|
 |
RANKINS
DRAGON CARE SHEET!
| General
Information |
|
A
Trio of Rankins Dragons.
Click
image to enlarge.
Rankins
Dragons (Pogona henrylawsoni) are a dwarf member
of the pogona family. They grow to around 10
inches, making them very much like a miniature
bearded dragon. They come from Australia and live
for about 8 years, unlike bearded dragons they are
a very sociable species and do very well in
groups. They become very tame and tolerate human
interaction making them great pets. This care
sheet will guide you through their care
requirements, covering all topics required for you
to keep them successfully. |
| Housing |
| A pair of
Rankins dragons will live happily in a 3ft
vivarium, adding more space for more dragons.
These animals do well in groups, and several
breeders have even said that multiple males have
been ok when housing in larger groups, however I
would stick with only one male per group. Rankins
dragons like to climb, so logs and branches will
be appreciated, along with rocks to bask on. You
will need to set up a basking spot at one end of
the vivarium and provide UV lighting, these topics
will be covered in detail further down. Rankins
dragons love water and will make use of a shallow
pool to soak in. |
| Substrate |
Like with
all reptiles, you have a huge choice when it comes
to what substrate to use, and they all have their
good and bad points. Below are several options you
have.
Sand - Advantages: easy to spot
clean, looks natural. Disadvantages: can cause
impaction if ingested.
Paper Towels - Advantages: no risk
of impaction, easy to change. Disadvantages: looks
unnatural, hard to spot clean.
Newspaper - Advantages: no risk of
impaction, easy to change. Disadvantages: looks
unnatural, hard to spot clean.
Tiles - Advantages: no risk of
impaction, easy to wipe clean, hard wearing.
Disadvantages: takes time to install (I grout mine
in, they are easier to wipe clean this way).
Repti-carpet - Advantages: no risk
of impaction, easy to change and wash.
Disadvantages: looks unnatural, hard to spot
clean, claws sometimes get stuck in fibers. |
| Heating |
| Rankins
Dragons are cold blooded are therefore need the
correct temperature provided for them so they can
thermoregulate. They like a basking temperature of
around 95*, with an ambient temperature of about
80*, and a cool end at about 75*. At night
temperatures can drop in to the high 60*s with no
problems, so unless your house gets very cold you
will not need night time heating. If you do need
night time heating make sure you use a ceramic
heater as Rankins dragons can see all light and
any light will disturb their sleep. To provide a
basking temperature of 95* you can use a clear
spot lamp of about 60/100 watts, there is no need
to buy specialist reptiles spot lamps as these are
the same as regular household bulbs with a higher
price tag. Make sure all lamps are controlled by a
dimmer thermostat (bulbs) or a pulse proportional
thermostat (ceramic heaters). You must not use
heat mats to heat their vivarium as they only
sense heat from above and need the bright light
given off by bulbs to thrive. |
| Lighting |
| UV light
for your Rankins dragon is something you must NOT
cut corners on. A decent UV light is critical to
the survival of your dragon. The best two bulbs to
use are the Exo-Terra Repti-Glow 10.0, or the Zoo
Med Reptisun 10.00. Any other bulb will not give
you enough UV output no matter what they say. You
should use a bulb that covers the entire length of
your vivarium so your dragon gets as much UV
exposure as possible. Something a lot of people do
wrong is positioning the UV bulb too high in the
enclosure, your Rankins dragon must be able to get
within 6 inches of the bulb to fully benefit from
it. You must also make sure your UV light is
replaced every 6 months (without fail!) as after
this time the amount of UV light given out is not
high enough even thought the bulb will still
light. Another option you have is to use one of
the reptile mercury vapour bulbs, these will
provide you with both heat and UV. The amount of
UV these bulbs provide is much higher than the UV
tubes listed above. One problem with these bulbs
is that they are only suitable for larger
enclosures due to: 1 - only being available in
high wattages, 2 - they are not dimmable and 3 -
you must have a distance of at least 12 inches
between the bulb and your dragon (this distance
may be different for each bulb, so follow your
bulbs instructions.) |
| Food
/ Supplements |
Rankins
dragons are not fussy eaters and will eat all of
the common livefood insects, including: crickets,
locusts, mealworms, waxworms (only give these as a
treat as they are fatty) and roaches. You can use
any of the above as a staple diet, other than
waxworms. They must also have fruit and vegetables
in their diet, good dark leaved greens are best
along with a mixture of fruit. You must not feed
iceberg lettuce as it has no nutritional value,
also stay away from citrus fruits and berries. As
babies and youngsters they will eat livefood
daily, most adults will eat livefood every two
days, all ages of Rankins should be offered fresh
vegetables daily. It is important to make sure you
gutload any insects before feeding them to your
Rankins, this ensures they are full of the
nutrition your Rankins needs. You can buy insect
food from most of the livefood suppliers, which do
this for you, or you can make your own. You can
use oats, fresh fruit and veg etc to feed your
insects prior to giving them to your Rankins. If
you feed crickets make sure you do not leave any
left over crickets in the vivarium for too long as
they can munch on your Rankins while its sleeping,
not something you want to happen.
