# The other addiction.



## LAME

Greetings community!

 Just wanted to show off my newest additions to the crew. Not mantis related, but awesome nonetheless! A buddy at work had long talked about getting a bearded dragon in exchange for introducing him to the mantis hobby. A year down the road I finally received a phone call and a knock at my door.  

My very first reptile and beardie, Valkyrie.





I've had her about two months now...  then decided she seems awfully lonelylike in her home, so we got another friend just 3days back.




I haven't decided on a name for this little lady yet, but I'm sure one will come.

Since introducing the new comer, they've basically been glued to the hip.




Here's one of my favorite photos of them both together.


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## CosbyArt

Nice to see your little beardies.  Definitely a good way to cull your excess Dubia roaches too.

Have you gotten them tamed yet? I ask as most love to get petted, or rubbed "on their chins" too. My brother-in-law kept them and most were really friendly.  If you haven't had much luck yet, look at this article.


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## LAME

I've been working with them for a few minutes each day just to get them used to being handled and such. Valkyrie is a handful when she wants to be, but the newcomer is surprisingly tame already and she's younger. Both of them like a head and chin rub though   

I've been reading a lot on them over the passed couple of months, so I'll definitely take a look at the link.  

I've watched YouTube videos on them as well, they apparently go nuts over dandelions and they're extremely healthy for them.  ^_^


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## CosbyArt

Have they puffed up their beards or hissed at you yet? I ask as that can be common, and so can them flicking their tail like a cat when upset.  Sounds like your little girl was taken care of by another keeper, or still young enough that she is fearless and will tame easy (much like mantids as nymphs).

Glad to see they both have gotten attached to you enough for petting and rubs. In time if they allow you to pick them up they love to lay on a forearm, getting petted and warmed up from a persons body-heat at the same time.  

Crazy to hear about dandelions, I wouldn't have guessed that. It has been awhile since he kept them though (in the 90's), so I imagine many things have changed with the internet connecting hobbyist (much like our community).  I did find this video on youtube, is this the one you saw too?


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## LAME

Haha yeah that was the first video I seen before actually looking into it.


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## CosbyArt

LAME said:


> Haha yeah that was the first video I seen before actually looking into it.


Nice, that is crazy how happy it got over the dandelion though.


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## LAME

Valkyrie under went another shedding, here's a few photos. (Before,during,after...)


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## CosbyArt

LAME said:


> Valkyrie under went another shedding, here's a few photos. (Before,during,after...)
> 
> ...


She definitely had some vivid colors afterwards.  

I'm curious do you plan on getting a male and breeding them? I've seen a few youtube videos of the tiny babies hatching, it's amazing.


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## LAME

CosbyArt said:


> She definitely had some vivid colors afterwards.
> 
> I'm curious do you plan on getting a male and breeding them? I've seen a few youtube videos of the tiny babies hatching, it's amazing.


I've really considered it, my buddy at work has a pair of young boys that are around the same ages.... but I'm not sure yet. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.

I really do love Valkyrie's colors though.. it'd be neat to find one with similar colors and see the outcome.


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## sschind

Beardies are great animals and yeah, they do love the dandelions.  Not only the flowers but the greens as well.  Actually the greens are probably better for them.

If you are keeping them together just make sure they both continue to grow and if you notice one growing faster you may want to separate them until they reach adulthood.  I've seen it many times, people get 2 beardies the same size and one starts growing faster pretty soon it decides to take a bite out of the other.  No one ever sees any aggression between the two and both eat like crazy.  In fact the smaller one may even seem like a more agressive eater.

I'm not trying to scare you or anything, just that there is rarely any aggression so people assume they are fine even though one is noticeably larger.  Just watch them closely for the size discrepancy.


