Skip needs TLC (update w pics! 1/27)

This is a beardie I have seen in a local pet shop for a while. apparently someone dropped him off there. long story short he is in my home now. I hope to help him as much as possible. He is missing his right rear foot, and also seems to have MBD issues. His right front leg is curled inward and he walks on the back of his foot. He was not very responsive at the store. I brought him home and gave him a soak. He smelled so bad! tons of poop and red sand washed off of him. I brushed him softly with a soft toothbrush. He perked up a bit after that and gave me some head bobs :mrgreen:

I have him under a heat lamp in a small tank right now. After warming up i offered him a small silk worm, salad, crickets...not interested in anything.
I did however get some Exo-Tera Electrolyte & vitamin D3 into him. put 2 drops in 1 oz water and he took 1.5 ml with a dropper. He is now perking up a lot and skipping around head bobbing and black bearding everything that moves!

I am still trying to find my extra fixture for his uvb bulb. we just moved and it is not in the boxes with the rest of the "reptile stuff"!!!

What else can i do to help him? He is suddenly very active and is very sweet and cuddly also. I dont know if his injury is healed well as i dont have experience with that area.

He looks just like Papa Smurf!! Otto showed me this pic a little bit ago. Good luck with him. If you want to know my exact routine with Papa, I would be glad to share or help in any way. Kudos to you for saving this little guy. I love him just looking at that sweet face. He could be Papa's twin. :love5:

That would help so much thank u! I have been stalking ur threads for info the last few min. :wink: papa smurf is adorable! He is so blessed to b with u guys!Calcium and uvb r the mail issues w mbd right? Need to get liquid calcium!

This is probably too much information, I don't know...but I took in every scrap of what everyone told me and I've been working on this guy for 3 weeks and I think I've got down what he needs. Your Skip doesn't have the same jaw deformity! YAY! BUT...he may not have very many teeth. When he basks with his mouth open, take a photo of his mouth and then look at it on your computer screen and see what he has. Papa has one tooth on one side of his mouth and three on the other. That right there limits what he can eat. That's why I blend his salad.

Here is all my overkill photos and explanation. Use what info you need.

This is the best baby food I could find. The chicken and chicken broth and turkey and turkey broth are the only ingredients. They don't need pasta and other additives. I give about 0.5-0.8mL of the squash baby food daily to help with hydration and also because you need to be careful not to give too much protein in the beginning. He may not have had much and you don't want to overload his kidneys right away. Gradually work up the protein.


These are the calcium supplements I ordered from Beardeddragon.co. There are 2 liquid calcium supplements and I alternate days. So today I would use the one with the calcium + magnesium, and the next day I would use the other calcium. The calcium with the magnesium needs to be mixed with water because it has some laxative effects. It's a 1:1 ratio. Check around with other people and see if they think you need the cal/mag. We are testing that with Cheryl but we really don't know if your dragon is a candidate for it. I'm just telling you what we do so you can check into it. I use 'greens juice' instead of water to maximize the nutrients I get into him. The little powder Calcium complex has Serrapeptase which is an enzyme in silkworms that acts as an anti-inflammatory and within a few days it really helped Papa move better. The powder is very fine and sticks to feeders really well. I dust his silkworms, wax worms and crickets with it daily.



This is the AcidolphiLiz and the B vitamins. The AcidolphiLiz will help get his good gut flora built up so he digests his food better. AND you know he has parasites...and maybe coccidia. You know you are going to have to have a fecal at some point (when he is eating right and looks a bit better) and you know the vet is going to give you some terrible medications, so get his gut good NOW before all that. The B vitamins is to help support his immune system. Both of these taste really good and Papa will lick them right from the syringe. He gets this every day.


This is the little shake-mixer I use for blending his greens. I blend his greens because he can't chew them with only a few teeth and his jaw is deformed. I think blending them is a good idea to stimulate them to eat their greens. The smell of greens is pretty strong when you blend them and it does attract Smurf. Since Smurf never really ate greens before, it took this to get him even interested. I've added a little chicken baby food to the blender with the greens and a little bit of greens juice from the bottom of the bag or water to help make them smell really yummy.


This is what the greens look like blended. I serve them in this antique milkglass coaster because it is very low and Papa can see his food and actually reach it. Your Skip has the same problem with the front leg and he can't raise himself up into a real dish. Keep that in mind. You've got a handicapped dragon and he needs special everything.


