My name is Ryan. Might see me around here and there from now on. Below is my beardie, Charmander, who I got from a reptile convention several months ago He is probably around 10 months old now. Might be older, but I don't think he is younger.
A question for you guys, any idea what morph he is? Here are pictures starting from about 2 months ago up until now. As you can see, he is about to shed again. ;]
The severe change is color in the pictures is mostly due to:
1.) Lighting of the time they were taken.
2.) In the first picture he had just shed, and in the later ones he was getting ready to.
He seems to actually be getting more colorful as he ages. He has also developed quite a black neck, and the end of his tail is becoming freckled/smudged in black.
Also, he has just gotten over his A-hole stage, and finally lets me pick him up and hold him without trying to bite me to death. He is quite a nice little dude now.
Hi there Your beardie is absolutely gorgeous! These are fantastic pets Very loving once they get over being scared of you! I hope you're enjoying your time together.
I'm very glad to her this! My Palmer is quite the handful and I estimate him to be about 7-8 months I really have my fingers crossed he comes out of it soon Again, Great photos!
I feed him lettuce covered in calcium powder(crickets are harder to cover), crickets, mealworms, and 1 butter worm every day. I give him unlimited supply of lettuce but only so much of the bugs each day. I also have that beardie feed which consists of little red pellets. I keep a thin layer of that in his lettuce bowl and he nibbles it a couple times a day.
I feed him crickets in a separate cage so that he doesnt accidentally eat the substrate. I know alfalfa pellets arent digestable. I avoid using sand because ive had bad experiences with it, and i also avoid carpet because i hear they can get their claws stuck in it and potentially lose them. Better safe than sorry, and correct me if im wrong.
Comments/corrections on his diet welcome. I did a bunch of research but am still fairly new to owning beardies. :]
I'm sure you'll get lots of substrate recommendations but we use a fake grass carpet for our beardie and our baby southern angle-headed dragons. It doesn't have loops in it--just straight blades of fake grass. I cut 2 pieces and swap them out to clean. I got it at Bunnings, an Australian big-box hardware chain, but there must be a US equivalent. Also, not sure what sort of lettuce you're feeding but iceberg doesn't have much nutitional value. Bok choy, green beans and dandelions are big hits with our girl Shayvele; dandelion flowers are a special treat--she practically launches herself through the glass if she sees me carrying them. Easy to find, too!
Sweet thanks for the the protips. I am well aware about ice berg lettuce not being nutricious. I feed him red leaf and he seems to love it as much as bugs. I love bok choy too so ill definitely give that a try... green beans as well, actually.
One of the reasons i use the substrate i do is because it's so easy to spot clean; i was thinking i might grab a slab of stone or something to put on half the cage. he also loves to burrow in the pellets at night.
Shayvele has a preferred "toilet location" in her enclosure where (90% of the time) she poos, so I keep a stack of several layers of newspaper there. Occasionally she'll poo in the bath but mostly in her house, whereupon she is immediately disgusted by the mess, retreats to the highest point on her hide and expects it all to be cleaned up immediately.
A number of people on this board (and the Aussie one) recommend dandelion greens--just be sure they haven't been sprayed. Basil and mint sometimes seem to be well received, too.
Every beardie seems to have his or her own preferences, though--have fun finding out what yours are!
Interesting. I'm growing basil and it's finally big enough to use - used a few leaves the other day. I'll offer some to him and see what the issue is. Charmander still doesn't really have a preferred pooping place. He goes wherever the hell he feels like it - on his logs, in the middle of the cage - in his food dish... Well, the food dish is annoying, but the rest is fairly easy to deal with. Hah. I guess I'll post when I know what else he likes.Thanks.
Looks like we have some winners. He seems to love greenbeans and dandelion greens, and is OK with basil. From now on I'll be feeding him mixed salads on beans, greens, and lettuce