Please help a teenager: 1) What size/age do you recomend be shipped to my house from any location? 2) What size tank-vivarium,aquarium- do you recomend for that size posted from # 1? 3) Do you personally believe that beardie's are the most eccentric, energetic reptiles around? 4) What behaviors does your beardie show off? 5) What in your proffessional opinion is the best cage setup for a beardie?Please include lighting, cage decorations, basking areas, hide outs, feeding dishes. 6) What is the most you would pay for a beardie? Hatchling? Juvinial? Adult?(regular breed not citrus or sandfire etc.) 7) Do you know of anyone around Vermont that breeds quality beardies and reasonably priced? if so would you recomend them? Please give me all the help you can give. I'm in desperate need of results. Nate Vermont
Hi Nate, I have never mail ordered any reptiles so have no experience there. I would be cautious about doing it during the winter. You've got some pretty extreme weather there in New England right now. My recommendation is to acquire a beardie directly from a breeder by attending a reptile show. Get a copy of Reptile magazine and check out the show calendar. You should be able to locate something in your area or within driving distance. You may have to wait a few months but that should give you time to read, research and get set up BEFORE bringing home a beardie. Reptile shows are great because you can comparison shop for the best quality animal at the best price. You can tell if a breeder really cares for his animals by the overall condition of his stock. Snipped toes and tails are a telltale indicator of overcrowding and poor husbandry practices. You'll find those breeders that fit that description. You will also find breeders who obviously put a lot time and care into their animals. And it shows in the quality of what they are selling. It might be a good idea to also research the care and raising of food, such as crickets. You'll find that you will go through thousands of crickets in the course of raising a young beardie. At 7 - 10 cents apiece from the pet store it will quickly add up to quite an expense. It is much cheaper to mailorder your crickets in bulk from a cricket farm. With a minimal investment in a large rubbermaid container and a cricket watering bottle you can keep a plentiful supply of cheap beardie food. I would not buy a beardie less than 2 or 3 months old. Your chances of success are much higher with a young animal that is past the neonate stage. The tiny infants are pretty delicate and can be tricky. For a youngster you can start out with a 10 or 15 gal tank but they will quickly outgrow this. Expect an adult to require, at a minimum, at 60 gal size enclosure. A 90 gal size would be much better for an adult. Keep furnishings simple. For a smaller tank you'll need an incandescent flood light (about 60watt) to position over a raised basking site. It is very important to have an accurate digital thermometer. Something with an external probe that allows you to take accurate spot temperatures. The basking spot should be 100 - 105 F. Adjust this temp by raising or lowering the distance of the bulb over the basking spot. The cooler end of the enclosure should be around 82 - 87 F so your beardie can escape the heat from time to time. At night, when the lights are off, you can let the temps drop to room temp (65 - 75 F) . If it gets any colder than that I would think about a heat pad on a thermostat to keep things within that range. Nate, there is no way you gonna learn everything you need to know here on this forum. The best thing you can do is to read and research. A good book is "Bearded Dragon Manual". It is sold by most of the large petshop chains and also the bookstores. It covers many other very important issues such as proper supplementation of calcium, importance of UVB light and bone growth, best selection of veggies, etc, etc. There is so much to learn and know. And there is so much that is still not known. Are they "eccentric" and "energetic"? I don't know about that, but I will say that they each have their own unique personalities. I don't have an awful lot of experience with different herps but I can tell you that beardies seem to be very aware of there surroundings. They readily make eye contact with you, and they are always looking around and sizing up the situation. Their feeding response is interesting and they do some wild gymnastics just to get a taste of some cricket. Feeding them is always fun to do. It is fascinating to watch them respond to other bearded dragons with head bobbing, posturing, hand waving, and other communicative behaviour. I have even caught myself head bobbing back at them. They are very docile and they seem to tolerate handling, especially as they get older. I have never been a touchy-feely, namby-bamby kind of guy but I have become VERY attached to all four of my beardies. Prices for bearded dragons vary. I bought my first three for about 50 bucks apiece. They are not bloodline, just plain vanilla wrapper dragons. My most recent acquisition was a 4 and half month old female that is a sandfire cross orange and yellow. She cost me $175. She is gorgeous and to me worth every penny. I think you'll get the most out of your dragon by purchasing one that is young and raising it to adulthood. You'll learn all it's little quirks and will really become attached to it. Nate, regardless of the price of the dragon you need to realize that raising them is not as cheap as most people initially think. The price of the dragon really turns out to be insignificant compared to the expense of providing all its needs. But like with any other pet it can be well worth it with many intangible returns. Best of luck to you and remember, READ and get everything set up BEFORE you bring the little guy home. George