I also make a watered-down mix of chicken or turkey baby food and liquid calcium and this is how he gets the liquid calcium and some hydration every day. I alternate between the 2 types of liquid calcium each day. One day he gets the regular, and the other day he gets the one with the magnesium. I drain the 'greens juice' that is in the bottom of the greens bag and use as 'water.' If the kind of greens you buy has that liquid in the bag, awesome. If not - well, maybe you can make your own. Hmmm....
So I use a teaspoon of the 'greens water' or you can substitute your own water, and 1/2 teaspoon of the chicken baby food, and the liquid calcium and mix it together. Then I let it sit out so it isn't so cold since everything, including the supplements, is stored in the fridge. After it warms up a little, I suck it into a syringe and he happily laps that up. Sometimes he even grabs the syringe and yanks it out of my hand. LOL


I keep an old small mealworm tub and put some of the calcium complex with serrapeptase into the cup and swirl his feeder worms in there before I feed them. The powder is very fine and sticks to them really well. I highly recommend this calcium complex. It has been crucial to Papa's recovery. I give him silkworms that we raise and waxworms, just not too many waxies because they can spoil him and he won't want to eat other feeders.


I also feed him pre-adult crickets. You know your Skip won't be able to hunt and chase his feeders. Neither can Papa. I drop them one at a time an inch from his face so he can reach them. Same with the worms. One at a time right in front of his face so he just has to get them with his tongue. I don't leave any feeders in his cage, either. He eats what I give him and when he is done I remove that last one he didn't eat.

I leave a low dish of repti-worms in his viv all day and night in case he wants them. Sometimes he will eat them and that's great.

One thing - since Skip is so crippled you know he can't climb and he can't have much in the way of furniture. Keep that viv very simple so he can move around freely without getting stuck turning around. We have a very low ladder that he can get up on directly under his UVB at the back of his viv. It's as low as it can get. We mounted the whole Repti-Sun 10.0 hood inside the screen, attached with string. I'm sure there are other ways to attach them.

He is in a 20 gallon long and was still too far from the UVB, so we had to make a 'false bottom' to raise him up to the light a few inches. It was really hard to do and took me hours. You have to do it, so you gotta figure it out. I took the lids from all my photo boxes (RIP photo boxes LOL) and put them down in the bottom, and then cut a piece of cardboard exactly the size to go over them, and then put a piece of non-adhesive shelf liner over that. THIS is why we don't leave crickets in the viv after he eats. They will wiggle their way down under that false bottom and be wasted down there.

Here is a picture of his viv with the false bottom. Sorry I can't really show you his only piece of furniture here, but he is Sleepy Smurf. He gets under his ladder to sleep and I throw a blankie over it so he has a cave. He can't have a hide because I want him getting his UVB, not hiding, so I give him a simulated hide at night. See the UVB tied in under the screen. The screen will filter the UVB so get it under it. Also he has a bright basking bulb during the day and I keep it at 110 degrees. A little hot to help support good digestion. And at night he sleeps under a CHE (ceramic heat emitter) to keep the temps at night around 85 degrees. This is to support his immune system. You can see the 'false bottom' I made to make him higher up to the UV.


This is information overkill but I'm saying it all anyhow because it is what works for me. I hope it helps you out, or at least supports the ideas you already have. And heck, if you come up with something ingenious, please share with me! :mrgreen:

Oh my goodness you are soooo incredible!! Thank you so much!!! I was just researching and thinking on things like baby food too but i hadnt decided what i could give him yet! im def going to the store tonight to get a few things i will pic up some baby food u mentioned. i did look at Tracie's site and saw many of the things u mentioned. I wonder how fast i could get them shipped. I am def going to reread your post over and dissect it several times! LOL

A few pics small update...

This is Skip when i walked up to his enclosure at the pet store today.


He had a bath and after a soak with warm water he started head bobbing and black bearding and puffing at me! scrambled up into my hand like "im done mom gimme out!!" I was hoping he would drink but no such luck. He was very good at supporting himself in the water though. he amazed me!!


Top view after his bath


I went to the store to get him liquid calcium. i was looking at a bottle of it and a bottle with vit D3 and electrolytes. I was going to buy the calcium one but bought the wrong bottle. I did make the mix of the electrolyte & D3 suppliment and water as the bottle directed and fed it to Skip with a med dropper. He didnt seem to mind at first but was finally done after 1.5 ml
Skip has since brightened a bit and has even glass danced a bit. I have offered him shredded mustard greens (im gonna blend em up now!! :mrgreen: ), dusted crix (he cant chase them duh to meeeee!! ) and a silk worm. He looks at stuff but shows no interest in eating.


We had a small wood for him to prop himself up on. He scooted up onto it using his tail since his back leg is gone. once he was up there he started arm waving his front deformed leg! We have since taken out the wood since i didnt realize it had bark that was flaking off everywhere.

Well, he is def not helpless and he def has attitude! thats two things going for him already!!! GO SKIP!!

