- Messages
- 9
- Location
- Sacramento, California
Hello everyone, new member here hailing from central California, Sacramento area.
I'll try to keep any questions to a minimum here in the introduction and in the future post them in the appropriate sub-forums, though I do have a couple of immediate questions if you would all bear with me.
I just got my first dragon Nigel, on Halloween, and I have to say I think he is the coolest most charismatic critter I have ever had the privileged of caring for. I took him off the hands of someone that for whatever reason just didn't want him anymore. Not judging at least they had the decency to find him a new home instead of just letting him waste away.
I was told when I got him that he was around 4-5 months old so 5-6 months now. I haven't actually measured him yet but he looks to be about 6 1/2"-7" SVL, and I would say 14-15 overall. Does this sound about right?
As for weight again I haven't measured (can anyone recommend a good accurate and fairly inexpensive scale?) so I really have no clue how much he weighs. When I got him he looked a little skinny to me particularly around the shoulders (comparing to pictures of other dragons) but he has filled out quite a bit in the past month and is looking better.
Does anyone know of any growth charts I could reference to so I know about where he should be with size and weight?
He is mostly eating just crickets (calcium 5 times a week and vitamin 2 times a week and gut loaded of course), but every once in a while he will take some collard greens and he ate one blackberry once.
About what age do they usually transition to a more vegetable less animal diet, and can anyone offer any suggestions on how to go about this transition?
I have my work cut out for me setting up a better habitat for him but that's a big part of the fun of herps in my opinion. When I got him, he was on calcium sand with ceramic tile underneath that (yeah I don't get it either), needless to say the sand is gone now but I am a bit concerned that the tile is grinding his nails down too much. So I am on the fence about what to do for substrate and may just switch to paper towels or newspaper(is the ink bad?) until I can find a better solution. I have some natural stone (travertine) tiles that I think would look great however they are too large for his current tank and I don't have a tile saw or grinder to trim them with, so that will have to wait until a larger tank probably within the next few months.
All in all Nigel seems to be happy and healthy. He is very active and alert, a little shy about being held, not aggressive at all but not exactly calm either, I am working on that. He definitely knows when it is feeding time and recognizes me as the feeder. It makes me smile every time he see's me with the crickets he runs down off his basking perch tail and head up and takes a pose ready to spring into action.
I am not sure what morph he is or who the breeder he came from was, but I am pretty sure he is not just a standard beardie. All the previous owner knew was "red", yeah that helps
.
(edit) Reading up on morphs I suppose he could be and most likely is just a regular beardie, I was confusing morph with coloring.
https://plus.google.com/photos/106488668262293097125/albums/5670472979169799969
Let me know if the link doesn't work or if you need a G+ account to view it, I haven't tried to post a link to a Google+ album before other than on G+ itself.
The pictures aren't that great and at this point he was still on the calci sand that had stained his legs
. He just shed for the first time since I got him the other day, WOW he has some pretty colors! I'll try and get some better pics asap.
I'll try to keep any questions to a minimum here in the introduction and in the future post them in the appropriate sub-forums, though I do have a couple of immediate questions if you would all bear with me.
I just got my first dragon Nigel, on Halloween, and I have to say I think he is the coolest most charismatic critter I have ever had the privileged of caring for. I took him off the hands of someone that for whatever reason just didn't want him anymore. Not judging at least they had the decency to find him a new home instead of just letting him waste away.
I was told when I got him that he was around 4-5 months old so 5-6 months now. I haven't actually measured him yet but he looks to be about 6 1/2"-7" SVL, and I would say 14-15 overall. Does this sound about right?
As for weight again I haven't measured (can anyone recommend a good accurate and fairly inexpensive scale?) so I really have no clue how much he weighs. When I got him he looked a little skinny to me particularly around the shoulders (comparing to pictures of other dragons) but he has filled out quite a bit in the past month and is looking better.
Does anyone know of any growth charts I could reference to so I know about where he should be with size and weight?
He is mostly eating just crickets (calcium 5 times a week and vitamin 2 times a week and gut loaded of course), but every once in a while he will take some collard greens and he ate one blackberry once.
About what age do they usually transition to a more vegetable less animal diet, and can anyone offer any suggestions on how to go about this transition?
I have my work cut out for me setting up a better habitat for him but that's a big part of the fun of herps in my opinion. When I got him, he was on calcium sand with ceramic tile underneath that (yeah I don't get it either), needless to say the sand is gone now but I am a bit concerned that the tile is grinding his nails down too much. So I am on the fence about what to do for substrate and may just switch to paper towels or newspaper(is the ink bad?) until I can find a better solution. I have some natural stone (travertine) tiles that I think would look great however they are too large for his current tank and I don't have a tile saw or grinder to trim them with, so that will have to wait until a larger tank probably within the next few months.
All in all Nigel seems to be happy and healthy. He is very active and alert, a little shy about being held, not aggressive at all but not exactly calm either, I am working on that. He definitely knows when it is feeding time and recognizes me as the feeder. It makes me smile every time he see's me with the crickets he runs down off his basking perch tail and head up and takes a pose ready to spring into action.
I am not sure what morph he is or who the breeder he came from was, but I am pretty sure he is not just a standard beardie. All the previous owner knew was "red", yeah that helps
.(edit) Reading up on morphs I suppose he could be and most likely is just a regular beardie, I was confusing morph with coloring.
https://plus.google.com/photos/106488668262293097125/albums/5670472979169799969
Let me know if the link doesn't work or if you need a G+ account to view it, I haven't tried to post a link to a Google+ album before other than on G+ itself.
The pictures aren't that great and at this point he was still on the calci sand that had stained his legs
. He just shed for the first time since I got him the other day, WOW he has some pretty colors! I'll try and get some better pics asap.
