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Vacation Time? Find a Dragon Sitter!

Vacation Time? Find a Dragon Sitter!

As a new dragon owner, you may wonder what you are going to do when you go on vacation, even if it is just for a few days. My husband and I went away for five days and had a “dragonsitter.” Fortunately, I had a friend who had some experience with reptiles and was not squeamish about the roaches or crickets.

I created a Care Guide for him that we discussed, and I printed a copy to leave at the house.  Obviously, you will change this to your routine and your dragon. Smaug had some odd quirks when we first got him, so we let the person know those ahead of time. 

Make things as convenient as possible for your sitter…so hopefully they will want to be a repeat sitter! We prepared Samug’s veggies in advance and put them in a tupperware container in the refrigerator. We also bought crickets to have if Smaug would not eat his roaches. One item that helped during this time was that we purchased a timer for our lights so the sitter only had to come once a day.

You can skim through our guide below, or make it your own by saving our copy and adjusting the Care Guide to fit the needs of your bearded dragon.

Care Guide for Smaug 

When you get there:

  • Dump out the food bowl and add more cut up veggies and sprinkle with calcium. (He may not eat the veggies, but we just leave them there.) 

  • Take him out and hold him for a few minutes. He loves being held. 

  • We are trying to train him to just crawl on our hands when we put them in the tank, so if you could practice that, we would appreciate it. (He isn’t doing well with this training, but it’s fine.)

  • Clean poop out with a paper towel.

    • He is super consistent and will go once in the morning, so just get it out when you can. 

    • If he doesn’t poop one day, that is fine. 

    • If he poops on the rock, just pull it out, rinse it off in the bathroom sink, dry it off and put it back in.

    • I will put paper towels down on the rocks where he usually goes, so all you have to do is pick up the towel then put in a new one. 

  • Add water to the water bowl. (Make sure the water bowl is on the cool side of the tank!)

  • We are leaving the shed in there. He may eat it, which is fine because it has calcium for him. So don’t worry about taking out his shed. 

Feeding:

  • Feed him roaches in his food bin. Feed him one or two at a time.

  • He has been only eating 5-7 a day recently but offer until he stops going after them.

  • We count bigger bugs as two. 

  • Avoid the really big roaches, because it can hurt his mouth. 

  • Add calcium to roaches.

  • Make sure the roaches have food (oats) and water. 

Bath time:

  • You will find the glass bowl in the sink. Rinse with sink water.

  • Heat up the Brita water in a mug for one minute.

  • Please only use Brita filter water. (Because of his sickness, we aren’t using sink water for the whole bath...probably being over cautious. A little bit of sink water won’t hurt him.)

  • Put that water and a little cold water in the bowl.

    • Lukewarm.

  • Test the water with his tail. You will know if he thinks it is too hot.

  • Let him sit in it for a while. He should chill but sometimes he just doesn’t want to be there. 

  • He does not always like the bath, and he may cling to you. He needs to be in there for at least five minutes. 

    • Ignore his angry glare. It’s bound to happen!

  • If he doesn’t drink, then put water droplets on his head and he will eventually start licking the water. He HAS to drink some water during bath time. 

  • At the end, put him in your hand and rub his belly down and get each leg and arm. 

  • Get a towel and just put him on the towel and close it on him (Burrito him!).

  • He doesn’t like being rubbed while in the burrito, but just dry him off a little before putting him to bask. 

Keep in mind: 

  • Add water when needed. 

  • Bathe him every day.

  • If he doesn’t drink water in the bath even after you drop water on his head, let me know. 

What to look out for:  (AKA call or text me!)

  • He doesn’t eat for two days in a row.

  • His eyes look sick when you are about to leave. They will be half closed, but he won’t be looking around and seems lethargic. He may be like that when you get there, but if he is like that by the time you leave, then please let me know. 

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