this would be similar. I'm not saying you wouldn't care about the babies, just that they have a bleak outlook with unknown origins. Most responsible herpetoculturists will only buy dragons from reputable lineage.

Interesting advice, i see your point on breeding with unknown origins. Though i doubt that 1 breeding could ruin the bearded dragon species as a whole, but i do understand this opinion. I know that bad genetics in pitbulls can make a dog aggressive, not a huge fan of pittys, but i do know that not all of them are prone to aggression.

I doubt we will breed anytime soon, or breed black beard at all. I know if we did we wouldn't hand them out willy nilly (not saying anyone does) so they wouldn't end up in a home where they may be neglected. Thats why we have the 3 itty bittys, i like petsmart but most dont inform people of what their getting into and how much time is required. We kind of rescued them, the first 2 were anyways. blackbeard was an impulse buy that we could afford now and long term. But i'll take your comment to mind, i may not agree completely but i do understand your point

pictures soon! finally remembered to grab my camera

No one breeding wouldn't ruin the species, if there was only 1. Problem is there is a HUGE number of people doing it. Think about all the beardies on craiglist, and all the beardies in all the pet stores, keep in mind the pet stores usually get fresh stock every week or 2. The vast majority of all those came from backyard breeders.

Another thing to remember, Beardies are captive breed only. It is illegal to export them out of Australia, and because they so easily breed not worth the cost/risk of smuggling. All pet dragons we have out now, originated from dragons smuggled out in the 60's. There is very limited genetic variety. Back when I got my first dragon, I read articles that cautioned against buying color phases because of problems with inbreeding. If you don't know their lineage, you very well could be breeding siblings that come from a long line of inbreeds.

And finally, there are a whole lot more breeders out there than keepers. Each breeding can produce 100 eggs. If 100 people breed 1 dragon once a year (and there's probably a lot more than that), then that's 10,000 hatchlings a year that need homes. that is a very serious overpopulation issue.

And one more point, do you really think you can afford and have to space to house 100 hatchlings?