|
16-05-2008, 12:04 PM
|
||||
|
||||
Can people tell me what they think of this bearded dragon care sheet
i wrote this to give to people buying beardies from me, can people tell me what they think, or if any thing should be added or removed.
Housing Babies Baby bearded dragons need to be housed in a vivarium that will make them feel secure and not stressed. Babies can be housed in a vivarium measuring 24in x 18in. However, they grow very fast. They should be provided with branches to climb on, this is good for their muscles and keeps their nails worn down. Tip I don’t like to fill my vivs with too many objects as I feel that it increases the number of places that crickets can hide and means that the babies cannot find their food as easily. Adults Adult’s beardies can grow up to around 30cms with males being slightly larger than females. Therefore, the minimum vivarium size for a single adult would be 36in x 24in x 24in and for a pair of beardies the minimum would be 48in x 24in x 24in. Obviously the bigger the better. Feeding Babies up to 4-5 months Hatchling beardies grow very fast and need a lot of food. A hatchlings diet should consist of 60-80% insect material and 20-40% vegetable matter. They should be offered food 2-3 times a day (really as much as they can eat). It is important that all food is gut loaded, by feeding the crickets on fresh vegetables and bran if possible. Never feed 2hours before its daytime heat goes off as it will not have enough time to digest its food. Babies should also be offered finely chopped vegetables at least 3 times a week. Mine are very keen on cress and salad. NEVER feed beardies iceberg lettuce as it has no nutritional value and can cause stomach upsets. If not fed the correct amount of food babies will become cannibalistic. Also watch for bullying in the enclosure and make sure that all babies are getting enough food. Large babies will bully smaller ones. Juveniles Over 4-5 months Once babies reach this age the amount of food they need to be fed can be decreased as at this point the babies have some amount of fat reserves. If they are fed too much at this age they could become slightly obese as their growth rate has slowed down. They should now be fed only once a day with vegetable matter being offered 4 times a week. It is important that they get some vegetable matter so that they don’t turn their noses up at it when they are adults. Juveniles can now be offered pinkies and meal worms but only on occasions, also they still should not be fed items larger than the gap between their eyes. Adults 18months and Over Adults can be fed every other day with the exception of breeding females. However, they should still be offered fresh vegetables every day. They should not be over fed on live food as they can become obese and this can lead to health problems. Food items like wax worms are very fatty and should only be offered as treats. Dragons require a variety of greens including collard greens, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, mustard greens, turnip greens, and dandelion greens. Stay away from iceberg lettuce, large amounts of kale, cabbage, or spinach. A variety of vegetables such as carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, peas, corn, and fruits offered in small amounts. Tips NEVER EVER feed babies food items that are bigger than the gap between their eyes. This can have serious effects, they might slip into a state of paralysis, disability or death. NEVER feed babies less than 4 months old meal worms as they could also cause paralysis. Some people say it is ok, but I wouldn’t recommend the risk. It’s all down to personal choice. AVIOD feeding spinach as this plant contains a calcium-binding chemical that prevents beardies from metabolizing ingested calcium. NEVER let the containers that house the cricket in get mouldy as mould is toxic to beardies. NEVER feed a food item too often that you cannot supply your dragon all year round as they can some times they can get a taste for a certain food item and then turn their nose up at anything else. BAD BUGS never feed: - ants, bees, wasps, caterpillars, centipedes, fireflies (toxic), lubber grasshoppers or scorpions. NEVER leave uneaten live food items in the vivarium at night as they WILL bit and chew your reptile. Lighting Bearded dragons need UV lighting for the production of Vitamin D3, which aids in Calcium absorption, without it they will develop Metabolic Bone diseases. The UBV should be on for around 10-12 hours a day and should ideally be changed every 6months as the UVB radiation from the bulb runs out. For babies the UVB lighting should be no further than 6inches away, for adults it can be 12inches. Where possible in the summer beardies dragons should be allowed to bask outside in the natural sunlight (the day does have to be really warm or your beardie will get cold), if this is done they should be left some where secure. I give my dragons a heated daytime 13 hours long, from 8.30am until 9.30pm. Lights must be turned off at night, to allow your dragon to sleep. Tips UVB lighting will not transmit through glass. Heating Bearded dragons are sun loving lizards and need high temperatures, they cannot generate heat to warm them selves up, so instead they bask. However they also need to be able to regulate their body temperatures. This means they should be provided with a temperature gradient, they need a cooler end at one side of the vivarium. If they are cold they will move to the warm end and if they are too warm they will move to the cooler end. At the warmer end or the basking site the temperature