Critters Everywhere

Boxers, Bearded Dragons, Hermit Crabs, Fish and Chameleons, Oh My!

I had an outstanding Christmas this year, but my household got a bit more crowded.  As you have probably seen on previous posts, I have a 7yr old Boxer named Mesi and then added a juvenile Bearded Dragon named Leo (really Leonardo de Pisa a.k.a. Fibonacci).  This year Santa brought my younger son Charlie 7 fish.  He also brought my older son, Jackson two hermit crabs.  The holiday was topped off with us bringing home my wife’s birthday gift, a veiled chameleon named Darwin (Charles Darwin).

Our home is now a desert, rainforest, beach and tropical sea.  We are learning so much about habitats, reptiles and pets in general.  Our house was hectic with a 3yr old, 4yr old and a boxer, now it is a zoo.  Awesome!

Crickets vs. Dubia

We set out to breed crickets for our new bearded dragon.  Our first attempt was very unsuccessful.  I am not sure where I went wrong.  It could have been a number of things such as the size of the initial colony (100 crickets), the temperature or even the substrate.  I am thinking it could have been any of these variables.  So instead of trying again with more crickets and a different heating source, I am going to attempt to breed dubia roaches.

I came across an article a while back but could not find it when we started our reptile journey.  After the failed attempt at crickets, I started my search again.  I found the reference to the dubia roaches in a thread on BeardedDragon.org.  The people on the thread reported that dubias are easier to breed, do not smell and are actually healthier for your reptile.  Nutritionally, dubia roaches have 2x the protein as crickets and can be fed to bearded dragons and chameleons.  Based on the recommendations, I purchased a starter kit from The Roach Guy.

We will see how it goes.  I will report back in a couple of weeks.  Suggestions are welcome!

Bearded Dragon: 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13…

After a couple of weeks of prep work, we adopted our bearded dragon this past weekend.  I would have posted sooner, but I wanted to make sure he lasted through the night.  We named the dragon Leonardo de Pisa after the Mathematician better know as Fibonacci.  We will call him Leo the Lizard for short.  Other names that were in the running were:

• Charles Darwin (Darwin for short, now reserved for a Chameleon)
• Issac Newton (Iggy or Newton for short, was our top pick until Charlie thought Iggy was Piggy)

Leo appears to be happy.  He is eating crickets and carrots, drinking water, basking, pooping and sleeping.  It is all very exciting and he is only about 5in head to tail.  Everyone in the family is very excited to have a dragon and Mesi does not even realize he exists.

Bearded Dragon: Dinner Time

Bearded Dragon’s are omnivorous.  They eat a wide variety of items (http://www.beardeddragons.co.za/beardeddragon_caresheet.htm):

Insects including:

• crickets
• mealworms

Vegetables including:

• carrots
• broccoli

Fruits like:

• bananas
• apples
• pears

Leafs and flowers including:

• nasturtium
• lucerne/alfalfa
• pansies
• dandelions

We are going to try to make a small eco-system for our dragon.  It is a good project for mon, dad and the kids.  As I said in past posts, it is amazing how much information on reptile care there is on the Internet.  It amazes me that people take the time to post this information in blogs and on YouTube.  I am attempting with my posts to consolidate a few hours worth of research.

For the insect portion of the diet we are going to try to breed crickets.  It seems pretty simple based on the following resources:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8klbRMEW97Q&feature=related
• http://www.arbreptiles.com/bugs/crix.shtml
• http://www.anapsid.org/crickets.html
• http://www.wormman.com/breeding_crickets.cfm

I have created three cages for the crickets using a small, medium and large size Rubbermaid bins.  I cut out the tops and filled the cut out section with wire screening and duct tape.  I then placed some paper egg cartons and some plastic trays with organic top soil for egg laying in the largest bin.  We also put a tray of Fluker’s Cricket Quencher and Fluker’s Orange Cubes in the large bin.  The first for hydration, the second for food.  We purchased 100 adult crickets from the pet store and put them into the largest bin.  Based on the above links, we put the “breeding dirt trays” in for 48 hours each.  We caught some of the females acting funny in the dirt.

We then took the breeding trays out and put them into the smaller bins.  We are keeping a 40 watt reading light pointed at the bins to keep them warm.  We are now three days into the process, keeping our fingers crossed.  The other things we are doing is making sure the dirt is moist.  Hopefully we will have some larvae soon!  If all else fails, I found multiple people saying Ghann’s Cricket Farm has the cheapest crickets around.

For the vegetable portion of the diet, we are growing our own nasturtium and pansies.  We got the idea from this video.  Both flowers grow like crazy indoors.  We are also sprouting alfalfa using a spouting kit found on Amazon.  Spouting alfalfa is a snap.  Three days and we have a whole try.  Finally, we purchased dandelions and carrots from the supermarket, cut them up and froze them.

Between breeding cricket, growing nasturtium and pansies, and sprouting alfalfa, we are hoping to build a self sustaining eco-system for our dragon.  I hope consolidating all of this information helps you, I thank everyone that took the time to post information throughout the Internet.

