Boyds Forest Dragon Information Thread

licky said:

South side morelia= God of Boyd's knowledge.
If only more people would do this for other species, alot of begginers would have an easier time collect info.

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Indeed Then anytime someone wants info and hasnt bothered doing a search, they can just quote the link.

If I could request information in here on growth rate and sexing? Best group composition (if any) and general boyds demeanor... as in do they enjoy each others company, do they move around a bit and have interesting quirks? Common health issues?

Big big big thanks to southside morelia

Wow, that enclosure is amazing, thanks for sharing such great info!!

licky said:

South side morelia= God of Boyd's knowledge.

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Thanks licky but hell NO!! Many more with far more knowledge than me, I would love for them to post.
FEEDING:

OK, lets move on with what to feed our Boyds.
Personally, I always like to vary the food item, as who would want to want the same food day in day out. Not does it add some variety it also IMO keeps them interested in their food, which in turn keeps them healthy.
As I mentioned in the first post, Boyds are insectivorous, meaning they prey on insects, but in the wild their diet may also include other items, some input from others on wild Boyds would be great!
I feed my colony on a rotation of wood roaches (woodies), meal worms, silk worms, crickets, earthworms and the occasional silkworm moth, which some eat and some couldnt be bothered to chase...
IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT feed meal worms to baby or juvenile Boyds as this "harder" bodied worm may cause compaction in little Boyds.
I have heard of people feeding fruit to Boyds but I have never seen mine eat any type of fruit offered.
Every other feed i like to dust the woodies or crickets in some calcium powder and also a dusting of vitamin powder every few weeks or so, just to keep them in top condition. See pics of calcium powder and vitamin powder I use, you dont need that brand this is what my store sells. MAKE SURE you read the instructions as you can overdo any supplement which will have the opposite affect that you are wanting, ie make your Boyds sick or even kill them through trying to care too much.
I feed a few of my colony by hand with tongs and some without which for me is a great buzz!
The other fickle and more shy animals, I use a "Bonsai" tree planter as the bowl and was shown this trick many years ago and it IS the ONLY way to contain prey insects 100%, but you have to paint a layer of Fluon OR Teflon paint around the rim still.
The reason this planter pot works so great is the design of the bowl, it has an inward curved rim so when the insects try crawling up the wall of the pot they have to walk upside down and just fall back into the bowl. This design plus the Fluon, there's no chance for escape.
I hear people saying what about the crickets....well I have them covered, I always break off their hind legs and they jump anymore. Sounds cruel but they only last a few seconds once the Boyds see dinner in the bowl, they come jumping down from their tree perch....I mean literally jump off their perch and head for the bowl....classics to watch! :lol:
IMPORTANT TIP: Don't just throw your crickets in the enclosure, unless you want to be woken at night by chirping crickets in the loungroom, trust me I have learned through experience. I though it would be good exercise for the Boyds to stalk and chase them...BUT there always some that can evade the colony and they are the ones (males only i believe) that chirp and drive you and the Family crazy....I have had to totally dismantle older enclosures to catch the culprits.
I breed my own silk worms, mealies and earthworms. I have an earthworm farm kit I originally purchased from Flower Power, but they are now in Bunnings also, these are the best food item IMO as they are up there with the best nutritional value out of all the insects in the way of protein and other goodies and are the easiest to breed. Very underrated! I feed my earthworms on all the fruit & vegetable offcuts from our own kitchen, as well as I raid the local fruit & vegy market bin once a week, which I supplement my rats feed with, ALL FOR FREE! I still cant believe that they throw some of the stuff out, it is top quality fruit and veg and my animals all benefit from the variety and quality food items.
If anyone is interested on breeding of insects just ask.
1zst pic: Bonsai planter bowl, 2nd pic: Calcium and vitamin supplements.

Awsome thread Scott, just stumbled across it you've covered heaps! How do you breed your worms would love to give it ago as mine love the earthworms and sadly they are a treat whenever we go into town - living rural sucks : p
Will get some pics of my setup in the next day or so when I get a chance, still trying to get a background and nothing compared but maybe a good reference pic for some other newbie's like myself?

Great info and research will be helpful information

ok here goes with the pics (nothing in comparison to Scott's, but definately room for improvement too) 1st pic front on view...I can't find a background that's a) big enough or b) that I like so completely open to suggestions 2cnd pic is side on, nice and busy so they feel secure - although I think I could do with a few more folage items 3rd pic is vitamins/calcium I use and 4th pic is one of the girls having some time with miss 6 - They seem more calm around her than myself I do wonder if it's a size thing or if they sence my nervousness I don't want to frighten them with the door open as these little cuties are fast!...Nothing funnier than watching them jump from the top of the branches to the floor when I fill up their woodies bowl : p A+ for personality!

