Zuilu's dragons, hermit crabs, ferrets, lobster, fish, etc.

[Zuilu]

So a lot of people know I have the tendancy to keep a small zoo in my house.. so I thought I'd share.

My lizards:

Steve the bearded dragon: He's about 6 months old now.


Molly and Fluffy: Fluffy is 3 years old, 22" long, and Molly is about 3 months in this picture.


Marmalade: We literally just got her last week, she's a month old.


I'm afraid I don't have a picture of my Leopard gecko on hand but I have on of 'em too. :X

These two pics of the tank are kind of out dated, the plants have grown A LOT more since adding different bulbs in..
This is my 55 gallon planted aquarium..I've got gouramis, angels, tetras, corydoras, loaches. I also have a 29 gallon fish tank but I don't have a picture of it. D:



And this is one of the four hermit crabs in my crabitat:


This is Gizmo, our 1 and a half year old, deaf ferret.

This is Rose, our 2 year old sable ferret..she was very underfed at her previous home, so she's much smaller than Giz. =/


And this is Lobster Bob!

[Lupis]

!!!
I love your lizards!
And you have ferrets? Lucky person.
Some day, some day I'll have a bearded dragon of my own. How are they to take care of? (Er, and... are they super pricey?)

[TygerDarkstorm]

I've heard beardies are supposed to be pretty awesome and I'm dying to be able to get one of my own! We're actually going to be getting a ball python from some neighbors of ours. :3

Anyway, love your beardies and your ferrets! My bf and I want a ferret but they're illegal here in California. I love the names for them too. We have an outdoor cat named Gizmo and my RP hunter's name is Rose.

[Zuilu]

!!!
I love your lizards!
And you have ferrets? Lucky person.
Some day, some day I'll have a bearded dragon of my own. How are they to take care of? (Er, and... are they super pricey?)

They can get pricey, yeah, since they need big tanks (40 gallons at least) a basking light that can get to 100 degrees F, and a UVB light for them to absorb their calcium. Depending on where you buy one, and what colour morph you buy, they can be 40$-5,000$! Steve is a citrus, we got him for a deal but he'd be about 200$..Molly is an orange Sandfire, but we bought her from a breeder so we avoided the nasty price tag. Fluffy is just a regular colour morph so she retails for 80$. Marmalade looks normal now, but her mom was a Citrus and her dad was a Sandfire so she should colour up to be bright orange or yellow as she grows. So if you just buy a normal morph I'd reckon you could do 40-100$, depending on what size you get, too.
They are SUPER fun to take care of but they -do- eat live food, like worms, beetles, and crickets, so they're not the pet for you if bugs bother you

I've heard beardies are supposed to be pretty awesome and I'm dying to be able to get one of my own! We're actually going to be getting a ball python from some neighbors of ours. :3

Anyway, love your beardies and your ferrets! My bf and I want a ferret but they're illegal here in California. I love the names for them too. We have an outdoor cat named Gizmo and my RP hunter's name is Rose.

They are awesome ^_^ Steve will sit on my shoulder for hours while I play WoW, they all have really unique personalities and each one is different. And eep! I heard they were illegal in some states of the US (I live in Canada) but I didn't know if it was true :< That sucks!

[TygerDarkstorm]

That's what boyfriends are for! No really. I'm terrified of bugs and something about feeding a snake live mice bothers me, but the man doesn't care about any of that. XD I've heard beardies are supposed to be pretty friendly as well if you handle them a lot that that they'll do like your ferrets and sit on shoulders and whatnot.

And yeah, it's a real bummer we can't have ferrets here so we have a...well a stupid cat really. XD I love her to death but she is definitely not the brightest crayon in the box.

[Lupis]

I think the bearded dragons at the local Soldans go for 50$, but they're teeny, and normal color. I didn't know there were lots of sizes, though.
I'd *love* a ferret, but I have cats. :-/ And a small, rodent-hunting dog.

[zedxrgal]

's pets

Love your zoo! Especially the reptiles.

[Zuilu]

That's what boyfriends are for! No really. I'm terrified of bugs and something about feeding a snake live mice bothers me, but the man doesn't care about any of that. XD I've heard beardies are supposed to be pretty friendly as well if you handle them a lot that that they'll do like your ferrets and sit on shoulders and whatnot.

And yeah, it's a real bummer we can't have ferrets here so we have a...well a stupid cat really. XD I love her to death but she is definitely not the brightest crayon in the box.

Haha yeah! I had to have my brother feed the lizards crickets and worms until I could do it XD And yeah the dragons are super friendly, they're like the lapcat of the lizard world. I have a teensy reptile harness and even take them out to the park for walks.
And oh god..yeah..I have a -very- stupid cat..like, so stupid she's gotten stuck in empty fish tanks before. Without lids.

I think the bearded dragons at the local Soldans go for 50$, but they're teeny, and normal color. I didn't know there were lots of sizes, though.
I'd *love* a ferret, but I have cats. :-/ And a small, rodent-hunting dog.

They'll all grow to be the same size, which is generally about 24" fully grown, but they're sold at different sizes. For instance a baby could be 50$ but an adult might be a 100$, and a juvenile 80$. All depends on where you shop, though! I do highly recommend getting one from a breeder though since pet stores can sell horribly sick animals..the first bearded dragon I ever got was so sick, the second day we had it home, on our way to the vet is puked up blood in my lap and died before we arrived. :\
I have a kitty with my ferrets, but the cat completely leaves them alone. The ferrets always chase the cat to play with her, but she hides on top of chairs to get away from them. XD But! Ferrets aren't rodents, they're weasels, so cats/dogs won't naturally hunt something that smells like a weasel, so they usually do great with small cats and dogs.

