#mal replies

Cali kings are the best, super easy little snakes to care for and most are pretty calm. They can have a strong feeding response though so I do recommend distinguishing between when feeding time is and when it is not to prevent accidental bites (though if it does happen it really doesn’t hurt. It’s just annoying to get them off sometimes). With Penelope I trained her to associate me double tapping the glass with the tongs with feeding time(there’s a great group on Facebook called reptile enrichment and training if you’re interested). Babies can also be a bit head shy and nervous at first. Most reptiles don’t like shadows passing over their heads or quick movements, so I also recommend moving slow and steady until you build up more trust with your new snake.

Cali kings in particular are adaptable snakes though, who have a very wide range of habitats from desert scrublands to northern forests.

With a habitat range like that, there are a lot of different setups you can do and a lot of humidity ranges they will tolerate. I initially kept Penelope on aspen before moving her to a semi arid bioactive and she did very well on both. A lot of new keepers find aspen easier to deal with and there’s nothing wrong with it though.

Meeting in Prison AU. Hmmm... Let’s see what I can do with this. 

Keith looked up from his cafeteria tray, the unappealing food falling to the back of his mind as his eyes trained on the new person opposite him. He was by no means the most social; even the older cons left him to his own business. 

So why was this bright-eyed brat staring at him as though he were some sort of solution to their problem? 

“I know what you’re thinking,” they began, and Keith’s eyes narrowed. “Why did a girl slip into this side of the yard and start up a conversation? And since I don’t want to waste your oh-so-valuable ten remaining years, I’ll cut to the chase.” 

“Who are you?”

“The name’s Pidge. At least, that’s what everyone calls me.” She took a deep breath, a tilted smirk appearing on her face. “I need another set of eyes. And Shiro trusts you.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Quite simple really,” she replied, eyes scanning the room. Deeming it safe, she whispered, “We’re breaking out. In three days’ time.” 

“You want me with you?” he snorted. Fat chance. He’d never heard of Pidge before, even if Shiro was working with two others from the work crew. “Why should I believe you?”

“Would I have risked it otherwise?” 

True, every word spoken would increase her sentence by another year. “You could just be insane.”

She clicked her tongue in admonishment, shaking a finger at him like a teacher as she corrected him. “Insane enough to try. We’ve got our whole lives ahead of us.” 

Somehow, he trusted her. He wasn’t sure if it was her demeanor or the constant smile or the determination in her eyes. No matter what, if it was a chance to get out, he was going to take it.  “Okay then.” 

Pidge extended a hand and he took it. “The start of a beautiful partnership.” 

“Don’t tell me you want to be Bonnie and Clyde,” he deadpanned, slowly releasing her hand. 

“Well, wouldn’t that be charming,” she said, winking. “But you’d have to take me on a date first.” With that, she stood up and marched through the sea of orange with her head held high. 

I’d agree with that assessment. Just about any bio active setup meant for a bearded dragon would also work for a clown. For inspiration I’d look up some of their native habitats in the countries they originate from. Climbing structures are a must and be forewarned, they will dig. If you want your plants to not get torn to pieces by digging, or if you’re like me and like to rearrange tanks, I’d recommend burying the plant, pot and all in the soil so you can swap them easily.

Oof. That’s a tough one. My previous bearded dragon, Buddha Buddy, was like that and I never managed to get him to willingly take greens in the entire nine years of his life (screwed up when he was young and didn’t offer them enough because I didn’t know nearly as much back then). I know of one person in my bearded dragon group who gets hers to eat its greens by floating the greens in a bowl of water but that might not work for everyone. You can also try holding them in the tongs like you do with bugs and wiggling them. Sometimes when Aries isn’t as hungry in winter I can get him to take his by doing that. Definitely gut-load any insects you have before offering them to him with some of the greens you want him to eat to at least get some of that nutritional value into him. It’s better than nothing and it’s a sneaky way to get a bit into him. I’d also recommend getting a really good multivitamin supplement for him and using it at least once a week too to make sure he’s getting some vitamins, even if it’s just from a powder.

Also have you tried fruit or dandelion flowers to stimulate his appetite? Fruit should really only be given in small amounts, but it also has many of the nutrients a beardy gets from greens. You could still try to mix it with the greens to try to get him to eat them. If he likes hibiscus flowers, he may be willing to try other flowers too. Dandelions in particular are a really healthy food for most plant eating reptiles, and the bright color of the flowers might interest him. Clover and it’s flowers are also another option if collected from a pesticide free area. A lot of beardies go crazy over clover (Aries being one of them). Generally, a lot of the flowers that are safe for tortoises to eat are also safe for beardies. Aries is also fond of cactus flowers from the Texas prickly pears in my parent’s yard (I only feed him the petals and the pollen since the rest of those flowers have thorns).

There’s also these things. Nutritionally, they’re trash, but they have a strong, fairly pleasant smell and a color that my picky eater was really into. I’d mix them into his greens so he’d grab them when he was trying to grab the small, slippery squares and that helped a bit. The only thing is that they turn your dragon’s poop an alarming shade of green, and, like I said, they’re not very nutritious. They worked for me as an appetite stimulator though when I got really desperate.

