Unexpected Rescue, slightly smelly.

Yesterday someone surrendered a beardie to my store and obviously, I decided to keep her. I didnt have much time to examine her, as I had my DH pick her up since I was closing the store.

Today after I got home, I noticed that she had a bit of a smell to her. I doubt very much she had optimal care. Ive cut her nails and bathed her. Is there anything I can give her to help abate the smell?

Just more baths is all I can suggest. I can tell she didn't get optimal care! But so glad you took her in. There is a soap you can buy that is made for dragons at www.beardeddragons.co, Cheryl is the owner and it comes in almond scent, not sure what other scents. I know a lot of people who use this soap on their dragons and it's 100% safe. That might help as there is nothing else I can think of that is safe for dragons.

Any name yet?

Thanks for the soap info, I will check that out for sure! More water time never hurts!

They were feeding her nightcrawlers! I can't believe it! Poor kid is gobbling up the supers and wax worms I bought.

She also hates when the lights go out. She wants MORE basking time.

I named her River, but havent decided if its after River Tam from Firefly or River Song from Doctor WHo

River is a very good name for her, too. Nightcrawlers? Wow, they must not have been up on what beardies can eat or not. You'll need to get a fecal done on her after she's been with you awhile, she's probably crawling with parasites from the bad care & the bad bugs. Glad she's found a good home and glad she's eating.

Yeah I figure her system is messed up. She already has an appointment lined up Wednesday morning

That's good. Another thing is to give her daily baths for awhile, not just to see if you can get rid of the smell, but for hydration. She needs to soak up water as much as possible, because I can guarantee she's dehydrated big time.
Glad you got a vet appointment, it'll be good for her, get her cleared of parasites if she has them. If she needs meds, get her probiotics, acidophilus is a great one made for lizards, it's liquid so easy to give & you can't give her too much. I get my liquids at www.bug-de-lite.com but you can also get it at www.beardeddragons.co where Cheryl also has the soap I mentioned.

Now to pictures, you need to get some on here asap, we all LOVE beardie pictures!

Thanks for the links. Ill find out what Dr. T says on Wednesday...after the "back so soon?" part, Im sure lol

She is definitely fattening up a little. She is quite the hunter. Fluffy was never much of a chaser - everything had to be handed to her with a lot of begging. River, OTOH, has no shame and chases all over the tank for her feeders :lol:

See if this works...


I tried to get her pattern in.

What a beautiful girl you have, she looks healthy already, but best to see the vet, keep me posted k?

I will!

So far, River eats like a piggy. She understands that the worms come out of the tub and likes to put her face in when we are too slow to get them out. :lol: She has filled out noticeably in the short time we have had her.

She also chomped down a good amount of zucchini.

This one may eat us out of the house lol My last was a finicky eater and I suspect the revenge for my own pickiness as a child.

Here's a great nutrition list that will tell you what's best to feed her www.beautifuldragons.com under Nutrition. I've been reading this list for over 7 years to figure out what's in my area that would temp my very spoiled dragons (I have 6 adult male dragons). So it might help you, too.

I'm so glad she's a good eater, wish mine were!

Oh I know the list, I have it saved in my phone for all the attempts I would try to find something Fluffy would eat. (For the record, Fluffy only wanted hornworms, occasionally superworms, blueberries, yellow squash and the occasional waxworm. Everything else was snubbed. Yeah I spent a lot of money on unwanted fruits, veggies, and feeders. I think she fed moreso on my tears from begging her to eat or try something new.)

Luckily, most of the good stuff fruit and veggie-wise is on our regular shopping lists, so she will get always get some with our dinners ha ha. Ill pick up some crickets tomorrow at work.

I was sad looking at the blueberries the other day, because they were only for Fluffy, as neither I nor my husband like them. But maybe River will like them too.

Sounds like she's game for anything, such a good girl, she knows a good home when she sees one!

River is clear of parasites and is very healthy. Doctor Tomaschke said she had a sweet disposition, took everything he did to her in stride and over all no concerns with her. When we were wrapping up, he looked at River and told her that she had no idea how good she has it now. :wink:

He didnt want to guess an age because we have no idea what kind of care she really had, so her growth could have been stunted. I will monitor her length and weight and see where she is in the next few months. Right now she is about 15 inches and 197 grams. My guess was about 9 months.

He was kind enough to only charge me a re-visit fee. I fully expected to be charged a full office visit for a new animal.

This was also the first morning she did not have stress marks and is noticeably a much lighter beardie. She ate all the crickets I brought home yesterday (50 of them!), so she is going to have to suffer through veggies today :lol:

She has a wonderful appetite, so she'll grow, expecially if she's only 9 mo old. I know it's difficult to figure out without knowing the history, but I brought Gabriel home April/11, he was really skinny, full of parasites and covered in sand. He'd been abandoned at the pet shop where I get my bugs. So he was on meds for 3 mo as he was so dehydrated when I took him straight to the vet. He was also 17 1/2" long and we figured he was probably 16 mo old or so. Well he's now 550g and he grew another inch, so he's 18 1/2" long. He's also a ham and gets into all kinds of trouble. He makes me laugh constantly. And that's only 1 of the 6 rescues I have :lol:

I'm glad she's got a great personality, sounds like she's going to be a lot of fun! I'm so glad she was dropped off to you.

Forgot to include picture from today