Water and/or food despenser

[Rampagingraptor]

So I have been trying to find an affordable items that I might need for my beardie, and one of them was a food and/or water dropper for feeding dragons. Anyone know where I can find some cheap ones, especially if its from Amazon?

 

[kingofnobbys]

Water dispenser : bearded dragons are desert dwellers in their natural wild state, they rarely see running or standing water and get their water from the insects and smaller reptiles and animals they can catch and from the herbs , leafy greens and berries and flowers they consume.

Therefore : don't waste your time or money buying water dispenser , if you MUST leave water in the bearded dragon's enclosure , a shallow water dish will suffice though it is IMO unnecessary if it has a proper diet and you occasionally give water from an eyedropper or by an occasional light misting of it's head (the water will drain down to it's lips and it'll drink that way.
A bearded dragon is not a bird, rabbit or mouse or rat and simply wont use a water dispenser.

Food dispenser : see above , if a hatchling or juvenile your bearded dragon will need at least two live insect feeds (NOT MEALWORMS !!!) per day.
They enjoy chasing and stalking their insect prey immensely. Some are more lazy and will sit their and wait for the insects to blundering close enough to be snapped up (waiting in ambush for them).
Don't waste your money or time looking for an insect dispenser (will be more hassle using it if you can find one than it's worth and will rob you of the pleasure of feeding your pet and bonding with it in the process).
Only dispensers for food you need are :
- fingers for hand feeding insects and some greens and other "fingerfood" type veg and fruit (or plastic tweezers if you are scared of being bitten by accident)
- a food dish that can't be tipped over by an over enthusiastic hungry hatchling.


You really need to make sure you are prepared to invest some time in raising your pet bearded dragon and are prepared to spend some real money on providing proper housing, lighting (UVA&B) and heating, and live insects (on a weekly basis - wont be cheap) . If you are not , maybe a goldfish or pet rock is more your style. (Sorry if that is blunt, but am not impressed by people buying special pets like bearded dragons and then not being prepared to care for it properly or even provide it's basic needs.)

Are you REALLY SURE you want a bearded dragon for a pet, have you done your homework to bone up on how to care for one PROPERLY ?

 

[Rampagingraptor]

You completely missed what I meant. Might not have worded it that well, but whatever.
What I meant was was something like a dropper or anything I might need to use for a medical feed.
My beardie was showing signs of dehydration, which is why I wanted to get the water dripper (A SYRINGE water dripper), as well as maybe something I could use if I need to use anything for medical stuff.
Yes, I have the proper lights, yes I know what and how to feed my beardie, and yes, I know how to take care of my beardie. Do not insult me.

 

[CooperDragon]

He was just trying to be helpful. I'm sure no insult was intended. I use the plastic feeding syringes to offer water and it works well. I've used cheap ones from Target pharmacy but found they get stuck easily and don't slide well which causes a mess (especially with food). Tracie sells some really nice quality syringes for a good price on her site http://www.bug-de-lite.com/Products Page.html Different sizes available. For water I use the 10ml.

 

[Rampagingraptor]

You know what, you aren't going to believe anything I tell you unless I tell you exactly what I do.
I have a 4x2x2 custom made tank (I made it myself) for her before she got to 10 inches, which originally we got her at 7. She is currently at 12 inches. There is vents for her tank to help with humidity and other things.
Her lights include a 150 watt bulb with a dimmer which brings her basking spot to 110 degrees and 80 degree temperature on the cool end. We have a reptisun 10.0 t8 (yes her basking spot is within the distance on the chart) 36 inch light, as well as varying degrees of shade. She has multiple different hides, as well as a cavern that she can hide in, and a corner that is sheltered off where she tends to sleep. Her lights are on a timer from 7 am to 11 pm. Her substrate is newspaper, which we replace when she goes to the bathroom on it. We plan to use tile, but this is our temporary solution. We also plan to do some DIY rocks, but that will take a while to get to.
We feed her 3 times a day with insects, using Dubia's and Red runner roaches, coated with calcium powder with d3. We also give her large phoenix worms for some of her feedings (no we don't dust them). We used to use crickets as well, but we haven't gotten any in a while. No, I never feed her meal worms. No, I never fed her any other insect, especially a wild caught one. Yes, I get it from reliable insect breeders.
We put salad in her dish first thing ever time before any other food so she can eat some. She doesn't eat it often, but she is still 4 months old, so this is to be expected. We feed her Kale, buk choy, carrots, bell peppers, cucumbers, collard greens, and a few others.
We do not bath her regularly, and we only use it every other day when she starts shedding and she has problems with it.
I can understand why you thought I was talking about that, but that gives you no right to talk to me like I know nothing about taking care of my dragon nor did not research into it.
Also, thank you Cooper.

 

[kingofnobbys]

You completely missed what I meant. Might not have worded it that well, but whatever.
What I meant was was something like a dropper or anything I might need to use for a medical feed.
My beardie was showing signs of dehydration, which is why I wanted to get the water dripper (A SYRINGE water dripper), as well as maybe something I could use if I need to use anything for medical stuff.
Yes, I have the proper lights, yes I know what and how to feed my beardie, and yes, I know how to take care of my beardie. Do not insult me.

oops ! my mistake. No insult intended.

