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Description

Earless dragons are small Australian agamas that at the time of writing are still quite rare in the hobby. There is very little information on the net for this species, which promted me to write this care sheet, but as a general rule they have similar care requirements to that of a baby bearded dragon. They are a very sociable species and can be kept in groups. Each of my groups of females are housed with two or more males and I have never had any injuries from fighting. Interaction between the group will be displayed in head bobbing normally by dominant males. On occasion they will also inflate there eyes out of there sockets but this is of no concern and is thought to be to loosen the skin around there eyes before they shed. They will also inflate their whole body and puff out their beard for the same reason. Due to their small size - 2-3" from snout to vent - and there flighty nature, they are not a lizard to be handled too often.

Housing

An enclosure measuring 24"x15"x15" for a pair, or 36"x18"x18" for a small group, will be ideal, with a spot light at one end suspended above ideally a flat stone to create a nice basking area. Decor can include some branches for them to climb and a few flat top stones for them to bask on, and also for you to spray as they prefer to drink this way than from a bowl. I think the best substrate for keeping these lizards is sand and even better is the red sand as this mimics what is found in their natural habitat.

Lighting/Heating

Earless dragons come from the same areas as Bearded and Rankin dragons and so are similar in the care requirements. So for heat a spot lamp producing a hot spot of around 100°F at the hot end; between 80°-85°F in the middle of the vivarium, and the cool end around 75°F. To help maintain these temperatures a dimmer thermostat and a low wattage lamp can be used. A low wattage lamp is to allow them to bask for longer periods. If a high wattage lamp was to be used it would soon reach the temperatures set and turn off depriving them of a basking site. The wattage will depend on the vivarium size and ambient room temperature the vivarium is in. Other heat sources may be needed to create these temperatures in the vivarium; again this will depend on vivarium size and where it is situated. This is why the vivarium should be set up and running before the lizard is purchased so it can be tweaked until all the temperatures are satisfactory. A high/low thermometer will be handy here to register temperatures during the night as well as the day.

Being a diurnal lizard they will also require a source of UVB light. Mine are all given 8.0 or 10.0% UVB fluorescent tubes running the full length of the vivarium and are suspended near to the floor so they receive the maximum possible from these tubes. The UVB light output from these tubes starts to decrease from the moment they are first used and so need to be changed regularly (see manufacturers recommendation on box). My full spectrum lights are left on the same amount of time as the spot lights - about 12-14 hours in the summer and reduced to 10-12 hours in the winter.

Diet

I believe the key to keeping this species healthy is to feed them little and often. They are an active lizard and in the wild would be on the move a lot and would need food often. They will benefit greatly with a much varied diet. Any live food offered to them should be well gutloaded before feeding (see gutload sheet). We feed all our Earless dragons small hopper locusts, size 2 crickets and mini mealworms as a staple. There is a lot of hype about feeding mealworms - impaction and being unable to digest the chitin - but if the vivarium temperatures are correct they will digest them fine. I believe they are one of the best foods - they are very easy to gutload as they eat virtually everything, and if offered in a suitable bowl will always be available for the lizard to eat. Finely chopped greens can also be offered. I chop mine up and place some in with the mealworms, and the movement of the mealworms tends to get the not-so-keen lizards to eat the greens. It also continues to gutload the mealworms.

Supplementation is another important part of feeding your lizards but dosage rates will all depend on what you are actually feeding your lizards. The gutload I use for my livefood I make myself. It's made up of many different ingredients and contains all vitamins, minerals and amino acids, so I only need to supplement once or twice a week. Calcium is a very important part of the diet, especially for growing young and laying females. I always have a bowlful available in the vivarium so it's there when they need it. I use grated cuttlefish bone and they love to crunch on the small pieces when it's first put in for them. This greatly improves there growth rate.

On occasions I also add in the vivarium wild insect sweepings from the garden. This creates a lot of interest with the lizards especially flying insects. This is another subject with some controversy because of the use of pesticides, but my view is that if they are running around in your garden then they are probably not poisoned by pesticides. Otherwise we would have no insect-eating wildlife left. The choice is yours.

Breeding

If given a good diet breeding size can be attained in 6 months of age, when both males and females are mature. Activity levels in the viv will increase with the onset of mating, which when seen for the first time can seem quite rough, but usually just results in the skin on the back of the females neck darkening from where the male bites down on her to mate. A few weeks after mating the female will be getting noticeably larger with the developing eggs. Now is the time to check everything is set up for the incubator and that a suitable egg laying box is in the viv. The egg laying box will need to be big enough for the female to comfortably move around in and for her to be able to dig down around 4-6". This material can be a mix of sand/peat, slightly dampened and then compacted down to allow a tunnel dug into it. When she is near to laying, the eggs will show as small bulges on her underside and can be felt if you lightly stroke her underside. As she fills with eggs her feeding will decrease until she stops feeding a couple of days before laying, but she may still continue consuming the calcium if it is in there for her (which it should be). When she is ready she will dig a tunnel in the dampened substrate, turn around and deposit her eggs, normally numbering around 5 to 8 eggs. Then she will fill in the tunnel behind her. You will notice she has laid the eggs because her skin will be loose around the sides. Now the eggs have been laid it's time to concentrate on getting the females weight back up, as in 3-4 weeks she will be ready to lay another clutch. The usual number of clutches is around 4 per year.

Eggs and incubation

The eggs now need to be carefully dug up and placed into the prepared incubator. Normal practice is to half-bury them spaced 1" apart into dampened vermiculite or perlite. If the eggs are good they will be firm to the touch and white. Infertile eggs are normally yellowish and flaccid but if you are unsure just incubate them all. The bad eggs will soon shrivel and mould. The bad eggs will not harm the good eggs as in the wild they will all be laid in one cluster. Over time the good eggs will swell in size as the embryos inside grow. At an incubation temperature of 84°F the eggs will take around 40 days to hatch, so before this time is up make sure you have set up somewhere to rear the hatchlings. Just before the eggs are due to hatch, beads of sweat will form on them and soon you will see small slits at one end of the egg. This is from the hatchling's egg tooth cutting its way out of the egg, but it can still be up to a day before the hatchling emerges. For now it is consuming the last of its yolk sac. The entire clutch may hatch at different times over a period of 2 to 3 days. When they hatch out carefully transfer them to the already prepared rearing unit.

Hatchling care

The hatchlings when born will be around 1" in total length. Best results for rearing these will be in a simple setup: paper towel as substrate, which should be lightly misted daily for the first couple of weeks; a very shallow water bowl like a jam jar lid; calcium dish; a smooth stone or something to perch on under the basking spot, and a toilet roll tube as a hide. With these items in with them there will be few places for the live food to hide, so monitoring their food intake will be easier and more will be consumed. Food should not be offered until the third day as they will be living off the nutrients from the yolk sac and this uneaten food will just irritate them. For optimal growth, live food should be offered in small amounts 3 to 4 times a day, and to get them started on greens I snip the tips off the tubs of cress. This falling down onto them seems to promote an immediate feeding response. Once they are used to this you can just chop up their greens into small pieces in a bowl. After two weeks or so it may be necessary to sort out the hatchlings by size into different units as some will have grown more than others. When they reach around 4-5 weeks of age they can be placed into a viv with the same set up as the adults.