Our new spikey scale babies Cleo & Caesar

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kingofnobbys

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The B-in-L collected them for us this afternoon . The breeder told she thought we'd be pleased with them.
We love them !!!

The girl is about 10g (pink dot on back) , the boy is about 15g. I think they are 2 months old.


Boy = Caesar, on the hide, girl = Cleo (Cleopatra) who has a pink dot on her back, on the bit of bark (above him)
29mar2019-boy-10g-on-arrival.png

Cleo
P3290023.jpg

Caesar
29mar2019-girl-15g-on-arrival.png


They are settling in nicely, had a feed of 25day old (1/4 size) crickets + the boy has discovered the BSFL (I have these in a worm escape proof ceramic bowl (got off Ebay).
They immediately polished off 20 crickets in a feeding frensy when I placed them in their new home and the boy came back for seconds eating 6 - 8 BSFL.

Not seen them nibbling on the grated carrot and chopped buk choi greens yet.

Good thing I have the lid on the 120L rearing tub as Caesar is very much into exploring and I just saw him climb the cables from the 7W heatpad (sandwiched between tile) & the thermostat) all the way to the lid and he slid back down.




We've been watching the pair watching us , some arm waving already. Keeping the handling to a minimum for now , only when necessary.
 

CooperDragon

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Good looking little dragons! I'm glad they've found their way to a good home with you. I look forward to hearing about their adventures =)
 

kingofnobbys

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Cleo really seems to have been handled heaps by the breeder, all I need to do is place my hand infront of her and crawls on and proceeds to crawl up my arm.

Neither her nor Caesar have been bedding down in the hide, they simply go off to sleep while basking.

She doesn't take a lot of coaxing to handfeed. I'm only handfeeding some of her crickets to make sure she and Caesar get the same amount of food each day.
Caesar is very independent and so far I've not tried handfeeding him.

Here is Cleo having some quality dad time
P3310040.jpg


Tried placing Cleo and Caesar in their hide (on the heatslab) tonight, no success, not used to sleeping in a hide I guess. Just checked, Cleo is up as high on her basking stick as she can get and Caesar has curled up and gone back to sleep in the back corner of the rearing tub.
 

kmwilson042182

Hatchling Member
Gratz on the new little ones! Great looking little dragons there. Lucky little ones too to have found such a great home!

Kyle
 

kingofnobbys

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Caesar has sussed that I give the crickets to them, he knows the sound of the bug blaster vacuum now and watches me deposit the crickets one or two at a time where he can get them. He's no longer backing off when my hand comes near him , so I'm stealing a little bit of petting each time I feed him, but not forcing the issue wrt being picked up. Plenty of time to let him get comfortable with me.
He watched me and Cleo very intently when she's with me (and I'm hand feeding her) , some when the skinks come out for snuggles or the BTs get to have floor time.

Cleo prefers the BSFL to the crickets and happily takes them either from my fingers or from the dish. She is uber cuddly , loves being on my bare chest under a cupped hand or using my open hand as a bed, and literally climb up my arm to get her human time.

Both like being spray misted with water , doing this once a day , they have a very shallow water dish with only about 4mm deep water in it too but I'm yet to see them visit it.

Only ordering in 2/3 size crickets for the two adult bluetongues and the adult water skink now , not going to be ordering in lots of 1000 for a while until Clea and Caesar are a lot bigger.
Forgot how how small hatchlings feeder insects are …. Caesar and Cleo are eating maybe 12 to 16 insects per day total ATM (this is 1/4 size crickets and BSFL) , starting see little fat bellies on both of them.
 

Gormagon

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They are adorable. I am glad for you my friend, they needed you as much as you needed them!
 

kingofnobbys

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Caesar has discovered the warmed (34-36 degC) heatslab and LOVES it.

Checked the temperature at Cleo's fav spot to bask , Is 33-35 degC there , so I wont be adjusting that , since she's spending a lot of her day there and it's the ideal distance from the 26W UVB200.

Cleo must be coming In for a shed soon as she was having a ball in the water / wading dish just after her 2nd lot of 5 BSFL today. I think she's going to be a dragon who loves a bath occasionally.
 

vrenee1018

Juvie Member
They are cute little things! Glad they've found a new home and you new babies. They're acclimating so well!!! Keep up the fantastic word. Look forward to hearing of their new adventures!
 

kingofnobbys

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Woke to find the salad nearly all gone and only few bits of left scattered about (outside the dish) and only 4 BSFL left in the dish ==> 10 bsfl were eaten.

Cleo chased down and ate 4 small crickets then had 8 bsfl (hand fed to her) for her 1st meal today , I go to put her back and she makes it clear she's rather stay on me , turns around and climbs up my arm. I think she likes me.

Caesar definitely likes the heated tiles under the hide. He's a real pig …. cleans up 8 small crickets in no time ( I toss them to him one at a time and he watches me for each one , even caught one in mid air today , he LOVES his food , definitely prefers crickets to BSFL , he'll eat the BSFL if he's hungry but if he's had some cricket's he's apt to spit the BSFL out when he tastes them.

Whereas Cleo loves her BSFL.

So works out good us , I'm sure Cleo who is a bit smaller than Caesar is getting the food she needs since they prefer different insects to each other.

AND to add to the chaos - have discovered we have a wild water inside the house too, I've been hearing rustling behind the corner unit of the lounge for the a couple of days, I spotted the skink this afternoon (peaking from under the lounge). Not sure if it's Cheakie or Gutzy , could be new one.
 

kingofnobbys

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Cleo is now 11.7g (grown by 1.7g (17% increase) this week) , 18 BSLF (hand fed) today .
Caesar is now 20.3g (grown by 5.3g (35% increase) this week) , 12 small crickets today , yes Caesar is a greedy little hatchling when it comes to crickets.

