Stella Luna

I just bought another Beardie. I already have one big gorgeous male named Murphy, and I have just gotten this sweet, a little more wild, but dainty leather back girl. She is gorgeous and very energetic.

She looks great. Already giving you a stink eye I see =). It looks like she's already getting to go on some outdoor adventures too.

I picked her up and bought her last Saturday and then took her for her first outing on Sunday. She is super fast so she had to wear a leash. I think it was her first time to wear one from what the past owner told me.

Stella Luna is lovely! She will settle down in time. She looks very healthy and bright eyed. Another beauty on the forum....

Thank you! She is so different from my chilled out lazy big guy that we have, all though she has awoken something in him. They have not been together of course. He has seen her in her terrarium from my bed and bobbed for her, and she has bobbed back, and they have both waved at each other. Never for long though. I don't want to stress them out. They both have their own terrariums in separate rooms.

She all though very active,which seems good, seems to be a little more nervous at times. I don't think she was taken outside very much. I asked the last owner, and she told me, that she didn't take her out because she was pretty afraid of the birds. She is small, so she is lower on the food chain than my big beardie. My big beardie is 2 years old and 23 inches long, and Stella is 2 1/2 and about 18 inches long.

She is a veracious eater, I'm not sure she would stop eating bugs if I didn't stop feeding them to her. She was trained to eat from tweezers bugs and salad. I am still giving her the bugs from the tweezers, dubia roaches, but the salad I give her in her bowl, and offer a couple pieces of green before leaving her to her salad. I think she said that she mostly just gave her greens, which I give both of them greens, but I also have chopped up assorted veggies to go with it, like squash, radish, sometimes a bit of fruit. It depends on the week.

Here is Stella's Setup (still tweaking the lighting, and heat):

Salads:

She looks great, perfect proportions for a young adult beardie. Although she is on the smaller side her activity level tells you that she is very healthy .

What a nice set up! Stella will enjoy such a fancy viv. I really like the wood--it is so beautiful, and looks like it provides a good, inviting hide space under it. The salad looks good enough for anyone to eat. What a great dragon owner you are!

I recognize Stella Lunas name from a story book about a baby bat, that I read to young students when I was teaching. I have the book, and also the stuffed toy Stella Luna bat that goes with it. The students loved it. They got to hold ithe bat as a reward for good behavior. In the story, Stella was orphaned and raised by kind birds, which caused some identity issues as she matured. Of course, it had a happy ending.It is beautifully illustrated-an award winner.

I hope your Stella has a wonderful life with her adoptive parents! She is quite a beauty. I adopted my girl, Penny, as a much needed rescue. She is only a few months old now, and enjoying her better home situation. I am still working with her trust issues, but she has progressed and now enjoys holding and petting. When she does revert to her old behavior of baring her little teeth at me, she is not seriously threatening, but only reminding me that she is "very viscious", ha, ha, and then I kiss her little head and she settles down for snuggles and petting.

Here is Miss Penny (I paid only a penny for her, as she was deemed viscious and too aggressive to be tamed...I had her resting happily in my hand before leaving the store!

Penny, the "viscious" beastie, the day we brought her home

a more recent photo of her...ready to snuggle. She is an independent little girl, but sweet as pie.

She is such a cutie, I love those back legs, she looks like she gets around a lot. It amazes me how some of their back legs are skinny, and some have big chunky bag legs, with nothing to do with their size or weight at all. I am so glad she got you to help tame and love her.

I had to get in and work on Stella's terrarium today. By the way she was already named Stella, and I added the Luna. I remember the book, it was one of my daughter's favorite books when she was young. She is 24 now, but I think something similar was done at her school too regarding the book.

Anywho... I had to get in and do a bit of work to Stella's terrarium, the lighting mainly. I already had an extra 34 inch hood and reptisun bulb ready to use for Stella before I got her. When I bought Stella, I also bought from the same lady a nice 36 x 18 x 18 front opening terrarium, and she gave me the nice piece of wood too. She said that Stella has always had it. It was pretty tall. The terrarium came with two hoods that sat on top of the metal top. One hood had a small UVB tube bulb in it and the other had a basking bulb and red bulb in it. I tossed the red bulb and did not use that hood at all for her. It ran too hot. I got out my double dome and put a CHE bulb and a basking bulb in it and set the 34 inch UVB bulb on top of the metal grate along with the UVB hood she had too. I knew not all the UVB was coming through the metal grate so I figured two was better until I cold figure out how to get the 34 inch mounted on the inside of the terrarium, which is what I did today. I had to kind of put it on a diagonal, and change how the big piece of wood sits so she would not be able to reach the UVB by accident. I think it turned out okay. Here are some pictures. She seems to like it.

Waiting on the green reptile carpet to dry.

Overhead view of the lights:

New Setup:

She seems to like the log here, and my son pointed out that in this position, she can go in one side and out the other.

I have a hammock to hang on the right side for her to sleep in at night, but I'm one command hook short. I hope I can get that tonight and then get that hung up. I also want to change the double to two single 150 watt domes. This double is for 100 watt bulbs. I have found with my other dragon that the 150 watt single domes do not get as hot to touch, but still produce good basking temps.