I a Beared Dragon a good frist reptile?

Question

ok i am turning 16 with in the week and i have always wanted a bearded dragon. i want to get one. i even bought a started kit from the pet shop it has a 10 gallon tank,a heat lamp, a heating rock and sand and food bowls...but i was wondering if bearded dragons can eat meal worms and crickets like 3 or 5 times a month. and also sum advice and info from someone who has had experience with dragons ? i've done lots of research but still want more info

i have food dishes al ready and i planned on gettin a medium sized lizard and the u.v light and bedding tommrow

the closest place that sales crickets is 50 miles away but would i be able to catch the ones i have out back in my yard

ok i looked opened the heat rock last night and got the cage set up...the rock dose not plug in it says to put the rock under the heat light in the cage and that the rock will gather heat from the light ??? also i can get crickets once a week to once very 2 weeks..but i can get meal worms everyday...yes i also know to feed it veggies and such. i was also wondering has anyone seen the red cubes they make that look like meat that the guy at the pet shop told me was for protein he gave me a fee sample for when i get my lizard. im getting my lizard from a pet shop in rock springs, Wyoming. yes it dose get very cold here but they guy at the pet shop says if i get the temp right the climate here dose not affect them much plus my house is always warm. also my friend has given me a 35 gallon tank which i hope should be ok.

Answer 1

Hi, Here is some info that will best tell you what to feed and how often. I have had a Bearded Dragon and found her to be easy to care for.
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Feeding Bearded Dragons

Feeding Bearded Dragons is not very difficult since they eat insects as well as vegetables and fruits. Juvenile beardies should be feed about 50% insects and 50% veggies/fruit. Adults should be fed more veggies/fruit than insects. For both ages less than 20% of the veggie portion should be fruits.

Bearded Dragons’ food should also be supplemented with a calcium supplement, such as Rep-Cal. It should not be necessary to use a vitamin supplement if the beardies are being well fed. However, you can use multi-vitamin supplements, such as Herptivite, very sparingly. I do not recommend using it more than once every two weeks…Once a month is usually sufficient. Over using a vitamin supplement can cause vitamin A toxicity…Some brands of these vitamin supplements are very high in vitamin A, which can cause multiple health problems, such as lowering calcium to fatal levels. To feed the supplements to beardies sprinkle a pinch on the veggies or place the insects in a jar or bag and shake them gently in the supplement powder (this is called "dusting") just before feeding.

Crickets and other insects: Crickets make up the basis of their insect diet. Mealworms, wax worms and superworms can also be fed for variety to lizards that are older than one month. Appropriately-sized crickets are approximately 1/3 the size of the lizard's head. Be sure to feed the insects well themselves...Your beardie will get much more nutrition from a well fed insect. ”Gut-loading” is the term used for the process of feeding nutritious foods (such as from the vegetable/fruit lists below) to the crickets or other insects before they are then fed to the lizard.

Answer 2

actually he did get most of that right, although 100 crickets a day does sound like a lot, i only went through that many back when i had 15 lizards that were going through a measure of crickets a week. please do not try to catch crickets yourself, they may have pesticides on them or parasites and the odds are that you will not be able to catch enough of them to keep your beardie fed. try going to a local bait shop and seeing if they carry crickets(this was the cheapest way to get crickets back where i used to live) if you can't find a bait shop then try going online and getting your mom or dad to order you some, just put the ones you don't feed to your dragon into a large critter keeper full of cardboard egg cartons for later.
molly is right, no heat rocks, however
-don't use edible sand, this is made of calciumand if the dragons are not getting proper calcium and nutrients from they're diet they will try getting it from the sand and even though it says that the sand is digestible it will cause impaction. babies are best not kept on sand.
-if a beardie eats a cricket bigger than between it's eyes IT WILL NOT GET PARALYZED it will merely have a harder time eating the cricket. that is the most ridiculous thing i've heard in a long time
-mealworms are an excellent source of food, the only issue is that they are a bit high in a vitamin/mineral/nurtient/fat something i can't remember at the moment

Answer 3

Bearded dragons can be a good first reptile IF you are willing to spend the money on the proper habitat and handle it at least once a day. A ten gallon tank will not last you very long-- an adult bearded dragon will need (at MINIMUM) a 40 gallon tank (2 ft X 2 ft square) to live in. Other essentials: a UV light such as the ZooMed reptisun 10.0 (if you do not provide adequate uv, your bearded dragon will not metabolize calcium or have a very good appetite and this will ultimately result in death), a heat lamp and lightbulb, a temperature gun (the thermometers sold at petstores are rarely accurate unless you get a digital one...but you'll need a few of those) to check that the basking spot (also crucial to digestion) is between 100-110 degrees and that the cooler side of the tank is between 70-85 degrees.

