Cyrus, Lia and Gary's thread! PICTURE UPDATE

Hey guys, I was just wondering, what times do your beardies go to sleep?

For some reason mine curls up in the corner at 2PM + , and goes to sleep! I wish I had more time in the day to play with her, anyone know why she goes to sleep so early?

Share some funny bed time stories!

 

[sweetiepie9]

Aren't they doing well! Good for you & it's great that Cyrus will eat roaches. Of my five, Lonzo & Leo look at them like they're poison, but Didi, Rubio and Gabriel will eat them, Gabriel will eat tons of both roaches & supers, plus his salads, so that would explain why he's almost 400g now!
You'll have to keep us updated on your brother's new viv & when he gets a baby!

 

[NeosMom]

I'm glad to hear that you are doing well. All the pictures are just WONDERFUL. Cyrus & Lia both look terrific. I'm glad to hear they are eating so well. And don't worry about her looking at the roach like it's awful. Fluffy looks at everything that way. :roll: Girls... Ha! Ha! Keep us posted.

 

[fresnowitte]

I agree Cyrus & Lia both look terrific.
Isn't the odd patches of shed interesting as they mature?

Good to hear that all is well!

 

[Nathan1995]

Haha hey guys, thanks for all the comments

Just an update, with a little bit of a worry.

Basically, Cyrus is all good, no problems, but Lia is scaring me! The past 2-3 weeks, she hasn't done anything other than sleep all day long. She sleeps on the tiles, and then doesn't move all day, and sleeps in the same spot, and repeat. Her light keeps her viv at 95F, so I tried turning it up and she did nothing, tried turning it down and she didn't care for that either. She still runs around and poops in the bath and what not, (her poop does have quite a bit of undigested superworm in it though, could that be causing her to be .. lethargic and sluggish?) Her urate is fine, but not much poop, just a whole lot of superworm segments.

She runs around fine, and is always eager to come and eat, I just wish she'd go and bask and do whatever on her own, instead of sleeping all day on the floor. Any ideas guys? She also digs occasionally, maybe once every week, not often at all, but each time she does, it makes me think maybe she wants to try lay some eggs? Since I've had her I haven't given her any lay box, nor put her with Cyrus but she may want to lay some infertile ones do you think? Thanks guys.

 

[Zeusmybeardie]

Sounds like lia is going into brumation just like Zeus is

 

[sweetiepie9]

Yes, it's that time of year Nathan. Brumation is a normal hibernation for beardies. There is a great care sheet on here written by Denise Bushnell that explains it alot better than I can. All my beardies go down in the winter & because we're going into fall, it starts with sleeping alot. So if she continues to do this, you'll have to stop feeding her, as they need to have an empty digestive system for brumation or the food will rot. If she's not digesting, then she's not basking enough, so the sleeping is already affecting her. If she's going to eat, you'll have to make sure, even if she sleeps, that she gets alot of time under her basking lights. Check out the brumation sheet so you'll understand it better, all beardies do their brumation differently. Lonzo & Rubio slept for 3 mo last winter, in a row. Didi & Leo didn't sleep as long, 3 weeks in total, then up a few days, down a few days, like that. Sweetie didn't at all because she was so sick.

So check it out, it's an annoying time in our beardies's lives, for us that is, but they seem to need the sleep instinctively. When Lia is sleeping 100% you don't need to have her lights on at all, not even the UVB. When mine sleep I cover them up, turn their lights on, make sure the temp in the room never goes below 70F (I think that's 20C) but I do give them water weekly by syringe. Let me know if you have any concerns once you've read the info.

Good luck, I really hate brumation time, as I get so lonely without them, but it's a natural part of their routine.
Take care
Deb

 

[Nathan1995]

Oh god, hahahahaha thank you guys, my knowledge seems to be faltering after my recent absence from the forum. I totally forgot how early brumation effects them. Thanks a lot guys. Well that's a big relief, I've honestly been so worried I thought she may be slipping away from me!

I'll read up on the brumation again as soon as I can, bless her! I'll have to try and find a way to put her under her basking light and cover her head as well so she can bask while remaining nice and dark.. or something like that, maybe a CHE. Or would that make her not want to sleep?

God I can't even count how many times you guys have helped me! Thank you!

