OPPS

After keeping the same 2 Beardered Dragons together for 3-4 years Last night I caught them doing the wild thing. I actually thought that I had 2 females, but apperantly not. This is the first time they have ever shown any interest in mating. I am not sure what was differant to last year or the year before. It could have been the new rock wall complete with cave that i installed in About 12 months ago. They just love the cave and this was the first time that they slowed right down for winter so maybe that was the reason.

I had never planed on breading Bearderd Dragons and there is no garrentee that any thing will come from this one matting. Saty tuned in the comming months to see if we end up with lost of little babies.

What's Next

Bearded Dragons make great pets.

Well now that you have met all of my critters where to from here. My plan for this blog is to put up an article about once a month about reptile keeping, more information on my animals things that you should know if you are interested in getting in to the hobby. I will also put up smaller posts on interesting little things as they happen. If you have a topic that you would like to cover please let me know and if I think I have the knowledge I will let post something on the subject.

I hope that you enjoy my blog please leave a comment.

Parker the Jungle

On Display at the Reptile Expo

The last of my current critters is a Black and Gold Jungle Python. iI have only had Parker for a couple of months so far. I think she is a very pretty snake. I have thought that Black and gold Jungles were pretty snakes for a long time but did not want to get one because of their repetition for being a bit snappy. After dealing with Jade, my rather snappy Coastal Carpet Python, I decided that as long as you were always on you guard then they were pretty controllable.

I started looking on line for a Black and Gold Python but I could not find the colours I was looking for The yellow was a bit dull or the yellow blended in with the black instead of having a nice hard line. Then some of the shanks I liked the look of would have the line. “Can be a bit cage protective, but ok once out of his cage.” I translated this in to VERY SNAPPY SNAKE, not what I was looking for. Then while at the 2011 Melbourne Reptile Expo I saw some absolute stunners and some of them were quite docile (so it seemed) the only problem was cash. I was struggling a bit at this point. So I took the details of the breaded and kept them somewhere safe. About 6 months later I was cashed up and ready to go. Lucky for me the breeder still had about 5 left.

At home in her new cage

Parker lives in a small glass cage 30cm X 30cm x 45cm high she has calmed down quite a lot in the 2 months I have had here and is quite easy to handle. In fact you have to be careful that she does not wee on you when you get her out of her cage. I do not know where this habit has come form but she now des it almost every time.
At the moment Parker is only about 50-60cm long but I am really looking forward to watching her grow up.

Gandalf & McGonagall

Three baby Bearded dragons

My first step in to Reptiles was with Lizards, Jacky Dragons to be precise, now I only have Bearded Dragons. Currently Gandalf & McGonagall live together in the same cage in my lounge room in a display cage that I made myself. It can be a bit of a risk housing reptiles in the same enclosure and I have had fights one ended up with Gandalf losing the last 2cm of his tail but these 2 guys get along quite well. Baby Beardies are very cute and very tiny. You can see form this picture that 3 of them fit in to the palm of my hand. At this size you have to be very careful when you get them out because they move so fast and can be hard to catch. No they are about 20 - 25cm long not including the tail.

Friends just hanging out together

All of my Bearded Dragons have been runts of the clutch but these 2 have grown to almost full size now. They are a lot of fun and develop their own personalities MaGonagall is a very lively lizard whereas Gandalf is a lot more laid back and will happily sit on your arm or your lap for a while.

All reptiles are sun lovers but Bearded Dragons like nothing more than to get outside in the sun and lap up some UV rays in fact it is good for them. The one time that someone did not close the glass door on the lizard cage and one of them got out, I found the escapee sitting on the window sill looking outside enjoying the heat from the sun.

Bearded dragons do take a bit more care maintenance than the snakes do but they are still a lot of fun.

Jade

Jade - Coastal Carpet Python

Meet Jade, he is a Coastal Carpet Python (Morelia Spilota). I watched this little guy from in a reptile shop in Melbourne for about 10 months. He was part of clutch that they were selling and every one of them had sold except this one. I think that the main reason he had not sold was because he was a bit snappy, well a lot snappy. He has calmed down a bit but is still very cage protective, so getting him out to clean his cage can be a bit of an adventure at times. 

Jade has been interesting to watch as he has grown up. When I first brought him home he was quite light in color but over time he has become much darker. Jade in case you have not guessed is a Green/Jade color the patterning on him is very striking, well I think so any way.

Jade ready to strike

She lives in an enclosure that I picked up from a friend for $20. I completely renovated it and he is now a very happy snake. At a later date I will explain how I turned the old $20 cage in to a brand new one for less than $50. It was well worth the effort. The cage is about 2ft X 2ft at the base and 5ft tall it has two levels and two different hides and a couple of well secured tree limbs for climbing. And he certainly likes his climbing.  This cage should be big enough for jade for a while yet as he is only about 1.2 – 1.3 meters long but he still has a bit of growing to go yet. He could easily get up to 1.8 meters in length or even bigger.