the beardies im getting on the 6th march - Page 2

ilovemypets1988 · 02-24-13, 06:34 AM

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 · 02-24-13, 07:12 AM

At Beardsforlife

Why are you bathing your dragon every week?

Valvaren · 02-24-13, 09:29 AM

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 · 02-24-13, 09:47 AM

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 · 02-24-13, 10:09 AM

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 · 02-24-13, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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

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 · 02-24-13, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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 · 02-24-13, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NBLADE

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 · 02-28-13, 11:17 PM

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 · 03-01-13, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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 · 03-01-13, 11:42 AM

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 · 03-01-13, 03:01 PM

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 · 03-01-13, 03:33 PM

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

beardeds4life · 03-01-13, 06:53 PM

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 · 03-01-13, 06:58 PM

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.