Bearded Dragon: The Castle

We searched Craigslist for a good deal on a habitat and online for the rest of the equipment.  We landed a really good deal on a 30-gallon tank with a couple of dome lights, waterfall, food dish, tank stand and some other items from Craigslist.

After buying this habitat for $60, we started talking with Charlie’s teacher about reptiles.  She apparently loves animals and was getting rid of a number of critter homes including a 55-gallon tank which was home to a bearded dragon.  She also included a couple more dome lights and an 18in. UVB lamp for $50.

For $110 we received the following items giving us a great start to our future dragon castle:

• 30-gallon tank with stand
• 55-gallon tank
• 4 dome lamps
• 1 18in UVB lamp
• waterfall
• climbing stick
• semi-circle wood hiding apparatus
• food dish
• 2 timers

Even though we had this great start, we still needed a few more items.  The rest of the items were purchased from Herpsupplies.com.  Herpsupplies came up again and again on reptile blogs as having the best deals.  We purchased the following to finish off our habitat:

• 6lbs. Calci-Sand, Red Rock
• ZooMed ReptiSun 5.0 (a fresh UVB, I guess they only last 6 months, is very important for digestion and process calcium)
• Zoo Med NightLight Red (to keep it warm at night)
• Zilla Digital Terrarium Thermometer/Hydrometer

The only missing part at this point was some basking areas.  Jack, Charlie and I found some nice rocks at our local creek.  A cheap way to get some rocks and have some fun with my boys. Ran them through the dishwasher to be safe.  We still need some drift wood from the lake, but are waiting for a nice day.

All and all, we invested about $200 into the habitat and have enough for growth or a second lizard (my wife wants a Chemeleon some day).  My next post will be on our plans for our dragon’s diet.  We hope to be ready to purchase a bearded dragon this weekend time permitting.

Bearded Dragon: Enter the Dragon

I want to say we picked a Bearded Dragon solely because it is a dragon.  My initial thought was that owning a dragon would be cool.  Luckily my wife is a bit more sensible.  She compared a few different kinds of lizards including Green Iguanas, Veiled Chameleons, Bearded Dragons, and Chinese Water Dragons.  We wanted something that our children could interact with and would not get too big as to require a custom habitat.

My wife’s research lead us to narrow down our choice between a Bearded Dragon and a Green Iguana.

Here are our pros and cons on the Green Iguana:

• Green Iguanas are herbivores eating fruits and vegetables.
• Green Iguanas can grow to be 5-6 feet in length and 18 lbs in weight, thus requiring a custom habitat.
• Green Iguanas can be handled by adults and children.
• Green Iguanas live in a rain forest habitat.
• Green Iguanas can live 18-20 years.
• Green Iguanas can be purchased for about $20.

The pros and cons for the Bearded Dragon are:

• Bearded Dragons are omnivores eating vegetables, crickets, mealworms, etc.
• Bearded Dragons can grow to 18-24 inches.
• Bearded Dragons can be handled by adults and children.
• Bearded Dragons live in a desert.
• Bearded Dragons can live 5-12 years.
• Bearded Dragons can be purchased for $50-$150.

Both reptiles require a basking light and UVB, but have different temperature and humidity requirements.  These can be easily controlled with timers and a decent thermometer and humidistat.  Most of our research was done at the following sites:

• http://www.reptilecare.com/
• http://www.beardeddragon.org
• http://www.reptilehabitat.com/

We finalized our decision on the bearded dragon because of its adult size does not require a custom habitat, it was recommended by family members and friends, and it is quite interesting when it hunts crickets.  Initially, we thought crickets would be a pain and a large expense; more to come on this!  Overall, I think the Iguana would be easier to feed, but in the long run would be too big.  The bearded dragon fit better as a first reptile.  If all goes well, we would like to get a veiled chameleon eventually (my wife’s idea).

I am posting all of our links to http://delicious.com/mike.radomski/dragon. Next, setting up our habitat.

Bearded Dragon: The Beginning

We take our boys to the Buffalo Zoo almost weekly.  We have a family pass and it is a great thing to do after church on Sundays.  We have our routine: church, a stop at Tim Horton’s for coffee (or mocha’s) and “sesameat” bagels (or Timbits) and then to the Zoo for a couple of hours.  Needless to say, my boys LOVE animals.

The zoo recently opened up a wonderful Rainforest Falls exhibit and has a nice, general reptile house.  This got us thinking, we could  make this at home with a terrarium and lizards and frogs. Surprisingly, my wife is totally on board with getting a some sort of reptile.  She might even be more excited than me and the kids.

We are embarking on unknown territory.  Neither of us have ever owned a reptile, nor know many people who have.  I am not sure that is a good sign.  We are lucky to have some great resources on the Internet, blogs, and the YouTube helping us.  These resources have helped us narrow down our selection, understand the habitat requirements, learn how to feed and care for the lizard and finally how to interact with it.

I hope to blog about all of these items in the coming weeks.  This week we will be concentrating on the habitat and diet.  My next post will detail the thought process behind selecting a bearded dragon followed by the eco-system we will be constucting with the boys.  BTW: Since that trip to the Zoo, my house has gone from zero plants to about five, including a giant palm!  It really makes the house feel very alive with the pending winter season almost on us.  It is a nice edition to any house.