Bearded Dragon

[kreacher]

Originally Posted by pagan queen

ooooo, I'm getting some dragons soon too. I may need to ask lots of questions. My first one is, what is a good price for them? Silly question maybe but I've seen them go for between £10-£100 for babies. I don't want to buy cheap ones and find out they are not well or have some genetic problem but I don't want to get some super classy top notch type that costs a fortune.

They range so much in price that's quite difficult to answer. Lots of private breeders will sell their babies for around ten pound because they have so many of them they need to sell then cheap to get rid of them. Most of the time you would be able to see the adults so that would be fine to check they are healthy
Some pet shops sell them for extortionate prices but for a normal baby around the thirty pound mark is good in a reptile shop. We paid a little bit more for our baby but that was because he was bred from a blood red male and female so guaranteed red babies
I personally would buy one from a person that has bred from their pets so you can see that the adults are nice and healthy.

[pagan queen]

Originally Posted by Torterra

Fantastic news, and good use for your 4ft tank. Beardies are great, but I cant keep adding more animals to my collection.

There's always room for more pets. These 2 dragons will bring pet total to 20.

[kreacher]

Originally Posted by pagan queen

There's always room for more pets. These 2 dragons will bring pet total to 20.

there's always room for more animals!

We started off with a king snake 12 years ago that was given to me by a friend that couldn't look after him and now we have a whole collection of reptiles hehe!

[pagan queen]

What I need is a list of things I need to set up the enclosure before I bring them home. I want to know everything I need right down to the smallest grain of sand. I've only ever had tortoises before so am a complete numpty when it comes to these dudes so teach me guys I'm all ears.

[kreacher]

Originally Posted by pagan queen

What I need is a list of things I need to set up the enclosure before I bring them home. I want to know everything I need right down to the smallest grain of sand. I've only ever had tortoises before so am a complete numpty when it comes to these dudes so teach me guys I'm all ears.

Ok, dragon care from the start:

You will need a basking spot...I use a 60w spot bulb from tesco, they are really cheap and give a good hot spot

You'll need a uv light too...I have a Exo terra 10.0 tube...

I have a nice big rock for him to sit on and some big logs to climb on. A water bowl, they do drink every now and again so I leave one in even though some people don't.

You will need some good calcium powder...nutrobal is good for them, they grow very quickly so to stop them getting bone diseases they need lots of calcium!

I have a dish for meal worms, an Exo terra one that has a special top so they can't climb out...I keep this topped up and he just picks at it when he likes...if you are getting a tiny baby though you will have to wait till it is a bit bigger because they can't digest the hard shells very well.

I use sand as a substrate in my vivs. This is a bit of a controversial subject. Lots of people think that they can get impacted if they eat the sand so advise against it. While this is quite true my dragon does not have the opportunity to eat it. He eats cockroaches that are fed to him in a bowl so he never accidentally eats it. He has been on this since six weeks and he's perfectly healthy if your going to feed loose live food like crickets and locusts it could do with being different substrate till it is a bit older.

[pagan queen]

Will he need anywhere to sleep, like a hide?

[kreacher]

Originally Posted by pagan queen

Will he need anywhere to sleep, like a hide?

No dragons will sleep anywhere, usually in a really awkward position haha!

[shelmarie]

mine has a thing for sleeping hanging off of his log with his back legs still on it lol, he keeps falling off and landing on his head bless him.lol

[kreacher]

Haha dragons are so cute! How they actually fall asleep in some of the positions is absolutely beyond me!! You'd think they'd wake up with cricks in their necks haha!!!

[shelmarie]

Another silly question, and i'm sure it wont be the last lol.

I've notice that my little guys colouring seems to be getting darker. I'm i imagining this or can they do it? just something i'm curious about lol

Thanks