need info

Question
QUESTION: i would like to know every thing about baby bearded dragons care, habitat, and diets thank oyu

ANSWER: Dear Dallas,
thank you for your question.
Bearded dragons can be kept alone or in groups of one male and at least two females. I recommend keeping only one, though, because there's no way to tell the sex of a dragon when its young and males will fight to the death when they are adult. Most people end up with more than one male and it's hard to find good homes for them. It's also not easy for a beginner to tell if all dragons are getting enough food or if they are maybe stressed by the others, even females may be very dominant and stress each other. In the wild, they are solitary anyway and only meet by accident or for mating.

An adult dragon needs a tank that is at least 5x2x2 ft long, wide and high. I would get the tank right away, they grow so fast that smaller tanks will ne useless after a few months. You can divide the tank into smaller pieces if the baby has problems finding its food.

Baby dragons need a diet that's 70-80% insects and 20-30% leafy greens and vegetables. Adult dragons need it just the other way around. Feed a variety of insetcs: crickets, locusts, roaches, earthworms, waxworms/moths, silkworms /alive or dried) mealworms and rolypolies for example. The prey shouldn't be bigger than the length between the dragon's eyes. Baby dragons must be fed every day, both insects and greens, just about as much as they want to eat. Adults should have at least one day without food and can get insects on two days per week, the rest just greens. They can have greens as much as they want to, but insects should be limited, for example four big crickets or two adult locusts or three mealworms (very fatty!). Adult bearded dragons can get overweight easily.

You will need very bright lighting. I recommend using HQI lights, they are extremely bright and last a long time. Apart from them, bearded dragons need a basking spot (100 watt, one per animal) and UV lighting, The T-Rex UV HEat is the best UV lamp on the market at the moment. With HQIs, the spot and the UV light, the tank is usually warm enough.

As substrate, I recommend a mixture of playsand and clay powder, in a ratio of about 20 pounds of sand to one poud of clay powder. Moisten the sand, mix everything and then let it dry. The substrate will grow hard when it dries and it will resemble the soil the dragons live on in the wild. It also allows them to dig and will help keeping their claws short. To prevent substrate eating and impaction, offer crushed cuttlebone in a bowl, that's also important to prevent calcium deficiencies. Try brick yards or ebay for the clay powder.

Bearded dragons like to climb, so offer big branches or cork or bark pieces for them to sit on and climb. Apart from cork, oak, beech, birch, apple, pear, willow and hazel are fine, but trees with craggy bark are better for climbing.

You will also need a herp vet After bringing the dragons home, it's a good idea to let a vet check them, at least a fecal sample for parasites (if the breeder agrees to do it before you buy them, that's even better). A parasite check should be done one each year at least. Bearded dragons brumate, that's similar to hibernation. They stop eating and sleep or at least rest almost all the time. Here's an article on this:
http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/brumation/
The wesbite has much more very useful info, I really suggets that you read it all before getting your dragon.
Here's another useful bearded dragon website:
http://www.bio.miami.edu/ktosney/file/BDcare.html
Herp vets can be found here:
http://www.greenigsociety.org/vets.htm
www.herpvetconnection.com/
www.herpvetdirectory.com/

I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: when should i get them check at the vets?

ANSWER: I usually do it before my dragon goes into brumation, around September or October. Then there would be enough time to treat them for anything they may have before they go to sleep for the winter.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: ive only have them for 2 weeks? i bought them at a pet store is there a posibility they have been checked? what are some signs that they are getting sick? when will they start to fall asleep and for how long?

p.s u are great help thank you

Answer
I would never trust a pet shop to do a vet check on animal they sell, most of them don't. Lack of appetite is a often a sign of illness, as well as being lethargic. I would let a vet check them, even if you don't notice anything unusual.
It's possible that your dragons won't brumate this year, if they are very young. Usually, they start to brumate around November/December, but it really depends on the animal. You can get them to brumate by stopping to feed them and then shortening the legth of their day from 12/14 hours to 6-8 over a period of 4-6 weeks. Brumation should last at least six weeks, buteven two months or more is normal. To wake them up, lengthen their day to 12 hours again and start feeding them as soon as they become active again. If they are healthy, there's no reason why they shouln't brumate even if they are only a few months old.
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer