Hatching Dragons

Our third Cheshire x Jabberwocky Clutch started hatching today I think it must be contagious because our Athena x Lou clutch decided to start hatching out too!


Cheshire's 3rd Clutch

Cool picture. Hope they all do well for you!

Thanks! Hatching takes a lot out of them but they'll be up and running around tomorrow. The only time I've ever been intentionally bit is by newborn dragons. They are born vicious little guys but completely lose the inclination to bite by the second day.

I guess that is how they get nipped toes and tails? How do you prevent that?

No, nips usually don't happen until a few days later and can happen over the next couple months. They are actually pretty calm around each other, the biting is apparently just reserved for me . Once they start eating though, baby bearded dragons have no problems taking a bite out of one another and much larger one will eat a smaller one if they're hungry.

The biggest causes of nips is overcrowding, too little food, and lack of calcium powder. If they're not getting enough calcium, they'll go after the bone in a toe tip for it. Some nips are even completely accidental just from missing a cricket that's next to clutchmate's toe or tail.

I try to spread them out as much as possible and feed them 3 "all they can eat" cricket meals daily with greens available anytime. I rarely get any nips doing it this way but it takes A LOT of food... I go through ~10k crickets a week on average. Keeping them full with feedings every 4 hours makes all the difference. Over eating isn't a concern at this stage, food just acts as rocket fuel for their growth.

~10k crickets a week! That right there is enough of a deterrent for me to ever breed BDs!

It's a pain but it's not too bad. The worst is hand catching any uneaten crickets out of each hatchling enclosure at the end of the day so they can't bite sleeping dragons Sometimes I really miss the dubia colony!

Congrats Brian!!

Thanks!

I've definitely stuck with dubias for my dragons and i use the crickets as a treat. Makes my house much quieter overall

Jabberwocky Dragons wrote:

The worst is hand catching any uneaten crickets out of each hatchling enclosure

I hate doing that with nervous rats; I can't imagine doing it with a bunch of crickets!

Congrats on the hatchlings, they look great!

MADexotics wrote:

I've definitely stuck with dubias for my dragons and i use the crickets as a treat. Makes my house much quieter overall

I hear ya! It seems like Dubias were specifically designed as the perfect feeder

acl2790 wrote:

I hate doing that with nervous rats; I can't imagine doing it with a bunch of crickets!

Congrats on the hatchlings, they look great!

Thanks!

Congrats Brain. looking good from the start.

Congratulations!

Thanks! Hopefully the rest will be out tomorrow so I can get a better look!

Congratz!!!

awww, they are adorable.

Congrats!

And holy cow! 10k crickets a week?

they look so cute and helpless!!

Thanks all!

BlackboxStar wrote:

And holy cow! 10k crickets a week?

Yea, they're bottomless pits!

My pawpaw would say they have holler legs.

It's the only explanation that doesn't involve aliens.

I have no idea where it goes. Of course, the inevitable result of them being bottomless pits is not much fun either. I'm thinking of buying stock in Bounty.

Sometimes you take a gamble and it pays off! We weren't expecting any visual morphs with this beautiful, brightly colored pairing (Lou x Athena). Surprise!!! This clutch definitely has hypos and possibly 3 hypotrans (double recessive) so far?! We'll know for sure in another day or two. The sire is a visual hypo and the mother was purchased as a poss double het. I may buy some lottery tickets today


Lou x Athena

I would just like to let you know two things.

A) Your baby dragons are the cutest little babies!

B) Each and every time I see pictures of your dragons, it is guaranteed that I WILL ask my husband for a bearded dragon that day. He always says "No, not right now." but one day...one day I will convince him it is time for a dragon!

Thank you!

Haha, I do the same thing with my wife whenever I see the Kookaburras at Pet Paradise and get the same response too

A good surprize is always welcome in a hatching.

Oh yes! Two hatched out yesterday and looked normal, not even that colorful, so I thought the clutch wasn't going to be that big a hit. Then I woke up that this morning. Tricksters

I desperately needed some non-leather hypotrans females too so this couldn't have been more welcome!

Congrats! The babies are soo adorable.

Thanks!

How long does it take for a clutch to hatch? And come out of the eggs once they start? It seems like its such a long and involved process for them.

Baby blueys are the same. Feeding keeps them sleepy and happy. It keeps them from being aggressive towards each other. But it also makes them grow at warp speed. I don't feed anything live while they are living together. They start going after any little foot or tail that moves.

Nice looking bunch. Congrats.

Generally it takes anywhere from 55 to 75 days depending on the temperature. I prefer for mine to hatch a little later as I've found they are a little larger and are quicker starters.

It takes them about 12-24 hours to come out of the egg once it's pipped. I usually leave them in the incubator another 12-24 hours after that. They are exhausted when they first come out so I'd rather them just lie around in the warm incubator. The beardie heads are HUGE when poking out of the egg and I have no idea how they fit in there. It can be kind of funny looking at all these eggs with heads sprouting out the top.

I bet, those bluey's looked huge in your pics! That's interesting about not feeding live food to cut down on nips. Baby dragons are live cricket disposal units but I do try to get them started on greens immediately so they have "snack" food in there in between meals in case one gets hungry earlier.

Thanks!