the beardies im getting on the 6th march

[ilovemypets1988]

here we are guys, pics of the dragons im acquiring on the 6th march:

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/myfuturebeardeddragons.jpg
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/babybeardy3.jpg
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/babybeardy2.jpg
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/futureadultbeardie2.jpg
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/579631_10151280124008240_1283675492_n.jpg
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/556290_10151280124973240_315091624_n.jpg
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/531488_10151280123848240_155199856_n.jpg
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/183926_10151280123678240_526530771_n.jpg

hope you all enjoyed

[Ms. Medusa]

Wow--- seems like you will have a full house with them! Lol Too cute! Beardies are so cute!

[ilovemypets1988]

lol yep, im getting the 2 babies (1 with a kink but im taking that on as a favour) and 2 adult males :)

[beardeds4life]

I hope you have 4 different enclosures setup and ready....

Anyway I especially like the first adult you showed.

[ilovemypets1988]

I hope you have 4 different enclosures setup and ready....

Anyway I especially like the first adult you showed.

no i got 3 coming tonight, the babies will be in together for about a month (they hatched 12th jan), yh hes gawjus although i really dont know what morph he is though :D

[Valvaren]

Those babies already look like they've had enough time together already, both look to be missing at least half their tail. It's saddening to know they'll have to continue to deal with that for a month.

I'd also like a shot of the second adult when you get him, I can see signs of possible MBD.

[ilovemypets1988]

the pics were taken when they were a week old so the tails still hadnt developed my guess is, i aint sure, the 2 adults are coming as rescues so i really aint sure tbh, ill take better pics when ive got them

[Valvaren]

Uh no, their tails were bitten off, the tails don't have to develop, beardies are notorious for biting off toes, and tails and faces of clutch mates, even known to kill. Good luck.

[beardeds4life]

After looking back at the the pictures I agree Valvaren that he could have MBD. I also agree that they should be separated ASAP. I think that you should do some more research before you get them because any reliable source would mention tail nips. Furthermore if the breeder/owner didn't tell you that the had nipped tails that seems like a dishonest person. That is something that is standard to inform the buyer and they should have been marked down by probably 25-50 dollars per baby because of that. I would not put it past this guy to sell you a dragon with MBD too. If you don't mind me asking how much did you pay for them? You might have just gotten ripped off. If you need some links to good care sheets I am sure Valvaren and myself could give you some links.

I also would like to know how your habitats are setup. Just to make sure. I really hope you are up to the cost of feeding the two little ones especially. I would say it will cost you at least 100 to 150 a month. That is because I spent at least 50 a month when mine was growing up and I found that a lot of people spent the same if not more.

[ilovemypets1988]

the 2 adults are costing me £25 each and the babies are £10 each (£25 = $38 and £10 = $15).

as for the habitat, il building a 6 x 7 foot viv which will be sectiones off into 3 3fters and 3 4fters and there will be a custom made habitat in each 1 using plastoparis (i think thats what its called) that will be painted and have sand stuck on it to help with the filing down with the nails :)

once completed ill post pics of the end result :D

[beardeds4life]

Ok that is good that you did not get ripped off in terms of price. They could still have sent you MBD dragons. I also think that it might be a better use of space if you built 4 stacking cages that were each 4 foot by 2 foot.

[ilovemypets1988]

Ok that is good that you did not get ripped off in terms of price. They could still have sent you MBD dragons. I also think that it might be a better use of space if you built 4 stacking cages that were each 4 foot by 2 foot.

i can only have a 3 high stack at the very most, hence the idea with the 7 x 6 thing, if i could i would have tons of vivs but im working with a very small room thats 10ft long x 3ft 7" wide and its right next to my sons room so 6ft is the maximum height i can go to.

but for reference purposes as its not mine, ill be building a habitat similar to this:
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/Beardietank.jpg

[Valvaren]

Your lucky you only spent 50 a month on your baby, when I got my girl I was spending 30 a week without veggies and I still wasn't feeding her till she was full every meal, it was all I could afford at the time.

[ilovemypets1988]

ill be breeding roaches for them eventually so live feed (hopefully) wont be too bad tbh and i have a 16 month son who loves fruit and veg as i do, so those wont be either as we have them in the house anyway

[beardeds4life]

I hope you know it takes about 8 months to get a good roach colony setup that you can feed out of. And it costs a couple hundred dollars to get a decent amount of roaches that will support 4 dragons in only 8 months. What Valvaren was paying is more about average. The only way I was able to keep my costs so low was because a huge online supply store's store front is close to me. They have great prices. That is extremely rare though. I really do not think you know what you got yourself into. If you did you wouldn't have bought 4 dragons at a time. It will be a huge adjustment because all those cages will need cleaned at least spot cleaned daily. For all 4 dragons spot cleaning will probably take at least half an hour. Then you have to prepare salads every couple days which takes about 20 to 30 minutes to make a couple days worth because, if you give them a good diet, there will be lots of chopping. Then every dragon will need a 20 minute bath every week. I haven't even got to the worst of it. Your electricity bill will skyrocket. I bought a small device that you plug into the wall then you plug the cord into that. It told me how much electricity I used each day, week, and month then I used that to figure out how much it cost me. For my one dragon enclosure it cost me 25 dollars a month in electricity. Times that by 4 for your case.

