Monday, September 10, 2012

What to Consider Before Breeding Your Beardie

Things to Consider Before Breeding Your Bearded Dragon

Breeding can be very stressful and difficult on your dragons especially for your female. It is critical that you select strong, healthy adult females before even considering breeding your dragon. If your female is young, weak, or not sufficiently maintained during breeding, your eggs (and female) will suffer tremendously. Over-breeding will also decrease the life span of your female dragons and cause later clutches to be weaker and genetically more prone to diseases and shorter life spans.
Another important aspect to consider before breeding is cost. Properly caring for hatchlings is a very time consuming and costly adventure. It can be very rewarding and a lot of fun to watch your babies hatch and grow up, but it’s not for everyone. If you do not already own the supplies you will need to breed your dragon, you’re looking at somewhat of a small investment to get everything together. Check below for a list of supplies at minimum you will need.

List of Items You Will Need to Breed Your Dragon

  • Incubator: Many people use the chicken incubator model Hovabator. I have never personally used this incubator because I have heard from others that it is unreliable and at best acceptable. It is also rather small for the amount of eggs we produce here. We use a homemade incubator made out of an old freezer and a Helix Control Unit.
  • Vermiculite & Egg Boxes: Vermiculite is used as a substrate to place your eggs in inside the incubator once they have been laid. You will need some kind of egg box to fill with vermiculite to place the eggs inside. We use plastic $1 shoe boxes you can find at Wal*Mart.
  • Digital Thermometer: Digital thermometers are extremely important to help monitor the temperature inside the incubator. Overheating or exposure to low temperatures can cause the eggs to die and not hatch.
  • Cages for Hatchlings: You will need some type of housing system to house all of your new hatchlings. They cannot be kept with their parents or larger dragons. Many people use 10 gallon aquariums to accomplish this. We recommend either building your own rack system or using large Rubbermaid containers built into a shelving system. You will need a lot of cages – the more hatchlings per cage the more likely nips will occur.
  • Heat Bulbs: Some type of heating bulbs will be needed. You must provide a basking spot of around 115 degrees F on the warm end, and around 85 degrees F on the cool side. We use regular 75 watt house bulbs for our rack system and they work great.
  • UVB Bulbs: It is very important that you have proper UVB lighting for your hatchlings. At this young age, they need as much access to UVB as possible due to their tremendous growth rate.
  • Calcium & Vitamin Supplementation: Every day your hatchlings will need their crickets dusted with a high quality calcium supplementation. We use RepCal. You will also need to use a vitamin supplementation product once a week. We use Herptivite.
  • Food: You will need a ton of crickets. Healthy hatchlings can eat 50 or more crickets a day each. You should also provide them with fresh greens and pellets at all times even though it may take several weeks for them to start eating them.
  • Spray Bottle: It’s extremely important that you mist your hatchlings at least 3 times a day to keep them hydrated. Gently spray room temperature water on then in a fine mist. They will drink the water from their face and off of rocks, sticks, and cage walls.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Packaged Salad Mix

Packaged salad mix for beardies

Here is some great info I found on ensuring that the vegetable content of your beardie's diet is easily available.   And, better yet, you both might be eating more healthily.  Try it out and let me know in the comment section if your beardie enjoyed the salad mix.  I am trying it on my beardie 'Savannah'.

veggiesOpinions on the internet vary widely about the benefits and risks of feeding different sorts of veggies to your beardie. There seem to be a few reasons for this, as far as I can tell. Mainly, everyone’s in agreement that you should try to get really high-calcium veggies into your beardie’s diet, with the main exception of spinach. According to more than one site (1, 2), spinach (and, according to another site, also kale)will bind with calcium so, even though it nutritionally contains a lot of calcium, it’s not really all that great for getting calcium into your beardie–in fact it seems to do somewhat the reverse.
There’s an equal number of warnings about iceberg lettuce, for good reason. If you look at a piece of iceberg, you’ll know where they got the name: it’s mostly water. Now, it may seem that something high in water might help your beardie to remain hydrated, but in fact it may make them dehydrated by giving them diarrhea. Also, as mentioned, it’s mostly water, so it contains very little calcium.

