Donna's Dragon Den

Puff 3.20.2010 Over the Rainbow Bridge

2010-03-22T18:15:00.000-04:00

Sadly my litle Puff lost her fight with MBD on March 20th, 2010. It was a long fight trying to get her back to good health, and I know in my heart I did everything possible to try and give her a happy life.

The last 2 weeks broke my heart. She lost the use of all 4 of her legs, and had to wiggle across her enclosure. She could not lift her head up any more, and I hand feed her several times a day.

The folks at Eastwood Animal Clinic in Rutland, Vermont were wonderful and showed true compassion for my little Puff, and understanding as to how hard it was for me. I will never forget Dr Bruce LeGallais for calling me at 9pm at home to see how she was doing.

I know now she is over the Rainbow Bridge free of pain. She can at last act like a dragon, and live a care free life.

Donna's Dragon Den: Happy New Year to All Animal L0vers!

2010-01-03T13:17:00.000-05:00

Donna's Dragon Den: Happy New Year to All Animal L0vers!

Happy New Year to All Animal Lovers!

2010-01-03T13:16:00.001-05:00

Lily is calling to wish everyone a very Happy, Healthy New Year!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-24T21:55:00.000-05:00

I just want to wish everyone a very Happy Holiday Season!

Helpful Bearded Dragon Websites

2009-08-04T21:40:00.002-04:00

For many of us dragon owners, there is always something that arises about our dragons we would like to get some professional answers about. Two excellent websites for help and care of the dragon is www.beautifuldragons.com and a great forum also with care sheets for dragons is www.beardeddragon.org This is also a great site to ask questions about any aspect of owning a dragon.

If you are thinking about purchasing your first dragon and need help with the set up, feeding, heat requirements etc, these are among the best sites on the web. There is a lot of misleading information out there and it can get really confusing as to who does what and when!!

I am learning as I go alone and will add more helpful sites that I feel will benefit you and the care of your dragon.

More Cricket Talk

2009-08-01T21:49:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to share with my readers another healthy food to fed crickets. Would you believe Cheerios or Total! I belong to the Yahoo bearded dragon group, http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/pogona/ and a few members were talking about healthy foods for crickets. These 2 cereals have all the nutritional vitams and minerals that the crickets need, which means healthier feeders for your dragons! There is no need to spend your money on commercial grade food!

I also learned that apples act as a appetite suppressant for crickets, so from now on I won't feed them as many apples as I have been, although, they certainly don't act like they don't have an appetite to me!

I purchase my crickets on line and usually order a 1000 at a time. Occasionally I have run low and gone to Petco for a 100 until my shipment arrives. I try to always wait 24 hours to feed the new crickets to my dragons. This way the crickets have had time to eat some healthy food. We can only guess what they are being fed at the pet shop!

I would highly recommend joining this Yahoo Group. It is a great forum for getting advice, asking questions and just sharing and learning about how to care for your dragon. Tomorrow I will post some other great web sites for bearded dragon advice and support.

Cricket Care

2009-07-26T15:18:00.000-04:00

My motto has always been to not kill anything, unless it attacks me first. For many years I have raised and bred Hermann and Russian tortoises. They are both vegetable and fruit eaters, so no live food was needed.

So here I am now with 2 beautiful dragons that need protein as a essential part of their diet. Suddenly my world is thrown upside down, and I must take living insects and feed my dragons! It has not been easy, but I know in nature the dragons would certainly be pursuing their own live food so I must copy nature If I want healthy, happy dragons!

There are many good care sheets about how to care for crickets, I would like to share what I do, and hopefully it will help you get idea's for your own set up. I buy crickets in large quantities. It is a lot cheaper that way and purchasing from a reputable cricket farm, the crickets usually arrive in good health with very few dead arrivals. I am using a plastic storage container for housing the crickets. Mine happens to be 33" X 16". I keep a window screen over the top to prevent any from escaping. The crickets cannot crawl up the sides of the plastic, although they jump pretty high! Most care sheets do not recommend any substrate for the bottom of the cage. It is a lot easier to keep the cage clean that way. I do however, use a little organic plant soil for the bottom of mine. Living in the NE, it is quite cool here and the soil keeps the bottom a little warmer. I buy lots of eggs and tear the crates up and stake them in the cage.

I do not buy any commercial food. I feel it is a waste of money. I offer shredded carrots, apples, papaya, peaches, string beans and slices of potato. I use to give slices of oranges, until I realized dragons do not eat citrus!! I also offer a separate dish with goldfish flakes. For water I use a shallow dish and put a few small flat rocks around the circumference. This is very important so the crickets do not drown!

In one corner of the cage, I keep a mound of wet soil. The females will lay eggs in this soil. Every couple of weeks I remove the soil and put into a separate enclosure, and I have started to get baby crickets, Another money saver! Once I remove the soil, I add some more soil and just continue this cycle.

It is true crickets smell!! I clean the cage 2X's a week. I also replace the egg crates quite often because they do start to smell also. I just move the egg crates to the opposite side of the cage and wait a few minutes, until the crickets all move over to the other side. I use a old big kitchen spoon to clean out the dead crickets and waste matter. It really is quite easy and only takes a few minutes!