Great setup Funksta, just make sure your not using any potting mix in those pots. Put a few more thin vines in there, they'll love it! Nice waterfall too, where did you get it? & what are the dimensions?

I'm just uploading some of my photo's for the thread, will be posted in a few minutes.

Aw thanks Mr. Boyd it's nothing compared to you guys but it's just basic while I learn what they like...Going into town today so I'll grab some more vines - thanks for the tip it's really appreciated, there's no potting mix I washed it off all the live plants refilled with the substrate they seem to be doing ok so far...I got the waterfall by fluke at Dollars and Cents for $100 but I changed it to a stronger filter so the water went up stronger - they looove it (it has lights and can be plugged in to a stereo but I thought that was overkill unless I was trying to set the mood and play some Barry White bahaha)
Can't wait to see pics - always good to see more pics of what to aim for

The enclosure is still in the works, just need to install side drops & finish the backdrop. Hard to get a true to life photo, the photo in the above post is too bright (flash). This is more like it!

James/Hannah, they are awesome enclosures, this is the stuff I was hoping to see...
Both are high with plenty of vertical perches, they always progress as you get the bug to build and make it more lifelike, its like an addiction for me and setting up enclosures is half the fun of keeping herps!
KEEPING PLANTS:
I have experimented and wasted a heap of cash over the years trying to find the most hardiest plants to keep in a viv of this type under lights and in a substrate NOT soil.....The best by far and last forever are FAKE plants... these days you can get some amazing looking fake plants, some expensive and some cheap if you know where to look. I find that those $2 bargain shops in Chinatown and suburbia have some great fake plants...Herp shops charge a bomb.
I do have real plants as well as I like the idea of having natures air filters in a closed environment like these vivs and I have some plants that have been in there for years....mind you they don't grow that much and the best IMO are [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Spathiphyllum wallisi or the peace plant or peace lilly depending on where you buy it from. The big leaf green indoor plants do the best I have found, but these are the hardiest. I have spent plenty of money on Orchids, even to the point of joining an orchid site, yes hard to believe! No offense intended as I know a few passionate orchid lovers on this site who have helped me and I appreciate their input over the years...lol, all in the quest for the ultimate looking viv. Orchids didnt work to warm and didn't like the artificial UV lighting.

Learn from my mistakes and have a few liveys like the plants mentioned above and do the rest with fake plants and nice branches, save your cash.
How to make a realistic tree trunk:
We built Redfern Stadium and refurbished the neighboring Redfern Park as part of a face lift for the area and in that Park the oldest in Sydney, was the nursery for Morton Bay Fig trees some of the oldest in Australia and my inspiration for the trees I recreated as they are stunning to look at. I found some branches with bark on them and stripped them back to make them look like the buttress roots of a fig tree, then I actually cut some of the aerial roots off the real fig trees in the park and drilled little holes in my fake trunk and inserted them in..looks pretty cool and lifelike I reckon.
Just shows you we can do these things if we think about it and you don't need to spend cash doing it.
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Could I grab cage diemensions? and incubation temps?

Funkstaa said:

How do you breed your worms would love to give it ago as mine love the earthworms and sadly they are a treat whenever we go into town - living rural sucks : p

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BREEDING WORMS FOR BOYDS:
Worms are easy to breed, earth worms my Fav are the easiest, get a worm farm from Bunnings and feed them fruit and vegy scraps, keep them moist and covered with a hemp cloth or potato sack and that is all there is too it!
Mealies are not a worm per-cay, but the larvae stage of the darkling beetle and a little more time consuming.
Purchase some mealies from your pet shop, get some oat meal, oats, or similar, as a substrate, I also like to feed mine some hard veg like sweet potato, potato, cabbage etc veg that doesn't go mouldy, after a while they pupate and emerge as beetles. You can tell overtime and experience as they obviously get bigger but change colour slightly.
They then pupate and go hard and dark brown.
Separate the chrysalis and beetles if you missed them into another container with the same substrate as the larvae and feed them fruit and veg and sift the substrate every week or so for the larvae (worms).
Add them to your original tub with the other worms and you have the cycle repeating itself. Change the substrate every few weeks as it does eventually go off, you can tell this by looking at it.
Silk worms are hardest to keep and there are special tricks to breeding them. First & foremost you need a supply of Mulberry leaves or you cant keep them for long and will never breed them.
I did dabble in a "recipe" for silkworm feed for winter time, as Mulberry trees dont have leaves then and this means you cant breed in winter as they wont have food, this was years ago and maybe i'll refine the project one day again. Interesting enough and what I wanted to recreate here in Australia, they do have feeding discs in the America, not sure if we have them here yet, but I wanted to crack the recipe.
Silkworms need to be purchased at the egg stage or as larvae.
Feed them mulberry leaves and eventually they pupate in there silk cocoons and called a chrysalis, which is a silk encasing and is used commercially and appropriately named.
At the chrysalis stage remove and place in a shoe box lined with paper. The moths emerge after a couple of weeks, mate with each other in the shoe box and the females (larger fat ones) lay a heap of eggs on the paper and they all die.
The reason that you need to line the box with paper is you tear off the eggs and then place them in a plastic sealed bag in the fridge for a month or so which is needed and mimics the winter period when the mulberry leaves are not there... then remove them place them in a container in the warmer months spring/summer when mulberry leaves are around and the cycle starts again.

