Peninsula Dragons

[graedesire]

Hey All,

I've had a very busy week this week that ended with a very nice happy ending. I spent the week painting, building and preparing the spare room to turn it into a nice lil chill out haven/reptile room. Nice green and brown walls! Trying to make it all a bit jungle I guess The finishing touch was that I finally got me some Peninsula Dragons! Two females and a male. Once I've rested for a few days and let them get a bit more settled in I'll get a few pics up To anyone who has them would love to talk to you about your experiences with them!

One quick question in regards to feeding, I had all three watching the crickets when I fed them tonight but only one went for them and ate them or half of them depending on her fancy.. are the others still settling in you think? Is it because I may have left them a lil longer in the fridge then I normally do...(real tired lol) will the others try harder next time? or is this something I need to keep a close eye on to make sure that they all get a feed. I mean I'll be watching them non stop at least for a whiles anyways Just wondering as this is the first animal group situation I've had reptile wise.

Thanks heaps

 

[BigWillieStyles]

Sounds great. Post up some pictures of them

I would probably try a few different times. It may have been that they were not confident with their new surroundings. Where the crickets moving around and easy to spot? I reckon crickets can be pretty smart sometimes.

 

[graedesire]

The crickets didn't move around much especially at first then they would maybe slowly make their way to a hide etc. They were being quite sneaky now that you mention it I did tell them to jump or something but they didn't listen :/ hehe I'll keep an eye on them for a while and see how it all goes I guess. One of the girls looks a little bit more plump then the other and we were wondering what the plump was from but seeming as though she was the one who went for the crickets tonight I'm thinking she's just a pig lol

 

[Trench]

who did you get them off my I ask
look forward to seeing pics

 

[Bluetongue1]

The first thing I would be doing is gathering as much information from the seller as possible. For example:
1. What were they fed previously, how much and how often?
2. Where were they fed – together, individually, in their enclosure or in a separate tub?
3. What temps were they kept at – cool end, hot end, basking spot?
4. What size enclosure were they kept in?
5. Is there a reason the female has a lot more condition on her than the two males?
6. Is there anything else I should know about?

This is information you are entitled to know as part of your purchase. What other people do with theirs is not as relevant at the moment as what has previously been done with yours. So take the guess work out of it and ask the seller.

You should be looking at providing variety in their diet. For example, woodies, slaters, beetles, caterpillars, mealworms, spiders, maggots (after a couple of days in bran), moths, grasshoppers, giant mealworms (pupae are best) and so on. If you remove the jumping legs from crickets and place them in a smooth ceramic style bowl, they cannot get out. Similarly with woodies if you coat the inside to of the bowl with a cm wide strip of Fluon. Bonsai pots are really excellent for that because the top edge slopes inwards – you just have to plug the drainage hole(s). You can use the same setup for containing flies with the wings cut off. If maggots are dusted with calcium or vitamin D3 supplement, they are unable to climb out either. That should be enough to allow you to start on expanding their diet once you have them feeding consistently on whatever it is that they have been used to.

Blue

 

[graedesire]

Hey Bluetongue1

I do have a lot of that information. For example I know they were fed everyday and they were given crickets mealworms and greens. I'm thinking I will try feeding them everyday until I see a good feeding pattern and then maybe make it every second day. Ten were kept in the enclosure and it was close to the size they are in now, maybe slightly smaller. I got to see the enclosure so I have mirrored it somewhat for them. I've also tried to mirror the temps and it seems quite close although because my enclosure is a little bit longer my cool end is slightly cooler. That being said they seem to know this as they only really use about one half of the enclosure thus far. I also fed them later than they would have been fed so I will change that also to mirror when they were being fed.

I have sent an email to them to find out a few more specifics that I don't have and will keep you posted. Thanks for your reply.

Trench will PM you in a sec

 

[graedesire]

Here the the Pics of my Peninsulas. Nirrti on the end has pretty much finished her shed now and doesn't look like that very much. These were taken last monday. All seems to be going quite well now. All eating well. Getting along fine.

I have a container in their enclosure to keep some sand in and have been trying to keep it a bit moist for them but am struggling to really do that. I think it's because of the size of the container. Might have to change it but I really do like it for it's convenience for me. Any tips?

 

[yewherper]

They look awesome! So wanna get some of them, just another thing to add to the wishlist tho. lol

 

[longirostris]

Is the picture in the middle the same animal as the first picture on the left of the screen? The one in the middle looks a little smaller but this could just be the camera angle.

If the 2 pictures are not of the same animal then you have 2 males. I have kept several different species of the Ctenophorus group (currently 10 species) including Peninsular dragons over a very long period of time (20 years or more) and I have never fed any of my animals greens. These animals are insectivores they are not naturally omnivorous and should always be fed gut louded insects. Everything they need in their diet is provided by well fed insects. As Bluetongue has already said variety in the diet is the key to success with dragon species. Dusting with calcium and vitamin supplements is recommended when individuals are housed indoors and do not get regular access to direct sunlight.

One final piece of advice would be that if the individual in the middle photo actually is a second male, then I would move it out of the enclosure that houses the bigger male in the very first photo. This animal will be the dominant individual and will eventually bully the other animal so much that the smaller male will become seriously stressed and stop feeding and over a relatively short time period emaciate and die.

 

[graedesire]

Thanks for the info. I actually showed these pics to another experienced person I know this week and they said they thought the same thing (they are different dragons in the photos) or that they could be from different locales. When I first received them I did hesitate on that one and said are you sure. Trust me for not following my gut instinct! Anyways if anyone would like to offer their opinion (esp Longirostris) I will make three posts with photos in them. Each post will have several photos of the same Dragon in each and see if we still agree with the two males, one female thing.. please

Thanks for the info. I actually showed these pics to another experienced person I know this week and they said they thought the same thing (they are different dragons in the photos) or that they could be from different locales. When I first received them I did hesitate on that one and said are you sure. Trust me for not following my gut instinct! Anyways if anyone would like to offer their opinion (esp Longirostris) I will make three posts with photos in them. Each post will have several photos of the same Dragon in each and see if we still agree with the two males, one female thing.. please

PHOTO LOT 1

OK so these are pics from today of the one we all agree is the big boy yes ? btw I've cropped the photos but have done no other editing to them.
I've called him Nox.




PHOTO LOT 2

OK This is the one that we all think is the Female yes? Her name is Nirrti.







PHOTO LOT 3


OK So this is the suspect one yes?? Photos taken today. It happened to be the real wriggler as usual so I've gotten the worse photos. Umm if it turns out it's a he I'm feeling a lil sorry for it because he has been named Lulu....:S

 

[graedesire]

anyone? ideas?

bump will be swapping on friday so opinions are still good