Got myself some Beardies...

[blakehose]

Hey guys,

A mate was no longer able to look after his pair of Bearded Dragons due to unforeseen circumstances, so he asked me if I was able to take them off his hands, along with their enclosures, free of charge. Soooooo who am I to say no
This is the first time I have kept them so it is all new and interesting for me, but I am thoroughly enjoying it already. I'm pretty sure i've got all bases covered with their care, UV, Calcium and Vitamin supplements etc. The food I have got them is endives, cabbage, bok choy, and plenty of other household veges. I've also got myself the nutritional chart which everyone that keeps these seems to live by so all is looking good! The only thing I think I need is different globes as the infared globes in there aren't getting the basking spot as hot as I would like. I don't have any pictures of their setups yet, as I have some modifying to do..if there are any suggestions of ways to keep them healthy and happy then please speak up

Cheers, Blake.

 

[Flaviruthless]

I feed mine woodies, bok choi, squash, a tiny tiny bit of mango every now and then (they go crazy for it!), apple, mealworms as a treat (once a month or two) and they are growing like mad. I dust the woodies every feed and give them woodies about 2 - 3 times a week, but I let them eat as much as they want in ten minutes. They are all between 6 and 8 months old (I have 6) and so far the breeders reckon I'm feeding them steriods they're growing to fast!!! I'm sure that you will love keeping beardies; they are such lovely reptiles and have such great personalities. Congrats and good luck!

 

[jordanmulder]

hey blakehose do you mind posting pics? thanks

 

[blakehose]

Cheers for that Rahni29, I was trying to get some Woodies for my young monitor, but the petshop sold out! I'll try again soon though. @ jordanmulder, as I said mate, I don't have any pictures at the moment, but I will get some tomorrow hopefully. They both only have about 1/4 of their tails, due to the shop they were bought from keeping them together which resulted in fighting as juvies.

 

[lloydy]

Congrats mate!

How old are they?
As posted above, dust crickets/woodies with the calcium 5 x a week, and dust with multivitamins 2x a week.

I feed mine from 1-12 months, 2 feeds a day of live food aswell as the veggie mix.

Goodluck! Would love to see some pics

 

[J-A-X]

The only thing I think I need is different globes as the infared globes in there aren't getting the basking spot as hot as I would like.

well done, gotta love a freebie, the globes are the only thing that i can 'see' that you are on the wrong track with. beardies will need a nice bright white light in order to feed properly, i started my pygmy's with a infared (cos that was the only thing the breeder didn't go into detail over, and i had a spare IR globe handy) and couldn't figure out why they wouldn't eat, so i called the breeder within 3 days, emailed a pic, and she immediately picked up on the light, I changed to a nice hot white light and they started eating like troupers.
40c + for the basking light, if you have a seperate UV light you can get the reflector globes from bunnings.

have a go at breeding your own woodies, its not hard and with the warmer weather around the corner they'll take off in no time and save you a small fortune

 

[Wally]

Nice score Blake.

 

[blakehose]

well done, gotta love a freebie, the globes are the only thing that i can 'see' that you are on the wrong track with. beardies will need a nice bright white light in order to feed properly, i started my pygmy's with a infared (cos that was the only thing the breeder didn't go into detail over, and i had a spare IR globe handy) and couldn't figure out why they wouldn't eat, so i called the breeder within 3 days, emailed a pic, and she immediately picked up on the light, I changed to a nice hot white light and they started eating like troupers.
40c + for the basking light, if you have a seperate UV light you can get the reflector globes from bunnings.

have a go at breeding your own woodies, its not hard and with the warmer weather around the corner they'll take off in no time and save you a small fortune

Thanks for all of the comments, I can assure you everything is being taken on board.
Jaxrtfm I have got 2 spot globes here from Bunnings that have a 30degree beam angle so would definetly provide a better basking spot, but I was just thinking with caution about their photoperiods? Or is it ok, provided that all of the other lights, other than the heat light in the enclosure is turned off?

I'm definetly going to try breeding them! My monitor guzzles the inverts, so it will be beneficial in a few ways!

Cheers, Blake.

 

[J-A-X]

you will only need the light on during normal daylight hours, hook it up to a timer and change the timer as the daylight hours extend, you don't need to provide heat at night.

you only need 2 globes, 1 x UV, 1 x bright basking light during the day, nothing at night.... they sleep and there is nothing for us to see...

woodies are easy to breed, one of the underbed storage crates, cut a big square hole in the lid, get some steel flyscreen, and use a solder iron to push the wire into the lid. i have put some black foam (window installation gap filler) in the lip of the lid. i keep mine in the laundry cos i have the dryer going in the winter, although mine don't get eaten in winter with brumation happening...

