So i unfortunatly do not have the option of breeding as im only 16 and will be in colledge soon and dont have the time for it. also only have one dragon, so this isnt from my personal experiance, but rather from my readings.
The first thing you will need is an incubator.($40)
then then you will need several cages. 2 or 3 twenty gallon longs will do fine if no more than 6 or so are inside. ($60)
Lighting is a neccisity and is a costly aspect. a 48 inch repti sun 10.0 that runs across will fit three cages perfectly. three 100 watts and fixtures. I dont recomend using MVB with hatchlings as it may be too powerful, and with cages these small that bulb is way to powerful.($85)
Supplements are also very important to ensure proper growth(($15)
Cage decore for babies is relativly simple. no hides, but a place to esacpe from the heat. A basking spot, usally people just use a rock or drift wood. If you want a flashy cage and go with a nice store bought basking spot it will be around 10 bucks. but you need three of them...so($30)
Now we get to the feeders. The best thing you can do for your dragons is breed dubia roaches. I could write for hours on the benifits but ill just name a few.
PROS- larger meat to shell ratio that crix. Breed easier than crix. Produce no noise unlike crix. Cleaner and produce NO SMELL unlike crix. Dont need daily cleaning of colony unlike crix. Larger than crix.(one adult roach roughly 2 to 3 inches is about 10 crix worth of meat) Unlike many people think they cannot climb smooth surfaces, cannot fly(the males can "flutter" but cannot actually go from the floor of the cage to the top) they do however need temps of 85 and decent humidity to breed and a colony takes about 6 months to establish before you can take sufficiant amounts to feed.(do a quick youtube search to learn more about these)
Okay so back to how much they eat...lol alot. One baby eats roughly 80 crix a day. Every day! A normal clutch has between 10 and 20 eggs, sometimes more babies. That 1200 crix a day! thats 20 bucks right there if you buy online. Usally a beardie if healthy will have several clutches about a month apart from each laying. Thats up to 60 or babies from one breeding session as they can store sperm for some time. Thats alot of crickets!!!!!!!!In this case ill do a total cost of crix for one month for 15 babies if you buy all of them and dont breed crix.($720) a month! if you breed roaches or crix its practically free though.
Now the reason your breeding these lizards is to sell them i hope. unless you have a dozen adult cages and giant amount of money. But lets say they dont sell? then what do you do with 15 sub adult dragons when they out grow there baby tank? thats way too much work. keeping one or two is fine as long as they have seperate tanks and you have the money, but 15 is crazy,lol. So make sure you can sell them before you start. ask around do research, are they still in high demand? do you have people interested in your specific morphs? ect....
So it adds up to roughly about $1000 and about four months of work. Cn you realistically do that? if so then go for it, raising healthy babies can be amazing. i know when mine was a baby i enjoyed watching him grow and develope a personality, colors, size, ect. Plus if all goes well and you sell them all than that 15 times 60(common price morphs and age may change this variable)Which practically makes your profit back. If you already have these supplies than you can make some real bank, lol.
Make sure you have the resources for this and two healthy dragons, if you do then cheers.
The first thing you will need is an incubator.($40)
then then you will need several cages. 2 or 3 twenty gallon longs will do fine if no more than 6 or so are inside. ($60)
Lighting is a neccisity and is a costly aspect. a 48 inch repti sun 10.0 that runs across will fit three cages perfectly. three 100 watts and fixtures. I dont recomend using MVB with hatchlings as it may be too powerful, and with cages these small that bulb is way to powerful.($85)
Supplements are also very important to ensure proper growth(($15)
Cage decore for babies is relativly simple. no hides, but a place to esacpe from the heat. A basking spot, usally people just use a rock or drift wood. If you want a flashy cage and go with a nice store bought basking spot it will be around 10 bucks. but you need three of them...so($30)
Now we get to the feeders. The best thing you can do for your dragons is breed dubia roaches. I could write for hours on the benifits but ill just name a few.
PROS- larger meat to shell ratio that crix. Breed easier than crix. Produce no noise unlike crix. Cleaner and produce NO SMELL unlike crix. Dont need daily cleaning of colony unlike crix. Larger than crix.(one adult roach roughly 2 to 3 inches is about 10 crix worth of meat) Unlike many people think they cannot climb smooth surfaces, cannot fly(the males can "flutter" but cannot actually go from the floor of the cage to the top) they do however need temps of 85 and decent humidity to breed and a colony takes about 6 months to establish before you can take sufficiant amounts to feed.(do a quick youtube search to learn more about these)
Okay so back to how much they eat...lol alot. One baby eats roughly 80 crix a day. Every day! A normal clutch has between 10 and 20 eggs, sometimes more babies. That 1200 crix a day! thats 20 bucks right there if you buy online. Usally a beardie if healthy will have several clutches about a month apart from each laying. Thats up to 60 or babies from one breeding session as they can store sperm for some time. Thats alot of crickets!!!!!!!!In this case ill do a total cost of crix for one month for 15 babies if you buy all of them and dont breed crix.($720) a month! if you breed roaches or crix its practically free though.
Now the reason your breeding these lizards is to sell them i hope. unless you have a dozen adult cages and giant amount of money. But lets say they dont sell? then what do you do with 15 sub adult dragons when they out grow there baby tank? thats way too much work. keeping one or two is fine as long as they have seperate tanks and you have the money, but 15 is crazy,lol. So make sure you can sell them before you start. ask around do research, are they still in high demand? do you have people interested in your specific morphs? ect....
So it adds up to roughly about $1000 and about four months of work. Cn you realistically do that? if so then go for it, raising healthy babies can be amazing. i know when mine was a baby i enjoyed watching him grow and develope a personality, colors, size, ect. Plus if all goes well and you sell them all than that 15 times 60(common price morphs and age may change this variable)Which practically makes your profit back. If you already have these supplies than you can make some real bank, lol.
Make sure you have the resources for this and two healthy dragons, if you do then cheers.
) on the issue..
