Cool behaviour pic

[TheVirus]

Heres a couple pics of one of my future breeders. Shes nine weeks old.

I took these pics last night. She keeps burying herself in the sand. Many of my dragons do this in these "raise up" style enclosures, but last night I could see her. Tonight I can see a little of her. She is not as deep as the above pics, and a little to the right.

Her enclosure has no hides or anything. The sand is around 3-4 inches deep and moist. Because its sand, it dries out very fast. So the top is dry, but under is damp. She can dig down, but its not moist enough to hold a burrow. The top inch or so collapses. So I just look in and see an empty cage with no burrow hole. I dig her back up when I notice, but I don't like to disturb reptiles while they are hiding. I like to respect their need for security.

I'm going to build new enclosures in the next couple weeks. I can't wait to get her some hides and a nice burrowable substrate. Seeing her work so hard to satisfy a need really bothers me

 

[Red Ink AUS]

Nice Tim,

What's the sand mixture your using? Seems to hold burrows well when damp. Might i suggest adding "loam" or brick clay (the stuff they make bricks out of), this should bring it up to Australian terra consistency about 40/60 (clay/sand) mix should be about right to hold a nice dry burrow and would loose less moisture than straight sand.

When i had my central netted dragons i used as 30% loam, 20% brick clay, 50% Red desert sand mixture as these species of agamids are straight burrowers. The mixtures held a nice burrow 6 inches deep to the bottom of the tank with a stable entrance hole. I dug them out once as i was remodelling and found a bottom chamber of about 7 inches wide at the base on the enclosure with an off shoot tunnel running about 8 inches from the main chamber with a 4 inch wide chamber.

 

[TheVirus]

Thanks Red!

True burrowers are cool as long as they don't spend too much time under ground. My beardies will burrow, but nothing like a true burrowing specie like my ackies. When I pour water in to my ackies' substrate, I can hear the water running through the tunnels

I use straight sand in the raise up cages because I use the cages for my babies. Usually I sell the babies. The dirt makes them dirty and bland looking. Color and price tag go hand in hand, so I like to keep the babies "clean" looking.

In my adult cages I use dirt. The mix of the dirt depends on the enclosure. I have no set %.

My largest enclosure's substrate has more clay in it, than the others. It has its pros and cons. It gets that crusted surface where the very top quarter inch or so is loose, but it hardens for about a half inch after that. The remainder of the soil is compact and moist, but not hard (about a foot deep). What I don't like about it is the clay makes my dragons very dirty. Their colors are dulled down. Too much clay would be bad too, because the dragons brumate by digging a burrow and back filling it shut with them inside. I'd be afraid that if the soil had too much clay in it, the dirt wouldn't be "breathable".

My other cages have less clay (more silt?). The mix holds a burrow well and doesn't get my dragons as dirty. Its not as natural of a soil, because it doesn't harden, but the dragons use it the same.

I like to offer humid burrows. Actually, I just provide moisture down in the soil, they make the humid burrow I offer stacks of wood that offer dry hides too. I like to give them the options if they so choose to use it

Tim

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Nice Tim, I think I see some orange in their!!

 

[DragonMom]

:-X

 

[TheVirus]

It was cool because she dug to the corner so I could see her. Usually they dig somewhere else.

I just dug her up again. She keeps doing it. I've never had a dragon do it so much. I'll dig her up and she will eat tons of crickets. I was thinking brumation, but she is so young and she eats like a beast.

I'll get a call asking how many of "x" morph I have. I look and see 16. Then when I go to ship I'll only see 14, or the complete opposite, and I'll see 17

When you read the posts about dragons digging in the corner before they go to bed, you'll usually see a reply like "they like a cozy spot to sleep" or something like that. What the dragon is really trying to do is build a safe burrow where predators can't get them. When the dragon is kept on a solid substrate or a dry loose substrate, its easy to misunderstand what they are trying to achieve, because the end result is different.

 

[Red Ink AUS]

I hear that Tim,

Just as an experiment for anybody using a solid substrate and want to test the theory or if their dragon is trying to dig, put an upside down shoebox or ice cream container with an access hole cut in and mildly damp shelf liner or paper towel as a substrate on the other end of the enclosure opposite end of the basking light. You will notice that it will instinctually display this behaviour even it it was never offered before no matter what age the dragon is. There are exceptions though some dragons become so comfortable with their keepers that they never consider anything out there as a predetory threat. Some people may be suprised to see how much their dragons actually "trust" or percieve them. They may be trusting and docile when their awake. But do they trust their environment enough not to use a hide when they go to sleep if given the choice.

Could be a nice way of seeing just how comfortable your dragon is with their surroundings.

 

[DragonMom]

:-X