And then there was quiet

So all our babies have flown the nest!  Bruce is now well ensconced in his new home.  He is pictured here happy as a pig in the proverbial.  I look forward to seeing pictures in a few months time when he has grown and might have started showing some colour like his mum.

Speaking of Lolly, she and Booster have started Brumating.  As I have mentioned before, Brumation is the reptile equivalent of hibernation in mammals.  Reptile physiology is obviously very different and their bodies go through different processes during long periods of what is essentially sleep.  However, during this time, unlike mammals, it is very likely that Lolly and Booster will wake up every now and then.  They might take a drink and something small to eat and be awake for a few days.  Then most likely they will ferret around a bit and go back to sleep.

This process can continue until the days start getting a bit longer and the weather starts to warm up.  Fascinating that even in an environment where the temperature and light cycle is controlled, that their natural instincts can still kick in so strongly.  Our Dragon’s Den has very little exposure to natural light from the window on the other side of the room.  But, this has been enough for them to catch the day length cycles to kick in both their breeding and Brumation cycles this year.  So basically, I have stopped feeding Lolly and Booster about a week ago and once they had cleared their stomachs, they found a comfy spot and went to sleep.  A day or two later, I turned off the light and heat sources and left them to it.  They have been asleep ever since.  I have put the ceramic heat bulb that emits no light on a thermostat to keep the temperature at about 20C.  That should see them through the process, as scary as it is for me going through it for the first time, without any dramas.

Our babies from this year will not and should not be allowed to brumate.  Dragons should not go through this process in captivity before they are at least 12 months old and are clearly in good health.  Our Dragons did not show any inclination to sleep for exceedingly long periods until the last month or so.  Given their condition I felt as confident as I am ever going to in letting them brumate.

So as the title says, it is all very quite on the Beardie front at the moment.

Baby Boom – Issue #8 (and final for now)

This is Bruce, not Charlie.  He is our last baby Dragon. 

The others I took into our local reptile pet store about a week ago.  As you can see, Bruce is quite small, but, he is going well.  I have held onto Bruce for a work colleague who named him and who has organised an enclosure and is going to give him a great home as a pet for his child.  A great outcome indeed!

This is the final post in the baby boom series and wraps up our first experience with breeding our dragons.  All in all it has been an awesome experience that our whole family shared in.  Everything from wondering if Lolly was pregnant to the amazing day when the eggs started to hatch has been fascinating.

It will be a long wait until next year, and I have not even decided if I should let them breed again or let Lolly have the year off.   I have received solid advice that it would be ok for her health wise, but, I’ll wait and see.

So for now and this breeding season, the action is all over.  What a great time it has been.  We’ll be back to business as usual from here on in.  Although we are heading into the colder months and Brumation is on the horizon!

Baby Boom – Issue #7

It’s been nearly a week since our babies hatched.  I have kept a pretty close eye on them all told.  I feed them once or twice a day and have been very pleased to see any number of them avail themselves of a small cricket here and there.  It’s exciting to watch.  I have even had to start cleaning up poops which for me is another great sign.

I have been taking them out into the natural sunlight each day for 30 – 60 minutes wherever possible.  It’s been a nice conversation starter with the neighbours.  It has also given the baby dragons some vital natural UV exposure that is so important to their healthy development.  I have also added a third light fitting to the hood I have over their tubs to house a UVB bulb for them while they are inside.  Nothing like the real thing, but, still good for them.

I thought I would share a couple of photos from this afternoons sunbathing.  Every day they seem to be developing so quickly.  Today it was no time at all before nearly all of them had found a place in direct sunlight.  These photos are one of each tub and the dragons that hopped up onto the paving bricks for better access to the rays!

I am happy to report that at this stage, all are looking pretty healthy.  I am planning to hand them over to the reptile store at some stage next week.  I am sure it will be with mixed emotions, but, something we need to do.  I will be hanging on to one of them for a work colleague.  So at least we’ll have one in the house for a little while longer.

Baby Boom - Issue #6

So the day has finally come.  Our babies have started to emerge.  The dimpled egg was indeed a sign of a baby about to hatch.  At the moment we have 11 eggs that have had some action.  There is 1 baby completely out and about.  See the video below for some footage of him.  The other 10 eggs have little heads poking out of them.  That still leaves up to 14 more to go!  In all likelihood, only 13 of those at most will emerge due to the collapsed egg, but, what a clutch of little Dragons we will have if that does eventuate.

I have set up the hospital tank in readiness to house the babies for a while.  I would like the kids to have access to them to complete the whole experience.  Then I will most likely take them into Reptile's Inc. as we have no long term capability of housing them.  I have also had one work colleague show real interest in having one as a pet.  I said that was fine, so long as he had the right setup to house it correctly.  I have sent him all the information to get started and make sure that I hang on to at least one Dragon for a couple of weeks just in case.

For now, I will let the pictures do the talking.  Click on any of them to see them full sized.  Enjoy!