what do you do, if you need to be away?

[mypets]

would love to know what you do if your going to be away from your bearded dragon for a few days????????????? how do you keep food in his cage????? my friends will not care for him, they won't feed him his cricketts for me, so how do I go for a weekend, and leave him alone?????????/

 

[hhmoore]

would love to know what you do if your going to be away from your bearded dragon for a few days????????????? how do you keep food in his cage????? my friends will not care for him, they won't feed him his cricketts for me, so how do I go for a weekend, and leave him alone?????????/

Simply: get your temps squared away, put your lights on a timer, food and fresh water in before you leave, and try not to worry too much. 2-3 days without food is not going to long lasting (if any) effect on your beardeds. even pretty young ones can tolerate it.
The only problem you might encounter this time of year would be overheating if the house or room temps spike, or if something goes awry with your heatsource or regulation.

 

[Rebel Dragons]

A 13" dragon will be fine with no food or water for a few days. As long as they are fed a good meal and given a nice long drink before you leave it will be fine. As far as lights......... I would simply put them on a timer or leave them off all together. As long as it's just 2-3 days it will do no harm.

 

[Cat_72]

The friend that does my chores when we go away won't touch bugs or worms, but if I prepare my dragon's "salad" before I go and just leave it in a bowl in the refrigerator, he'll gladly feed him that, so much at a time.

If we just go for an overnight or weekend trip, I just keep his lights on a timer.....and just make sure he has a full tummy before I leave, give him a good misting with water, and leave some extra superworms in his dish, and he does just fine.

 

[Matt Haines]

I wish we could find someone to feed our pets for about a week. No vacations for us as at least one of us has to be here all the time.

 

[DragonCharm]

As suggested precut the greens and have plates made up ahead of time. That way the friend can remove the old plate, replace with a new fresh plate.....no work at all. Then just have them rinse and refill the water, that's easy. If they won't touch bugs don't worry about it, a few days without won't hurt. Just give them plenty when you return. I've run out of bugs and have waited a few days for a delivery.......haven't lost one yet. Not sure though that I'd leave hatchlings with no bugs for long, I wouldn't want to see much weight drop in my abscence since they are the least forgiving.

 

[InFocus]

I've got the same problem right now. I'm not worried about the adults for a long weekend abut I have brand new hatchlings that will just be a week old and the Daytona expo is next weekend. In an area where herpers are hard to come by someone to take care of 50 dragons for a weekend is tough.

 

[hhmoore]

I wish we could find someone to feed our pets for about a week. No vacations for us as at least one of us has to be here all the time.

I know what you mean. I'm currently working 2 "real" jobs, in addition to caring for all my critters. As divine as a few days away sounds, it just isn't worth the stresses of trying to coordinate the last feedings, and getting everything cleaned before I go. And I have this base understanding that when I do go, something will happen to at least one of them. I took my wife to the National Zoo the first week of June...my worry was that something was going to go to the bathroom just as I walked out the door, and would have a whopping pneumonitis from basting in it while I was away. We ended up coming home a day early and, sure enough, my male yellow anaconda had urinated and was sounding just a little raspy. ("Only 1, and he was big/strong enough to deal with it!!! How cool is that," I thought) Well, the noise cleared up in two days, and he has been fine ever since...EXCEPT that he has refused food ever since. He was always an aggressive feeder, so his weight was good enough to last, but he is starting to look/feel a little thin. I already know my next plan of attack, its just extra work that I really haven't had time for. And my wife thinks I'm going to take a vacation this fall. Just when I am getting everybody prepped for breeding season.
Uh huh, that's gonna be happenin'.

 

[DragonCharm]

I work 2 real jobs as well, what fun. I'd love just to dump the p/t job and only work 40 hrs a week.....that would be vacation. As is I have about 20 hrs per week in the car commuting, 40-45 hrs at my fulltime job, 20-30 hrs at my part time job. Luckily though all this work has paid off and I am finally on top of my bills, a few years ago I was barely squeaking by. Now I can afford all sorts of new snakes, racks, etc. I just hope to be able to breed enough to have the hobby pay for itself. We don't really take vacations at all, just out of state one day trips to herp shows, museums, etc.

 

[hhmoore]

The only problem with getting on top of things and having expendable (its-spendable, lol) income is that you get used to making that much and spending that much. That means that you are (well, I am) less likely to slow down and not work as much.
If ya got it, spend it...if not, spend it anyway. where there's a will, there's a way.

 

[Junkyard]

Just my 2 cents, when I am out of town for a couple days I make sure my Bearded gets a bowl full of dry pellets(he likes the green ones). Also with extra crickets he seems to do just fine.

We have a friend who watches our reptiles while we are gone, even willing to whack some mice for us also, though we take care of those duties so she does not not have to. She has really been great, the best part is we just pay her 4 and 5 year old kids $20 and we do not need to worry.

 

[Cat_72]

It isn't easy to find a good, trustworthy person to take care of all the critters oftentimes....besides the snakes and beardie, housedogs, and housecat, we also have lots of outside critters....horses, poultry, etc....we consider ourselves lucky, we have one good friend that takes in the housedogs, and another that does all of our other chores. The guy that does our chores, however, does NOT touch mice or superworms.

We make it a LAW that we must get away for at least one week out of the year. It's amazing how much difference it makes in one's sanity....LOL.

 

[InFocus]

I'm with Cat...A little time off makes such a difference.

We are in the same boat, house dogs (with puppies), cats, 50 bearded dragons and counting, monitors, birds, poultry, goats, horses, plus everything to take care of that everything else eats. Its quite a job. I love to watch my friends eyebrows go up when I say you just feed the horned lizard about 30 ants a day.....and yes the ants sting!

 

[DragonCharm]

Little off topic but where do you get your ants? A guy on another board wants a horned lizard but lives in a cold climate that he is unable to get live ants in all year round.

 

[InFocus]

I get my harvester ants from http://www.infowest.com/life/ They are.02 each when you buy 500. Some of the horned lizards form higher elevations like Colorado, Wyoming, and the Utah mountains will not accept harvester ants. They are very specialized feeders. For them there is no good solution but to hope you can get them to accept 1/8 crickets during the time the ants are dormant and the lizard is not. Collecting ants is a time consuming job. My horned lizard is definitely the most difficult lizard that I have ever attempted to keep.