hi all, anyone got experience of these? my 15 year old son has wanted one for a while. we went to a local reptile specialist today and I found them quite endearing(odd I know :-)). I had corn and garter snakes when I was younger but def prefer four legged pets. Any experiences appreciated.
Angela

My friend had one years ago, it passed away at a young age. I had a feeling even though she looked after it very well and was in the right cage, some just struggle being in a tank. It is expensive to set up with all the heat pads/lamps etc and the right tank.

I would probably join a group on reptiles to ask more questions and also read up on books on them. I like them, but i know i would get bored very quickly of them. Not exactly something to snuggle up to.
I believe when looked after right they can live a very long time.

do they eat crickets? i didnt mind the snakes we kept but when we had a praying mantis and a tarrantula they ate crickets. horrid noisy things that kept escaping! we had one behund the fridge for 3 months!

They do eat crickets among other things.

The setup shouldn't be a problem but I must admit the crickets might be the sticking point! hate creepy crawlies but chris says he will deal with it - can dogs eat crickets? LOL Koda always obliges with spiders! Will be doing some reading up first, I think thats part of the fun of looking forward to a new arrival! (not just yet tho).
Thanks
Angela

I'm sure she also fed it with live mice as well. That was a force to be reckoned with, couldn't sit there and watch that.Take the mouse in the mouth whole.

>I'm sure she also fed it with live mice as well.

I doubt it - the feeding of live food to reptiles is illegal. Even zoos have to kill the food first.

A live mouse could prob do a lot of damage to a BD, Even the adults take only pinkies (day old mice ~1g) I was told today that they are not to be fed anything bigger than the distance between their eyes as anything bigger can cause 'impaction' of their gut. Doing some research at home tonight it appears that the adults are primarily vegetarian  - so I think he will be getting an adult!! well he will if I get my way LOL. Dogs will be pleased they get to keep their chicken wings ;-)
Thanks for the advice - anyone else?
Angela

I'll be watching this thread with interest as my 15yr old would love a BD too. I really can't see the attraction myself! Although I admit I haven't actually met one yet :-)

Hi, my son as one, it is kept in a 4ft viv with a basking light and uv light. It feeds on crickets, locust, meal worms and wax worms, but only has wax worms as a treat as they are fattening. Along with the insects he as greens. Also as a treat he has strawberries, blackberries, apples grapes. He has his food dusted with a calcium powder. He is very easy to keep and they are a great little lizard which enjoys being handled and also likes to have a shallow bath.

We seriously looked into getting one. They are meant to be a great lizard for a first time owner as they are easy to keep and handle compared with some of the others. I love them think they are fab.

Well we have decided to take the plunge and are going back to the specialist today to discuss it further. I think the guy thinks I'm a bit mad but any pet is a responsibility and I want to get things right.  Can't wait though!
Angela

I bred bearded dragons until this summer.  They're a lovely lizard to own and very easy to keep, you will need more than 1 viv mind, as babies they need a smaller viv otherwise dinner is out of their reach and they spend too much time and energy trying to catch it.

I start them in a small plastic viv with a D3 light which will give them the required UV % they need to make use of the calcium in their food, plus a normal spot bulb for heat with a dimmer state to control the temps. I also start them on newspaper so they don't eat any of their substrate,  as babies i a higher % livefood to veg, depending on how the breeder has started them off.  Livefood needs to be dusted with a calcium supplement daily for a young baby but depending on age when you get it you usually do it once every other day with 1 feed.  I used to rear my own Cockroaches but then I had 8 adults plus their young so a good sized colony was a lot cheaper than buying it in.

As they get larger and mature you will need a final viv of 4 ft x 2 x 2ft or bigger if you wish, not too big mind as they can get stressed  in a large environment as their instincts tell them they're open to danger.  You need to grill your breeder to ensure you do the same and don't worry if the baby takes a wk to start feeding this is normal, as is going to sleep Brumation for wks anytime of the year - they're supposed to do it in winter as adults, some just haven't read the books.  A very young baby shouldn't do this and if it does start to slow down turn the temps up to keep it awake.

Good look they're great creatures and miss mine terribly but my health is getting the better of me and my friend who looks after my animals was terrified of them!

> Well we have decided to take the plunge and are going back to the specialist today to discuss it further. I think the guy thinks I'm a bit mad but any pet is a responsibility and I want to get things right

good for you.

i've always been rather partial to them as well. if i got one i'd call it Long (chinese for dragon)

worse thing about crickets was trying to get one out of a box with loads in! someone i knew kept them in a big plastic dustbin so they cant get out but you still need to pick them up to feed

You put the tub of crickets into the fridge for 10 mins, makes them go to sleep.  You then take them to the viv pull out however many you want to feed and put them in said viv - bearded gets used to the idea of a slow moving dinner so polishes a lot off quite quickly - have to say mind once in the viv they are up and running in about 20 seconds lol.  Also helps to get bearded feeding on all the crickets rather than have them escaping out the air vents, I used tights cut up over the airvents to allow the air to flow freely but not the crickets or roaches lol.

Thanks for the advice Schipp thats great :-) - one question regarding feeding, when we went back today noone was able to tell us approximately how many crickets a day they eat (to give us some idea of how much they cost to feed) How many would you expect a 3 month old to eat?
Thanks again.
Angela

When i said mice must of been thinking about something else. Sorry..

No problem! LOL
Angela

The basic answer is each animal is individual but you put a few in at a time and whatever they feed on in 5 mins is a good amount, I used to put them in the fridge and just offer a couple at a time to see what they ate.  Any left at night need to be collected up again so they don't bite the baby whilst it sleeps overnight.

Well our new arrivals are here!(arrived Wed) We now have 2, 3 month old Sandfire beardies (realise in around 6 months will need to slit) no names as yet but they are very friendly and lively. The crickets are in situ and I am almost at the point of picking them up (in fridge and forceps until then) and they are eating well. Thanks to everyone for the advice.
Angela

Hehehe are you going to SLIT them right down the middle?? hahaha...sorry couldn't resist! ;-) I am a tad jealous, I love Geckos and Bearded Dragons...

LOL! must watch my 'p's and 'q's

Well, it would be very messy ya know! :-)

awww i do like BD they defo are a great first lizard :-) i want to get 2 leopard geckos but finding it hard to pursuade OH! i really like water dragons aswell they are nice :-) good luck with your new pets

We have one, he was givin to us a couple of years back- they named him Fluffy lol

We had an iguanna awhile back who was so friendly and I love beardeds more since they are alot smaller and easier to handle... We keep ours in a fish tank with all natural calcium sand http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752699  We hand feed him meal worms as we found them to be much cleaner then crickets. I do give crickets sometimes but not to often, and also grasshoppers or whatever I find. I also try to provide fresh veggies but he really doesn't care for them because the owners before us always had live food in the tank. You will also find if you drop water on their heads they will tilt their head and drink the water as it falls down as this is how they drink in the wild, I use a squirt bottle lol I also have a big basin of water in the tank for him.
We use 2 different lights one for heat and one for UVB http://www.petsmart.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=reptile%20basking%20lights&origkw=reptile%20basking%20lights&sr=1

Enjoy your lil bearded I find them so friendly- they remind me of dogs except alot more prickly hahah