The other main point of agreement seems to be that you should try to mix up the greens your beardie eats. One of the easiest ways I’ve found to do this is to use a packaged salad mix. There are definitely bearded dragon owners out there who will no doubt attack this statement, claiming that packaged salad is less fresh and contains more bacteria. To that I would say that I’ll take my chances with a packaged product over the ‘fresh’ greens we often get in my desolate corner of this country, and after all, people can only feel up the un-packaged vegetables and get their grubby bacteria all over them while looking for the ‘best’ one. If you’re a DIY sort of person, though, and you have access to good veggies, you could also try this recipe.

The salad mix I’ve been feeding  recently is Dole Spring Mix. It doesn’t contain any iceberg lettuce, and the company describes it as a mix of ‘baby lettuces, endive and mustard greens,’ decent staple veggies for beardies, according to the most popular care sheet on the web.

Even better, you can make yourself salads with it, and it’s tasty, so that way you’ll be back at the store in two days buying a fresh bag, instead of trying to use an entire bunch of collard greens before they wilt.

Source:   http://neverblog.net/packaged-salad-mix-for-beardies/

Friday, September 7, 2012

Bearded Dragon's Senses

A Bearded Dragon's Senses and Anatomy 

Vision Picture
© Clicksy at Flickr
Bearded Dragons rely largely on their eyes to sense what is around them.  They have good vision, with full color too. Since their eyes are on the sides of their heads, they have a larger field of vision than we do but their depth perception is downright bad.  This is why they often time their leaps wrong and bonk into things. 
Hearing Picture
© Jamie Duke
At first glance, someone unfamiliar with lizards may think that lizards are missing ears.  This is not true though, their ears are actually the holes on the side of their head.  They simply don't have lobes around them.  Their hearing is excellent.
Touch Picture
When pressed against the ground, a Bearded Dragon can sense vibrations. 
A Bearded Dragon's scales are rough and bumpy for a reason.  When it rains, the bumpy spots help collect water between them.  A Bearded Dragon will then bend downward, and all of the water will flow between the bumps to its mouth, where it can be licked up. 
When the Bearded Dragon becomes distressed or aggressive, their normally soft and rubbery spikes can abruptly become prickly.  They have a lot of control over their spikes, and they know to use it to hurt others who have senses of touch. 
They also have exceptional control over their limbs, they can lock them in place so that they can sleep standing up and other such feats. 

Taste and Smell Picture
© Jamie Duke
One sense they have developed quite  a bit more than humans is their sense of taste.  Their tongue in particular is unique.  The tip is adhesive, so that they can draw in their food easily with the stickiness of it.  They also actually taste their surroundings with their tongue to 'see' what is going on, in a watered down method of how snakes do the same thing.  What is actually going on is that they have a Jacobson Organ on the roof of their mouth that allow them to smell/taste really really well with it.  Many lizards are known for having a strong jaw and sharp teeth.  Bearded Dragons have unusual teeth.  Their front teeth fall out and grow back regularly.  These teeth are used, "for grasping and tearing live prey" (Grenard, Steve).  Their side teeth are permanent, and are fused to their jaws.  The side teeth are used for chewing vegetable matter.  They use their mouth, in addition to tasting, eating, and breathing, as a cooling device.  When they are hot, they open their mouth wide in what is known as 'gaping'.  This is just to cool themselves off, similar to how dogs pant and humans sweat. 

Picture© Jamie Duke  The Parietal/Third Eye
Another unique sense that they have has to do with the parietal/third eye.  I don't mean anything psychic here, of course.  The parietal eye is located at the top of their heads, and you can see this as an oddly colored scale in the center of the top of their heads.  What this does is sense heat and shadows, and possibly light.  In the wild, this serves as a warning if one of their main predators, birds, are swooping down at them.  It is also possible it helps them to bask.  

Source: http://beardeddragoncaresheet.weebly.com/general-info.html

Salmonella

Salmonella

More than 3/4 of reptiles carry Salmonella.  Salmonella in reptiles is contained in the digestive tract, and exits their body with their feces.  Touching a reptile's feces, even trace amounts, and then ingesting it can pass the Salmonella on to humans.  While usually an unpleasant but not serious illness, the old, the young, and the immune deficient can die from Salmonella.  However, there are ways to prevent infection. 

First, always wash your hands with an antibacterial soap after touching the lizard and/or his enclosure. 
Secondly, keep the reptile away from kitchens and dining rooms where food is prepared or eaten.  