1) What size/age do you recomend be shipped to my house from any location? For first time buyers we always recommend over 3 month, if you have any reptile shows around you, that is a good location to meet a breeder once you have talked to them and made arrangements, we do not recommend going to a show and buying one that you do not know the history of the breeder. We personally know of too many times that reptile shows are used by people to sell off problem animals. Know what your looking for, many breeders have certain traits that others do not. Ex: if your looking for bright orange or gold dragons, Dana @ Sundial Reptiles, Chris Allen @ Jersey Dragons or JoelR in Jacksonville (working on website) are all very good reputable breeders with them. Snows and blood dragons, Dragon's Den has some nice ones. 2) What size tank-vivarium,aquarium- do you recomend for that size posted from # 1? A juvie can start out in a 10 gallon, but will have to move up to a larger one soon, we think a 30 gallon is a good size for 4 months olds to several months old. The dragon should end up in a 60 gallon minimum at full grown. 3) Do you personally believe that beardie's are the most eccentric, energetic reptiles around? They are among the most social interactive with humans of all reptiles, no doubt and can be little stinkers at time, it real depends on their personalities...even in the same clutch you can get a wide variety of personalities. Our last one we raised had ones that were just mellow to anything and thought life was great to on that literally bounced off the walls for attention. We have one adult that use to sulk if she saw us with another dragons, especially a baby, now she just ignores that there are any others here. 4) What behaviors does your beardie show off? Like I said above, they can be very different... some just crave human interaction, some love water and swimming, some are couch potatoes, most are very entertaining. 5) What in your proffessional opinion is the best cage setup for a beardie?Please include lighting, cage decorations, basking areas, hide outs, feeding dishes. We like the 65 gallon glass and the Neodesha nesters.... it depends on the dragon also. I have added a picture below of some babies in a 40 gallon and some adults in 65 gallons. We use combo substrates of reptile carpet, shelfliner and paper towels, Mercury vapor for UVB and heat and additional plain house bulbs if more heat is needed. Basking caves or platforms for them and the older ones get a sandbox. 6) What is the most you would pay for a beardie? Hatchling? Juvinial? Adult?(regular breed not citrus or sandfire etc.)The most I have paid has been several hundred, but that was a special dragon we wanted for a specific reason and it took several months to find him. But you can get a nice quality line dragon from $35 to $100. I know one breeder that sells some of the best lines in the US in my opinion for around $ 150-$250, but if they have a tiny tail nip he has sold ones for $35-$50 that the siblings sold for much more. Talk to a breeder and see what they have and what you want. Sandfire is a name of a breeder, not a color phase or morph. This name is much misused by some breeders. If it came from Sandfire Ranch, its a sandfire dragon, it the parents came from Sandfire Ranch, the offspring are reds, yellows etc, not a sandfire. For some reason some small breeders think this makes their dragons more sellable. Others also tag some of the strangest names on them, like jungle or georgia peach, again, just something the breeder is calling them, not a morph or recognized color phase. 7) Do you know of anyone around Vermont that breeds quality beardies and reasonably priced? if so would you recomend them? Sorry, I do not know anyone in Vermont, but some in states around you. If the breeder is reputable, they have a lot of experience in shipping safely and know what to do to assure the animals arrives to you in good condition, most have a bond with babies they raise and they care that they have a good start in life and safe journey to their new home.
I recommend that if you don't go to a show go to www.frantzherp.com This is where I bought my leopard gecko from and I am very happy with her. Troy, the owner, was very helpful and informative. In fact I am going to get a beardie this summer, and that is where I am going to get it from. His bearded dragons range from $$50 to $$65 plus shipping which is $$30 or so overnight airexpress. He has one male for $$70 as of right now, all the other males are in the same range as the females. They are all Gold Sandfire X Snow. Hope I helped!! -Alyssa