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## LAME

sschind said:


> Beardies are great animals and yeah, they do love the dandelions.  Not only the flowers but the greens as well.  Actually the greens are probably better for them.
> 
> If you are keeping them together just make sure they both continue to grow and if you notice one growing faster you may want to separate them until they reach adulthood.  I've seen it many times, people get 2 beardies the same size and one starts growing faster pretty soon it decides to take a bite out of the other.  No one ever sees any aggression between the two and both eat like crazy.  In fact the smaller one may even seem like a more agressive eater.
> 
> I'm not trying to scare you or anything, just that there is rarely any aggression so people assume they are fine even though one is noticeably larger.  Just watch them closely for the size discrepancy.


Definitely will keep that in mind,  though I've had Valkyrie for at least two months before getting the other. She's a bit bigger than the newer girl, but not by too much. When it comes to feeding I'm usually right there with them making sure nothing bad happens, just in case.

They both usually intake about the same foodwise though.  So far I've had no fighting over food or anything... so that's good. Think I'll start adding in more of the green parts of the dandelions since you mentioned it.

Also, I do have plenty of spare tanks laying around right now... if need be,  a rehoming wouldn't be difficult at all.


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## LAME

Just dropping some photos of my little ladies.   














And one last photo, Val under the infrared.


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## Mantidaddicted

LAME said:


> Just dropping some photos of my little ladies.


SNUGGLES! lol. Awesome pictures!


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## LAME

Rehomed the girls to a bigger home, also swapped out the outback Orange sand with a blue..

Then I started reading about the hammocks and how much the beardies love them. So I decided against buying one...

and just made my own.   



I made the hammock out of an older tie dye shirt I made (and didn't wear...) 3 suction cups and some rubber coated Christmas ornament wire. 

Within 4 minutes of putting the hammock in the cage little one decided to try it out. Soon after...;


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## Mantidaddicted

Now I want some beardies....... love your picture of the little one sleeping in the hammock, precious.


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## Sarah K

They are super cute! I held my first bearded dragon at a friend's house the other night. They are so amazingly laid back, it is unreal!


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## LAME

Mantidaddicted said:


> Now I want some beardies....... love your picture of the little one sleeping in the hammock, precious.


They're incredibly awesome.   I vote "yay" on you getting one!   



Sarah K said:


> They are super cute! I held my first bearded dragon at a friend's house the other night. They are so amazingly laid back, it is unreal!


Awe, they're big ol' softies. ^_^   I must say they are a really neat pet to have... I mean, they eat ALOT... but totally worth it.


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## LAME

"Valkyrie Approved." 

....and she refuses to leave her new bed.


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## Kara S

Mantidaddicted said:


> Now I want some beardies....... love your picture of the little one sleeping in the hammock, precious.


Yes! And the one little tiny precious claw peeking over the edge. Adorable.


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## LAME




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## Kermit

Hope you haven't traded and less love for your Idolo infatuation! Lol


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## LAME

Nah, id say it's about 50/50. Lol

I'm the type that likes to give all his critters the best he can. The idolos are all set with what they need as far as homes go, so I'm just playing the waiting game with them until adulthood molts near.

The beardies still have alot of growing to do... so I'll be on top of these guys for awhile   

I have been looking around at alot of custom work as far as "diy basking zones,hides,dishes, and backdrops" looks like the Styrofoam and grout methods the best way to go... so I'm thinking I'll be putting my hands in that project as well. 

.... I like to be constantly busy.


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## LAME

Dropping an update, but first a photo of the two.   




(Little one's photobomb.)

Recently, I rechecked the gender on little one as I've been reading alot more about beardies. Apparently they cant really be correctly gendered until later on in life (8-12 months).

Well.... come to find out little ones a male, with that being said... I'm definitely considering breeding.


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## LAME

[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)]" ...i have been looking around at alot of custom work as far as "diy basking zones,hides,dishes, and backdrops" looks like the Styrofoam and grout methods the best way to go... so I'm thinking I'll be putting my hands in that project as well."[/COLOR]

[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)]With that being said, I went ahead and started my first custom build.I decided to build a corner cave unit (hide.) for the beardies using the Styrofoam and grout method, here's what I constructed. [/COLOR]





It's pretty decent in size, about 18 inches long / 11.5 inches wide/ and 9 inches high. Easily a $45 piece at local petstores (petco/petsmart) but I only spent $10 on grout and $2.50 on a Styrofoam cooler from the dollar store.   

