Red Barred Dragon Experience???

[Fran]

Hi, I was hoping there was someone out there with some experience or knowledge about Red Barred Dragons. (Ctenophorus vadnappa) I have been keeping 2 males for almost a year now and do not know anyone else with any apart from the person I bought them off. They have been wonderfully active little creatures with a seemingly enormous appetite. I have had no problems with them apart from some fighting - nothing too serious. I did monitor them and separate them for a while a few months ago. I came home on Wed to find one dead. (You know that awful feeling you get when something you love dies and the possible guilt - was it something that I did or did not do?) No sign of fighting or anything obvious. Temps etc same as always. What I was wondering is what others have found the life expectancy of these little lizards to be in captivity. I would think surely longer than a year. If anybody had any experience to share or has suffered a similar loss, I would like to hear. I would love to know more about them and I also do not want my remaining one to die. Thanks.

 

[snakehandler]

With vadnappa we ensured that there was never two males in the one enclosure, we had one of our males live for 8 years. It is better to have at least two females with the male, plenty of space for them to move around and lots of hid spaces.

Typical life span we have with them is 5-7 years for males and 5-6 years for females. Make sure that you have temperature variance through the day...cooler at night than during the day. We never run thermostats with them.

A large basking area with Mercury Vapour Globes (Sunseeker are the best 160W), Red desert sand substrate and lots of space, we have an area about 1.5mx1m for one male and four females, lots of rock hides and logs.

IN these conditions we have bred every year.

 

[antaresia_boy]

ive been looking into gettin hold of a few of these but havent seen any up for sale in a long time. very sorry to hear about your loss myglamorph.