Go Skip! What a feisty guy! I'm so glad you are able to take him in. Sounds like he is going to be a handful while you get his routine down.
Skip couldn't be a luckier lizard now. All sorts of best wishes heading out your way.

Oh and excellent picture tutorial. That was great!

You're welcome for the information. Anything I can do to help, I am glad to. It's overwhelming, honestly, to try and figure out what to buy and what to do. Once you get it, you can do this no problem. It's just the uncertainty and trying to figure out what to do that's the hard part. And I don't know if there is a better way. This is just what we've put together for Papa and it's working, so I'm going with it but I am open to anything anyone suggests.

As for your Skip: Fiesty for sure! Papa is the same way - he beards and gets aggrivated with all the syringe feeding, but really he won't do well without it. I'm hoping he will get better and be able to chase crickets, but his eyes are at slightly different levels and he cocks his head weird to see on one side sometimes, so I think he will always need extra time and patience to eat.

I think Skip may be the same with needing crickets dropped one at a time in front of him. They just won't jump through hoops to chase them. It's hard - they can't get around all that well, and their legs don't work well so they have trouble. The way I see it is if you want them to eat every bite and get everything they need, you have to help them out.

The silks are really important but really expensive. With about $75 in start-up costs, you can raise your own from eggs. Are you interested in that at all? It takes about 2-3 weeks to get going until you can start feeding them, and they take care just like one of your animals, but it's a huge money-saver in the long run. I would say for about $20 you can raise retail cost of $150 silks at home in 2-3 weeks. If it is something you want to do, I can do a photo tuturial for that, too. :lol: :lol: I put 200 eggs in the incubator on 1/1 and today the largest ones are 1" long and I have been feeding from my stock for about 4 days now.

Skip in better overall condition than Papa, so that is really good. Papa is much thinner and has the lumps at the base of his tail and some mild spinal issues, and the jaw problem, and the missing teeth. Have you seen Skip's teeth yet? Does he have more than a couple?

Does he look like he can eat his greens without shredding? I've thought and thought about this with respect to Skip. I still think even if he has enough teeth shredding them might be a good idea because they will hold moisture longer in his tank and give him more time during the day to eat them wet. He needs hydration. Also you can slip things in there like baby foods to give more nutrients and he may enjoy them like that. Then again, every dragon is like a spikey snowflake and what one likes another may not like. It's all in experimentation.

I am glad he can hold himself out of the water! It took 2 weeks for Papa to be able to hold himself up and not be dragging his body along. Again, I think you are a bit ahead of me with your dragon being in better condition, so that is very encouraging.

Watch out! All the TLC and extra care you are going to put into him is going to make you fall hopelessly in love with him. :shock: He already looks so great after his soak. I'm so glad for him and I love that you are willing to take him on and help him out. He will be so grateful and will love you for it. You're awesome!!!!

Spikey Snowflakes! I loves it!

Shannybeard you must be a very patient woman!! I am exhausted! Skip seems to being well thismorning. I do have silkworms but cant get him to eat any. I usually order them online. right now the boys are getting supers and silks and crickets. and cupid is eating the silks and crickets also. But ur right if they keep eating the silks this fast im gonna have to do something! What worries me is i was going to get some dubia for the first time because one of my boys bowser will not even look at crickets! so where am i gonna raise silk worms and roaches in my lil apt?! lol *sigh* I need another house just for my reptiles...
We got out our magic bullet lastnight and made Skip a "concoction" of greens along with some calcium and electrolytes.
2.5 oz blended greens
6 drops exoterra electrolyte/D3 supplement
2 tsp minnerAll dust. berry flavor

I got Skip to take only a ml of this mixture and the rest is in the fridge. Im hoping to add some baby food to it today to help.
Im hoping i did good! What do you think of the food i made for him? i did a lot lf research, and this was the best i could dofor him lastnight. I could barely sleep at all cuz i was soooo worried about him. I told my husband that i didnt know what i would do if he didnt make it through the night. He said that i would have to feel wonderful that i had given him luv and care for the last 24 hrs and that he was not alone in a pet store when he passed. But Skip is glass dancing and head bobbing me right now... i think he's hungry! lol He has perked up so much i cant believe it!!

some pics

yes i want to sit on your shoulder like all ur other babies! (and yes he scrambled up there himself!!)




he was licking the food off my finger and a med dropper and his mouth lol good boy!!


Well ive spent too much time on the computer already! gotta go unpack more boxes and make my rounds for lunch for the humanz and critters! my oldest will be home from school soon and is not feeling well =( its pooring rain here and we are all getting over bronchitis. poor baby!!

