dragonlover3
Sub-Adult Member
Hi All,
I'm relatively new to this site. I have a story I want to share. I hope no one minds. I think this is the right place but please forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong section! I didn't know who else to tell it to who would understand besides my son and husband. My adult son, daughter-in-law and grands have 3 bearded dragons. They take excellent care of them! The large one Pandora, lives in a huge beautiful enclosure my son built and they just got 2 babies about 2.5 inches in a 30 gal. They have all the right stuff, UVB lights, basking areas, veggies and lots of insects, soaks and lots of attention and love. They also raise their own crickets and have a dubia roach colony. I fell in love with Bearded Dragons and as 50 something retirees with lots of time on our hands, I told my husband I would like to get one. We started reading everything we could to educate ourselves since we new they were exotic and had special requirements. I joined this site and we have spent weeks reading and learning all we could on line. I also picked my sons brain since he is a fanatic about his beardies and is very experienced and informed about them. Then feeling somewhat confident that we would be good beardie care takers and having high hopes of finding the "perfect" beardie, I started looking on craigslist figuring if someone was looking to re-home a beardie it would be like getting a pet from a shelter, one that no-one really wants anymore. I found an ad for 2 beardies, a male and female, and all their stuff, tanks, lights and all for $150. I thought "Wow, that sounds like a good deal". Well, we got there to see the dragons. After seeing them for 10 seconds I said "SOLD" and bought them and brought them home. Tank, lights and all their stuff amounted to one 45 gal tank, one 55 gal tank, {one for each} 2 filthy water dishes, 2 light fixtures with regular house light bulbs in them, and tank tops. The dragons were living in separate newspaper lined bare tanks, in the unfinished damp basement and from the looks of the beardies I believe that the paper had just been changed for my appointment to see them as the beardies themselves were dirty and had dried poop on them as well as old dark shed still attached in places and they were very skinny.
One of the beardies had some black toes hanging off a hind leg. When asked, he didn't know what happened to the foot, "it was just like that one day" 
This "owner" said he fed them kale and carrots "every couple of days" and he "even bought them crickets once in a while for a treat" 
OMG, I couldn't pay him fast enough or get them out of their fast enough. We stopped to the store on the way home, hubby waited in the car with our new little ones while I got dragon food and supplies, collards greens, mustard greens, squash, blueberries, pedialyte and some baby food veggies and and a baby food apricots and 2 baby toothbrushes. We got home and gave them a nice bath in warm water and got off the poop and some of the old darkened shed by VERY GENTLY brushing them with a soft baby's toothbrush. then after changing the water to clean warm water with some pedialyte added soaked them for about 15 minutes to try to hydrate them. Then I put antibiotic ointment on the foot with the dried black toes and we cuddled them both for a while. I knew they were hungry but they only ate a tiny bit of the greens with some squash I had cut up to very small pieces for them. I called my son and told him I had rescued a couple of beardies and could I get some crickets and a UVB bulb til I could get a couple of UVB bulbs and fixtures tomorrow. He brought me crickets and some roach nymphs {which the new little beauties just loved and went right after, } 2 of his extra UVB bulbs and thermometers. I love my son...lol He helped us set up the tanks with the lights and an elevated basking area as a temporary home for a couple of days. We got the basking temp to 100 and the cooler end to 80. I used paper towels as lining. The next day my husband and I took our 2 new family additions on an emergency appointment to the exotic pets/reptile vets for check-ups and to see what could be done with the blacken toes. Our Talan weighs 120g and is 13 inches long, our Moya weighs 144g and is 14 inches long...so very skinny looking! We have no idea how old they are, the "owner" was vague about it, and couldn't remember when he had got them! Both are female, which is just fine with us, we don't care one isn't a male. We love them already! The necrotic toes on Talan's back right foot, by a miracle, weren't infected and will fall off themselves. I told the vet the condition I had found them in and what we had done so far. The vet said I did good with the cleaning bath, the pedialyte soak, the live food and the antibiotic ointment to the foot and to continue the ointment on it til the toes fall off. I took a fecal on both of them with me. They are positive for hooks worms, giardia and a parasite. The vet told me she was glad I had rescued them, and wanted them in my care for at least a few days so I could feed them well and get them hydrated with soaks before I start them on the 3 meds she had prescribed for them. She thought I was an experienced beardie keeper. I told her these were our first beardies but that we read and tried to learn a lot about them, and that the stuff I had done to them I had read about on different dragon forums. I went and got some more baby food to have on hand in case they need some hand feeding during this medication therapy. One med is an antibiotic and may cause diarrhea. I have to go get some soy yogurt tomorrow to have on hand. I already have 2 bottles of pedialyte in case they need it for soaking. We start our beauties on their 3 meds tomorrow. They are both going to start taking Metronidazole, Albon and Panacur . I've decided to continue to house them separately, using these tanks with paper towel lining for easy cleaning thru this medication treatment but have added some hides and basking climbs. We figure we will get them the deluxe condos after their med treatments and illnesses are over. So these tank are their hospital tanks. I don't have pics yet but will get some up soon. I can't wait til they feel better and gain some weight. Any help, hints, comments or advice is not only welcome, it's wanted. They are starting to trust us when we hold them now. They totally relax and even dose off, though that could be because they are so sick, too. I'm worried about them like they were my own kids.....OMG they are!