Currently I'm still working on it, I need to paint and seal it,  but I wanted to drop a photo on the project. Expect bigger and better things from this.


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## LAME

Base coat and shading.


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## Sarah K

It looks good so far! I think your beardies will love it!


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## LAME

Currently I'm in the middle of construction on a rock wall backdrop for a 20 gallon (exoterra beardie starter kit.)





Been doing a lot of YouTube watching lately... I think eventually I'll try to do a piece of bark or even a tree stump or something, then maybe bring this project over to the mantis side of things.


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## CosbyArt

Looks great and knowing some of the prices online likely saved $50 after materials. Are you going to color it with cement color additives/paint/mortar/or leave it?

Yeah, Youtube can be the bane of any hobby (at least where time and money is involved, and spouses/loved ones) - with so many things that can be done and are now filmed for DIY, I have a project list that is never-ending.  One nice thing though is you can look though several projects to find one that will work better/easier without wasting the time and money for each project too.


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## LAME

CosbyArt said:


> Looks great and knowing some of the prices online likely saved $50 after materials. Are you going to color it with cement color additives/paint/mortar/or leave it?


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## LAME

Here's the current basking zone I've built. Pretty massive lol, but they love it.




It stands 11.5 inches tall, 12 inches (1ft) long, and 12 inches (1ft) wide and has stairs. ^_^


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## CosbyArt

Awesome result, and they seem to enjoy.  Massive is the only way to go, gives them something extra to play on.

On a side note you may want to check into a hammock as they go crazy (or just lazy) for one. Here is review/photos in use of one for sell on Amazon, a DIY rope bridge style one, and here are plenty of of other DIY types (scroll down the page).  Might be worth setting one up under the basking zone formation, or the other side of the tank.


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## LAME

Already ahead of you my good friend.    but I'm going to check that page for new ideas.


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## CosbyArt

LAME said:


> Already ahead of you my good friend.    but I'm going to check that page for new ideas.


Great. Ha, glad to see that, and looks like she loves it too.  Might as well to see if you can do something special.


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## LAME

Upgraded the little lizards to a even larger home... now they're living it up in a 67 Gallon reptile sanctuary from national geographic. I was lucky and caught it on clearance for half the orginally asking price. 

Already getting ideas for a full scene custom build.


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## LAME

Dropping some photos:




Valkyrie.




Victor. Aka "Little one."


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## CosbyArt

Great find on the huge tank, congrats.  I imagine that tank looks monstrous, I look forward to seeing photos of it. Also nice photos of them, especially the one of them together, they are looking great.

I saw a dozen beardies today at the nearby Petco. They were about 4" long including the tail, and very active. Two chased me and my niece's hands around the tank front trying to get their chins rubbed through the glass the whole time. I couldn't help but think of you and your pets when I saw them.  

Incidentally we saw two adult Chinese mantids outside the store when we left, and I rescued one from a corner spider web. It got so tangled it didn't try to resist much, I moved it up high, and managed to remove nearly all the web. The mantid promptly started cleaning itself to remove what I couldn't, when I had to coax it off my arm. My wife and niece got scared and ran to the car when I got it free and it climbed my arm, as they saw a male Carolina fly off my hand the other day and thought it would fly onto them. They are hopeless lol.


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## LAME

Awe, man.... I see them about 3 inches or so at the petsmart here, they may be smaller lol. Pretty crazy how something so small can get so big   

Nice save on the Chinese, had it been me? I probably would have taken it home. (some....40+ miles away from the local anything now after the move)

..lol. ^_^


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## CosbyArt

Indeed it is, till then though they sure are tiny.  