Will be back later
Thanks again for all your help and support!! You are an amazing blessing!!!

forgot to add some pics of his back leg...he's missing some scales it seems... not sure what this looks like???






sorry best pics i could get. i know they are not in focus... i only have my cell camera

Quick update! Skip ate 3 silk worms and more of the greens mix i made for him! Dumb me forgot to dust the worms w calcium but im still so happy! He pooped twice...solid w a good amount of urate, and i did squish and inspect it. Not runny...no mucous or worms. Several large cricket legs is all i found in it. He seems super happy and playful and is holding himself up much better right now. I think he thinks there is nothing wrong w him hes prob used to skipping arund on bad legs. Uses his tail alot to compensate. U r right mirthy hes feisty for sure! We hv been calling him Scrappy Skip due to his self assured attitude and the skip he does when he walks. :love5:

Btw i have seen a flash of teeth and also felt them when he was eating off my finger and got too excited! I dont care if he gnaws my hand off and it looks like his...as long as he keeps eating!!

I think you are doing absolutely great, wonderful and fantastic! I'm so glad Skip has some good strength and ate for you. He's certainly not used to someone making SURE he is eating, so who knows how much he really has been able to eat. I think these lizards are just like people where if you are used to just eating a small amount, it doesn't take much to feel full. My Smurf took a while to work up to more than 0.5mL of anything at one time. I know, that isn't much! When he backs away and lets me know he is full, I get it and I don't force him.

Looks like your guy is starting to get up an appetite, which is great. Less stress and worry for you! I think the greens mix that you made for him sounds wonderful. Yours is blended so much better than mine, too. I need to maybe look into something that blends a little better, huh?

He looks pretty healthy considering his condition. Have you been able to measure and weigh him yet? It would be good to keep a weight journal so you know how he is doing with weight gain, and also so you know the proper dosing of supplements. Smurf has been on a very slow weight gain, but I'm comfortable with it. One thing I forgot to mention is the Critical Care. I also have been giving him the apple-banana flavor Critical Care once per day as a syringe feeding. Smurf won't lick that off my finger. I don't think he likes it. I blend some squash baby food with it and it helps a little.

The silks don't take much room to raise from eggs. The HovaBator is about 20 inches square maybe and 10 inches tall...? That's a guess since I am not at home to measure it. I have it on a table, plugged in. The chow you raise them on is something you cook and keep in the fridge, cutting off the amount you feed as needed. If you have a small table you can delegate to the silk raising, dooo it. We also have a small apartment. Then again, we are not normal people and have all our reptile stuff on the table that we would otherwise eat on. :lol: So it is TV trays for us in the living room. :lol:

That UVB will partner with the food and make him even stronger. How did it go getting him elevated and able to get up to that UVB? Is it mounted inside his viv? Our Smurf does have to work hard to get up on that ladder sometimes, even though it is low. Hopefully one day it will be a little easier for him.

I'm so encouraged to see how well Skip is doing. I wouldn't worry about him dying in the night, so don't disrupt your beauty sleep for that one! I bet he just gets better every day.

I gave a cheer when I read your update! I bet Skip thinks he's the luckiest lizard in the world! I think Shanny hit the nail on the head by saying keep it little at first. Who knows how much Skip was used to eating and despite the desire to fatten him up, it's going to be slow and steady that wins the race, especially where protein is involved. It does look like he is missing scales on the back of his leg but there isn't an open wound, right? Does he react at all differently when you are handling him there? It's probably just scar tissue but it's still worth keeping an eye on and make certain it isn't tender or anything is changing in size, for example. Who knows what this poor little fellow has been through before he was dropped off at the pet store.

Again, I have to say that you are fantastic for taking in Skip and seeing to his special needs. He is so very lucky to have you!
AND your husband is completely right! Those are very wise words!

Thank you so much for your help and support everyone! I am so exhausted so im just going to give a quick update and a few pics before i fall into bed.

earlier this evening, Skip had a bath, about .75 ml greens mixture w calcium, electrolytes, and D3 i made him lastnight room temp, about 3 ml of the electrolyte/D3 water mixture. He weighed in at 191 g and measured abut 16.75 in. Took some pics of a yellowish area on Skips belly and his pores look different to me. i have never seen pores look clogged or protruding so much like that.




I am too exhausted to type anymore. I am going to reread this thread fresh tomorrow morning and respond to any questions etc.
Thank you for keeping me going. No one in my family or close friends understands why im doing this... except for my hubby of course. Most people think Im crazy and irresponsible for spending money and time on an animal who is ill. It doesnt help the reaction i get from family who visits my house either...i cry sometimes when they leave because of their comments and faces. Dont they see i am trying to be loving to something?! just because he's not a human doesnt mean Skip doesnt count!