You will also need to provide crickets twice daily, and juvenile bearded dragons can eat up to 100 a day... if the petstores around your town charge the same as mine, you'll know that crickets usually go for about $1.00 a dozen. This gets expensive, so your best option is usually to buy in bulk online. You can try feeding canned crickets, but many bearded dragons won't eat them--they like to eat moving things. anyway, you'll need a way to store your crickets, and if you buy in bulk, you'll probably want another 10 gallon tank...just to store your crickets. and they can get smelly. You will also need to feed your crickets. There is this stuff called "gut load" and a number of brands sell it--it is basically cricket food with lots of calcium and vitamins that will make the crickets more nutritional for your lizard.

also, this is important: DON'T USE SAND FOR BABY BEARDED DRAGONS. I know that pet stores sell it, and the packaging says it can be beneficial if your lizard eats it, but its a load of crap. just do a search on bearded dragon impaction and see what you find. there are many documented cases of bearded dragons ingesting too much sand and dying. They do not live on sand in the wild--they live on dirt/hard dirt. there are a number of alternatives to sand (and crushed walnut shells--those are bad, too)--my favorite is nonadhesive shelf liner (its that soft rubbery sort of mat a couple millimeters thick that you can buy really cheaply in rolls) because you can wipe up their poop and clean it really easily. you'll also need to clean up their poop daily.

anyway, I hope that helped. a great website to get advice and info on is beardeddragon.org

Answer 4

Whoa whoa you got most of this wrong....

NO HEAT ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They burn the skin!!!

Also, 10 gallon tanks are too small!!! 20 gallon tanks are okay, but the best are 40 gallon breeders.

Make sure the sand is edible or it can give the beardie digesting problems that can be fatal.

THEY NEED TO EAT EVERYDAY! The crickets can be no bigger than the length from eye to eye. If they are bigger, it can paralyze them!!

NO MEALWORMS! They provide barely any nutrition to the beardie. They are mostly shell.

You also have to be ready for sickness just in case. YOU CANT ALWAYS DEPEND ON MOM THOUGH! Make sure you have the money!!!

So lets add this all up-

40 gallon breeder- about $90-$100
Water bowl- $2
Crickets- Lots of money!!
Beardie itself- Depends on what kind (can get expensive!!)
UVB light- $10
Heat pad- $10

So all the stuff you can actually buy for the tank is about $122 plus vet bills and crickets.

Use Paper towels as a substrate.
Use UVB bulb as a light source. You also NEED heating pads so they can easily digest food.

YOU REALLY NEED TO DO LOOOOOTS MORE RESEARCH CAUSE MOST OF THE STUFF YOU HAVE WAS THE WRONG THING TO GET!!!!

Answer 5

hi there
great personality great first time pet and only grows 18 inches they love to be held as well..
just to let u know never use a heat rock it will burn the poor thing even has kill reptiles
another thing is never use sand it causes impaction and it will die ... just FYI ... we have beardies and bread them and they have to be at lease a yr old b4 u use sand in their tank...juveniles and babies tend to eat it which in turn causes them to be impacted and die.. sand is glass and it will also chew their intestines to hell we made that mistake yrs ago and had our adult die a very nasty death from eating sand if u want to keep the heat rock best thing to do is cut the cord and put a heat lamp over it .. it's much safer then a heat rock.....
and on the cricket situation u can buy them by the 1000 just need a potato and some bran and keep them in a lg plastic container with hold drilled in the lid and with egg cartons for them to hide and crickets are easy to set up a colony 2 inches of dirt some bran and few cut potatoes and about 50-60 crickets a month later u have baby crickets running around... they look like fleas at first and a egg carton for them to hide keep the dirt most not wet ....
for more info on beardies and their basic care food heat etc. come visit our info website under the lizards section
hope this helps...

Answer 6

They can definitely eat crickets & woodroaches 3 -5 times a month, but i hope you are going to feed a lot of other things inbetween. Live insects(as above) 3 -5 times a week is what i hope you meant, plus lots of veges and flowers in between. I would also get a juvenile with that size tank, they need room to move.Watch the heat rock, they can burn, i dont like them! as for the 1st reptile, very good and easy, just make sure you look into it. some snakes are easier to manage, but beardies are great pets! If you cant get easy access to crickets and woodies, they are so easy to breed yourself, plastic tubs, vents, peat moss, sponge, put them in and feed them, also keep them warm, before you know it, youve got heaps.Blue tongues are an easier 1st reptile if you want to try them.

Answer 7

Honestly, I believe a Chinese Water Dragon would be a better first reptile. Eating, Habitat and all are similiar, although Water Dragons eat meat and you have to feed them rat pups, fuzzies and various other meat substances that are a bit of money. Yet, they are much more sociable and friendly than other reptiles. A lot more fun, too. Check out this site for some great info: http://www.triciaswaterdragon.com/index.html
Also, please don't use heat rocks! They will actually burn the reptiles.

Answer 8

Bearded Dragons are very friendly and for my 14th B-day two weeks ago I was going to get one but when I got to the pet store I fell in love with the Green Iguana!! Green Iguanas arn't as Friendly and grow to almost 6ft!! They are also vegitarian but if you know enough about Bearded Dragons then you should get one!! Im not sure but you could contact your local vet and see if they could get crickets dillivered to there clinic!! At least it would be nearer! Sorry I don't know more!! Hope this helps!!

Answer 9

well, yeah if you want your first reptile to be big, the bearded dragons get quite large. I would start with a smaller reptile, but if your up for it go get it! you already have the equipment for it, when it gets bigger you might want a bigger tank. I have an anole now as a first reptile, because i like the smaller animals, and they're only about 9 in. with a tail counted, so if you can handle a larger animal and have always wanted one i say go for it!

Answer 10

where are you getting the bearded dragon from?
Bearded dragons like a hot climate and don't do well in winter.
If you can access your local pet store then you can get live crickets for $9 a box.