I thought about that, but both were males and being in town the only thing I could have dug out of the car would have been some emptied fountain soda containers. I figured if I took them they would have been a mess when they got home with the sticky soda, so I left them be to mate with the sure to be nearby females.

Sounds like a you moved to the middle of nowhere - but likely can find more mantids in such a location.


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## LAME




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## LAME

Finally, busted skin.


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## LAME

A visual for everyone of the process. It's not fully finished but i went ahead and let them try it out anyways. (It's coated with mod podge.)


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## CosbyArt

LAME said:


> A visual for everyone of the process. It's not fully finished but i went ahead and let them try it out anyways. (It's coated with mod podge.)


Looks like you moved your photos as they are not showing up, even your older ones.  

If your looking for a host I would recommend you try PostImg.org as they do great and without the countless ads of PhotoBucket (and I can run my AdBlock on PostImg without it blocking my images, so even if it has ads it is not a issue).  The only problem is finding the original link to the fullsized image as they like to give scaled down ones.


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## LAME

CosbyArt said:


> Looks like you moved your photos as they are not showing up, even your older ones.


May have been a photobucket server goof?  Anyway they're all back now.   

Also...

Today I did in fact have to seperate the two. I think little guy (Victor) may be around 8 months old or so as he's now showing signs of wanting to breed.


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## CosbyArt

Glad the images are back, strange issue indeed. The tank looks great!  

Ah, too bad. So I assume Valkyrie is female, is she still too young? Maybe he'll simmer down, and they can go back to being tank buddies.


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## LAME

Val is a bit older in age and is female ,  I've been watching Victor for awhile now. I noticed a change in his behavior when I separated them to install the new temporary piece (oh yeah... I do plan to keep building more.) 

After putting them both back in the sanctuary,  he tried to snag the back of her neck and jump on... I had to stop that as I'm not really ready for breeding.

..yet.  

But everything's good now, little man has his own home and Valkyrie is living it up in the sanctuary.


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## CosbyArt

LAME said:


> Val is a bit older in age and is female ,  I've been watching Victor for awhile now. I noticed a change in his behavior when I separated them to install the new temporary piece (oh yeah... I do plan to keep building more.)
> 
> After putting them both back in the sanctuary,  he tried to snag the back of her neck and jump on... I had to stop that as I'm not really ready for breeding.
> 
> ..yet.
> 
> But everything's good now, little man has his own home and Valkyrie is living it up in the sanctuary.


Either way it's awesome that you have a breeding pair. You know you want a ton of eggs, and hundreds of little ones running around the incubation container lol.  

Glad to hear they are both doing fine separate, and your still building.


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## LAME

CosbyArt said:


> Either way it's awesome that you have a breeding pair. You know you want a ton of eggs, and hundreds of little ones running around the incubation container lol.
> 
> Glad to hear they are both doing fine separate, and your still building.


Hahaha, yeah that would be pretty awesome wouldn't it. ^_^  I'd have to step my feeder game up if that were the case lol.


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## CosbyArt

LAME said:


> Hahaha, yeah that would be pretty awesome wouldn't it. ^_^  I'd have to step my feeder game up if that were the case lol.


Yeah I think it would.  Perhaps it might be something to try eventually, as videos like this one really make it seem like a worthwhile venture - look at all those babies.


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## LAME

> On Sunday, October 16, 2016 at 11:05 AM, CosbyArt said:
> 
> Yeah I think it would.  Perhaps it might be something to try eventually, as videos like this one really make it seem like a worthwhile venture - look at all those babies.



Lol wow..

Yeah, the more I watch these the more I want to lmao... I'd need to invest into alot before doing it though ( burrowing substrate,incubator, more feeders.. maybe another lighting system ...) 