Along with gutloading, correct supplementation is
important, for this you need to dust your feeder
insects with a calcium / vitamin powder before
feeding them. How often you need to do this
depends on the age of your Rankins. For babies,
dust with calcium 5 days of the week, and with a
multi-vitamin 2 days of the week. For adults, you
can cut down to calcium 2 times a week and a
multi-vitamin just once a week. An easy way to
dust your insects is to put some dust in a bag,
drop the insects in, shake the bag and then tip
the insects into the vivarium. I have recently
added a bowl of crushed cuttlefish bone to my
Rankins vivariums to provide extra calcium, this
is something you may wish to try. |
| Cleaning |
| You should
spot clean your vivarium daily to prevent any
build up of bacteria which may cause problems. If
you do this you should be able to give your
vivarium a full clean out every other week with no
problems. For a full clean out you should remove
and disinfect everything using a reptile safe
disinfectant. Keeping your cage clean will help
keep your animals happy and healthy! |
| Breeding
/ Sexing |
Rankins
Dragons are very easy to breed. The first thing
you need to do is make sure you have a male and a
female. If you look at the vent (under the Rankins
by its tail) you will either see, a line of pores
and 2 bulges - a male, or no / very slight
pores and no bulges - a female. If you are
considering breeding please make sure you have
space for the babies, and space for any you cant
sell. You should not breed your Rankins until they
are both atleast a year old, perfectly healthy and
of a good size and weight.
Once both your dragons are ready for breeding you
can introduce them, this should be done from
January until around September. Mating at first
can seem very rough but its all perfectly normal
and wont hurt either dragon. Once your pair have
mated, the female will be ready to lay
within the next 4 weeks. You should provide your
female with a laying site, this can consist of a
simple plastic container with a small hole for her
to get in, filled with a damp substrate such as
vermiculite. You need to make sure your
incubator is set up and running now so you are
ready for when the eggs come. You can make
your own incubator using a polybox, heatmat and
thermostat, or buy one ready made. Your incubator
needs to be set at around 86* and at this
temperature the eggs should hatch in around 45 -
65 days. You will know she has laid as she will
look saggy around her belly. Now she has laid her
eggs you need to transfer them to your
incubator. During this time you must be very
careful not to turn the eggs as you will drown
them. Carefully place them in a small tub
filled with damp, but not soaking wet vermiculite,
with a few holes in the lid and place this is your
incubator. It helps if you make small indents
in the vermiculite with your finger before placing
the eggs in so they cannot roll around. After
a few days you can candle your eggs to see if they
are fertile, to do this you need to shine a small
torch into the eggs. If they are fertile
they will glow red and you may see veins forming,
unfertile eggs will look yellow and will soon
collapse.
Once the babies hatch they can be kept in groups
in the same set-ups as you would use for adults,
just on a smaller scale. After a few days they
will start eating and will start to grow very
quickly, by the time they are 6 weeks old they
will be ready to go
to new homes. |
|
|
© 2008-2009 Ravin' Reptiles. All Rights Reserved. |
|
|
|
|