I'm relatively new to this site. I have a story I want to share. I hope no one minds. I think this is the right place but please forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong section! I didn't know who else to tell it to who would understand besides my son and husband. My adult son, daughter-in-law and grands have 3 bearded dragons. They take excellent care of them! The large one Pandora, lives in a huge beautiful enclosure my son built and they just got 2 babies about 2.5 inches in a 30 gal. They have all the right stuff, UVB lights, basking areas, veggies and lots of insects, soaks and lots of attention and love. They also raise their own crickets and have a dubia roach colony. I fell in love with Bearded Dragons and as 50 something retirees with lots of time on our hands, I told my husband I would like to get one. We started reading everything we could to educate ourselves since we new they were exotic and had special requirements. I joined this site and we have spent weeks reading and learning all we could on line. I also picked my sons brain since he is a fanatic about his beardies and is very experienced and informed about them. Then feeling somewhat confident that we would be good beardie care takers and having high hopes of finding the "perfect" beardie, I started looking on craigslist figuring if someone was looking to re-home a beardie it would be like getting a pet from a shelter, one that no-one really wants anymore. I found an ad for 2 beardies, a male and female, and all their stuff, tanks, lights and all for $150. I thought "Wow, that sounds like a good deal". Well, we got there to see the dragons. After seeing them for 10 seconds I said "SOLD" and bought them and brought them home. Tank, lights and all their stuff amounted to one 45 gal tank, one 55 gal tank, {one for each} 2 filthy water dishes, 2 light fixtures with regular house light bulbs in them, and tank tops. The dragons were living in separate newspaper lined bare tanks, in the unfinished damp basement and from the looks of the beardies I believe that the paper had just been changed for my appointment to see them as the beardies themselves were dirty and had dried poop on them as well as old dark shed still attached in places and they were very skinny.
One of the beardies had some black toes hanging off a hind leg. When asked, he didn't know what happened to the foot, "it was just like that one day" This "owner" said he fed them kale and carrots "every couple of days" and he "even bought them crickets once in a while for a treat" OMG, I couldn't pay him fast enough or get them out of their fast enough. We stopped to the store on the way home, hubby waited in the car with our new little ones while I got dragon food and supplies, collards greens, mustard greens, squash, blueberries, pedialyte and some baby food veggies and and a baby food apricots and 2 baby toothbrushes. We got home and gave them a nice bath in warm water and got off the poop and some of the old darkened shed by VERY GENTLY brushing them with a soft baby's toothbrush. then after changing the water to clean warm water with some pedialyte added soaked them for about 15 minutes to try to hydrate them. Then I put antibiotic ointment on the foot with the dried black toes and we cuddled them both for a while. I knew they were hungry but they only ate a tiny bit of the greens with some squash I had cut up to very small pieces for them. I called my son and told him I had rescued a couple of beardies and could I get some crickets and a UVB bulb til I could get a couple of UVB bulbs and fixtures tomorrow. He brought me crickets and some roach nymphs {which the new little beauties just loved and went right after, } 2 of his extra UVB bulbs and thermometers. I love my son...lol He helped us set up the tanks with the lights and an elevated basking area as a temporary home for a couple of days. We got the basking temp to 100 and the cooler end to 80. I used paper towels as lining. The next day my husband and I took our 2 new family additions on an emergency appointment to the exotic pets/reptile vets for check-ups and to see what could be done with the blacken toes. Our Talan weighs 120g and is 13 inches long, our Moya weighs 144g and is 14 inches long...so very skinny looking! We have no idea how old they are, the "owner" was vague about it, and couldn't remember when he had got them! Both are female, which is just fine with us, we don't care one isn't a male. We love them already! The necrotic toes on Talan's back right foot, by a miracle, weren't infected and will fall off themselves. I told the vet the condition I had found them in and what we had done so far. The vet said I did good with the cleaning bath, the pedialyte soak, the live food and the antibiotic ointment to the foot and to continue the ointment on it til the toes fall off. I took a fecal on both of them with me. They are positive for hooks worms, giardia and a parasite. The vet told me she was glad I had rescued them, and wanted them in my care for at least a few days so I could feed them well and get them hydrated with soaks before I start them on the 3 meds she had prescribed for them. She thought I was an experienced beardie keeper. I told her these were our first beardies but that we read and tried to learn a lot about them, and that the stuff I had done to them I had read about on different dragon forums. I went and got some more baby food to have on hand in case they need some hand feeding during this medication therapy. One med is an antibiotic and may cause diarrhea. I have to go get some soy yogurt tomorrow to have on hand. I already have 2 bottles of pedialyte in case they need it for soaking. We start our beauties on their 3 meds tomorrow. They are both going to start taking Metronidazole, Albon and Panacur . I've decided to continue to house them separately, using these tanks with paper towel lining for easy cleaning thru this medication treatment but have added some hides and basking climbs. We figure we will get them the deluxe condos after their med treatments and illnesses are over. So these tank are their hospital tanks. I don't have pics yet but will get some up soon. I can't wait til they feel better and gain some weight. Any help, hints, comments or advice is not only welcome, it's wanted. They are starting to trust us when we hold them now. They totally relax and even dose off, though that could be because they are so sick, too. I'm worried about them like they were my own kids.....OMG they are!
What an awesome story.. now we want pictures..! 