Plus I couldn't keep ALL of them   definitely would have to find some willing bodies to rehome most of the clutch. (Something to talk the wife into Cosby   )


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## LAME

-Precious. ^_^


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## CosbyArt

LAME said:


> Lol wow..
> 
> Yeah, the more I watch these the more I want to lmao... I'd need to invest into alot before doing it though ( burrowing substrate,incubator, more feeders.. maybe another lighting system ...)
> 
> Plus I couldn't keep ALL of them   definitely would have to find some willing bodies to rehome most of the clutch. (Something to talk the wife into Cosby   )


Your right though, it isn't something to jump into unprepared.





I showed my wife your post, after I had her watch the video, and her first response was, "Don't you have enough different types of pets already?!" She agrees though they are cute, so if you get to that point let me know, I'd be happy to take a pair. If needed too I can ask around locally to friends and family, and should find a couple more homes for some.  

Also you might have some luck offering them to local pet stores too, as it seems most sell them for about $50 each so they must do fairly well. Might provide some extra feeder or building money too.


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## sschind

Breeding the beardies can be a very rewarding endeavor but a word of warning.  A big female can produce 3 or 4 or even more clutches of 20-25 eggs a season.   A clutch can easily polish off 1000 appropriate sized crickets a week.  If you breed roaches that's great but be sure you have a good colony going because you will go through tiny nymphs very quickly.  One thing with baby beardies is they need to be fed a lot and often.  If they are not kept very well fed they have a tendency to nip at the tails and toes of their tank mates.  Its one of the reasons I stopped breeding mine.  It was just not cost effective for me to raise them up to the 6 week mark before I would sell them and I didn't like the idea of wholesaling 2 week old babies for 10 bucks a piece.   It's certainly a good idea to make sure you have a buyer lined up for them, or at least the majority of them, before you set out. 

Of course no one says you have to incubate all the eggs but if you do you will have a lot of little mouths to feed.


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## spider_creations

Lol,  @LAME this is awesome. I wish I could build tank decor like that   my uromaysx would sure enjoy stuff like that. Can I custom order from you lol


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## LAME

I'm sure we could work something out? Depending on the size?.... maybe? I've never shipped out something like these.

Shoot me a pm sometime.


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## LAME

sschind said:


> Breeding the beardies can be a very rewarding endeavor but a word of warning.  A big female can produce 3 or 4 or even more clutches of 20-25 eggs a season.   A clutch can easily polish off 1000 appropriate sized crickets a week.  If you breed roaches that's great but be sure you have a good colony going because you will go through tiny nymphs very quickly.  One thing with baby beardies is they need to be fed a lot and often.  If they are not kept very well fed they have a tendency to nip at the tails and toes of their tank mates.  Its one of the reasons I stopped breeding mine.  It was just not cost effective for me to raise them up to the 6 week mark before I would sell them and I didn't like the idea of wholesaling 2 week old babies for 10 bucks a piece.   It's certainly a good idea to make sure you have a buyer lined up for them, or at least the majority of them, before you set out.
> 
> Of course no one says you have to incubate all the eggs but if you do you will have a lot of little mouths to feed.


Exactly. All these factors are true...


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## LAME

Sleeping dragon.


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## LAME

10.22.16 (yesterday.):

Val was all smiles yesterday, I took the opportunity to shoot a few shots.


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## CosbyArt

LAME said:


> 10.22.16 (yesterday.):
> 
> Val was all smiles yesterday, I took the opportunity to shoot a few shots.


Very nice, and looks like you have a camera ham too.


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## LAME

11.09.16:






She's growing up so fast, she's now nearly as wide as my knee. I also went into a local exotic pet store we have here and got to see a full grown beardie, he was absolutely giant! I cannot wait to see my two at full size.


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## CosbyArt

@LAME Your girl is doing great, and still has some bright coloration.  It would be interesting to see how large she gets, but it seems in the beardie world the males are larger than females (unlike mantids). Maybe yours will exceed the typical 16"-22" size.  

I found a interesting photo of the various sized beardies, too bad they didn't have a new hatchling for true size from newborn to adults (likely due to safety). See the photo here.