A normal disposable syringe 5ml or 10ml is more than adequate , I drill out the nozzle with a 3mm bit to increase the water flow and to help if I ever need to give a slurry type of supplement.
I have some of special crop feeding needles ( see http://vetafarm.com.au/product/medication-tube-crop-needle/ , I'm sure you will find these over there to buy online or perhaps your vet can sell one of suitable size (guage) for your beardie (now) and a bigger gauge version for when it's full grown.


I find a cheap 5ml eyedropper with squeeze bulb on one end works a treat for giving water to lizards, if it's too skittish, I use a basic household potplant watering spray bottle (with an adjustable nozzle, I use a fine mist setting and wet the lizard's head with a short fine mist.

 

[Rampagingraptor]

Yeah, its alright. Sorry if I got a bit snappy myself.
Yeah, those crop feeding needles would definitely be more of what I was looking for. I'll have to figure out the appropriate size later, but this will definitely be useful to have around just in case. Thanks!

 

[Ed707]

I read through this post and it kind of just jumped out at me about the water dispenser thing. Yes we all know bearded dragons are a desert dwelling species and they don't see running water alot in the wild. Just my opinion though that in the wild this is a hardship on them that they have to indure. In captivity they don't have to indure this as we can provide them with what they need to make them as comfortable as possible. I use a dripper in my enclosure and plan to keep doing so as I've seen it stimulate her to drink from it. In the wild these animals also contract numerous parasites and worms that never get treated that they live with their whole life. Should we not treat our captive bred reptiles for worms and parasites because they wouldn't get treatment for them in the wild? Just my opinion on this, yes you want to make your dragons enclosure as close to how it would be in the wild but that doesn't mean you can't use a water dripper to hydrate your pet... again just my opinion

 

[Taterbug]

Raptor - you can also pick up oral syringes at drug stores. They come in a few sizes and are either cheep or free. Just explain you want needle-less dosing syringes. For water I have used a baby medicine dropper (more volume and squire bulb is easier than a plunger) but find a spray bottle is my favorite to get Pepper to drink. I plan to build a dripper at some point but until then he gets offered this way in the morning.

I am inclined to agree with Ed about water. Wild conditions are a lot different than captivity and for the most part popular keeping methods for dragons are pretty dry even for desert lizards. For example - most cages are very dry (<30%) and offer no opportunity for a humid retreat (burrows), we don't feed desert adapted veggies and harvested plants dry out through the day compared to live ones. I've read enough accounts of dragons using water dishes (either standing or with a dripper) that I don't see any good reason to keep pushing the advice not to use them.

 

[ruben0311]

I don't really like the whole misting for getting them to drink sometimes, and Fred doesn't seem to like it either haha, I will eventually be making a small drip system that I can set up with a small fish tank aerator that will increase internal pressure of a bottle and force a small amount out onto his hanging leaves in the morning. All stuff I already have so big save in $$. everything needs water in nature, you wanna replicate their environment? how is misting them natural? water from a syringe is the closest to reality IMO. but hey if you can get him drinking do whatever you do. Im all up for making stuff look natural but there is no reason to make things hard on the little boogers. Ed and Tater... preach on!!!!!!

 

[Taterbug]

Pepper has mixed options of being sprayed - sometimes I get the death glare and other time he will come over and scrub around in the spray. He didn't like the watering at first but he's learned and starts to lick his lips when he sees the spray wand.

 

[Rampagingraptor]

Yeah, I actually have a drip system I use periodically that I had in place before all of this, but I also wanted to try the syringe thing. I got a syringe from Tracie already, but I haven't had much luck with it yet (may have accidentally "hydro pumped" her in the face a couple of times >_>). She didn't really like getting sprayed, but she was curious about the syringe and licked it a bit cause she thought it was food.
I think I can get her to do it, but it may take a little. Any advice on getting them to go for it would be nice.

 

[Ed707]

My dragon doesn't really like the misting thing, I've only ever seen her drink from her bath once, and rarely if ever have I got her to take water from a dripper. I think she licked up a few droplets from the dripper maybe 2 or 3 times. I just put in a dripper using a enternal feeding bag I bought on amazon. I got the idea from Rankins another member of this site when he commented on my post about the diy dripper using a half cut water bottle and ice. I like it, easy to control the drip rate and measure out the amount of water in the bag for adding reptisafe since I use tap water.

 

[Rampagingraptor]

My dragon doesn't really like the misting thing, I've only ever seen her drink from her bath once, and rarely if ever have I got her to take water from a dripper. I think she licked up a few droplets from the dripper maybe 2 or 3 times. I just put in a dripper using a enternal feeding bag I bought on amazon. I got the idea from Rankins another member of this site when he commented on my post about the diy dripper using a half cut water bottle and ice. I like it, easy to control the drip rate and measure out the amount of water in the bag for adding reptisafe since I use tap water.

Yeah, That thread is actually the one I made my bottle dripper from originally. Diablo is kind of iffy on it for me, though.

 

[Taterbug]

It did take a week or two to get him used to it.