[TygerDarkstorm]

And oh god..yeah..I have a -very- stupid cat..like, so stupid she's gotten stuck in empty fish tanks before. Without lids.

That is hilarious. I'm surprised mine ever learned how to jump into the windowsill; she spent so much time jumping and running into the walls. >_< She's very cuddly and loving though, almost like a dog in some ways.

They'll all grow to be the same size, which is generally about 24" fully grown, but they're sold at different sizes. For instance a baby could be 50$ but an adult might be a 100$, and a juvenile 80$. All depends on where you shop, though! I do highly recommend getting one from a breeder though since pet stores can sell horribly sick animals..the first bearded dragon I ever got was so sick, the second day we had it home, on our way to the vet is puked up blood in my lap and died before we arrived. :\

So...would PetSmart be a bad place to get them from?

[Zuilu]

So...would PetSmart be a bad place to get them from?

I think it depends on how your Petsmart is. I've heard bad stories about Petsmart, but the one here, on Vancouver island is actually better than most non-chain pet stores. The bearded dragons were actually better taken care of there than the breeder I visited. Its just all about checking if the animal is healthy before purchase..ask what its been fed, as if it has a UVB bulb, ask about it's bowel movements and eating habits. You also want to make sure (if you're buying a baby) They are alert, move quickly, respond to movement, aren't too scrawny and don't have dark circles under their eyes.

If they're too skinny: Sign of being underfed/internal parasite.
Dark circles under eyes: Dehydration.
If they don't respond to movement and are sluggish, they may be sick.
Also take note of if it has trouble moving its back legs; this is a sign of impaction/early Metabollic Bone Disease.

Warning signs of a bad breeder/pet store are:
Dirty surroundings; a lot of poop in the tank, poop in the water dish.
No fresh salads can be seen; there should be a constant supply of fresh greens and fruits in a bearded dragon's tank.
No basking spot/heat bulb. Bearded dragons need heat to digest food. A heat light is usually either yellow or red.
No UVB light. This is a seperate light from the heat light, its usually white to blue in colour; without this the bearded dragon's bones grow very brittle and it has trouble moving, this condition (Metabollic bone disease) is fatal.

If you ask about their bowels/eating habits: They should poop at least once a day. Baby bearded dragons should be fed pinhead crickets (very small crickets, 1-2 weeks old) every day, along with fresh salad/fruit (collared greens, romaine lettuce, baby cabbage, kale, arugala,) I strongly advise against buying a beardie from a store who feeds them iceberg lettuce, as this is pretty much pure water with no nutritional value at all, it'll upset their tummies and won't give them the vitamins they need.

Wow that was a long rant. Hopefully I didn't miss anything.

[Miraga]

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/

This website has awesome fantastic information on beardies Any sort of lettuce I generally stay away from, as they're pretty useless and only cause diarrhea. Also, larger chain pet stores have a nasty habit of feeding only iceberg lettuce and mealworms. Mealies are difficult for omnivores like beardies to digest and are generally only feeders for pure carnivores [my leo used to love them!] and their meat to shell ratio is pretty crappy anyway. The chains also keep several babies in the same enclosure which leads to dominant ones hogging all the food and best basking spots. This also leads to fights that can result in missing toes, parts of tails and even death. I'm not saying all of them are bad because I'm sure there are some great ones out there. I've just had some pretty terrible experiences with these chains and I, personally, would not purchase a beardie baby from them. What scares me most is that most of the places I've seen keep their babies on crushed walnut shells which is extremely dangerous because of their impaction risk. How sad would it be to get a cute little lizard only to discover he's all clogged up inside and needs surgery?

Anyway, here's a great food sheet if you aren't sure what you can and cannot feed your beardie! I use it all the time.

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.c ... ition.html

Also, please tell me I can come live at your animal house D: I'll bring my 8 year old beardie Benito and we can have a beardie party!!

PS: I love the name Steve.

[Zuilu]

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/

This website has awesome fantastic information on beardies Any sort of lettuce I generally stay away from, as they're pretty useless and only cause diarrhea. Also, larger chain pet stores have a nasty habit of feeding only iceberg lettuce and mealworms. Mealies are difficult for omnivores like beardies to digest and are generally only feeders for pure carnivores [my leo used to love them!] and their meat to shell ratio is pretty crappy anyway. The chains also keep several babies in the same enclosure which leads to dominant ones hogging all the food and best basking spots. This also leads to fights that can result in missing toes, parts of tails and even death. I'm not saying all of them are bad because I'm sure there are some great ones out there. I've just had some pretty terrible experiences with these chains and I, personally, would not purchase a beardie baby from them. What scares me most is that most of the places I've seen keep their babies on crushed walnut shells which is extremely dangerous because of their impaction risk. How sad would it be to get a cute little lizard only to discover he's all clogged up inside and needs surgery?

Anyway, here's a great food sheet if you aren't sure what you can and cannot feed your beardie! I use it all the time.

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.c ... ition.html

Also, please tell me I can come live at your animal house D: I'll bring my 8 year old beardie Benito and we can have a beardie party!!

PS: I love the name Steve.

Yes! I forgot to mention that any store feeding babies mealworms is a no-no, and if they have them on something like loose much, or walnut shells as you said, its bad. The Petsmart I was referring to only uses reptile carpeting, and keeps each bearded dragon alone in a single enclousure, which is why they seem to do pretty good at caring for them. But, each of my beardies have come from bearded dragon breeders on the island. I completely agree, though, the places keeping them together isn't safe at all..Steve is actually missing about half of his tail, and Fluffy is missing one of her toes. They've both been vet checked, though, and are free of infection.
And d'aww Benito is an adorable name. XD

P.S
My little Pony and dragons ftw. >.> <.<