I have 11 dragons. and they all have distinct personalities and preferences. I know people say they don't have brains like we do, and maybe they don't, but they do know whats up and have thoughts about it!
My beardie glass surfs when he needs out to poop and often wants to run around a bit afterwards as well. He has the option to free roam daily and this has become part of his routine. It seems to me he doesn't want to go in his house or areas he frequents. He usually goes to the front door like a dog (we don't have one) wanting out. In the summer I let him out and watch over him so he can do his business in the yard but we live in Alaska so this isn't possible for most of the year. But again, he tries his best to not poop in his space but if it happens he wants away from it asap and who can blame him, beardie poops are stiiiinky!
My dragon Dizzy used to come out free roaming all the time for the 18 months we had him, we have always reinnforced glass surfing=vivarium getting opened with all the reptiles. Unfortunately when we moved the new carpet catches his claws and also we got a dog, meaning he rarely got as much free roam as he did. Was awful just having him in his 4x2x2ft, he glass surfed all the time, then eventually stopped trying nearly as much and got lazy, seemingly depressed, and also pretty fat. It was hard knowing he wasn't thriving. But at the start of this year I've just built him a 6x4ft free roaming area that contains his vivarium, he's doing so well, much more active, less frustrated and also started loosing the weight he gained over the past couple years!
I love the idea of tossing the greens around, but I can hear it now... "The dragon will eat the substrate and DIE!!!" Never mind that they live on sand and dusty soil in the wild, and not on newspaper.
Squiggles does this every day after he poops 💩 he gets the zoomies after a poop. He comes out and runs around and then just goes in and out of his tank. He has a ladder from his tank to the floor. I love it when he wants to come out and run around watching them run around is so cute. ❤
My weirdo glass surfs before/during pooing. I’m not so sure why. I took him to the vet and he’s healthy and happy, and his poos are normal. So I just think it’s his weirdo behaviours
@@ReptilesandResearch I’ve tried that. He’s not very happy with touch, he’s sort of the opposite of your girl. He’s a look but don’t touch beardie, which… ouch, but I respect that lol. He goes absolutely crazy when I take him out, and he bites, which is incredibly unpleasant
@@ReptilesandResearch i mean its an animal, you can’t predict how it’ll react to being handled, I knew that this was a possibility when I got him. No matter how much I tried to desensitise him, he just never benefited from it. And that’s fine too :)
Mine glass surface to get out into the living room to run around, then he goes back in basks and tuns back out has his mad 20 minutes and then back in again
My dragon glass sufed at night over the weekend and I couldn't figure out why so I opened up the glass took him out and put him on my chest with my shirt on and pet him for 15 min and he started falling asleep. I put him back in and he laid right down and went to sleep. Is that pretty normal?
Love the weeds in the corner toss. Have you heard of anyone doing a 6 week seedling cycle, with appropriate greens, where you would grow out seeds planted a week apart for 6 weeks? In each tray 7- 4 or 6 inch diameter pots with dandelions one week collards the next week and so on. Then swap the pot daily for a new one. Have a cement "rock" the pot slips into and a little tab to keep the pot in the holder while they eat the plants down over the course of the day.
What if it’s just in between feedings? If he is trying to find food, but I don’t want to over feed?? My dragon is “always” hungry.. I don’t want him to get over weight!
I've heard that glass surfing is a type of stereotypie behavior that occurs in enclosures that's too small or poorly enriched. Is there a behavioral criteria to differentiate between "I want to poop outside" vs. "This prison is too small and I'm getting crazy"?
This is the nuance of reptile keeping, if it’s goal oriented it’s not stereotypical, it’s only stereotypical if nothing resolves it because it’s engrained behaviour they now find reinforcing
Some people rearrange all of the fixtures in the enclosure every time they do a partial substrate change or general cleanup. They leave the food bowl and basking spot in the same place, but move everything else. Dragon: Hey, new territory!
Kind of unrelated but was wondering if you know how a bearded dragon breathes when they completely bury themselves under sand? Google results aren't very helpful :")
When my baby scratches the door I know he or she just wants to be held and so I pick her up and walk around the house and feed her basil from my plant ❤
Is it ok to keep the enclosure on the floor so as to facilitate free roam? My dragons does a lot of glass surfing , presumably as it wants to go and roam outside .
You're not asking me, but this non-keeper can't see why not. I do have a boa and he is free roaming. The only problem I see with my case is that you can't put the toothpaste back into the tube. You might, but it's an issue. One takeaway from my case is how little my boa cares for heat. He really only bask before shed and to a lesser extent after eating. Also humidity. I have a wooden vivarium. 70-80% humidity requires virtually no misting. But humidity plummets when the vivarium is open, of course. Still perfect sheds. I'd almost describe the shed a wet rather than just moist. While heat and humidity are important, I firmly believe issues like problematic shed are related to health (stress) rather than humidity and heat. Humidity is clearly a huge factor in impaction. I'm not downplaying anything. One thing doesn't negate the other. Now, this is a boa from northern Mexico. No rain forest, but dry forest. Sorry for the rant. But I think letting an animal roam and explore and basically being an animal outweigh most other things. Reptiles know how to self regulate. My boa always have a choice. He wouldn't choose room temperature over the heat of his enclosure if it hurt him. He doesn't stay out out of rear that I will lock him up in the enclosure. He knows he only gets food in the enclosure and make sure to go there and lay in ambush pretty much every evening. Then he goes back out. Everything he does is by choice.
I suppose so as long as it's safe and there's no risk of escaping or getting stepped on. Make sure that there's no place that he could get stuck, like behind the fridge. Beardies in general prefer to move more horizontally than vertically, so a ground level cage would be fine. Just remember that anything that looms over them is perceived as a predator, and can spook them. When you go to pick up any reptile, remember that "under the belly, you are a tree - over the back, you are a swooping eagle."
@@YochevedDesigns Not an endorsement, but there's a risk of stepping on my boa. Something I'm acutely aware of. Also, everything I write concerns my boa and not necessarily boas in general. Reptiles are individuals. That said. The point of my post was that if you leave your animal alone it will stop seeing you as a threat. Boas don't like to move in the open. Like crossing the middle of a room. But it is a room. There aren't that many options. I often step over him while he cross the room. It doesn't bother him. He doesn't get spooked by me. He climbs up on me. He rests at the desk when I'm at the computer. Things like that. It doesn't mean that he like me. I'm just something that exists in his world. It also means I can pick him up like nothing. He may not like it, as such, but knows that no harm will come from it. I want to stress that I don't pick him up in the enclosure. He comes and goes on own accord. One should indeed take precautions. Other than that, I can only see good things from letting the animal roam. As already mentioned, I have learned things about my boa because of it. There is the caveat that you may end up with an animal that want to roam all the time. Not generally desirable.
