• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Queston about age and size?

A

a1littlesister

New member
Joined
Jul 10, 2006
Messages
94
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
64
Location
Michigan
Abbott and Costello are now 9 weeks old...they are about 11" long. I went to a reptile pet store today to get some crickets because my shipment won't be in till next week and the boys eat like crazy. I told him it was for 9 week old Beardies about 11" long....he said no way..they had to be older. He had some in a tank that he said was 2 months old and they were only about 3". Mine were that big at 2 weeks old when I got them. They went through this growing spurt and grew about an inch a week and are still growing. Are mine just big or are his really small? Going back through and looking at some of the pictures on here of babies mine look about right I think.
My husband thought maybe I feed them too much. I feed them 3 times a day and dust their crickets with this stuff I got at a reptile show. He said to use it every time...he had really big dragons too. Just wondering how big they actually might get so we can plan on making a much bigger cage for each when they get older.
Thanks
Alexa
 
A lot of pet stores practice "maintenance" feedings. They feed the animals only enough to keep them alive and decently healthy looking. It's sad but they do it to save money. If they feed like you do the profit margin on the animals decreases significantly.

Let's say I sell 2 dragons, one to you and one to a pet store. You each pay $50.00 for them + $30.00 for shipping. Most petstores mark up live stock 100%. His dragon is now for sale at $160.00 He feeds it 10 crickets a day, pays for rent, electric, water, payroll for cleaning and maintenance, etc, etc..... Let's say it costs him .75$ a day for that. After 3 months (90 days) he has spent $67.50 on that dragon. Cost plus 3 months of maintenance is $147.50 He only profits $12.50 :rolleyes:

Now imagine if he fed his like you do yours. The bugs alone make it impossible for him to turn a profit. That's why your dragon is so much bigger and healthier than his. You weren't looking to turn a profit so yours actually got fed.

If your planning to make an adult cage I would make it a minimum of 48"x24"x24" One adult dragon can live comfortably in a cage of that size for his entire life.
 
Thanks Mike,
My husband is a licensed builder so he wanted to make them a cage. I do know that they will each have to have one. I would like to make it stackable. I have looked through past post on cages and have gotten some good ideas. We figure we should have about 6 more months to get one finished before having to separate them. I have them in a 35"x18"x18" now. I just didn't want to make one and find out wow...this is not big enough. I know they are growing like crazy...can you actually feed them too much or will they stop when they are full?
Thanks
Alexa
 
Some dragons tend to do a little overeating but they usually stop once they are full. I have only seen a couple dragons eat too much. Both times they got sick and pouted for a couple days afterwards.

here's a pic of the stackable cages we make.
 

Attachments

  • Cage.JPG
    Cage.JPG
    30.7 KB · Views: 57
Alexa,

Just sounds like you have healthy beardies! As Mike mentioned, that's the difference between a healthy beardie and a pet store beardie. When I bought my very first dragon, he was barely 6" long at over 8 weeks old. I thought that was a pretty normal size. When I started breeding my own, I realized that most babies have the potential to reach 6" long by 4-5 weeks old, some even earlier. And boy, do they eat!!!

Jamie
 
I have sure found out they eat....I accidental ordered the wrong size cricket...1/4" instead of the larger ones...they ate 1,000 crickets in little over 3 days. That is why I found this reptile store that would sell in bulk. A regular pet store wanted $1.00 a dozen and I needed about 500 to hold me over till Wed. when they arrive. I'm still trying to get my ordering down pat so I don't run out and I don't order too many where they get too big before they can eat them all...but gosh they have decided to eat like crazy the past 2 weeks. They are defiantly little eating pooping machines. I'm home all day with them to I try to clean up their cage constantly.
Mike thanks for the picture of the cage...your past post on the cage was one that I showed my husband. Now kicking him in the butt to get started...these boys are growing fast and the cage I have will only be big enough for one in a few months..but luckily they still get along really great.

Thanks
Alexa
 
Back
Top