Update on new unexpected friend "bearded dragon"

Joined
Jul 6, 2021
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South Africa
Hello :D I come with a new update from this post, where asked if a bearded dragon baby and a baby tortoise can live together, (no, they cannot -> conclusion), anyhow, I wanted to give an update on that post and the "beardy"...

First, we did split them up (asap in fact, because I'd rather have my tort be safe than sorry), and we then put the baby tort into a backup/emergency enclosure and kept the dragon in that enclosure, since the emergency one was too low, and he'd be able to escape very easily... We haven't yet built the new, bigger, much better enclosure for tort, since the glass hasn't been cut yet, so no delivery came on Friday, but it is to be expected to arrive by Wednesday, where we'll be able to build the enclosure and have it ready for tort by Friday, it is 120cm/l x 65cm/w x 25cm/h, and that will be torts enclosure for a year or 2, after which we'll be upgrading again to something bigger (space is just a small problem for now, so going bigger will be difficult). As for our lizard friend, he'll be getting an upgrade next year, to something similar to the size of torts enclosure, but higher (so maybe 45-60cm, so climbing can be a thing).

Second, turns out that the "bearded dragon" was not really a bearded dragon (as you might have guessed XD), we believe it to be a Bloukop Koggelmander (part of the Agama family). We figured it out by it suddenly becoming a bright blue/green and yellow color during the day. Now that's quite a twist! Not quite sure if it's a defensive mechanism, or just what they do... Although today and yesterday the colors weren't nearly as bright, but it may also have been due to hunger...

For the first 3 days it didn't eat anything, just tried to find a way out, since glass is glass, and is basically an invisible wall. Thankfully today the little bugger finally decided to eat something, I believe it was 2 crickets, 1 mealworm and about 5 baby/medium sized dubia roaches! Wow! I think he was a little hungry! This is a very good sign at least, hopefully he will take a bite of the salad I leave every day as well!

We added a few rocks to the enclosure to help keep the little bugger entertained as well. We are planning on removing both the Coco Coir and the Rabbit Grass tomorrow and replace it with newspaper, we're also planning on getting a better UVB bulb, and a heat bulb that is not red (coming soon after the enclosure has been built for tort)
 

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Tom

The Dog Trainer
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I’ve never worked with that species, but I think you’ll find it isn‘t going to eat any salad, Let me know if I’m wrong.

UV will be very important for this lizard too.
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2021
Messages
40
Location (City and/or State)
South Africa
I’ve never worked with that species, but I think you’ll find it isn‘t going to eat any salad, Let me know if I’m wrong.

UV will be very important for this lizard too.
I have noticed that it hasn't touched the salad once :' )

Yes, I'll be sure to make sure to get the correct UVB ;)
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2021
Messages
40
Location (City and/or State)
South Africa
That IS some sort of Agama. And I've been seeing them here living wild recently.
They are extremely fast. So I haven't been able to catch one yet.
My guess is that they might be omnivores.
Toss in a cricket and test out my theory.
Yes, so far it has eaten dubia roaches, mealworms and crickets, but not any salads, I head that they might not eat salads, so I'm going to try and find more info on it
 

TammyJ

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Congrats, and please let us have more pics when you can.
Where do these lizards originate?
 
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