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3 month Rankin dragon diet and live plants for viv

2K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  tomcannon 
#1 ·
Hi ive had my 3 month rankin dragon for a week now and thought my rankin dragon was eating a lot of crickets but different amounts each day. My start up kit inc. a wooden/log house. Ive been making sure there were no crickets left in viv over night after reading about stress etc. however I found near on 10 crickets living in the roof of the log house. I've since removed this as there our plenty of other areas to hide but totally thrown as to how many crickets he has been eating? Also he has eaten barely any veg, a bit of dandelion, a little curly kale but most days none. Also meal worms don't seem over popular. How many crickets should I offer, realistically I can only offer about 7.30 and again after 17.30

Also I like the idea of live plants in my viv, any thoughts? Obviously dont want anything to cause harm.
 
#2 ·
Crickets are great for rearing young lizards, where there are many hatchlings to a viv, because very little will get left behind buy a hungry mass of mouths (I always chill my crickets for about 45 seconds in the freezer to slow them down). There will always be crickets left over as there will always some that will find the slimmest of crevices to hide in. Smaller crickets will not bother them at night and I often see a few crickets scatter in my hatchling vivs when caught by the torchlight. If there is a small dish of chopped veg in the viv (I always offer my hatchlings chopped veg after week two), the few crickets left in the viv will more often than not congregate around that at night and leave the sleeping lizards alone.

However, for a single animal or a small group of older animals, I would feed locusts. They are slower than crickets, more substantial, and any that are uneaten can definately be left in the viv. Feed a load in the morning and any they don't eat there and then they can snack on throughout the day (they would not be able to do this with crickets because the crickets would all run and hide and the lizard will never be able to find them). If all locusts are gone by the time of the evening feed then you can offer a few more. You need to play it by ear and judge how your lizards appetite works. Not all lizards are the same.

Always offer the veg. Mine all get spring greens and two or three others like grated squash, crated parsnip, grated carrot, sweet pepper, apple and even a bit of sweet potato. Rankins are not as big on veg as beardies but will take quite a bit. My rankins now eat a fair bit of veg but it took them several months to get used to it. Even the hatchlings I am rearing at the moment are all eating a bit of veg, not a lot, but some.

As for live plants in the viv, I wouldn't bother. If the locusts do not eat them, or the lizard doesn't eat them (and there is a danger it may not be too safe), they may not like the environment and will die anyway. If you really want some green there is some half decent artificial stuff on the market.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Was it you that PM'ed me? If so I've replied, if not ignore that and I'll explain the same here.

I agree with the above about not using crickets. Personally I think they suck, far too difficult to work with. As said locusts are great and dubia roaches too.

Anyway on to the live plants, I agree there can be issues but not if you know what you are doing and research a lot. In my vivarium I have two types of live plants. I have the tillandsia (also known as airplants), these are amazing and I would 1000000% recommend these. They don't grow in soil so dont need to be planted, you simply mount them somewhere in the viv. They also DONT need watering in the viv. Every two weeks I take them all out and soak them in rain water/tap water over night, leave them to dry a few hours and stick them back in the viv. Easy! The second plant I have in there are carex grasses. These are durable grasses from NZ. They have to be planted and watered in the vivarium of course but this can be done without issues. I water mine roughly every other day. I use a pipette and inject the water in to the soil (its covered by a layer of sand). I get a very small spike in humidity after watering but it soon settles back to 13%, this is not unhealthy and quite normal in the wild with the morning dew and all. I have had them in there almost two months now. The two smaller ones aren't doing great, however I think that's down to being trampled all over more than dehydration. The larger carex I have in the centre of the viv is doing really well and the two smaller ones will be replaced by larger ones any day now to give them more of a chance to withstand a constant beating!

So as said it can be done fairly easily. You just have to ensure that the plants you want to use are safe. Tillandsia are fine, I believe so are bromelaids(?) and of course carex grass but that's all I know off the top of my head. Research and find the plants you want and then check on here. My advise, go to here and choose from the wide variety they have available. Or PM Gill from justairplants on here and she will help you choose as she did for me, some hold up better in the heat you see.

as said, locusts will try to eat your plants but they way I see it is I have a fair bit of greenery in there plus fresh veg and I try to minimise the amount of locusts in the viv at one time by feeding one at a time when I can. To this day there is only one plant I can see with minor bite marks, no problem, bit of free gutloading! :lol2: Oh and my beardy doesn't touch them.

Sorry for the essay! Hope it helps.

EDIT: Shameless plug but I have some basking sites available here and would happily incorporate some tillandsia on magnets if it would be something that would interest you. Of course it would cost a little extra but I can get the tillandsia from Gill, mount them on magnets and mount the magnets on/between the rocks... Job done! Otherwise, ignore that last paragraph and do it yourself! Hope I helped, Tom.
 
#5 ·
I and others feed locusts as a staple, its perfectly fine but I recommend a varied diet. I breed locusts and Dubia's, both are highly gut loaded and then dust with your supplement. I then purchase other food every now and again to vary it up. I would assume that stuff you mentioned would do the same job with locusts as crickets although I am not aware of it so I couldn't say for sure, I'd recommend purchasing repashy calcium plus once your other powder is finished. It's highly recommended and uses present research to come to its formula. It is an all in one supplement so less hassle too. I will be purchasing this once my calcium and nutrabol is all gone.
 
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