Any bearded dragon parents out there?

[ThePearlFish]

Originally Posted by Koda

I'm in northern VA (Manassas/Woodbridge) and I actually work at a vet clinic. We only do cats and dogs but we have a few we recommend for reptiles.
And no, I don't currently have any exotics.

It may still be a while before I actually get the dragon, I'm thinking of starting a roach colony and growing a few plants to save money on it's food. I thought it would be a good idea to get that up and running before getting the beardie :)
Also, I still have to talk my parents into it....they don't even know I have the aquarium yet haha. I don't think it would take much though...my room isn't completely a part of the house (its in a room off the garage) and I had gerbils not long ago that they had no problem with, plus my bettas now.

Hey! I live there too! And used to work at a vet there too, have we met???

BTW- I know Ridgelake Vet does exotics, but I normally drive to Pender in Chantilly, I know they are further out, but they are so much more better with the reptiles.

[ThePearlFish]

Oh! I forgot, I DID make my basking rock :) With styrofoam, grout and textured spray paint. I have slate tiles in my cage. I love them, because they hold heat, but they are also cool for summer.

[Koda]

Really? Wow, small world, maybe we have met haha.
Pender is the place the receptionists at work told me to check out, but I may try Ridgelake first and see how competent they seem. I like working at a vet, it gives me an upper hand in judging a good clinic, its like I have the inside information :)

And I'm beginning to think the home made rocks are the way to go. They look so much more realistic than the plastic crap at Petsmart/co which don't come in big enough sizes anyways.

[ThePearlFish]

I made mine when I got my Beardie several 5ish years ago and it is still going strong. I recently scraped off some of the top and redid it because it was getting disgusting from him pooping on it, but otherwise it is in pretty good shape.

[Koda]

Wouldn't spraying it with a kind of sealant help with that? Like the method I'm following for my rocks said to cover it with a few coats of a water based Polycrylic satin sealer. It gives it a little bit of a glossy look, but it would prevent any liquids or icky stuff from getting into the pores in the grout.

[Koda]

Like this is my rocks. The bigger one still needs one more coat of the sealant, but it's all pretty much done. (excuse the crappy phone photo, there is more contrast in there I swear)

I wanted to offer hides in both the basking side and the warm side. The side with the bigger rock will be the basking side, I just need to get lights and everything will be ready in the tank....I'm thinking of re-doing the background too, I painted that before making the rocks and most of the better parts are now hidden :/
I'm not sure if I want to leave the middle empty or get some drift wood for more climbing.

[ThePearlFish]

I used a sealant on my thing too. But sometimes he would go to the bathroom on it and I wouldn't know till I got home or something. So, over time it got kinda groady on top.

[Koda]

Oh really? I guess I'll try giving it a good scrub whenever I find it's been used as a toilet. I'd hate to have to scrape off and re-grout because I had done a little painting on the rocks to add some more demmention and it'd be hard to get it all to match again. :(