Thirdly, dispose of lizard feces in the toilet or trash can, not the sink or bathtub.  Also, do not bathe the lizard in the same place where you will bathe an infant or young child. 


With care, transmission of Salmonella from reptile to human can be avoided.


Source:  http://beardeddragoncaresheet.weebly.com/general-info.html

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Breeding Beardies

Although it is too late in the season for this, I thought I would run the article now to give everyone something to think about for the Spring.  And, I will run this article again in February. Remember, females should be kept in a lowered temperature environment for at least two to four weeks before trying to breed.   Meanwhile read and research all you can about breeding beardies if you are interested.  There is lots of information on the internet and for the most part, they do not disagree with one another.  This article mainly deals with preparing your beardies to breed, creating the correct habitat and behavioral changes to observe.  For information on caring and hatching the eggs, I will give in the follow up article in February.

First, make sure you have a male and female, and, always quarantine new beardies-  have them checked by a vet before introducing a new potential mate to your established pet.  To successfully breed, it is best to place the female with a male of equal size or weight. It is recommended that females not be bred until they are at least 18 months old or more than 350 grams. So, you will need two suitable habitats for your beardies, not just one.

For optimum fertility, provide a period of decreased temperature and daylight hours, called brummation, for two to three months or a minimum of two to four weeks. Although many beardies successfully breed without a brummation period, you can expect decreased fertility if the rest period is not provided before breeding season.

After the brumation period, it is very important to ensure that the habitat is correct for the species. There should be a temperature gradient of 77 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit with a focal basking spot of 105 degrees. The beardies should be on a balanced diet with adequate calcium. The lizards must be in optimum condition -- especially the female -- because breeding, developing eggs and then laying eggs (called oviposition) takes a lot of metabolic energy and will take calcium from the female much as it does with humans.  Remember, full-spectrum lighting, including UVB, is necessary for proper calcium metabolism. Either natural sunlight (not filtered through glass or plastic) or an electric bulb that produces UVB is a necessity!

 Once a sexually mature male is ready to breed, its beard darkens. He will bob his head and stamp his front feet to gain the attention of a female. He may begin chasing her around the enclosure, and he may bite the base of the female’s neck while attempting to position himself for breeding. The male then everts a hemipenis and inserts it into the female’s cloaca. During this period it is crucial to observe the pairs to ensure that the male does not harm the female.  Remove the male if she is exhibiting fearful behaviours such as hiding, burrowing, excessive hand waving etc.

There should be enough room for two adult beardies to comfortably cohabitate, branches for each for climbing and a cave or nontoxic plant (or two) to allow one to retreat and hide from the other if necessary. Keep in mind that keeping your bearded dragons together is temporary. You will need two separate habitats in the long term as well as a separate suitable habitat for the hatchlings when the time comes.  I have seen some comments where owners think that the female cares for the hatchlings but that is not true and she may even see them as a food source.

Allow the pair to remain together for one week and then remove her for a week. Return her to the male’s cage again for another week, and remove her again for another week. Finally, put her with the male for one more week. At this time (if you have witnessed successful copulations), separate the pair and place the female in her own cage with a lay box.
A lay box is a plastic box filled with moist topsoil, or potting soil, placed in the cage at a slant. This box allows her to dig and oviposit her eggs. A female ready to lay will dig and pace to the corners of her cage.

A female usually lays her eggs four to six weeks after a successful mating. While developing her eggs inside the shell gland, she will appear fuller in the abdomen, and she may eat less and less. Eventually, she may stop eating altogether, though some don’t.

I am not going to go into removing the eggs, incubating the eggs, hatching out neonates and caring for the hatchlings. I just wanted you to show you that a whole lot more is involved in breeding beardies than simply putting a male and female together. Breeding requires dedication, preparation, planning and knowledge of the reproductive habits of these amazing agamid lizards.

I recommend you purchase a good text on bearded dragons or spend some time visiting some of the excellent bearded dragon websites out there. They will explain in greater detail what is involved in successfully breeding beardies and hatching the eggs.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Amazing Color Variations

Here are some amazing color variations I found on this site.  ENJOY

 Dachiu Bearded Dragon Pictures - Photo Gallery 1

Welcome to our Bearded Dragon Photo Gallery 1. All of the pictures below were taken before 2000.

