Young dragons require special care. They have different feeding, supplementation, and heating requirements among other things. Most Dragon deaths occur in the first month and due to this reason most established, experienced breeders will not sell babies until they are at least 6 weeks old. Raising healthy babies is easy once you have done the reading and research and follow the recommended guidelines to meet their needs. You will find it very rewarding to start with a baby and be able to watch their personalities develop, watch them grow and in the case of colour morphs you will see the baby develop their colours.
Be prepared... Babies eat a lot! Please see our Basic Caresheet for information on buying crickets and taking care of them. You will want to buy crickets in bulk when you have a baby, it will save you lots of money.
When making your decision on buying one Bearded Dragon or maybe more, there are things to consider.
With two or more dragons you will notice more of their interesting behavioural displays but this does come with drawbacks. If housing more than one dragon, only dragons of the same size should be placed together. If you buy two baby dragons the same size they will probably not grow at the same rate and will need to be separated once a size difference is noted. You also can't keep two dragons the same size together for life as you don't want a female to breed to young or breed to often and you cannot house two males together. This is easily fixed by making sure that you have extra enclosures with all the necessary lights ready in case living arrangements need to be changed
Dragon hatchlings and young babies should be raised in a 10-20 Gallon tank or enclosure. We use Clear Rubbermaid Storage Boxes to raise our babies in; the ones we use are 11 U.S. Gallons #2223. Babies grow fast and you can spend money on a nice enclosure for them later on. Why spend the money on a tank set-up when they will outgrow it quickly! You will not be doing your dragon a favour by going with a bigger enclosure to start with... bigger is not better this time. In large enclosures crickets will hide only to come out at night and munch on your baby, the baby will also have a harder time finding their food and the Basking Spot.
The required lights can be rested on top and the heat fixture can be adjusted to hang right over the bin on one side with the use of a heat fixture stand available at most reptile stores.
When raising lots of babies at one time, a simple rack system as shown at right works very well. UVB lights are hung from the shelf above and heat fixtures are clamped on the sides and directed into each individual bin.
Keep your babies enclosure very simple at this stage of their life. We recommend that you just have one rock for basking in the enclosure and nothing else.
More decoration in a tank = More places for crickets to hide.
We do not use sand for our babies. We recommend using rubber shelf liner or bare bottom of the Rubbermaid bin. Rubber shelf liner can be found at places like Wal-Mart and Home Depot in rolls. Just cut to the appropriate size and replace when dirty. Simply wash the dirty piece with a little bleach by hand or washing machine and air dry.
Make cleaning easier by purchasing a cheap shop vac. At the end of the day, before the lights go off use the shop vac to vacuum up any waste and any leftover crickets. Wash the enclosure or bin with water and a capful of Bleach once a week.
At night you should have the all the heat lamps and florescent lights go off with a timer. Lights should be on for 12-14 hours a day at this age.
You will need to try different wattage bulbs and positioning of the basking rock to reach the required temperature. We use the Phillips Halogen Bulbs for our babies. Keep a basking rock partially under the light so babies can choose to bask on the ground or they can bask on the rock which will be warmed from the heat lamp. Babies need to have a basking spot of 100-115. Anything under that and the baby will not properly digest their food É..anything over the 115 could be deadly to your dragon. Throughout the tank the temperatures should be in the 80's, preferably between 80-85 on the cool side. Buy two digital thermometers; you will put one on the cool side and one under the basking light. We can't stress this enough, it is so important. You can buy great digital thermometers at Home Depot for ten dollars.
Temperatures at night can safely drop into the 60's for baby dragons.
In addition to the heat requirements, dragons need a florescent UVB bulb. We have tried many different brands of bulbs and found the Reptisun 5.0 to be the best. The Florescent fixture should be within 6-10 inches of the basking area, they will not get enough of the UVB if it is too far away! UVB is essential for bone formation and a healthy dragon. These bulbs need to be replaced every 6 months even if they are still emitting light because they have lost the UVB and other essential wavelengths.
Babies can get dehydrated very quickly if the proper food, supplementation and water is not provided.
Small babies should be misted with water treated with Repti-safe at least twice a day. Also mist the sides of the enclosure and they will drink that. If you have a screen, before leaving for the day try putting an ice cube on the screen which will melt over time and provide moving water for them. Babies over 2 months can be offered water daily in a shallow dish or lid from a margarine container. Replace the water as soon as you notice it is fowled. Careful not to put too much water in the dish, you don't want them to drown. When a dragon is lying down the water should be no higher than halfway up their back.
A dehydrated baby should be dealt with quickly. Buy the unflavoured Pedialyte and give to the baby by dripping it on the nose... they should lick it off. Once the pedialyte is opened it is only good for a couple of days so pour it into an ice-cube tray and freeze and it will last a long time. Just take out a cube and let it melt as needed.
Follow the DO-NOTS of feeding that are on the Basic Caresheet! Keep to a schedule for feeding your dragon, this will help reduce stress.
Feed hatchlings gut-loaded crickets at least 2-3 times a day. Feed as much as they will eat in a 5-10 minute sitting. Put 6 crickets in to start with and if they are all eaten quickly, put in more. Crickets should be no larger than the space between the babies' eyes. Dragons fed larger crickets can suffer seizures, paralysis and death. Gut loading is so important because whatever your crickets eat, your dragon eats. A cricket that lacks water and proper nutrition is useless to your dragon. Please see our Basic Caresheet for info on a cricket chow recipe. Feed babies one hour after the lights come on , they need to warm up before eating. The last feeding of the day should be at least 2 hours before the lights go out. If you feed them after that the food does not digest properly and the food decay's in the dragon's stomach.
Once a dragon has reached 3 months old you can start to add more insect variety to their diet. Include appropriately sized Silkworms, butterworms and mealworms. Feed waxworms only as a treat, they are extremely fatty.
Babies should be fed a mixture of veggies in the morning every other day. Please see the Basic Care sheet for veggies and info.
You can try feeding Bearded Dragon pellets a couple of times a week. If the baby shows no interest, try soaking the pellets in apple juice.
Baby food is great for babies that are failing to thrive. Mix Pedialyte with Baby food in a jar and a pinch of calcium.
You need to use a phosphorous free calcium powder and a vitamin powder. We use: Rep-Cal with Vitamin D3 for calcium and Herptivite for Vitamins.
To dust crickets:
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How often you supplement, depends on the age of the dragonÉother factors are health and breeding. Babies should be supplemented once a day until they are 3 months and once a week mix in the Herptivite. Once they reach 3 months, reduce supplementation to once every other day and Herptivite once a week. As they continue to get older you will continue to reduce the amount of supplementation, when they are adults it goes down to once a week. There are risks with not enough calcium and also risks with overuse. Please do some additional reading on this subject.
Your baby will be stressed by shipping, transport to new home and acclimating to a new environment. Try to reduce stress by avoiding handling for the first 48 hours. We know it's hard!! However, this is what is best for your baby.
When you bring your new baby home he may not want to eat right away but should eat within 24-48 hours. If he does not, please let us know immediately.
Babies born in summer do not go into shutdown their first winter, wait to brumate them until the following December.
For further information, visit our website at www.iculizard.com, or contact us with any questions at:
Phone: (416) 7979-ICU
E-mail: info@iculizard.com
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