When I am ready to feed my dragons I take a big plastic cup and bang some crickets off the egg crate into the cup. I then dust the crickets with calcium and 2X's a week vitamin dust. Please don't skip this step. Your dragons are what they eat. Besides feeding the crickets healthy foods, the calcium also helps in forming strong bones!

I have posted some pics to show my set up and if you have any questions, I would love to hear from you.

Cricket Care

2009-07-26T15:13:00.001-04:00

2009-07-23T16:06:00.003-04:00

Well I have not accomplished very much today. Reason being, is I am working on customizing this blog to add more content and I will admit, I am no expert!!

Both the dragons are pretty quiet today. They are both still shedding so I know there is nothing wrong, but I don't like to see them not eat! Does anyone else have this problem when their dragon's are shedding?

I still make them both a healthy salad every morning, and also give them crickets just in case they do want to eat. After 15 minutes I take out all crickets that have not been eaten. VERY IMPORTANT to remember that crickets will bite your dragons! Make sure you do not leave any in their enclosures at night! I always look under the rocks and paper towels because there's always a few hiding!! I have seen pictures of dragons with open wounds from cricket bites!

Tomorrow I will upload pics of my cricket enclosure and talk about what I do to keep them healthy and happy for my dragons.

2009-07-22T14:07:00.002-04:00

I owe all you dragon lovers an apology for dropping out of sight for the last couple of weeks. Life has thrown me another curve ball and I got laid off from my job. Talk about life's little challengers! Suddenly you don't have a cent in your pocket, and all I can think about is how am I going to be able to care for my dragon's properly!

So I am networking like crazy looking for another job, plus placing my own ads for a side business I do. I have faith something will eventually work out. I just hope sooner and not later.

The dragons are fine, and they both are shedding again. Wow, does their personality change when they are shedding! My little Puff refuses to eat, and that's a big concern because he doesn't eat very much anyway! I entice with chopped red peppers on his salad and I still put winter squash on his nose so he will get some nourishment. Lilly just seems to slow down and she also limits what she normally would eat. I am giving them both nice warm baths, to help them loosen their skin.

I think my next blog will be talking about how I take care of the crickets. I know there's a lot of questions on forums about feeder care and maybe how I do it might help someone else.

For some reason Blogspot has a problem with their "Post Comment" link. If anyone has a question, or would like to just comment, please do so at donnab@inbox.com.

Building Up Your Dragon's Trust

2009-05-08T14:42:00.008-04:00

I have been reading a lot of posts lately about new owners that are concerned that their new dragon is very timid. There are plenty of articles on the Internet that talks about how the bearded dragon makes a wonderful pet because they become quite tame with their human family. OK, so if this is true, then why is your 8 week old baby running away every time you try and pick him up?!

If you can, put yourself in the baby’s shoes for a minute. You are 7" long and everyone around you is absolutely huge! What does this mean? It means the baby think because they are so small, everything is out to make them their next meal! 2 words you mustn't forget when purchasing a young dragon... Time and Patience!

When you get your new dragon, the best way to start letting him get accustomed to you is to approach and talk softly to him. He will soon learn your voice. He will also realize that voice is bringing him yummy food! Once he gets accustomed to his new surroundings, you might want to offer a cricket given to him with tweezers. This is another way to build up his trust. He'll realize your hand brings good treats and you are not harming him. Another thing I like to do is while you are talking softly to your baby, gently pat his head. They seem to really enjoy this and again, it's allowing the dragon to feel reassured you are not going to harm him.

Once you feel he is more comfortable having you approach (usually a couple of weeks) you might want to pick him up for a few seconds. Always support the dragon around his stomach. Very gently pick him up by supporting his tummy. For a small dragon gently cup him in your hand being very careful he doesn't try and run. He could easily hurt himself. For the first few times, pick up the baby for maybe 30 seconds. Once he gets comfortable with being held, you can lengthen the amount of time each time you hold him.

Don't forget to comment to this post if you have any other idea's to help the new dragon feel comfortable with his new Mom or Dad.

Learning and Sharing

2009-05-05T16:37:00.006-04:00

This blog is dedicated to the bearded dragon and all the wonderful folks who either have a dragon, or are thinking about purchasing one.

I am not an expert on their care, but I have done a lot of research and would like to share what is working for me. I would also like this blog to be interactive. Many of us have questions about the health and well being of our dragons. This is a place where you can ask questions or share what is working for you!

I also will be sharing idea's around the care of feeder insects, and will post pictures as to my enclosures and anything else I feel will give people the knowledge to have happy healthy dragons.

Puff and Lily

2009-04-30T22:12:00.004-04:00

My Lily is a beautiful yellow girl. Her parents were quite big so as a 4 month old she is huge!!
My other dragon Puff is also 4 months old and he is 1/4 of Lily's size. They are both healthy and active, although Puff does not like to chase crickets. I often say to him "If you were in the wild, you would not survive." Well the good news is he isn't in the wild! I give him Phoenix worms, super worms and crickets which I hand feed with tweezers. What ever it takes I guess to get my boy to grow.

After Lily eats, she gets quite relaxed and sprawls out on the bottom of her enclose with her head on the rock like a pillow. Her tummy does look quite fat but maybe this is normal? Maybe some one can give me some advise! My Husband always says, I am worrying to much! I say she is just enjoying her new home and she knows she is very loved!