henerylawsoni caresheet anybody have anything to add/fix before i finish it for wiki

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The_Dreaded_Pets

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Pogona Henerylawsoni
Blacksoil Bearded Dragon

Other Common Names-
Rankin’s Bearded Dragon, Pygmy Bearded Dragon,

General Care-
As with the larger forms of bearded dragons pygmies require UVA/B lighting and a nice warm hotspot to be happy and grow normally without any bone deficiencies. Generally feeding a nice salad in the morning and as many crickets/woodies they can eat in the afternoon will keep them happy for a very long time, I will talk about other food types and supplements a little later on. Pygmy dragons can usually live for about 6-8yrs (there’s always the odd exception to this rule as with all animals.).

Enclosure Requirements-
Bearded dragons are very easy to look after pygmy’s tend to like things a little warmer than the larger species but in general they are very much alike. Pygmy’s can grow between20-30cm with somewhere around 25cm being the norm.
As full grown adults you can easily keep a pair in a 2ft aquarium however most people will get into the hobby quite drastically and use custom made melamine enclosures a 4ftx2ft enclosure will happily house up to 3 females and 1 male with sufficient hides and basking space.
Dragons of all species require both a basking spot and artificial uva/b lighting this can be achieved in various forms from multiple lights for different things or 1 light to do it all what you use is up to you heat rocks can be used and have been used quite successfully however have a bad rep for burning the dragons stomach.
The temperatures you will want to achieve are 40-43c in the hotspot with a cool spot of approximately 25-30c this may need to be achieved by using exhaust fans depending on how large your enclosure is and what heating methods are used. Night time heating isn’t really needed unless you live in very cold areas during winter in which 20-25c should be enough to keep your little friends happy.

Substrate-
Best and most common substrate used is playsand from bunnings it is cheap and easily cleaned, red dessert sand can be purchased form a pet shop however is extremely expensive and tends to stain your beardies feet, stomach, tail ect.

Lighting-
Most people will tend to use Bulbs that emit heat AND UVB/A rays like a Mercery Vapour Bulb (MVB), while others will go with using a ceramic heat emitter and a UVA/B fluro /bulb beardies will usually only bake in there hotspot if it has a light above it which is where the MVB and UV bulbs are handy positioned at the hotspot. Amount needed is the UVB.10 bulbs sold by companies like reptile one and so on at your local pet shop.
Generally you will want to have the lighting/heating on a 10-12hr a day system I would opt for 9-10yrs during the winter and 10-12hrs a day during summer.

Brumation-
Brumation (sleeping) is usually done during the winter months drop your temperatures down by about 10c mainly just feed your beardies some salad with the odd woodie and leave a small dish of water changed every day or 2 as generally your pygmy will do nothing but sleep and eat/drink whatever it needs to stay alive this is also an integral part of preparing bearded dragons for breeding.

Food-
Feeding your little buddies is extremely easy a nice fresh dish of greens (lattice, peas, bok choy, ect) is quite beneficial for them it is where they get most of their water from as well as general supplements I like to add in some apple, carrot ect every now and then as a treat/variety make sure you chop all these ingredients up into very small pieces I like to add multical vitamins to this every 3 days or so to help keep their vitamins up.
Insects like crickets and woodies can be purchased from most pet shops these days and will come with a small packet called gutload add this packet and even some multical vitamins to their container give it a shake before feeding them to your dragons, general rule of thumb is to feed as many as your little buddy’s can eat and remove the excess however I like to leave a few woodies in there for them to snack on the next day.
Sizing the food for your pygmy is much the same as there larger family members as long as the item is smaller then the distance between the eyes of your dragon it is good to go.
Various other insects can be fed to them such as silkworms, mealworms, flies, and common house cockroaches.
Here is a link to a VERY helpful nutritional sheet for your beardie,
http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutritionframeset.html

Sexing-
Pygmy dragons are sexed using the same method as the larger species however due to their much smaller size can be quite difficult to do until they mature (8-12months) what you need to do is place your new friend on a flat surface such as a able holding it down with 1 hand so it can’t get away then gently with your other hand lift its tail up to a 90deg angle, what you are looking for on a female is 1 large bulge where the slit is at the base of the tail and on a male you will see there isn’t much of a bulge there but 2 small bulges parallel to each other at the base of the tail refer to the pictures below for an example the male is approximately 11months old and the female is approximately 18months old.

Hercules (male)
Savanah (female)

Breeding-
Breeding with these little guys will usually start to occur shortly after brumation once brumation is finished and they start to become more active bump your temperatures back up to the ideal specs and start feeding your pair up.
The courting ritual will usually take 3-4weeks of constant head bobbing from the male and waving in a circular motion from the female sometimes you may see the male nipping the female on the back of the neck.
When mating finally occurs the male will mount the female and hold onto her by biting the back of her neck this will generally last for a short time but will and may happen regularly.

Egg laying-
Once pregnant it usually takes about 3weeks for the female to start filling up with eggs and looking for a place to lay you may notice her running franticly running around the enclosure scratching at the sand and walls, at this point it is important to add a lay box to the enclosure for her this can be as simple as a Chinese take away container and will need to be filled with something like coco peat or vermiculite dampened with some water (this must be damp not wet as to much water can be harmful for the eggs) the goal is that the mix is damp enough it won’t collapse while she lays her eggs once all is said and done eggs are laid it is time to move them on to the incubator the container for the incubator is usually a Chinese takeaway container half filled with vermiculite dampened with water (grab a handful and squeeze if water drips out u have added to much put more vermiculite in there mixture of 1-1 is normal) remove the eggs form the lay box and add them to the incubator box be very careful not to damage the eggs they need to be half submerged and facing the same way they were collected.
One mating session can produce up to 4 clutches form the one female clutch size can and will vary from 1-12 eggs clutches are usually a bit smaller than the larger species .

Incubation-
If you intend to breed these little fellas with any real success you will need to get your hands on an incubator.
There are a lot of different types that you can use however the cheapest and easiest way is to get an old bar fridge and make your own out of that using a 25wt heat cord, heat controller, thermometer/hydrometer and 2 computer fans. There are plenty of DIY setups online both for purchase and instructions.
For successful incubation of the eggs you are going to want to keep the temperature between 28 & 30c without any problems, at 29c the eggs should hatch in approximately 45 days’ time mark your calendar for each clutch so you will remember when they are due to hatch.

(My DIY incubator guide)(Insert link)

Babies-
Caring for your hatchlings is a little more difficult then there parents but just as simular it is easier to use tubs bought from a cheapo shop and a heat cord for heating they do however still need to get uvb lighting best achieved using a fluro above multiple containers at once and using flyscreen / fine mesh for the lid as the UVB rays don’t travel through glass or plastic very well. You should be able to keep 5+ in each tub once you see fighting occurring split them up further into smaller groups.
Feeding the little guys finely chopped lattice ect in the morning is fine however you may find they won’t eat a lot of it there main diet will consist of pinhead crickets and very small woodies gutloading these is a good idea.
Pygmy’s are best kept until they are about 2 months old before selling onto other people.
In order to sell these babys you will need to contact your local epa for a movement advice the queensland one can be found here in this link,
http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/services_resources/item_details.php?item_id=33503
 
anybody have any corrections/ extra info to add before i put the pix in and add it to wiki cheers
 
well due to the amount f views and no comments im asumeing i have everything pretty much covered :p
 
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