Question for the Ackie & beardie keepers out there....

[saximus]

For those of you who feed woodies, how do you stop them escaping the enclosures? With crickets it's easy because they can't climb but woodies could just crawl out even in a glass viv. I'd love to start a colony (so much easier than crickets) but that's the biggest thing that worried me

 

[PeppersGirl]

I never let the insects loose in the enclosures if I can help it, because of the risk of leaving some at night.
My lizards look for theirs in a container I always use so they know it's food - If you use calcium/vitamin to dust the sides of the container before adding the woodies they can't climb the sides
For the geckos I do the same type of thing, but a shallow container and I just leave the woodies in it overnight, they pick them out at will!

 

[maddog-1979]

i made up some little mince packets for my lizards , just mixed in some calci powder and a heap of wombaroo, portioned it into 1 meal bits then froze them. only use it every now and then for when i run out of crickets/woodies as the pet stores here run out all the time, i wouldnt use the mince as a staple diet tho, but it's good for the occasional treat. i will be starting my own woodie colony soon so hopefully my lizards will become much cheaper to feed

 

[Herpboy]

I can really help you because I have both of them

I prefer ackies but they require at least a 2-3 foot tank

Beardies don't really need a big tank because they are baskers

Ackies are more active and put on a show when they eat

Beardies are not active so that is why they do not need a large cage

So the opinion is yours you can get either all

 

[ingie]

I hand feed/tong feed all my lizards to make sure I can keep track of what they eat, and that there are no escapees in the house. My ackies lived on the biggest sized baby mice I could get them to comfortably eat, and woodies. If you get 1000 or so woodies to start a colony with, and a small breeding colony of mice, you will never look back

 

[kr0nick]

I hand feed/tong feed all my lizards to make sure I can keep track of what they eat, and that there are no escapees in the house. My ackies lived on the biggest sized baby mice I could get them to comfortably eat, and woodies. If you get 1000 or so woodies to start a colony with, and a small breeding colony of mice, you will never look back

Same here ingie, Or I use A plastic shallow container with A fluon strip to keep woodies in if I don't have time to hand feed. And my ackie lives on woodies and supplementary pinkeys, same with my beardie but I only give him A pinkey/fuzzy mouse once A month other then that he gets woodies and vege mixs. And lol if you have more the 2 lizards I advice buying A few tubs with A kilo of mixed size per tub and alternate between once A month.

 

[Chris1]

I can really help you because I have both of them

I prefer ackies but they require at least a 2-3 foot tank

Beardies don't really need a big tank because they are baskers

Ackies are more active and put on a show when they eat

Beardies are not active so that is why they do not need a large cage

So the opinion is yours you can get either all

its recommended that beardies are housed in 4 foot enclosures, id love to know what u stick yours in if 2-3 foot is big,....!!

all of mine are very active and use every mm of their 4 foot plus enclosures, none of them sit on a rock all day basking.

 

[saximus]

Yeah that's not really good advice Herpboy. Apart from the fact that this thread is almost six months old and he has probably made up his mind, 2-3 ft isn't big enough for anything other than hatchy/yearling Ackies. Maybe your Beardies just aren't active because they have no room to move...

 

[Justdragons]

this is what i have built for 5 beardies, 2 hatchies are in the one large one and 3 adults live in the bank. the bank is 600 x 600 x 1200 each bay, this really should be a touch larger but for the time being its all the room i have. Anything much smaller just isnt fair. imagine living in a box your whole life... it would suck.

 

[JrFear]

i feel sorry for all our reptiles then =[ :facepalm:

 

[redlittlejim]

my ackies live off hopper mice and woodies. never tried the mince. and my beardies live off vege mix with a few woodies now and than. all the beardies are in 6ft fish tanks with fluon up the side so they can hunt all the woodies when they get them and the ackies i just put a ceramic bowl with fluon in around the edge. he grabs one out, walks away and crushes it on his rock to eat it. and does this 20times in a row. he is kept in a 1.2m by 1.6m and 60cm tall enclosure with thick vines and wood for him to roam on.

 

[Justdragons]

my ackies live off hopper mice and woodies. Never tried the mince. And my beardies live off vege mix with a few woodies now and than. All the beardies are in 6ft fish tanks with fluon up the side so they can hunt all the woodies when they get them and the ackies i just put a ceramic bowl with fluon in around the edge. He grabs one out, walks away and crushes it on his rock to eat it. And does this 20times in a row. He is kept in a 1.2m by 1.6m and 60cm tall enclosure with thick vines and wood for him to roam on.

got any snaps of his enclosure?

 

[redlittlejim]

will upload this avo. all the sand is out cause we shifting it to townsville on thursday but all the rest is screwed in and you will get the idea

 

[PhilK]

Ackies are 50 million times better... whichever you choose just breed roaches - problem solved

 

[MissFuller]

so how big do the ackies get and would the size of the tank effect there growth at all and some 1 said you cant handle them like a beardy why is that