I do not want to scare you away because these are awesome animals but I want you to be prepared because I would hate to see you have to rehome some of them.

[ilovemypets1988]

i do appreciate what your saying guys, im lucky to live in the uk as things with reptiles seems to be cheaper here, ill give an example:

i can get a tub of live food for £2 ($3) each
and can get 10 tubs for around £15 ($23 or so)

now i cant say how long the average tub will last let alone 10 of them so i cant judge that really.

where as fruit and veg i can get several different bags at £1 each (for example a bag of oranges which has around 10 oranges in)

and by comparison, over there in america, the same products seems to be alot more expensive whether this is true or not i dont know.

[KORBIN5895]

At Beardsforlife

Why are you bathing your dragon every week?

[Valvaren]

I bath my Dragon very often, used to be every day now it's usually once a week or more. I find she enjoys moving around more in the water and she has also been 'trained' to put in the bath. It has had no ill effects over the passed 3 years and I will continue to do so.

[ilovemypets1988]

this may be a stupid question to some people but can you bathe 2 male dragons together, its just something im curious about as i know in a viv there would be territorial fighting and you can have them out of the vivs at the same time so im wondering if bathing the 2 is possible

[Valvaren]

I wouldn't even have them out of the viv at the same time. I know people have to go so far as to cover one males viv when they have the other out as the males will fight through glass

[ilovemypets1988]

I wouldn't even have them out of the viv at the same time. I know people have to go so far as to cover one males viv when they have the other out as the males will fight through glass

oh ok, thanx for that, i wont be doing that then and again thanx for letting me know before i made a huge mistake which id rather avoid, as i said, im getting them on the 6th so im looking certain things up as we speak and the same with getting advice about things im not to sure about

[NBLADE]

I hope you know it takes about 8 months to get a good roach colony setup that you can feed out of. And it costs a couple hundred dollars to get a decent amount of roaches that will support 4 dragons in only 8 months. What Valvaren was paying is more about average. The only way I was able to keep my costs so low was because a huge online supply store's store front is close to me. They have great prices. That is extremely rare though. I really do not think you know what you got yourself into. If you did you wouldn't have bought 4 dragons at a time. It will be a huge adjustment because all those cages will need cleaned at least spot cleaned daily. For all 4 dragons spot cleaning will probably take at least half an hour. Then you have to prepare salads every couple days which takes about 20 to 30 minutes to make a couple days worth because, if you give them a good diet, there will be lots of chopping. Then every dragon will need a 20 minute bath every week. I haven't even got to the worst of it. Your electricity bill will skyrocket. I bought a small device that you plug into the wall then you plug the cord into that. It told me how much electricity I used each day, week, and month then I used that to figure out how much it cost me. For my one dragon enclosure it cost me 25 dollars a month in electricity. Times that by 4 for your case.

I do not want to scare you away because these are awesome animals but I want you to be prepared because I would hate to see you have to rehome some of them.

I don't bath any of my dragons, they get enough moisture from wet greens, and from the occassional spray on their noses which they lick off, i've only ever bathed silk back dragons that have had shedding issues, as for spot cleaning taking half an hr on 4 cages, i can do spot cleaning on over 100 cages in less than half an hr, spot cleaning to me, is removing any poo, so a quick scoop out of that, or wipe down if using tiles, and removing any uneaten veg and replacing it with fresh, so a cage takes me a few seconds to do, for a full clean yea looking around 10 to 15 mins per cage to remove everything and give it a clean down then put fresh stuff back in.

Beardeds do eat loads, but ive raised loads of beardeds on less than a tenner a week, it all depends on how much you are paying for food, food over here is cheap, and as for electricity, running 4 cages, may increase the price over here by a few quid a week, maybe a tenner a month extra, which in the grand scheme of things isn't much really.

I do agree taking on 4 dragons at once when new to beardeds is a big step, especially if there are issues with them, but with the correct advice and care, the op shouldn't have an issue.

