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bearded dragon care sheet?


livingart

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in the rep and amphib section

and invite others to add points just like this thread

as people have raised points that others agreed on i altered or added them to the original care sheet

it is good to get different peoples perspectives and experiences on their care in nz

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if housing indoors, during summer you can have an enclosure outside for your lizard to have access to natural sunlight. Just make sure they can get out of the direct sun if need be, and provide a water dish as per normal.

could add somthing along those lines if it hasnt been said already if you like.....

anyone else...any thing....even the smallest things you may of observed or what ever maybe a big help to others?

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Should we add something about feeding too much rich food until the beardie gets too fat and that they will be OK fed only six days per week. Because reptile maturity is more to do with size than age I think sometimes there is a tendancy to overfeed, particularly with rich foods and this can cause problems like obesity or metabolic bone disease.

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Should we add something about feeding too much rich food until the beardie gets too fat and that they will be OK fed only six days per week. Because reptile maturity is more to do with size than age I think sometimes there is a tendancy to overfeed, particularly with rich foods and this can cause problems like obesity or metabolic bone disease.

Just my opinion...in nature beardies (like many other species including leopard geckos, bluetongues, water dragons, frogs, box torts) are feast or famine.....that is the very reason why reptiles exist and thrive in harsh environs.

Provided you offer the right foods then it is impossible to over feed. Obviously don't offer your dragon 500 waxworms in a session (extremely high in fat and not an insect the dragon would eat in nature), but offering as many locusts or crickets or mealworms as they can eat as often as you want is not an issue. The only thing I have noticed is that dragons well fed on bugs are less likely to eat greens. Alanmin: Metabolic bone disease can only be caused by not enough calcium, or no UVA/UVB to convert it into body tissue.

The only probelm I see in terms of overfeeding is over supplementation of vitamins or calcium- so as I said earlier do it once a week for calcium and no need to even bother with the vitamins provided you feed a variety of foods.

If your dragon is fat then it is as the result of inactivity ( have you brumated it) or lack of exercise....which is why you need a large enclosure or give your dragon the ability to have a wander round in a large outdoor cage or deck or balcony or supervised run on the grass at least once a week.....they run ALL over the place non-stop.

The way people like Repto or Sneaky or ReptileNutt keep their animals is the right way- lots of room and the animal regulates its own body. If you want to have a pet whereby you can control every aspect of its life then get a mouse.

Too many people adopt methods or create theories that are over complicated (big trend in American reptile literature) and melodramatic...applies to food, temp, incubating, bathing, humidity, substrate, 'my dragon turned black this morning because I was late feeding him :facepalm: ' etc.

As Repto said earlier don't over think it (temperatures), just imitate the environment where the animal evolved. According to the US 'experts' basking spot needs to be within a 4 degrees celsius range and you can't drop temps under 65 fahrenheit- CRAP!!!!!!!

Inland Bearded Dragons are found over a truly massage range. They can tolerate heat/cold, no food/lots of food, no water/flooding....they are hugely resistant to insect venom (bees and wasps) and have the ability to eat almost anything....if it moves and it fits in my mouth I will try and eat it.

For example if a beardie comes across a large food source in the wild he will pig out, and often there will be massive numbers of locusts for several weeks in a row. He won't think, 'hmmmm maybe I should watch my weight'. You must have all heard about only feeding young prey items that are less in length than the width of the dragons head- OMG...you really think that a baby beardie in the wild uses this method to assess whether it eats a bug??????

Just feed the right foods and offer variety. Give the animal an environment that allows it to exhibit its natural behaviour...simple.

I know some of you have become involved in this hobby after being involved in other hobbies that are very technical- breeding discus/horticulture etc and that it makes sense to want to be as technical as possible but you can over do it.

A dragon in a large outdoor cage that is fed once a week on bugs and finds it own greens has a way better quality of life (and they live longer) than one in a 4 foot tank that gets exactly 14 hours of fluorotube and a basking spot that is exactly the perfect temp, is fed locusts every second day and crickets every third day and has its food dusted with vitamins on Mon, Tues, Wed and gets to wander round in the lounge during Coro Street twice a week......you get the drift.

Just adopt basic common sense and observe your animals behaviour.

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