** All the pictures below were taken by Robert Dachiu Jr. unless otherwise noted. The pictures may be used freely, but please do not represent them as your animals or pictures. Please place credit to Rob. It would also be appreciated if you post them publicly, if you would just drop us a link. Thank you and enjoy.


http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/hypo3.jpgHypoX Red Dragon

http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/y.jpgYellow Red Desert
http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/flamintiger.jpgFlamintiger
 http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/redflame6.jpgRedflame
 http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/hxp2.jpgHypoPastel
 http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/y1.jpgYellow and Lavender
 http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/ytangerine1.jpgYellow Tangerine
 http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/6msunburst.jpgSandfire Sunburst
http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/leather1.jpg  http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/csand1.jpgOrange Red Sandfire

http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/group.jpgMixed Batch

Go to their site to see other color variations.  http://www.dachiu.com/availabledragons.html?

These dragons are from their initial breeding stock and have all been retired but go to their site to see even greater color variations and very reasonable prices.  (No, I am not working on commission, I just really thought these beardies were beautiful and reasonably prices vs the store variety.)




Monday, September 3, 2012

More Dragon LOVE

How to Get Your Dragon to Eat Variety.

What to feed your Bearded Dragon What to feed your Bearded Dragon
Your Bearded Dragon is an omnivore, meaning that he needs a balanced diet of meat and vegetable matter. A hatchling dragon will eat mostly small insects. As your dragon grows, he will start to eat more vegetable matter. The diet of a juvenile dragon (2-4 months of age) will consist of approximately 80% insects and 20% greens. Young dragons should be fed 2-3 times daily. If insufficient food is fed, young dragons may nip at the tails and toes of their cage mate
    

How to Entice Variety
Pay attention to color and smell, time of day and heat of cage.  Make sure your beardie is sufficiently heated in the morning before offering food.  And after feeding, ensure there is approximately 8 hours of to assist with digestion. 

Slice portions thinly so that they can be wiggled and look like a worm but pinch them before offering so that the moisture and scent is released.

Offer food at a variety of times during the day to determine when your beardie is most hungry or interested in food.

Leave food items in a shallow dish so that they can be easily reached and consummed.  Don't leave them in overnight but remove and replace the next day with fresh items.

Keep notes of what your beardie does eat so that you can build a repertoire of accepted food choices.  Mix preferred foods in with new items to encourage accidental eating and new experiences.  Remember to always try a variety of foods, fruits/veg/meat items.


How Often to Feed
Some people suggest feeding in 'threes'.  Day 1 feed meat sources, day 2 feed a salad and day 3 give a rest.  I have found that my beardie likes a mix of meat and salad items and will voluntarily take a day off food after two or three days of eating.  I maintain the same amount of heat whether she has eaten that day or not.

How Much to Feed
 For a Bearded Dragon more than a year old, there should be roughly 70% salad and 30% insects. At this age a Bearded Dragon should get 50 crickets OR 30 worms a week.  For a Bearded Dragon less than a year old, there should be 70% insects and 30% salad in their diet. A young Bearded Dragon should get between 30-80 appropriately sized crickets (smaller than the space between the Bearded Dragon's eyes) a day. Before the age of 2 to 3 months, young Bearded Dragons should be fed 3-5 times a day. Between 3 and eight months, they should be fed twice a day. After eight months, they can be fed once a day.


Meat Food Sources
Be sure the size of food you feed is proportional to your dragon's size. Malnourishment, seizures, and intestinal blockages can occur if hatchlings and juveniles are fed insects too large for them to capture or digest.  As a rule of thumb, feed nothing bigger than the space between your beardie's eyes in order to avoid intestinal blockages.  Feeder insects should also be "gut-loaded," which means the insects are fed nutritious and vitamin-rich foods before they are given to the dragon. Feed your feeder insects food such as: ground legumes, corn meal, carrots, sweet potatoes, collard greens, mustard greens, broccoli, spinach, apples, oranges, cereals, and rolled oats. Several commercial products, formulated to be rich in calcium and vitamins, may also be used to gut-load feeder insects.


