My Bearded Dragon

[Reefsmoka]

Hey all, just thought i'd show you some pictures of mine and me fiance's bearded dragon. His name is Butters (names after the crazy dude from south park). He was born/hatched on 16th June 2010, we got him around a month after and the rest is history .

It took a while for us to gain his trust but now he's very friendly, and loves being out of his vivarium and is always running round the house like a mad head ^^

And his 1 bedroom aparment

 

[bootneck02]

Ahh ain't he cute

 

[Taffycat]

Aww, what an interesting pet, Butters looks like a great little character Reefsmoka. What sort of size is he actually? Will he grow any bigger than this?

 

[muckshifter]

I like the hammer ... in case of an emergency, he can break the glass.

 

[EvanDavis]

I like the hammer ... in case of an emergency, he can break the glass.

I think the hammer looking thing might be a temprature probe of sorts.

 

[bootneck02]

Yes, is he full grown yet and if not how much bigger will he get. If he grows a big as an aligator I think you may need a new home.

 

[Reefsmoka]

Aww, what an interesting pet, Butters looks like a great little character Reefsmoka. What sort of size is he actually? Will he grow any bigger than this?

At the moment he's around 12 inches long including tail, I think he'll probably hit the 18 inch mark maybe a little more.

 

[bootneck02]

Ahh bless him. what is the average life span for a bearded dragon

 

[bootneck02]

P.S what does he feed on?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Great stuff

Been thinking about getting a lizard or two meself but need to get a wireless network printer to make space for the vivarium first.

I used to keep lizards when I was a kid, amongst those I kept were two big green lizards and a chameleon. The chameleon lived around 4 years which is pretty good going for a chameleon and yes, he changed colour when he moved around, blended in with the curtains.

 

[Reefsmoka]

Ahh bless him. what is the average life span for a bearded dragon

He should live for between 10-15 years aslong as he stays healthy. His diet at the moment contains around 10 locust a day (5 in the morning, at around 5pm) and a variety of salad leaf's , peppers and blue berries. When he's older his locust count will go down to around 3-4 a day and more salad.

We were looking to get him a friend but after some research we found out he's happier on his own, prefers his own space, in the wild he would just hang out on his own .

 

[Taffycat]

He sounds like quite an ideal pet/companion, Reef, being potentially so long-lived, yet remaining a manageable size.

His diet doesn't sound too bad either. Do his locusts have to be live, or of the dried variety? And, if I'm allowed another possibly daft question... does he have teeth, or a bony-type interior to his mouth?

 

[Reefsmoka]

His locust are alive, I get around 50 locust delivered for just over £7. I think he has teeth, or maybe a sharpe beak, he used to bite us both all the time, he only drew blood from me fiancé finger once so there not that sharpe, he hasn't managed to make me bleed yet!

 

[Reefsmoka]

me poor little lizard is shedding today, he always moody when shedding, i bet its really irritating and itchy.

 

[Taffycat]

Aww... poor little fellow. How long does the shedding take, before he gets back to normal again? I guess it's a sign that he's growing(?) after all those tasty locusts.

 

[Reefsmoka]

While he's young he sheds around once every 3 weeks completely, but he doesn't do it all in one go! His head will start and finish shedding first, then his tale, then his arms then his legs and finally his body, all in all it takes around a week to do a complete shed. You just wanna help him by pulling the skin off for him but you shouldn't because it can damage the new skin underneath. He starts rubbing himself all over the place, bit like a dog with an itch

 

[Reefsmoka]

Well my bearded dragon has been rather poorly for just over a week. It all started last Saturday when it was nice and sunny, we had him out in the garden running around when he seemed to take a fancy to the gravel/stone we have in the garden. He picked one up in his mouth and started to try and chew it, and it was crunching like a snail so we though he'd ate a snail. A few days passed and he was acting different, looking sorry for himself so we gave him a bath and gave his tummy a rub and could feel something hard in his stomach, you could definately feel there was a stone in there, quite a large one at that! We took him vets the next day and had him x-rayed and there it was, a big ole stone in his tummy.

The vet said if it has not passed through his stomach to his intestine yet he could fish it out with the little camera with a grab on it, but it had already passed through . The vet said even though it is a rather large stone it felt smooth so should not damage his insides but it might have trouble passing as it looked bigger than his pelvis/hip's so it might not fit. He said if he hasn't passed it by next Wednesday then he will need an operation to get it out . He was still moaping around this morning not eating properly so we gave him a bath to try and sooth him and to our amazement he pooped out the stone!

 

[Taffycat]

Aww, the poor little fellow. I'm glad to hear "Nature took its course" so that he doesn't have to be operated-on. Hope he will feel completely fine again now.

 

[Abarbarian]

He is a rather unusual pet. Glad he didn't get too stoned.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Perhaps he now has some idea what it's like for a female to give birth

Interesting tale Mr Reef, glad it had a happy ending