Falkor the bratty luck dragon ;-) & his new friend, Raphael

Falkor is my 1st beardie & a major brat. He has been with me for about a month now & is a spoiled little thing. LOL I'm not exactly sure on his age as he was purchased from Petsmart & we all know how well they know their animals. He was tiny when he first came home & has grown a surprising amount in just a month.

This is Falkor on his 3rd day home.

& this is Falkor as of today!
I am really amazed by how much he grew! In just a month he is soooooooo much bigger. I wish I had thought to measure him during those first few days but as of today he is 9 1/2 inches.I need batteries for the scale that I have or I would have weighed him.
So what do you experienced folks think? Does he look like he has grown well in the month he's been with me? My basis for reference is limited.

He is such a snuggler that it's hard for me to get pics of him lol

He has such a yellow tint to his head that my daughters think I should have called him Lemon drop. :lol:

I wish that I could get his colors captured right but this camera...
I am glad I had expected him to have a quirky personality. I researched a lot before he came home & I have heard a few friends talking about theirs so it's no surprise he can be such a brat & he really is lucky he is so cute. I wouldn't ever call him exactly lazy but he isn't a high energy baby either. He does his playtime but most of the day he basks & takes it easy waiting for chow time. It must be nice. LOL
I swear if I could just get him to eat the way I want him to it would make my life easier! My dear little one is in love with his greens but other veggies are a no go at this point. They are offered but if it isn't green & leafy he just ignores it. I just started a dubia colony & was hoping to get that off the ground before he ate all the babies but he thinks it should be different. You see I was foolish enough to think that it would be a good idea to incorporate a dubia or two into each feeding just to transition him slowly. He is fed 3 times a day as much as he can eat in 15 mins plus the veggies are available all day. Well since I started him on the dubia or two he is flat out refusing to eat any crickets! I swear I hate those stinky things too but I need them to get eaten. However my dear beardie turns his back on them at every oportunity. I guess I will have to order more dubia & let the crickets grow for his frog brothers. In case it isn't obvious I HATE having crickets in my house.

 

[sweetiepie9]

He is beautiful and I wish all beardies would grow like he is doing. And don't worry about the veggies, greens are fine for him, too. I'm amazed that he eats his greens every day, not every beardie does. He's got great colours, love the yellow head, my Leo has a bright yellow head, too. So don't be concerned about veggies, not all beardies eat veggies, keep offering them, he might change his mind one day!

As for crickets, I hate them, too. You can buy dubia from alot of people on this site, so check the For Sale area to see if you can get a good deal on babies. They're much better for him than crickets, so it's great that he loves them. Dubia reproduce every 40 days if they're warm enough and you feed them oranges. So having about 10 females and 3 males should help your colony get well established. Even more females and a few more males would help, as once he's eating them, they will go fast. There is a way to figure out how many females you need to reproduce, as he'll be able to eat bigger roaches, too, he's growing so fast. Dubia don't grow very fast. I have a colony but had to stop feeding them until they grow some. Most of my 5 dragons likes supers but one won't eat them, so it's crickets for now until my colony grows more.

Keep up with the pics, I love to see comparisons and he's growing really fast. It's great that you can feed him 3x/day, he'll grow really well for you and be a big dragon!

Thanks for sharing, he's a real cutie! And don't you love that he's a brat. Love their personalities, each of mine have different personalities, and they all love to snuggle and take naps with mommy!
Deb

 

[aidan724]

Thanks I'm glad that he is growing well. He has been a breeze on eating except being picky. I just think my 2 legged kids taught him well. :lol: Strange thing is I even caught him eating hid beardie chow bits this morning. He is definitely an eating machine. I certainly don't want to over feed him but he hasn't started looking too fluffy to me. I tried looking around to see if it was even possible to powerfeed a beardie for the sole purpose of avoiding that. I haven't found any evidence of it so I guess the all you can eat approach is ok.
He only has a 40 gallon tank for now so I hope he doesn't get too too big too quickly. I was planning an upgrade within a year anyway but I wanted time to custom make it to fit the top of the dresser he's on. Since I know the 40 gallon is the minimum I don't want him to be cramped.

