Goodtruant
Sub-Adult Member
Hello everyone....first time dragon owner here. I've had many lizards before, started with Anoles when I was a kid, which eventually turned in to leopard geckos, african fat tails, tokay, green iguana. It's been a few years since I've had a reptile, so my wife and I did alot of research and decided on a dragon. He's 9.5 inches long, any rough guess for an age? His name is Draper.
He has a spacious tank (although, I'd like to look in to a custom 'furniture' like enclosure. Luckily enough I work for a custom wood shop), we had one of those 'bad' lights on him for 2 days (zilla), since we purchased a reptisun 10.0 tube, and got temps at 104 basking, 78 in the shady area, and it gets to about 68-71 at night in the house. We had to wait a day before the new reptisun light got here, so I took him (I think it's a him) outside in a tub to soak in the sun, and he loved it. I was surprised when he ate some crickets and worms within the first couple hours that we put him in his new enclosure.
We had him at about coffee table height, but whenever the cats would come by he'd tense up, or get in to his cave. So we moved him up about another 3-4 feet, so he's about at our eye level now. He can see the cats walk by still, but they can't see him (curious cats they are). Now I wonder if he really doesn't like cats. He seems to be getting more skittish, so I put up a small barrier so he can't really see down to the ground. We're going on 8 days now, and his appetite seems to be diminishing. Today he hasn't touched his food, and he did not want his daily soak, but I did notice that he is shedding, he left some skin in the water when he bolted. He never runs when we mist him...and he loves drinking from my wife's hand, he licks up the droplets.
I'm hoping that it's just my parental instinct to try to help little Draper....and it's unfounded.
He also seems to like to sleep in in the mornings. I turn on his light when I get up, and my wife doesn't leave for work until a few hours later. He rarely gets out of his cave while she's here. She puts out food for him every day, fresh veggies and some protein critters. When I get home he is usually basking, and the protein is gone, but he rarely eats very much veg. We did coax him to eat some blended apples, and a small amount of collard greens though.
Anyway, I'm sure he'll be fine, but he's got me worried.....but it's only been 7 days!
Just wanted to check if you veteran dragon owners have any advice, or see any warning signs.
He gets very relaxed on his rock, like to let his feet 'drape'.
...and he's a very handsome guy, like is namesake from the TV show MadMen.
He has a spacious tank (although, I'd like to look in to a custom 'furniture' like enclosure. Luckily enough I work for a custom wood shop), we had one of those 'bad' lights on him for 2 days (zilla), since we purchased a reptisun 10.0 tube, and got temps at 104 basking, 78 in the shady area, and it gets to about 68-71 at night in the house. We had to wait a day before the new reptisun light got here, so I took him (I think it's a him) outside in a tub to soak in the sun, and he loved it. I was surprised when he ate some crickets and worms within the first couple hours that we put him in his new enclosure.
We had him at about coffee table height, but whenever the cats would come by he'd tense up, or get in to his cave. So we moved him up about another 3-4 feet, so he's about at our eye level now. He can see the cats walk by still, but they can't see him (curious cats they are). Now I wonder if he really doesn't like cats. He seems to be getting more skittish, so I put up a small barrier so he can't really see down to the ground. We're going on 8 days now, and his appetite seems to be diminishing. Today he hasn't touched his food, and he did not want his daily soak, but I did notice that he is shedding, he left some skin in the water when he bolted. He never runs when we mist him...and he loves drinking from my wife's hand, he licks up the droplets.
I'm hoping that it's just my parental instinct to try to help little Draper....and it's unfounded.
He also seems to like to sleep in in the mornings. I turn on his light when I get up, and my wife doesn't leave for work until a few hours later. He rarely gets out of his cave while she's here. She puts out food for him every day, fresh veggies and some protein critters. When I get home he is usually basking, and the protein is gone, but he rarely eats very much veg. We did coax him to eat some blended apples, and a small amount of collard greens though.
Anyway, I'm sure he'll be fine, but he's got me worried.....but it's only been 7 days!
Just wanted to check if you veteran dragon owners have any advice, or see any warning signs.
He gets very relaxed on his rock, like to let his feet 'drape'.
...and he's a very handsome guy, like is namesake from the TV show MadMen.