Plant Food Sources
Plant matter should make up approximately 20% of your dragon's diet and should consist mainly of green leafy vegetables. You may also include other vegetables. Fruit should make up the smallest portion of the diet. Shred or tear vegetables and fruits into small pieces and mix them together to encourage your dragon to eat all that is offered, and not just pick out his favorite foods. Following is a list of some popular plant-based dragon foods.
Greens Vegetables Fruit
  • escarole
  • kale
  • collards
  • parsley
  • clover
  • dandelion greens
  • turnip greens
  • mustard greens
  • beet greens-only occasionally
  • spinach-only occasionally
  • NEVER iceberg lettuce
  • broccoli
  • okra
  • peas
  • green beans
  • zucchini
  • squash
  • mashed/grated carrots
  • sweet potato
  • bell pepper
  • frozen mixed vegetables (warm up first)
  • figs
  • kiwi
  • papaya
  • melon
  • apples
  • grapes
  • dates
  • peaches
  • apricots
  • strawberries
    (seeds removed)
  • plums
  • bananas (peeled)

Being September, the blackberries are very ripe and delicious and my beardie LOVES them.  She eats one or two every few days.  This is a delight that she can enjoy for about a month and then they are out of season.  Be careful with seeds with small immature beardies as they can create a blockage.  Also don't let food mix with the cage substrate i.e. sand etc because the small particles caught on the food may also cause a digestion problem.  Use a saucer or small container lid.

Sources:  http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=824
                 http://www.bearded-dragon-food.com/
                 http://beardeddragoncaresheet.weebly.com/feeding-and-watering.html

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Brunation: Providing a Hide for your beardie

PROVIDING A “HIDE” FOR YOUR BEARDIE

In most cases, Bearded Dragons who are going to brumate will go down for their period of sleep on the cool side of their tanks or enclosures, as they rest better in cooler temperatures, away from the warmth of their lights.  This “hide” should be large enough to cover their entire body, but small enough that they will feel snug and safe during their period of deep sleep. 

The “hide” that you provide can be as ornate or as plain as you like, as long as you provide them with something, so that they can feel safe, protected and comfortable.
Many pet stores and online suppliers carry a large number of different styles....some made out of natural rock, or resin material, which look very nice, or even those that look like a cave, whose tops can double as a basking site, with silk or plastic vegetation attached to them. These will dress up their tanks, and can be used year round, but they can also be a bit pricey. Or you can simply provide them with an appropriately sized cardboard box with an entry hole in one end, placed upside down in the cooler end of their tank.  I made a cardboard cave alongside the full length of the back of my beardie's cage with openings large enough for her to go in and out of and the top wide enough for her to bask on.  She loves running in and out of the holes and climbing up and running along the top.  How plain or fancy you choose to go is totally up to you, and your own tastes, and pocketbook.  Your beardie isn’t going to care one way or the other, as long as he has a darkened protected area, away from his lights, to do his sleeping in.

People have suggested shortening the amount of time the lights remain on and then as Spring approaches increase the time of daylight, however, remember they need a minimum of at least 8 hours every day.  Do remember that your Beardie will decide when he wants to go into brumation and how long he/she is going to sleep.  Some beardies will brumate for a week at a time, others for a month up to two, it all depends on when they were born and their own inclinations.  It is recommended that if you are wanting to breed your beardie, brunation prior to breeding can be very helpful.  More on the topic of breeding beardies later.


Saturday, September 1, 2012

More Dragon Love

This video is really about Love for your Bearded Dragon and the bearded dragon reciprocating.  A really cute video!

Uploaded by on Nov 3, 2011
This is Steve-O, he is my beloved bearded dragon. Every night we snuggle until he falls asleep, then he is tucked into bed. Every morning he waits for me to uncover him to wake him up. It has been the same ritual for 2 years now, ever since he was a baby (see my other videos to see me waking him up as a baby).
After I wake him up, I love on him and talk to him, then his light is turned on and I place him under his heat light on the other side of his tank (the red glowing light). He sits under it while I eat breakfast. When I finish, I prepare his breakfast. His breakfast on this morning consisted of dandelion greens and superworms. On this particular morning he was not really hungry, witch is no problem, he will have some snacks when I get home from my classes.
This video really shows how Steve-O is not food driven and enjoys human company. He is my baby and I love him more than any other pet I have ever owned. He is one of the family and my mother even makes him pillows, blankets and calls him her grandlizard lol
I hope you all enjoy this video and see how great a bearded dragon can be as a pet. I will post more videos of Steve just being himself so subscribe if you want to see more!

Lincense:  Standard YouTube License.