Tere Salazar

I get all my bugs from reptilefood.com. They sell crickets by 250, 500 and 1000. I buy from them because it's much, much less expensive than Petco...and they deliver to my front door! With this many of them, it's difficult to find time to go out and shop for all thier stuff when the stores are still open. I find it much easier to order online, and the prices certainly are better. And don't worry...I don't think you're starving him, but he will grow much faster if he eats until he's full. I personally leave greens and veggies in the enclosure all day. I put the greens and veggies in the enclosures as soon as the lights go on, and remove the bowls for washing right before the lights go off. To encourage my beardies to eat thier greens, I don't offer crickets until about an hour after I serve greens and veggies. That way, if they wake up ravenous, they will at least try the greens and most discover they really like them!

As for the temperature drop at night, not to worry. In the wild, these guys sleep out in the desert where temperatures drop also. My house gets down to about 70 at night, and all my beardies do just fine with that. If you do feel the need to get him a heat lamp at night, just make sure it doesn't emit light or it will disturb his sleep.

I'm sure you will soon find that very few people at pet stores actually know how to properly care for beardies. I'm not sure what the reason for this is, I just know that I see them doing things all the time that I and most others would NEVER do. Even though it's a major pain in the butt, I would change the substrate out. At 3 months, he really should be fine on sifted playsand. As long as you scoop poop frequently and make sure that he's always hydrated, he shouldn't get impacted. I think playsand is also much less expensive than the stuff they sell at Petco. I only pay $5 for a 50 pound bag of really pretty white playsand at Home Depot. Since you don't live too far from me, I bet your Home Depot would carry it also. I've never tried the astro turf, but I don't see that it would be very easy to clean. I'm a little bit obsessive about keeping the enclosures clean!

I think it's wonderful that you had so many animals growing up. I personally think having animals helps children learn reponsibility and how to "care" for something. I am a country girl from Texas and spent a lot of time caring for horses and cattle, so having beardies fills that need to "care" for things...not to mention the kids!

Thank you for the compliments on our website. My husband put that all together...and it was his first attempt at a website. I'm a little biased, but I think he did a great job!

I gotta tell you...it's so nice to see someone care for and be concerned about thier beardies. Your little guy is very lucky!