Another very late update

Yea late update. Not like people read this, at least to my knowledge.

But Valentines day was pretty good this year, we went to Boudrouxs. Its a Cajun restaurant in NoDA, or off N Davidson street in Charlotte. Pretty awesome food, we'll be going back on Thursday. But back to this V-day stuff. Ace has been making a custom cage out of his mothers old end table, for a Leopard Gecko. We shifted tanks around so Nugget and Sandfire are in a 20 and the Leopard Gecko now named Commodore Squiggles is in the empty 10 gal.

The Blood Bank dragon will be coming to us in time, they were cool with waiting for us to have space and the funds for it. Hopefully that can be soon, if not i dont mind waiting. Since were saving we'll have time to get the heat bulbs and a 20 gal tank, since they sell their beardies as juveniles. I'm pretty sure i've only seen 8-9 inches at the smallest for sale from them.

We also took in 2 Chinese Water Dragons from the Petco that Commodore Squiggles is from. They unfortunately due to corporate Petco were not housed on or in water and instead on a coconut substrate. Thus causing tank stress and severe dehydration. So they let us have them because they didn't want them to suffer anymore and they knew we could take good care of them. When they are both healthy they will be up for adoption. The other animals were healthy, the albino corn snakes were actually mating when we picked up Commodore Squiggles. It was amusing, then we told them about it so they could watch for eggs for the next few weeks unless someone buys it.

Everyone else is good, fat and happy. Commodore Squiggles doesn't like being picked up, but he isn't screeching so that's good. If he screeches that means he's mad or scared. When we do hold him he waddles on our hands, he may just be scared of our hands reaching for him.

Well i havent posted in a while

So i forgot i had a blog

But news

So on the Bearded Dragon Forums theres been a discussion about a video that was posted. Not gonna go into that, you can read the post for yourself here. If not heres the jist of how im involved.

In my video I feed off an anole and a scorpion. I clipped the scorpions tail with a pair of fingernail clippers so that non of my bearded dragon would receive eye injuries or stings. The anole was fed off to educate on the veracious appetite of the bearded dragon. People are constantly surprised when an adult bearded would eat their smaller dragon. I hoped this portion of the video would save some heart break.

Bearded dragons are equipped to digest both of these food items withe ease. Similar to a trout eating a craw-fish.

In the second part of the video I show the breeding and egg laying. This is the most difficult part of most phone conversations. (describing how to handle the eggs, prepare the medium, ect.) People are always asking; how can I dig them up without rotating the eggs? The eggs can be handled vigorously for the first week. After a week or more the embryo floats to the bottom of the egg and attaches its self to the side wall. Then the eggs become fragile. I handled the eggs in my video with purpose to educate.

People commented that my shop must stink since I wear a "dust" mask in the video.

I wear a dust mask because I am allergic to insects. The video shows me working the same way I do every day. I put on my dust mask and do my thing. The shop has 2 people cleaning and feeding full time. Plus myself caring for the dragons and a 4th person taking care of the bugs. 8 hours a day every day. I also have 2 full time sales people taking care of all the photos and sales. This allows me lots of time to study my dragons, microscope feakles, consider parings, ect. My shop is one of the cleanest shops you will ever visit.

I was producing the same amount of dragons is a 10X20 shop and just recently was able to afford a new 20x30 facility with new cages. State of the art dishwasher and my own bug breeding project on the second storey for healtheyer more consistent feeders. Same dragons now with 3x the room.

I built this business from 3 dragons 8 years ago, to what it is today, with nothing but hard work and passion for breeding bearded dragons. I have since refined my collection and the shape of the bearded dragon.

I did not know about the no shock video policy on this forum. I apologized to the moderator who pointed it out and removed my post. I am only sorry I posted my video on this forum where it did not belong. I am not sorry for the content of my video.

Steven Barnes
bloodbankdragons

and my response to everyones posts:

After reading your post Blood Bank i feel better about the scorpion, i was surprised but not appalled like everyone else apparently (no offense guys). Beardies in the wild probably do eat scorpions like that, and they dont get the tail clipped for them either. The anole is used as a feeder for a lot of reptiles like snakes, spiders and probably larger lizards. So it may be a little inhumane for the anole, but they are technically lower on the food chain. I would still buy from blood bank, i'm poor as crap so i cant anytime soon (nor do we have the space).

To everyone else:
Guys, the video might be upsetting to others, they posted a note about it with their video. You were warned that it contained reptiles eating reptiles (i know its not supposed to be posted here, but they apologized and removed the video from here). I will say that since this was a sort of advertisement for their reptiles that a note should be posted saying something to the effect that unless you take precautions that anoles and scorpions are not good feeders and that feeding them those things doesnt make them aggressive. Mating is usually aggressive from what i'm told, and i didnt know that you could handle eggs moderately rough with the first week. Doesnt mean you should, but to each his own.  

Basically i'm saying everyone should calm themselves and think about beardies in the wild and what they would be eating and how they behave (yea we want them to be happy and loved, but if we didnt provide for them they'd eat anything they could catch). If you think about it the video is portraying the wilder side of them, that isnt a bad thing. It certainly doesnt mean that Blood Bank is selling mean beardies, if they were wouldnt there be complaints or something going on?

and Blood Banks response:

Laprice. Half off any dragon you want. + Free shipping

Steven Barnes

FOAMS