Bonnie and Clyde, the new adventure...
 
yes, its a new adventure in petkeeping for the kipodim.  while mr. kipod has been travelling this summer, mrs. kipod got lonely and decided that bearded dragons would make great new companions.  mr. kipod doesn't know yet (but he'll figure it out when he smells their poop! phew!)
 
why I chose bearded dragons: 
 
well, I had been thinking for a long time about getting a frog, but when I looked at the maintenance requirements and the fact that you really can't cuddle with them, the frog thing started to look less and less appealing. 
 
then I thought about an iquana.  but they get to be 5 feet long and really beasty.  basically, it came down to: if it is bigger than me when it stands up, it is not an appropriate house pet.  especially if it has attitude (and iquanas do).  I also remember my friends who have one and how much work it was, how often the not-so-little guy would run off and hide somewhere in the house.  so the iquana was out. 
 
but then I saw the bearded dragons.  they were sooooo cute (cause they are babies).  they don't mind handling, they are mostly vegetarian (but for all those yummy crickets), and they only get to be about a foot long.  most importantly, they are desert lizards, so there is no "misting" requirement and that helps keep the cage cleaner and cuts down on salmonella chances.
 
so I decided to get two babies.  I had been looking at 4 week olds, but they were running $50 each.  I found someone who had 8 week olds for 39.00.  Most of them had their tails munched, so I had a hard time deciding whether to spend the extra $ for the younger ones.  but I kept looking and finally saw bonnie.
 
bonnie and clyde: together again
 
bonnie:  bonnie was sitting on the cage to the heat lamp at the top of the tank.  she was almost entirely white and was "gaping" (they do this when they get too hot to cool down).  I asked, "what is this little one doing?"  we picked her up and she cooled down and began to change back to her normally very light color.  She had a tiny bit of her tail munched, but it was in pretty good shape, so she was in.
 
clyde:  clyde was being the all-too-cool ladies' man.  He had about four ladies piled on top of him and was sitting and being really chill.  He was a good size, and had a complete tail (maybe the only one in the bunch?).   we put them together and they were okay, so he was in.
 
now you really can't tell the sexes of the dragons at this age, but I think in my case it is pretty obvious watching their behaviors.
 
clyde is your typical alpha male:  he is the first and fastest at eating crickets.  he's got a little bit of attitude.  already he has puffed his beard at me for disturbing his afternoon basking.  he basically likes to lie around undisturbed until the crickets come.  and when 9:00pm rolls around -- he gets mad if I don't turn the lights out.  he has taken to sleeping on the floor -- he makes himself a little depression in the substrate, curls up, and boom! out like a light a 9pm! 
 
I know clyde is a boy because mr. kipod is also out like a light at 9pm and I've decided its a guy thing.  oh, and I did the vent check and I think I see the two nodules that mean "boy."
 
bonnie is a nutty girl:  you can just tell.  she is just a tiny bit smaller than clyde right now, but you can see that she is developing a girl face.  she runs around all over the place, and she really likes the heat.  she goes absolutely nuts when she sees a gnat flying in the room (gnats are very common where we live now, but annoying as hell).   she is the most interested in what I am doing and she is the most personable of the two.  she loves to be picked up, she loves to eat her salad, and she loves to sleep under the black light up in the tree. 
 
and on bonnie's vent check, her vent is a little smaller and I can see one nodule developing in the center -- which means "girl."
 
I think I will need to be sure to bathe bonnie often because she is such a heat-freak.  I can't wait to teach them how to "jet ski."  I did some googling and discovered about the warm water bath routine.
 
when you take your beardie out for some family time, you want to first put the little guy into a warm water bath no more than shoulder deep.  A small plastic wash tub should work for this.  the warm water encourages pooping as well as cleans them and rehydrates them.  after they have pooped, they should be good to go for some family time without having any embarrassing and smelly "accidents."
 
one site mentioned playing "jet ski" -- where the beardie hangs on to your finger with his front legs and you pull him around the bath.  sounds like fun!  I'm going to wait a few weeks more before I take them out of their tanks for extended periods.  right now, I pick them up in the morning for a little "hello" time, and in the evening for a little "good night" time.  they are pretty used to me handling them and they don't seem afraid.  bonnie is much more enthusiastic about being picked up so right now she is getting a little more attention.   
 
I've got to learn how to keep crickets -- it was a little disasterous the first time.  I bought 7 dozen, thinking this would last a week, they lasted a day.  I didn't have much trouble transferring them to the corral (I only lost two).  but inside the corral, they got too wet and I lost about a dozen due to drowning because they got under the sponge.  and believe it or not, bonnie and clyde ate the rest of them all up! 
 
so it is looking like they will eat probably a dozen each at a sitting -- and if I feed them 3x a day, that is 6 dozen a day.   its a good thing crickets are cheap!
 
I was thinking about not feeding them so many crickets, but it is important when they are babies to feed them a lot of crickets so they get enough calcium for their growing bones.  when they are full grown, they will only get crickets once or twice a week, if at all.  but for now, I'm going to have to get used to the "shake n' bake" routine.
 
I hope mr. kipod is pleasantly surprised by our new babies -- and lets me keep them, 'cause I've grown quite attached already.