 

[aidan724]

As for the dubia I already have a colony set up & just ordered some more of various sizes. We have already had a little production but not what would be sustainable yet. Not bad for just about 2 weeks. I should look in the for sale & see about adding to them then since he's decided to go on cricket strike. Now I will have to wait for the smelly things to grow so they can go to the frog brothers. Not what I had in mind. Silly beardie.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Yes, they will always stick their noses up at bugs when you just buy them! At least you have frogs to feed them to. And you can't overfeed a baby dragon. Even if he gains alot of weight, he'll start growing longer to catch up. It's only when they get over 2 years old that they stop growing completely, then it depends on the dragon. I have to make sure mine eat bugs every 2nd day to keep up their weight, as they're all going through semi-brumation (something you don't have to worry about until next winter) so won't eat when awake, then fall asleep for a week or so, then back up. I have 5 adults and they're all different. They all eat supers except one, who wants crickets, so I have to keep large crickets for him and medium crickets for the 2 geckos I have. I hate them, too, they sure do stink!

I'm glad you're getting a good colony going. Yes, you'll find lots of dubia for sale in For Sale section. One member Lance will sent what you need to plump up what you already have. Just remember that dubia roach females will give birth every 40 days only, so keep that in mind. And give them lots of oranges, they love them & seem to breed more babies.

 

[aidan724]

I am sooo glad to know that I can't overfeed him. I have to watch our dogs & cats so they don't get too round. It sure doesn't help when there are little ones around that always fall for the starving look. I can't tell you how many times a day I'm reminded that "everyone" is hungry.
When it comes to the dubia I should beef out the colony while I have the money. If we get an over production I can always give some away. We have 3 fire belly toads, a treefrog & an anole that I'm curious if they could or would eat the excess should we end up with any. There's more research for me. Besides we do have science projects & such coming up & my 3 youngest love the bugs too so we might end up with "pets" out of them. I would rather have too much food rather than not enough & I have bins & screens that are sitting around collecting dust anyway. I will have to look Lance up if he's selling currently. Thanks

 

[sweetiepie9]

You're welcome. Lance also sells this great chow that all my bugs like, even superworms and crickets! I bought a pound last year and have just a tiny bit left. He sells it at $6 a lb but always sends extra. You might want to give it a try. I'll check out the link & send it to you.

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So check it out, he's back in business!
Deb

 

[aidan724]

That is awesome. I appreciate that. Thanks!

 

[sweetiepie9]

Just ordered a lb of chow & seriously he sends almost 2 lbs.

 

[aidan724]

Ok I feel a bit stupid but I have no clue how to order. LOL I'm not familiar with shopping through forums & I didn't see a website address. Maybe I missed the instructions since I had a 3 y/o telling me everything my fake dragon was doing. LOL He refused to call him a bearded dragon or anything because he doesn't have wings like real dragons. I will have to go look again tomorrow & see if my brain works this time.

 

[jezwolf175]

I'll help you out. you pay lance through paypal. His email address is on the first page. You can pay using the send money button on paypal. But I think you have to make an account. I used my credit card I had on file on paypal. Hope I helped.

 

[aidan724]

Thanks that helps. I don't have a PayPal account but I think I can use my bank card to pay through them. I appreciate the help a bunch.

 

[aidan724]

So today little Falkor decided to be at least slightly photogenic. Please don't mind the mess as we were just about to clean the tank. He just likes to make his tank look like my 17 y/o room! LOL

Mess? What mess? This isn't dirty!

No I won't let you take anything out of here! I'm going to put myself on everything I can & pretend to nap.

No really I was sleeping.

No washing anything! It's mine!
He is such a messy boy! I swear he had to know I wanted to clean everything & was doing his best to keep me from getting anything out!

 

[sweetiepie9]

They really are territorial and if you don't put things back exactly the way they like, they let you know it. I'm constantly being bobbed by my crew when I clean & then when everything is back, they investigate everything, lick everything and if anything is out of place I'm black bearded & bobbed at until it's back where it should be :lol: Talk about slaves :lol: I just really enjoyed the pics, he's such a healthy boy!

 

[aidan724]

Thanks. I can't wait to see him headbob & do the black beard. As of yet it's all peaceful resistance by stretching out over everything. LOL Since we only have a 40 gallon tank for right now everything has to go back just where it was so it fits right. I know he will be fine in that for a while but within the year I want to custom make him a new viv to fit the dresser he is on now. It's 54 by 18 inches. I have to do more research on that though. LOL He is such a brat already.