[ilovemypets1988]

I don't bath any of my dragons, they get enough moisture from wet greens, and from the occassional spray on their noses which they lick off, i've only ever bathed silk back dragons that have had shedding issues, as for spot cleaning taking half an hr on 4 cages, i can do spot cleaning on over 100 cages in less than half an hr, spot cleaning to me, is removing any poo, so a quick scoop out of that, or wipe down if using tiles, and removing any uneaten veg and replacing it with fresh, so a cage takes me a few seconds to do, for a full clean yea looking around 10 to 15 mins per cage to remove everything and give it a clean down then put fresh stuff back in.

Beardeds do eat loads, but ive raised loads of beardeds on less than a tenner a week, it all depends on how much you are paying for food, food over here is cheap, and as for electricity, running 4 cages, may increase the price over here by a few quid a week, maybe a tenner a month extra, which in the grand scheme of things isn't much really.

I do agree taking on 4 dragons at once when new to beardeds is a big step, especially if there are issues with them, but with the correct advice and care, the op shouldn't have an issue.

in total ive done over 100 hours of research on bearded dragons so i know the basics and needed a few things ironed out, plus im no rookie to reptiles anyway, i have kept snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, geckos but is only now getting into beardies as its (in my opinion) the best route to go down with a 16 month old baby. i was originally only getting the 2 babies but would like my son to beable to touch and be around them to get used to them so i took the choice to get 2 adults aswell so i dont need to worry about my son hurting the babies :)

although i must admit, being on a prepayment meter also helps as i know exactly how much electric im using at any 1 time.

ill probably be getting my live food off ebay (from a local source) or a reptile shop thats only minutes up the road.

fruit and veg i buy anyway so that wont be any extra cost.

cleaning cages, well it took me 30 mins to do 6 tarantulas, 5 snakes, 4 scorpions and a group of leos so it wont take me that long to do 4 beardies.

forgot to say that i quoted you nblade to basically say i agree, i may not know everything but i do know the basics and how to keep them alive and healthy, ive already been looking for vets to get a vet check within a week of getting them, also i wont be bathing them every week but once a fortnight if needed.

[beardeds4life]

Bathing is not necessary but I prefer to because mine and I know a lot of other people's run through their new poop and I dont like my dragon with poop on her feet. And it is how she is used to drinking.

[NBLADE]

Bathing is not necessary but I prefer to because mine and I know a lot of other people's run through their new poop and I dont like my dragon with poop on her feet. And it is how she is used to drinking.

This parts definitely true lol, a bath every now and then when they get themselves all covered in poo is handy to clean them up, but i don't do it for hydration purposes.

[ilovemypets1988]

little bit of bad news, 1 of the baby bearded dragons that i was gunna buy, passed away last night.

it died because it was born with a kink and we had our suspicions that it would, however the other baby is the biggest of the clutch and doing very well

[KORBIN5895]

Honestly I would back out now. They don't look healthy and for that one to just die says a lot about the seller's husbandry and ethics. Who sells sick animals?

[Valvaren]

I agree with Korbin completely, your just going to end up hurt.

[beardeds4life]

I agree. From the first time you posted pictures I had my doubts but now that one "randomly" died I would highly recommend going elsewhere. This guy doesn't deserve your money. Since these animals are very popular there are a lot of much better breeders.

Furthermore they don't die from a kink. That wouldn't affect them at all. As long as they were eating and pooping (which means that their insides are probably formed correctly) there was something else going on.

[beardeds4life]

Also since BOTH babies had nipped tails that tells me that 1. they were not getting fed enough or 2. that they had way to many in a single enclosure. The biggest baby should be the dominant one and probably would not be nipped. And after looking back at the pictures the bigger baby has a kinked tail. So the alive one should not be the biggest of the clutch. Did the seller tell you beforehand that it was probably going to die or did he tell you he had his suspicions after? There is not really any way to know that it is going to die. I have a ffeeling he told you that after so that you would not back out of the deal.

[ilovemypets1988]

she told me from the start that theres a possibility that the baby (kinky the name was) would die, plus i pushed her to sell it to me as i like "unique features", ive got new pics of the 2 adults, so ill post them in a few mins, so you have a better view of them

[ilovemypets1988]

heres the new pics of them:
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/601445_10151308925923240_292516478_n.jpg
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/549248_10151308925758240_1578833550_n.jpg
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/33976_10151308928633240_1393064179_n.jpg

[KORBIN5895]

I still can't believe they charged you for a sick and defective animal.

[NBLADE]

heres the new pics of them:
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/601445_10151308925923240_292516478_n.jpg
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/549248_10151308925758240_1578833550_n.jpg
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k514/Daniel_Barton/my%20beardies/33976_10151308928633240_1393064179_n.jpg


That baby is not in good health at all, the adults don't look in too bad a condition, although the black beard on the second male is a stress indicator, but probably from the way they have sat him. I wouldn't be spending money on the baby.