Care sheet and Guarantee

Dragon room is 80 degrees ambient with 40% -44% humidity, less than this the dragons don't shed properly here. All hot spots range from 95 to 105 degrees based on time of day here in S. FL. 

Base salad: chopped organic collard greens, romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, organic carrot shavings with peeler, organic summer squash when in season shavings with peeler, you can top base salad with Nature Zone dragon bites (some of mine eat it some don’t).

Why organic?  Several years ago I had two sick dragons they were in the 4yr old range..we didn't find a whole lot on the fecal .....we racked our brains with this ..we were literally stumped. After months of supportive care these two dragons died. When the vet the did the necropsy she found tumors within the dragons, these tumors were cancer and responsible for the death of the dragons. Although we can’t pinpoint how they got this, it is logical to assume the same way we get cancer... from pesticides and fertilizer in our food. I had been buying my greens at Walmart  and Aldi and not in the organic section. The vet really counseled me on how pesticides and fertilizers work, what they are made of and the damage they can do.

4-8wk age group:

7:30am salad chopped super fine

7:30am  1/8"-1/4" crickets  or roaches dusted with calcium first before salad

Every 3 hours after the first feeding I feed bugs undusted until 6pm.......because they live in groups they need to feed this often.

Dehydration:  a dehydrated baby dragon will twitch like he has a calcium deficiency, he will wobble and be unable to walk properly, he will have wrinkly skin, he can't open or close his jaws properly. After watering a dehydrated dragon these symptoms will disappear quickly unless the dehydration is severe.  Dehydration causes death very quickly in a young dragon.   DRAGONS NEED WATER, ESPECIALLY BABIES!  Keep your baby watered  at least every 2 days.  I use a syringe and offer bottled water from this syringe...he drinks until he stops. NO WATER BOWL in cage...they poop in it and then drink.....this will make your dragon sick.

2-4 month age group: 

8:00am salad 

9:30am remove uneaten salad and feed 1/4 - 1/2" crickets or roaches (www.buydubia.com) based on size of hatchlings (width of jaw on dragon should be equal to body length of cricket. Dust these crickets once per day with Miner-All .   Feed as much of these as he will eat in a sitting. You can also offer small baby soldier fly larvae/phoenix worms at this time for variety and I will give these in between meals to keep them busy, you can add them to a bowl or dish. 

4:30 pm crickets/roaches as much as he will eat

6:00pm  PREPARE FOR BEDTIME: clean cage Do not let feeders run around the cage with dragon in it...the dragon will become stressed and he will go off feed, Dragon will lose his mind, be terrorized by the feeders. Please take care and monitor the feedings. 

4-6 month age group: 

8:00am salad 

9:30am Feed medium sized crickets or Dubia roaches about 1/2" - 3/4" dust with Miner-All every 2nd day and offer half grown horn worms too. You can also offer 1/2 grown super worms  or Soldier fly larvae/phoenix worms..the dark crawlers as much as he wants to eat in a sitting.

4:30pm crickets or roaches

6:00pm PREPARE FOR BEDTIME: clean cage

I water these by putting in a sink of warm water up to the elbows....MONITOR DRINKING

6 month to Adult:

8:00am: Salad

Feed dragons that are 6-8 months old every 2nd day with dubias . If the dragon does not want to eat his salad once in a while that is perfectly normal, metabolism is slowing down on some dragons at this stage, but they should want to eat live feeders at least twice per week unless they are trying to brumate (a dragons natural yearly cycle of slowing down his bodily functions in the winter)

 Horn worms are a fantastic feeder for this age group. I try to offer them once a week or twice a week if I have enough on hand.

HOUSING:  Our lights are on from 7:30am to 6:30pm. Hatchlings are housed in  melamine cages or in plastic bins in a dragon building with an A/C and the humidity stays at 44%.   Our hatchlings are kept on newspaper or paper towels ,CLEAN CAGE before you feed the dragon every time ..and these bins are wiped out  daily with  vinegar/water mix and at least every 2 days with a Clorox/water mixture and toweled dry.  I use the coated bendable cage screen (like for rabbit cages, but they have a green coating...I buy them at home depot) as little  bridges for them to climb while basking...it washes great..and these are scrubbed with soap and water daily or as needed.  The basking spots are 95 to 103 degrees depending upon the time of day this is achieved with  an incandescent bulb..depending upon size of cage it could be 60 w to 100w .  These babies have repti-Sun 10.0 uvb TUBES as the  uvb source. The uvb tubes are 13" from the top of the heads when they are basking.  I don't use the coils..never have...don't know if they work or  not.

Sub adults-Adults have Power Sun Mecury Vapor bulbs, these bulbs have spot heat and UV in one with basking temps of 105 degrees and this age group live in 8ft melamine communes for girl groups and 4ft  melamine cages for lone adult males. Adults live on newspaper or sifted play sand especially if they are outside....I have never had one impaction on play sand in my over 27yrs of keeping dragons, I have never seen a sub adult or adult with a sand impaction... not one...we have had a lot of dragons.   Cages are kept clean at all times.  I DO NOT USE GLASS CAGES HERE as they are too hard for me to clean and the dragons look ugly in a glass cage , it is fine if you have a glass cage but they look prettier in melamine, ABS, Vision, or wood. 