 

[Zeusmybeardie]

I would just let her do her thing cause it's what try would do in the wild and it's what they will do here but it's your choice if u wanna wake her up once a week to bath her

 

[sweetiepie9]

You don't need to keep any lights on, as long as the temp is over 65F (don't know what that is in celcius), under that you'd need a CHE, but they need cool to brumate properly. I never put lights on for my crew, just feed them water weekly. They don't need food if they're sleeping steadily either. Just make sure to stop feeding her & give her baths to make her poop. Once she has no more poops, off to bed with her!

 

[fresnowitte]

I would just let her do her thing cause it's what try would do in the wild and it's what they will do here but it's your choice if u wanna wake her up once a week to bath her

The reason we suggest to wake them occasionally during brumation for water is that in the wild they'd be burrowed down in the dirt or leaves where they would actually be absorbing moisture through their vent. Whereas in captivity they are in a nice dry enclosure. And most likely if it's cold we are running a heater or fire which also dries out the air in the house. So some beardies can dehydrate easily. I have some that I let sleep and some that I don't take the chance with.

 

[sweetiepie9]

How's everything Nathan, long time no update!

 

[Nathan1995]

Hey Deb, and everyone else still reading my thread, I'm honestly sorry I haven't updated you much recently (and due to this, I apologise for the large amounts of information I'm about to write!), but there hasn't been much to say as both the baby's are still sleeping! Or so I thought!

So, Lia, yeah she's definitely out for the count, I turn none of her lights on and every few days when I wake up she raises her head, checks everything is still alright in 'human land', then instantly falls asleep for another few days. She still enjoys her bath every 2 weeks, but has no poo's anymore which I'm very happy about! She's not eaten in around a month, and she's looking as fat as an elephant, so Lia's all good!

Cyrus on the other hand, about 2 weeks ago I began to realise, he isn't actually sleeping! He's just completely inactive. He sits on his rock, or propped up against it in the corner, and basically dozes all day, if I'm around, he'll sit and watch me, but if not he does go to sleep; and about 2 nights ago he decided to go on a walk around his house, and I thought he may have been looking for food or something. So I went down to the shed, and got out a cockroach (which I'm still not feeding out of yet), and went back to give him to Cyrus, by this time he had strolled back to bed and went to sleep, but I decided to offer the roach to him anyway, and he really quickly jumped out of bed and snapped him up. This worried me, as I haven't fed Cyrus at all in a good month either, as I thought he was in brumation! But this makes me think he might be just on the edge of being old enough to brumate, he's probably something like 15 months old now, and I was thinking maybe he's slowed down, but not fully shut down so still needs feeding or something, what do you guys think?

That's all the worries down, now down to some cuteness! I haven't got time to upload any photos yet, but I have a few that I'll upload in a few days. 2 days ago Cyrus' heat bulb blew, but due to being in 'brumation' I haven't replaced it yet (and depending on the response from you guys I have a bulb ready downstairs if you guys think I should). So I've kept his lights off just like Lia, and he's slept for 2 days straight. But tonight I had to wake up him for a photo shoot that involved my family and Cyrus for some photography school work. He jumped at first, I suppose because he hasn't been touched in a good few weeks, but he quickly seemed to adjust again and he sat on everyone's shoulder for the photo shoot. Afterwards I went to take him upstairs, and the poor guy didn't want to go back home! It's like he's missed human's so much, I've never seen him fight so much, poor guy carried on jumping on my hands as I tried to leave the vivarium haha, so tonight I think I'll give him a cuddle. So what do you guys recommend I do with Cyrus?

One final thing, the cockroaches! I've now had them for a whole 6 months, feeding them every week with more chow and oranges, and they've definitely had a whole lot of babies, although I'm still unsure whether I'm able to feed out of them yet. I started with 300, and now easily have over 1000...maybe close to 2000, but I'd have no accurate way to check that. Any ideas on how to know when I can start feeding outta the bin?