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## LAME

@CosbyArt

I've read that countless times as well, but i hope she maxes out. To me, that'd be ideal   

Alex (Mantidbro) finally managed to break me..I made my own YouTube channel and have uploaded a few videos of the two during a feeding. I'll throw the link at the bottom of this post... orginally I made it so he could see how picky my male has become with different foods. He absolutely will no longer eat crickets.. he's starting to turn his nose to dubias?! But will eagerly eat king/Super worms and occasionally a few wax worm treats. He's being a real pain as of late.

I think this is the link;

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCT5q0Vd0pPkiXHKmUv-hgOw


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## CosbyArt

@LAME It would be if she got that huge.  

Ha, nice to see them active, but I see you are mute in your videos too.  I've done some in the past, and hope to do many more coming up, but prefer not to talk either (especially due to my accent, and lack of teeth now that doesn't help lol). Long as you don't do the silly hand written index cards in your videos (video editing text over works) your be fine.  

Glad to hear Alex is doing fine (I saw his post on there), as I haven't heard or seen him in months around the forum, or even with PM's being sent.


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## LAME

CosbyArt said:


> @LAME It would be if she got that huge.
> 
> Ha, nice to see them active, but I see you are mute in your videos too.  I've done some in the past, and hope to do many more coming up, but prefer not to talk either (especially due to my accent, and lack of teeth now that doesn't help lol). Long as you don't do the silly hand written index cards in your videos (video editing text over works) your be fine.
> 
> Glad to hear Alex is doing fine (I saw his post on there), as I haven't heard or seen him in months around the forum, or even with PM's being sent.


Yeah, I'm usually pretty silent most the time anyway. I'm not much on talking, never really have been.   

Yeah I've noticed he's gone silent here, I think after the idolos he took a break... but he'll return, I chat with him about daily through Google's app "Hangout"


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## CosbyArt

LAME said:


> Yeah, I'm usually pretty silent most the time anyway. I'm not much on talking, never really have been.
> 
> Yeah I've noticed he's gone silent here, I think after the idolos he took a break... but he'll return, I chat with him about daily through Google's app "Hangout"


No problem there.  I thought of trying some of the new voice synthesizer software for videos, but likely the best option would be to get some professional voice over work for anything of value (as it can be done rather cheaply per project).

Yeah we all tend to take a break sooner or later.


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## LAME

12.03.16:

Decided I was going to be trying something new with my builds, so I took the previous 20G backwall piece and made some modifications. Regrouted the entire piece and added dirt between the rock crevices, then podged.






Gives it that dirty look.


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## CosbyArt

@LAME The rocks really pop now.  I bet though Valkyrie (she has that tank right?) likes either version.


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## LAME

I've actually been thinking about redoing Valkyrie's home   

..but no shes in the bigger enclosure since she's older and the largest. Honestly I wanted to use sand in the crevices but didn't have any to spare. . But I think it came out pretty good, Definitely looks better in my opinion.


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## CosbyArt

LAME said:


> I've actually been thinking about redoing Valkyrie's home
> 
> ..but no shes in the bigger enclosure since she's older and the largest. Honestly I wanted to use sand in the crevices but didn't have any to spare. . But I think it came out pretty good, Definitely looks better in my opinion.


Ah okay, indeed it would come out better too. You know how it is, the more times you do something the better they look each time.  I agree though it is a great improvement.


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## LAME

Valkyrie.


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## LAME

It's been awhile since I've posted, I thought i would drop by and and show off my pretty girl. She's continuing to grow ever larger, she's now almost as long as my entire arm! I'll have to measure her out again.

....anyway, here's my precious. 





"Awwwwwwwweeeee...."


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## LAME

03.26.17:

Some updates..

First, big girl Valkyrie is just over one year and one month old and currently 17 inches long... And fat. &lt;3

Second, I got a 3rd beardie. Unsexed and young, but i have a good feeling on it being male. Guesstimating only a few months old now (1-2m), it's a little over 5 inches long now. ( had it about a month)


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