PARASITES:  We do not routine de-worm the dragons here. Fenbendazole even in small doses causes liver damage in a bearded dragon if used routinely. Years ago I de-wormed everything 3 months old and older routinely for a while and this shortened the life of the dragons. I had created a problem that did not exist trying to treat them as I did my horses and mammal pets and to see if this would be a benefit to these reptiles.  We had no data on this at the time and as a pioneer breeder we supply the information to the colleges of veterinary medicine and public on these trial and errors. It was far worse to routine de-worm a dragon than to treat an infection that can pop up. Now, we do not de-worm or routinely administer anything other than vitamins and minerals to any dragon unless we spot questionable behavior and then a fecal and/or blood work is performed by a licensed reptile vet to identify and properly treat a problem found. 

The absolute best thing to prevent infections in a healthy dragon ...of any kind really is.... wash those greens, keep his cage clean and do not have water bowls in his cage. Do not let younger dragons see older dragons (little dragons stress out when seeing older dragons it is a threat).  Try to get dragon off crickets as he ages and onto a roach/worm feeder, NO crowding, lots of ventilation, correct temps, proper feed, and LOW stress environment.  My dragons die of old age not bacterial infections.  There are many hundreds of people out there that send me pics and updates of dragons they bought 10-plus years ago from me and  most people that purchase dragons are repeat customers.

When your dragon arrives it could be dark in color and not look like the picture, this is generally due to being bounced around a few airplane rides a truck ride and now stress of relocation..being separated from his siblings...being alone. Put the baby under the hot spot and allow him to come to cage temp. If your housing is not like described above, or you have a GLASS CAGE (dragons do not look pretty here in glass cages and are darker in them..I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH THAT I DO NOT USE GLASS CAGES  THE DRAGONS WILL NOT BE AS COLORFUL) you may want to make some changes to your enclosure so that it is somewhat similar for a while until the dragon adjusts. 

We do not put hides of any kind in the cages, this promotes squirrely behavior here and the dragon sometimes wants to stay in this thing forever. 

REQUESTS FOR PICTURES OF PARENTS, SIBLINGS, OR RELATIVES WILL NOT BE ACCOMMODATED AT ALL.  I GET UPWARDS OF A HUNDRED REQUESTS IN A WEEK  MOSTLY FROM MINORS  OR PICTURE COLLECTORS  WHOM I NEVER HEAR FROM AGAIN AND THIS AMOUNT OF WORK IS UNPRODUCTIVE.  REPRESENTATIVES AND RELATIVES PHOTOS CAN BE SEEN ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THIS WEBSITE OR ON SOLD DRAGON PAGE.

Guarantees:

Live Arrival Guarantee: The dragon is guaranteed to arrive alive.  The dragon is not guaranteed to arrive on time, Fedex  does not offer refunds for late same day arrivals and  offers refunds on a case by case basis for over 24hr late arrivals.  Very late arrivals are rare however.

 The animal must be retrieved from the delivery person's hands and not left on door step at all. Fedex will leave this dragon on door step and may not even knock or ring your door bell there is no signature upon delivery as I do not want this dragon to go back into the truck and ride in the extreme heat or cold all day until 5 or 6pm when delivery person returns to the Fedex warehouse...the dragon will not survive this. You MUST make arrangements to be at the location all day where dragon is delivered and you MUST be waiting and on the lookout for this dragon. The tracking number is provided to you via a photograph of label sent to your phone on day of ship out. It is your responsibility to wait for animal. dy.

  In the extremely rare instance that a dragon may be found deceased when you open the box, and I can't stress enough how very rare this is.....you must notify me by text or phone call to: 561-309-9956 with accompanying photo within 15 minutes of the delivery time that is noted on my Fedex shipper's notification panel and I will refund the purchase price. ( If I trade or purchase a dragon from a fellow breeder..I retrieve dragon from delivery person's hands and I open the box immediately without delay...My customers are required to take the same care and dedication to these animals as I do on arrival day).  If I am notified about a death more than 30 minutes after arrival and again rare........I will understand that you left the animal out on your door step.... it over heated or became cold because you did not retrieve dragon from delivery person's hands and open box immediately as agreed and you will not get a refund.

Health Guarantee: 

If you have followed this care sheet and feeding guidelines on it  and your dragon is ill within  5 days  of delivery and this is rare, but I understand things can happen..... I will refund the purchase price, but the not shipping fee of the animal and animal must be returned to me at my expense for medical treatment.  I do not give refunds because the lizard does not like his cage, you have followed incorrect advice you sought from a 9yr old boy on the internet, the kids, dogs, birds, etc are making him stressed because of this, etc.  

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