Thanks Scott, I've since added some leaves to the enclosure floor gives it a natural forest floor effect. I've also finally worked out how to use my bloody camera! Found a really good setting that actually captures a good natural shot without flash. Will up load pics later tonight.

There is not set way in keeping Boyds but I will share how I have been keeping & successfully breeding mine in short form, as Scott has already provided alot of great information on what is my favorite reptile.

Enclosure - I use both glass & HMR melamine enclosures, but really prefer the glass, as it is easy to clean and will last a life time. Melamine is also great provided you completely waterproof the enclosure, it also holds the tempreture alot better if your not heating the whole room. Enclosure size for my adults is 1220mmHx1220mmLx700mmD. The hatchlings are kept in a 650mmHx600mmLx500mmD glass. Juveniles 900mmHx900mmLx600mmD glass.
The higher the enclosure the better as these dragons love to climb & sit in the tree's all day & night. I wouldn't recommend keeping them in smaller enclosures than I have mentioned as they do need the room. Eventually I will be building a much larger terrarium. Enclosure base has large river pebbles with flyscreen ontop, then I used the kritter crumble and coco or palm peat blocks (unfertilised).

Heating - I live down south so heating for the boyds is crucial, I provide my boyds with fluctuating tempreatures between 23-28degree's. This is done by using 100W Ozblack ceramic heat emitters & backed up by a 75W infrared bulb & a small oil heater in the room during winter.

Lighting - I have always used Sylvania Reptistar UVA/B tubes, on a day light cycle.

Food - Woodies, crickets, moths, mealworms, earthworms, & the occasional snail.

Humidty - Needs to be keep up around 80-90% This can be done by hand misting the enclosure with a spray bottle, a large water bowl, waterfall, or a misting system. I have done all of the above, waterfalls work great and the boyds love them, unfortunately its a real pain to clean them if they don't have a drainage point. I now use the superrain misting system which is running on a digital timer & large 30L water storage.

Furnishings - Plenty of vertical vines/branches, go nuts! Use your imagination. I have kept real plants in the enclosure (cast iron plants) but I find it alot easier to clean and maintain the enclosure without them so I only use fakes now.

Sorry if I missed anything, mispelt anything, I will amend later & possibly add some addition info.

NETTEDGURU said:

Could I grab cage diemensions? and incubation temps?

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Dimensions as above, & incubation temps between 23-26degrees fluctuating. I have heard other keepers have had success with higher temps (28 and slightly lower temps.

Next stage keeping a communal colony, pros and cons and then breeding.

More pics on enclosures and feeding Boyds would be cool first.
Its about crawling before you walk and the more opinions on the the stages would be beneficial and more fluent for us all, than having a disjointed thread. We are all building from the start onward sremember.
Thanks guys...

Scott, this thread is probably one of the most informative aswell as influential threads i have read on this forum. You are making me want Boyd's even more after reading through each post.
As i live in Victoria i am unable to keep the Boyds unless upgrading to an Advanced licence, but at the moment the price is just too much, though you are slowly convincing me to upgrade. I was wondering if an enclosure setup like yours (or others posted in this thread) would suit southern angle-headed dragons?

beney_boy - Yes the enclosures would be ideal for Southern forest dragons aswell, you just need to keep them slightly cooler, most area's do not require heating only UV. Also slightly less humidity 70-80%. Other than that they are same, except Southern forest dragons are smaller in size, approximate adult size is 9-10cm SVL. Where as adult Boyds are around 15-16cm SVL.

Thanks Mr.Boyd. I think in that case they may be on my list now. I have a nice glass aquarium i could just put on its end and use, pretty sure it measures 4ft long x 2ft wide x 1.6ft high. Would that be good for a small colony of Southerns, or even in the future a boyd or two?

if you want to breed BFD you must have a waterfall ! i will post some pics of mine shortly when i get home