Thread: Bearded dragon lesson 1 *heh

One more question...how big are the babies whose pictures you posted here a couple months back? The ones that were just hatching and I thought were birdies (shows you how much I know about these guys).

Originally Posted by sandooch

Anyway, what other differences are the in comparing beardies to iguanas besides beardies being friendlier?

If a beardie loses it's tail it won 't grow back. Iguanas it does. I have a couple babies that were born with metabolic disease (lack of calcium in the egg) and they got tail rot. Basically the tail rotted and fell away.. The faster you treat it the faster the tail stops rotting away . I've been lucky. I have never lost a full tail..

Other than that I really do not know.. I only had an iguana at my house for 3 days as a rescue so I am not really sure on anything else..Sorry

Originally Posted by sandooch

One more question...how big are the babies whose pictures you posted here a couple months back? The ones that were just hatching and I thought were birdies (shows you how much I know about these guys).

The ones just hatched are as big as the very first pic in this thread.. In 2 days they do not grow at all. Beardies is short for bearded dragon. If I called them 'birdies' then it was most likely a missed typo heh

Originally Posted by ElleGee

Beardies is short for bearded dragon. If I called them 'birdies' then it was most likely a missed typo heh

Oh, no, you didn't call them birdies. That is what I quickly read on that thread. Plus, I had no idea that they hatched from an egg, so I just assumed it was a baby bird.

Originally Posted by sandooch

Oh, and do the parents feel threatened if you try to pick up the babies? And do the babies let you pick them up without freaking out?

Listen to me; I sound like I'm getting ready to head to Petco to purchase one of these. OMG...my husband would kill me!

After the mother lays the eggs you need to get them out and put them into a chicken egg incubator.. or a hovobator .. the eggs take from 50 to 75 days to hathch.. Also the mother and dad WILL eat the babies, this is why we have 5 tanks heh .. The babies, you really shouldn't pick them up until they are 4 inches (about 2-3 months) old. they are REALLY fast and easily crushable.. so waiting is a good thing. Sometimes they will jump on you and settle in like you're a tree branch.. It's cool.. others will try to bite but really, it doesn't hurt. It's funny when they try heh.

They are a 6 of the 1-10 scale of pet care.. they need heat lamps, flourecent lighting and large tanks when they are bigger.. Sometimes they need baths to clean poop (don't get me started on poop smell *ick) that they run thru.. Some of my guys try to swim when I fill a tote 3 inches of water (need to find the pic UGH) it's cute.. I think I have a vid somewhere of them swimming heh

Wow, Elle, this is very interesting, thanks for sharing I was kinda creeped out at first, but I must say that Zulu is quite striking in that pic on the sofa. He looks white, or silver....very pretty. and did I read it right...they have 2 headed penises?????

Originally Posted by Jackie_Blu

Wow, Elle, this is very interesting, thanks for sharing I was kinda creeped out at first, but I must say that Zulu is quite striking in that pic on the sofa. He looks white, or silver....very pretty. and did I read it right...they have 2 headed penises?????

Zulu is a sand color but i the spring he is the silvery color.. it's neat

**** WARNING****

The click-pic below IS a pic of a hemipenis.
.. it has 2 'heads' but it's more like 'holes' but it is called 2 headed
http://www.anapsid.org/images/seminalplugs.jpg

wow, ok, was picturing something totally different I think this is all really fascinating, and I appreciate you giving us some tutorials Its really sad that not only the dad but the mom will eat the babies. Ive heard of the dad killing babies in other animal species (esp. the male babies) but had never heard of the mom doing it. Don't the babies need to nurse for a while? I mean, they cant eat things right after they hatch, can they? Do you ever sell some of them so you arent overwhelmed with too many...or just make more room and keep them all?

I was just looking at some of these at PetSmart today! They were really small ones and so cute. I have two green anoles and I am completely attached to them. We've had them for about 1 1/2 years and one of them will also kind of snuggle with me. They are only about 6-7 inches though.

I would love to get one of these larger lizards at some point. I had no idea iguanas were tempermental, so I will keep that in mind when choosing one.

Originally Posted by Jackie_Blu

. Don't the babies need to nurse for a while? I mean, they cant eat things right after they hatch, can they? Do you ever sell some of them so you arent overwhelmed with too many...or just make more room and keep them all?

The babies are born with an egg sac on their bellies.. Like an umbilical cord.. They live on that for up to a week and then feast on 1/4 inch crickets.. and they also start eating veggies about a week after they start on the crix.


The reason why we have kept so many is.. Our first hatch of 14 babies (13 survived) were 'born' 3 weeks after their mother Xena died.. Xena died b/c she took a leap off a table during an exam and busted an egg in her belly.. she aborted her eggs. 2 days later and she died of either a quick infection or an egg shell cutting her belly.. I couldn't tell when I did her necropsy.. It kinda looked like both but that was only my 3rd necropsy and when I sent her out for a positive diag. They couldn't tell either. So we went with the shell theory....

Mayas first hatch of 5 we kept b/c the colors in her babies can produce 400 dollar lizards (no I am not kidding) I need to buy an opposite dna male to breed with her babies.. Or female b/c Rebel has the strongest reds in him...

The 4 that just hatched 2 are for sale but 1 is worth about $70 and the other is a 90.

Mojo layed eggs, but there are only females in the tank and she can see the males so that got her reproductive system working and layed infertile eggs. Which is good.. Means she can be bred with a strong colored male...
Kermit and Nessa (who are both females) are lesbians and try to mate with the other 3 females.. It's a form of dominance lol

My dh and I have a bank account just for the lizard hobby. All my survey money goes into it and he dumps 50 a week in. We have enough for 4 more tanks, but we are going to split that budget with our beer hobby *heh

Ok I am going on and on lol..

Oh and the reason I kept Xena's babies was I couldn't sell them.. I loved Xena more than my dh at the time so giving them up was not an option