Honestly if absolutely nothing works, I’d recommend maybe discussing it with a reptile vet. A boarded vet may have tricks that the average pet owner knows nothing about, and, if all else fails, they can help you come up with a nutritional plan that may let you supplement their diet in other ways, or give you techniques that make getting greens into him easier. Or, if it’s somehow health related, they may be able to identify the problem.

Sure! I can do that! Enrichment is one of my favorite topics!

Personally, there are three main ways I enrich my reptiles, training, novelty, and puzzles. Novelty is the easiest one, so I’ll start with that first. Basically, it’s just giving them new things! Or giving them old ones that they haven’t seen in a while. It can also be as simple as taking them out, changing the arrangement of their tank, and putting them back in to explore. Beardies especially in my experience seem to get a lot out of this form of enrichment. If I even put Aries’s fake plants in a different spot he has to go all around the tank to lick everything and see if anything else is new and test them again to see if they suddenly turned edible. To him, even cleaning his tank is novel and fun, and he likes to sit and watch me work (until the vacuum comes out- vacuums are scary), but new items are what really catch his interest. It can be as simple as a new climbing log or a different floor texture. He will check it out. Novel food items that they aren’t used to getting can also be enrichment.

Next, puzzles. These require a little more work than just buying something new for their cage, but are so fun to watch if you can get them interested. With beardies, some puzzles can be hit or miss. It really depends on how food motivated they are. My clown agama, Damascus, for example, gets bored very easily, is very food motivated, and can be really bad about jumping up onto his screen to run upside down. To give him something else to do, I often make him puzzle feeders and I have a few in my #reptile enrichment tag if you want to check them out. Recycling pill bottles especially can be a fun idea. All you have to do is drill holes in them big enough that the bugs can fall out as it rolls and if it has clear plastic, your beardy should be able to see the bugs and be interested. He’ll have to figure out how to roll it to get them however. I’ve also made puzzles in the past that are pockets made up of cut circles from toilet paper tubes and paper so that he has to reach into what basically amounts to a hole if he wants the bug. The problem with agamids like beardies is that unlike monitors and some other species, they tend to be more visually oriented than scent oriented, so that does limit your options on what you can do a bit.

Finally, training. This is probably the hardest one, and to be honest I’m fairly new to it too, but I highly recommend you check out the Facebook group Reptile Enrichment and Training. Currently I’m focusing on target training and and feeding cues with Penelope, Damascus, and Aries. Penelope, for example, is being taught that no food will be offered if I open the cage without tapping the side twice with the tongs first. This is being built in to prevent misguided feeding responses in the future since kingsnakes are notorious for accidentally striking their people when the cage gets opened because they expect food. With Aries and Damascus, I am working on target training. Basically, I chose a target for each of them, and right now am working on building up its value with food rewards. It’s something you often see done with large reptiles at zoos as a management strategy, but it is perfectly possible to teach just about any reptile to follow a target, and the training process gets them thinking as they try to figure out what behavior gets them the reward. For example, Damascus has learned that his target means food, but he’s not supposed to bite it. After talking with someone of the people on RET, I’ve started only rewarding him when he doesn’t bite, and instead boops or licks it. I am also working on coming up with another plan for Aries, since I want to train cues that I can use at the vet and if I have to give him oral medication, since he is not a fan of people trying to open his mouth. Basically I want either a certain sound or touch cue to signal to him that he needs to open his mouth so I don’t have to force him. There are other behaviors that I can probably train as well, but right now I only want to focus on one or two at a time so I don’t confuse everybody ( including myself).

@toadscools care-wise, beardies and clown agamas are pretty similar, although from what I’ve noticed clowns seem to like it a tad bit hotter and drier. They also seem to be less prone to constipation and other GI issues that beardies get and I never soak Damascus because he simply doesn’t seem to need it. Diet-wise you can feed them the same things but clowns prefer a little more protein than beardies need. They also appreciate lots of running space since they are considerably more hyperactive than bearded dragons. Like beardies they need to be able to both dig and climb, but are much more willing to climb vertical surfaces than any of my beardies have been. Temperament wise they tend to be a little more flighty initially than beardies, but with time and patience most will tame down (Damascus Just has a bad temper for a clown- his vet says he’s the meanest one she’s ever met). Though if you’re looking for a lizard to snuggle with or to sit on your shoulder these guys probably aren’t it. I’ve never seen anyone’s clowns sit around long enough for that. They’re cheeky little guys too. Even though Damascus won’t let me touch him willingly he’ll happily snatch food out of my hands if it looks tasty enough. Personally I love how feisty they can be. Even as a hands off pet Damascus is fun because I can look over and he’s almost always up to something (usually naughty).

As adults I’d say that a 4x2x2 viv is probably what I’m going to consider the minimum simply because of their hyperactivity. They’re smaller than beardies but they can jump a lot farther and seem to be turbo boosted when it comes to speed so it’s a good idea for them to have extra space to stretch their legs.

If you’re looking for something similar to a beardie on crack then clown agamas are great. Very fun and there are tons of ways to interact with them aside from handling if they don’t go for that. I will say that from what I’ve seen from breeders talking and my own experiences that they do seem to be a bit more suspicious to start with than a baby beardy, so I’d say it’s even more important to avoid flooding and build up trust slowly if you want to tame one, but they aren’t impossible to tame. They’re just really smart (honestly as much as I love Aries, I think Damascus is a genius compared to him, or at the very least he seems to need a bit more mental stimulation to keep him from destroying his cage).