Thanks guys, I may have not been updating my thread, but I've been keeping an eye on all of your babies! Look forward to hearing from you all

 

[sweetiepie9]

Hey Nathan, welcome to slow down land. For Cyrus I'd let him be up, as much as he wants, he's definitely not brumating or you wouldn't see any movement at all. So get him up, replace his UVB and let him decide when he wants to sleep again. He might be like Didi & Leo, they'll sleep for a few days, then be up for a week or so, then back sleeping. How I handle it is still have their lights on when they wake up (I put the lights on every am, just to see, if they're sleeping, turn them back off) and feed them, I also give them a bath every day to make sure they're not getting dehydrated, they also all poop in their baths, so they're doing that daily, so if they sleep it's ok, as they won't sleep for long. So try that, see how he is & you can definitely feed the roaches to Cyrus, sounds like he's going to love them. Let me know how that goes.

Lonzo & Gabriel are also slowing down, but not sleeping, up every day. Lonzo's not allowed to sleep, he's still got a bum right lung, just won't function, so he's up. Gabriel hasn't figured out what brumation is yet. Rubio, on the other hand, is like Lia only never waking up. I just drip water on his nose where he is, just lift up his blankie, put some papertowel under his nose & let him drink, then cover him right up again. Last year he slept for 3 mo, I got him up every 2 weeks for a bath, but he hated being woken up, this way (a friend told me about this) he drinks & goes right back to sleep & he's alot happier about it. He'll probably sleep for 3-4 mo like last winter.

So glad to hear from you!
Deb

 

[Nathan1995]

Hey guys! New update, however, not primarily about Cyrus and Lia!

Firstly, Cyrus and Lia are both becoming more active, they don't want to stay in their vivs once taken out for cuddles and don't sleep during the day anymore so both of their lights are on.

The big update however, is a new addition to the addiction!

After seeing Deb's update about her adorable little crestie, I went and did some research and shopping of my own, and today came home with my very own little crestie. This little fella' and his terrarium for only £60, I couldn't resist, besides, he's so cute!

However, I do have a few queries already. This query being shedding, I read that you rarely see cresties shed as they do it at night and then eat it. However, I pick this little guy up today and he's got a massive shed line where half of his body is yet to shed, is this normal? The guy said he's kept it at 50% humidity all the time, and I've got him home now and it's 8pm so have bumped this up to 90%. I'm just worried that he can't get the shed off from being too dehyrdated or something, will this come off after being in his nice renewed terrarium?

This is his back, you can clearly see the shed ready to come off:

And also, the end of his tail is slightly different to his body and was getting worried this may be a small kind of tail rot from past shedding problems? Or am I just being an over protective new daddy?

Apart from them problems, he's adorable! And so tiny, again, I'm unsure whether he's meant to be this small. He's meant to be 8 months old, and he weighs 2 grams is about 3 inches long.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Hi Nathan,

Here's one care sheet for cresties. I know they need to be on a Repashy diet, so you'll have to see if you can order some from this site or just look up Repashy to see where you can order it in the UK. It's a complete diet.

So here's the link:
http://www.crestedgeckocanada.com/care.htm

There's also a book this site mentions that is complete for crested geckos. Your little guy is very small, but I have no idea how big they should be a 8 mo old. You need to find a crested gecko forum like this one, where you can ask your questions. I was lucky, my Bunny is very healthy, just a big overweight. I'm having to switch her to the Repashy diet & it's not easy, because she's lived on crickets all her life. They do sleep all day & are active at night. They don't need heat of any sort as they're originally from New Zealand and should be living in about 73F in their tanks. I leave my living room at 73F all the time, so she doesn't have any night lights or any other type of light, no "under tank heater" either. They're a cool type of gecko, as opposed to Rocco, my golden gecko, who's from the Vietnamese rain forests, he needs 80F heat and more humidity.

So hope that helps. I also read a care sheet where you make a humid hide for your little guy by putting very damp coco fibre (that's the best substrate for them) as it hold humidity and doesn't mold. You can use peat moss, too, if it's more readily available. So you put your baby in the humid hide (use any type of pastic container & put a hold in the lid), leave him in there for 30 min, try to help remove the shed, if it doesn't come off, then put him in there for another 30 minutes & try again. Keep doing this until the shed comes off. They usually eat their shed as it comes off & normally comes off in one shot, but this obviously didn't work for him, so try that.

Hope all this helps, he sure is a cutie & isn't his skin soft, like velvet.
Take care
Deb