 

[blakehose]

Ah k, I wasn't quite sure how they go with the low temps here in Victoria, it could get down to about 10 or so in their enclosures on cold mornings. The woodie setup sounds easy enough, hopefully I can get them going nicely!
Thanks again for all of the help.

Blake.

 

[blakehose]

Congrats mate!

How old are they?
As posted above, dust crickets/woodies with the calcium 5 x a week, and dust with multivitamins 2x a week.

I feed mine from 1-12 months, 2 feeds a day of live food aswell as the veggie mix.

Goodluck! Would love to see some pics

Sorry, I forgot to add this in earlier. The pair is about 1.5years old.

 

[jordanmulder]

sorry didn't see that line.

 

[blakehose]

sorry didn't see that line.

No worries mate.

 

[J-A-X]

Ah k, I wasn't quite sure how they go with the low temps here in Victoria, it could get down to about 10 or so in their enclosures on cold mornings. The woodie setup sounds easy enough, hopefully I can get them going nicely!
Thanks again for all of the help.

Blake.

My pygmies seem to cope overnight, the outside temp in the adelaide hills can get as low as 0c i think the retained heat helps keep the worst of it away

 

[Chris1]

if youre not comfortable with night time temps, use a ceramic heat emitter, bit of heat with no light,..

as has already been mentioned, they do much better in a brightly lit enclosure during the day,..

at 1.5 years old they should be close to fully grown, too much protien/fat from here on will cause liver problems, their diet should be 80-90% greens anbd veges with a few roaches/crix/silk/superworms from time to time,...mine get their protien on sundays after their salad.

do they have a UVB light source? thats important for tehm to properly process their calcium and make their bones strong. if using artificial UV they'll need to get within a certain distance, and some are better than others (dont use coils, they apparently emit uvc light and damage their eyes)
a flexarium so they can safely have proper sun is the best thing you can do for tehm,...maybe they need one as a chrissy pressy!

good luck with them, beardies are great critters!

 

[LadyJ]

Ah k, I wasn't quite sure how they go with the low temps here in Victoria, it could get down to about 10 or so in their enclosures on cold mornings. The woodie setup sounds easy enough, hopefully I can get them going nicely!
Thanks again for all of the help.

Blake.

Don't stress mate - I live in lower Victoria and all of mine have no heat/light at night and are fine no worries.

 

[blakehose]

if youre not comfortable with night time temps, use a ceramic heat emitter, bit of heat with no light,..

as has already been mentioned, they do much better in a brightly lit enclosure during the day,..

at 1.5 years old they should be close to fully grown, too much protien/fat from here on will cause liver problems, their diet should be 80-90% greens anbd veges with a few roaches/crix/silk/superworms from time to time,...mine get their protien on sundays after their salad.

do they have a UVB light source? thats important for tehm to properly process their calcium and make their bones strong. if using artificial UV they'll need to get within a certain distance, and some are better than others (dont use coils, they apparently emit uvc light and damage their eyes)
a flexarium so they can safely have proper sun is the best thing you can do for tehm,...maybe they need one as a chrissy pressy!

good luck with them, beardies are great critters!

Hey mate,
They have got artificial UV light in their enclosure and are able to get within about 6inches of it. Also it is in the form of tubes. I put in spot globes this morning for them so it is emitting a much brighter daytime simulating light. What do you find are your beardies favourites foodwise? And as for natural UV I am in the process of making them an outdoor mesh cage for the rare days where the sun is out here in Vic!

They really are cool animals, the Female just tried to eat my arm band! haha it is bright blue so I don't know how she thought it was food!

Cheers, Blake.

 

[J-A-X]

Maybe she thought your arm band was a flower

 

[blakehose]

Maybe she thought your arm band was a flower

Yeah could be! It was wiggling a bit so possibly looked like an amazing 'blue phase' worm They both just had a crack at the thermometer cable aswell, luckily they were on the wrong side of the glass.

 

[Chris1]

faves salad wise are butternut pumpkin and green beans, i limit those tho so they eat all their calcium rich healthy greens (bok choy, pak choy, chinese broccoli, endive, rocket)

lol, were in for a victorian weekend here this weekend, doom and gloom forecast,...

my beardies love to chase the little light that goes round in circles when foxtel records, its so funny, mouth open, tongue out, with no success, hahahaha!!!!!

the red button on the remote is apparently tasty too,...