USCgrad":2rhh27ys said:
....., is it just older knowledge, why we advocate against it? ....
This bit kinda grabbed me, because I sometimes feel there's only room for "one truth" out here on this forum. (Don't get me wrong, still love and appreciate this forum... :lol: )
What I mean is that with some subjects on here everybody repeats what has become common knowledge because everybody said so, but a lot of it has not been based anymore on any experience with it by the ones repeating this as truth. Take the example of the UVB coils. A few years ago, some UVB coils caused trouble both because of faulty production and also because of not using them as directed. Good thing that forums like this one addresses these issues and warns people about that! But afterwards the issues with UVB coils have all been solved by the manufacturers and if used as directed they are a good alternative for tubes, but ask about UVB coils on this forum and the response will mostly be that coils are evil and cause blindness etc. (With people who have never used them being most adamant about it and pointing back at articles dating 5 years back...)
According to the standards on this forum I do about everything wrong with my beardies. (UVB coils are bad, Cohabitation is bad, Sand is bad, Pine is bad, Not sealing grout is bad, You must feed your dragon three times a day as much as they can eat for 10-15 mins...etc.) Still, with the help of this forum and a lot of own research I think I created a good environment for my beardies and my beardies are twice as healthy as when I got them. (I house two females of the same size together with giving them both enough room. I use UVB coils positioned as directed with good UV readings. I have reptile sand as a substrate but feed elsewhere. I've used pine wood for my enclosure because it gets covered anyway. Left my tile adhesive unsealed and both my beardies and me are loving it. I feed my dragons a good portion of live food twice a week and my dragons are full bodied, active and according to the vet healthy as a horse. (I somehow can't imagine a beardie in the wild eating non stop bugs for 45 minutes a day in the wild... :? ))
It's true that a lot of things could be a potential threat to a beardie I suppose. That's probably why they only live for about a year or so in the wild. But putting beardies in a small almost bare tank to protect them from everything makes me cringe a bit too. To me that feels like putting a person in an isolation prison cell to prevent them from hurting themselves. Sure, they might live long because they don't accidentally get hurt by themselves or others, but I do question their "happiness" too...
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I like seeing a bit of room left for different views on certain topics every now and then. Bottomline is that we all love beardies on here (why be on here otherwise?) and with that in mind there's a lot possible with some effort. The responses in this thread like "if you cohabit dragons you don't love them" and "if you're bored with your life and think more beardies is fine, you don't deserve them" go a bit far in my humble opinion... 8)