*rauses hands* I HAVE ONE!
She is 3 years old and she looooooooooooves food!
Congrats on your decision to own one! ^ͺ^
*Lots of info, sorry for typos!
Firstly- the beardies you will see at nearly any pet store are babies! As far as the vivarium you NEED to look into a long, horizontal tank when they are adults at least 40 gallons or larger. As babies, a ten gallon will work fine for one BUT they will NEED a large tank as an adult. For Zoë we straight up got a 45 gallon from Petco for the $1 per gallon sale which they do in june!
Lights- SUPER important please take time to read! Beardies are diurnal desert lizzies so they NEED UVA/UVB spectrum bulbs AND a desert heating light- Petsmart has the best value bulbs that include the light fixure for the UVA/UVB light for around $30 bucks and dont forget to change every six months!!!! A beardie without the UVA/UVB will develop deformities and have trouble shedding. Put the UVA/UVB light in the middle of the tank wall/coverscreen. Next for bulbs is their heating bulb, typical beardie basking spot needs to reach about 91°F and put that bulb at one end of the tank only (not in the middle like the UVA/UVB so beardie has a basking spot and a dark cooling spot. Basking light only needs to be changed if light burns out, i recondmend using grapewood branches as basking spot perches, found at most pet stores! :-)
-Substrate. IMPORTANT. As an experienced reptile owner I do NOT recondmend sand. Baby or adult!!! To be very very honest the BEST thing to use as substrate is about 2 large floor tiles from Home Depot! Not only can the beardie not ingest sand from the tiles (which btw sand can kill lizards, causing impaction when they accidently consume it eating their food) but it also keeps their nails super trim!
Zoë has always had tile, occasionally I will add a dig box for her to play in when she isnt eatting and remove it when she is about to go to bed. People will claim sand is 'safe' as long as ypu dont feed them over sand- EEERRRRRRR! Beardies, like Leo's and Uro's, always tend to 'taste test' anything they come close to so sand is a still a big no-no for substrate.
Handling- of course you can handle the babies!!!! Zoë loved to be held, but we only held her inside her viv until she got big because she is a hyper beardie and loved to jump and run. When she got big, we started letting her play in the living room and run aroundbecause she is too big to hide under our furniture. I will argue the more you hold your bearded dragn from hatchlinghood, the nicer and friendlier it might be as an adult!Mine likes to be held by my friends probably because of how much i held her as a baby.
Feeding- im adding this info for you! Baby beardies are PIGS!!! Babies can eat as much as 40 small crickets in one sitting, always offer a little at a time. They like live prey as far as bugs dobt go for freeze-dried dried anything. Mealworms are great snacks and crickets are usually the main part of their meat diet! Dust worms and crickets daily in calcium powder, dust prey in reptile multivitamin+calcium powder once a week. Beardies are actually omnivores! Use a tiny plate or hermit crab dish as a salad bowl! As babies they will eat more meat than plant matter, and it reverses as they become adults. As far as SAFE/UNSAFE foods for them:
SAFE/STAPLE:
-mango
-apple
-papaya
-collard greens
-dandelion greens
-kale
-prickly pear
-regular pear
-squash of pretty much and kind
-strawberries
-blueberries (sometimes food)
AVOID:
-spinach (too much vit k, also toxic)
-lettuce (makes poop watery)
-corn (can kill them)
-beef, chicken, ham, etc (too much phosphorus)
-broccoli (toxic)
-carrots (too much vit A)
-noodles (freaks out there will feed pets weird stuff.... just... dont.)
*Offer a salad of the SAFE foods in any mixture of choice every day for beardie everyday- even as babies! Just make sure you cut fruits/veggies small enough!
Water. Beardies usually wont go for standng water. I mist my beardie a few times a week and she will usually drink it, but its important to give them warm water baths several times a week. Its very important they get hydration! I use a reptile dechlorinater fr her bathwater. I bath my beardie in a small steralite tub and fill the water up at elbow-length My beardie actually drinks her bathwater and then will poop in it.... they like the bath for many reasons and mine will even swim and splash around. Babies neeeed baths too! Make sure its not hot but also not cold. Room temp is just right!
Other things....hygrometers and thermometers are a good thing to use in a vivarium. Also give ypur beardie plenty of space to climb and run around in! They like hammocksad washcloths for beds! Mine has a blankie made from two sewn cotton fabric and in winter i actually microwave it for 10 seconds and wrap her around in it while she is brumating.
Oh! Brumation! Good to know....rwptiles do what is called 'brumating' in winter months. Its sprt of like hibernating but they are awake and hide. They will be lazy and not move, may not eat so much. Its totally normal, its how they save their energy when the weather isnt reptile-friendly. Mine doesnt do it every year, but she did during her second year for many months. Make sure your beardie stays nice and warm around fall and winter!
Beardies do not actually really bite, its super rare with domesticated captive bred beardies. If thet get pissed they will usually just puff up and turn black. Zoë has gotten mad at me before and opened her mouth at me but she has never bit me. She got angry at me for moving her when the weather got bad and I took her in the bathroom, she was pretty scared but she is waaay over it now LOL.
They sleep in SILLY positions!! Omg. Zoë the other night was asleep clung UPSIDE DOWN on her branch like a chameleon! I had to pick her up in her sleep and lay her down on her blanket LOL! She will also sleep pressed up in her glass, most beardies wil leven fall asleep in their salad dish!
Sexing. I recondmend just getting one beardie per tank. If you end up getting two and they are males.... you might end up with only one beardie when they get older! O_O there are 3 ways to sex a beardie:
-when they are at least six months old, you can externally sex them buy the size of the femoral pores and shapes under cloaca- use pictures from internet to help! Adult females will tend to have more triangle-shape heads and a thicker, shorter tail. Adult females will have naarrower heads and longer, narrower tails. Not 100% accuturate but females tend to wave their arms more and males tend to bob their heads bit this is not a reliable source either. Be gentle with beardies when you are looking at their private areas when are of sexing age! Beardies will kick and claw because uh..... invasion of privacy!
xD Unless breeding, females dont usually lay eggs. Mine has never laid any unfertilized ones!
-Having a VET 'probe' them. Should ONLY be done by vet.
-Hatchlings can be sexed! Carefuly put baby in deep glass container they cant jump out of. Now hold flashlight above cloaca, look underbeath (also called 'candling'). If there are two blood vessels near base of tail, most likely a male because of the hemipenis. Also done with Leos!
Hope that helps!
Sounds like a lot, but its really easy to take care of them! They like to cuddle! ^ͺ^ I hope you get one!!!! Any other questions dont be afraid to ask!
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