should reach 100-105 degrees, at the cooler end the temperature should drop no lower than 80-85 degrees. If the temperature in the room that the beardies are kept in drops no lower the 70 degrees at night then night time heating is not needed. However if it does, a heat mat can be placed on the inside wall of the vivarium to keep the temperature up. There are a number of different ways to heat a vivarium. I personally use T-Rex Dome Styled Light Fixtures as they direct the heat down and heat my vivariums well and they are fitted with T-Rex clear basking spot lights. In my 5ft vivarium I have a basking spot at one end and a heat lamp in the cooler end. The heat lamp at the cooler end only comes on if the temperatures at the cooler end in the day drops below the recommended temperature. All my heating equipment is controlled by thermostats, this prevents over heating. Tips I like to use a stone or piece of slate under my basking spot as the stone gets warm and allows for extra heating, my dragons will lie on theirs to warm their bellies to help digest their food. Hot rocks should never be used for Dragons. They can cause serious burns if they overheat. Additionally, bearded Dragons sense heat from above, not below, and will not be able to tell if they are overheating from a heat source underneath them. Beardies will sometimes sit with there mouths open (DON’T WORRY) this is just their way of cooling down. Substrate There are a number different substrates that can be used, what you do use depends on personal choice. A lot of people use sand or wood chip, I wouldn’t recommend this as they can cause impaction of the gut and lead to death if not treat. In my opinion if you value your reptiles health sand should never be used, repti-sand is said to be safe but it can still cause impaction. Babies For babies NEVER use sand as they can easily ingest it and possibly can die from an impacted gut, I would strongly recommend using nothing on the vivarium floor and wiping the vivarium clean daily with a reptile safe disinfectant. If your vivarium is glass it would be best to put paper towels down as glass floors are slippy. Housing babies on anything other than kitchen roll or paper towels is not recommended as crickets will hid in the substrate and the babies will starve to death as they are unable to find their food. Adults All of my reptiles are housed on newspaper, I know it’s not very attractive but it saves me some very expensive vet bills. If you don’t want to house your reptiles on newspaper alfalfa pellets can be used, however when they get wet the can break down as if let they can go mouldy. Tips I have heard from some people that pet shops have recommended that they used wood bark. This is a stupid idea, if you think about it logically bearded dragons are desert dwelling lizard and there is not much wood bark in the desert. Wood bark is a tropical substrate so it holds moisture and increases humidity levels in the vivarium. Bearded dragons hate high humidity levels so they should not be housed on a tropical substrate. Water A water bowl can be provided in the vivarium, however as bearded dragons are desert lizards they do not drink much water. Babies Babies can become dehydrated very quickly, for this reason they should be sprayed with water daily, they will drink the droplets that run off their noses. Adults Adults will not drink as much as babies, however they should also be sprayed daily. Never spray the vivarium as this increase the humidity levels, only spray the dragons. Some dragons will drink a lot more that others Tips I find that babies take a while to realise that they have to drink for still water, for this reason I like to bath my babies a couple times a week in a shallow bowl of warm water that just covers their backs. I then leave them in there of 10 minutes with constant observation so they don’t harm themselves. They will sometimes drink and will usually defecate, they will also absorb water through there skin. it is also helpful to aid their shedding. I also like to do this for my adults as they never seem to drink out of there water bowl, I place my adults in the bath once a month, this also allows them to swim around which them seen to enjoy and it is a good form of exercise. Cage Decoration Rocks Rocks made good cage decorations and they also hold heat. this means they can be used under heat lambs to warm the underside of yiur dragon. they must however be stable so that they dont fall over. also sharp roaks are not recommeded as they can cut your dragon. Branches Branches provied good climbing equipment for dragons, however like rocks they mist be secure and not too high as adults are not the best climbers and could fall off. Vitamins Babies For babies ALL food should be dusted, I like to use calcium bone aid and nutrobal (found in most pet shops or online shop), some say that nutrobal alone is good enough, however others say that it does not contain enough calcium needed. Therefore I dust 4 days a week with nutrobal and 3 days a week with calcium bone aid. All food items should be dusted included greens. Adults For adults most of their food should be dusted but not all has to be.
__________________
FOR SALE Baby beardies £35 each or 2 for £30
|
|
16-05-2008, 12:45 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Couple of points - I've done them in bold. I've also removed some things from the quote - it doesn't mean they should be removed from the caresheet though, I just didn't want to put a massive quote down!
Quote:
Andy
__________________
|
 |
| Thread Tools | |
| Display Modes | |
|
|
Linear Mode