Comparing prior hatchlings :

Puff in his first 2 weeks , he grew by 38% (ie 19% per week in first 2 weeks).
Rex in her first 2 weeks , she grew by 57% (ie about 30% per in first 2 weeks).
Puff and Rex were sharing a rearing tank.

Peppa in her first week grew by 19.4%.
Toothless in his first week grew by 3.6%.
Peppa and Toothless were sharing a rearing tank for their first month or so.

Looks to me like Cleo and Caesar have done fine in their first week.

Evidence they've been into the BSFL & salad overnight and early this morning.

Will be separating the pair soon as I have a 3rd 120L tub modified and I've created some space for it.
 

Claudiusx

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Thats a good increase! It sure is nice when they start eating right off the bat. I'm gonna have to weight Moro and see how she compares. Then we can keep track together see whose dragon is the pudgiest :laughhard:

-Brandon
 

kingofnobbys

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claudiusx":4w60s020 said:
Thats a good increase! It sure is nice when they start eating right off the bat. I'm gonna have to weight Moro and see how she compares. Then we can keep track together see whose dragon is the pudgiest :laughhard:

-Brandon

They both pigged out on the crickets as soon we got them.

Caesar is a glutton , no cricket escapes him until he's polished off about 6 - 8 small crickets (I am depositing them in the shared tub two crickets at a time by hand (one near Caesar , the other for Cleo , she studies them but mostly ignores them , while he slams them).

Cleo already knows that I wont let her go hungry , and will gather her up and deposit her on my bear chest to give her a big feed of BSFL guts (yes I snip off the head of the worms and squeeze out the meat (that's where all the goodness is) and deposit the meat from 4 worm on her snout at a time for her to lick off , I do the same more or less with the crickets for her.
I don't mind doing this for her 3 times a day because I at least will know she's getting the nutrition she needs and will thrive.

I am in the routine now of giving Cleo a feeding schedule that's evolved this way
@ 5am to 6am if I wake up for a toilet visit = 6 to 8 BSFL by hand
@ 1pm = a couple small crickets + 8 to 10 BSFL mostly by hand (I first give her a chance to catch her own crickets , the her own BSFL (by depositing them were she can easily see and get them , most day she'll show an interest and eat some of her own accord)
@ 2pm the salad is prepared and some wriggly white BSFL are mixed with it
@ 6pm = a couple of small crickets + 8 to 10 BSFL mostly by hand (I first give her a chance to catch her own crickets , the her own BSFL (by depositing them were she can easily see and get them)
She spends nearly all day basking as close to then UV as she can get.


Caesar is fed
@ 5am to 6am (small feed of crickets maybe 4x small)
@ 1pm = big feed of crickets (maybe 6 to 8x small)
@ 6pm = big feed of crickets (maybe 6 to 8x small)
He has taken to spending about 1/2 the morning and then 1/2 the afternoon under the hide on the heatslab , then climbs up to bask (often right next to Cleo , or ontop her , or under her (she is assertive and lets him know this is her special spot).

Lights :
lights are on 6:30am
lights are off 9pm
 

kingofnobbys

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Cleo's new favorate spot :
P4070061.jpg

5 minutes later
P4070064.jpg


Caesar loves his crickets, will take BSFL but is not overly keen on them. He's been seen taking an occasional nibble at the salad.

Cleo prefers her slow moving BSFL , all I need do is deposit them on the top of the fake log hide where she can see and reach them and she takes them (white or brown lavae) she chews them up and disappears them in short order.
If she takes any crickets they are either handed to her or kamakazi crickets who blundered too close. She still likes some handfeeding but I'm more confident she's getting enough now as I tend to feed Caesar separately to her.

Brake throughs with Caesar today:
- he took some crickets from my fingers this afternoon,
- let me pet him several times ,
- and even let me pick him up in my open upturned hand a couple of times.

Both are now sporting nice paunches .

I think we have two confused central bearded dragon hatchlings, they both love getting into the water dish and playing the "nutty lizard" game in there and obviously have fun , think they either think they are water dragons or water skinks.
This is the kind of behavior I'm used to with the eastern water skinks, but I've not seen much of it with bearded dragons.

The breeder was also keeping and breeding eastern water dragons (they love water and swimming and messing (playing) and hunting about in and under the water like eastern water skinks do (think micro-sized crocodiles !!! and you can visualize it) , and they've seen Fluffy in her water dish a few time.

I've even seen each of them have occasional sips from the water dish.

9pm , their lights have just timed off and Cleo has been sound asleep for 30mins, but Caesar is ontop the grotto wide awake and watching the *****-box , he's become a TV junky.
 

kingofnobbys

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Woke to find Cleo in the midst if a skin explosion (her first shed with us) , much happier now she's got rid of most of that old itchy skin.
She's been very active this afternoon, lots of face and nose and chin rubbing on everything and everyone in site.

Think Caesar will be shedding soon, his colours are duller today.

Here they are today :
P4080030.jpg

Cleo's dirty nose is from the BSFL meat that I deposit in her lips and nose to lick off.

Acquired a new bit of drift wood for them , they now have 4 high basking spots to choose from. But still both like the old bit of tree bark that Cleo has claimed as her most desireable place to be when in the tub.

Caesar has been doing a bit of armwaving this afternoon ( I believe he's armwaving at Cleo , but might be armwaving at his own reflection ). I missed this when Toothless died, is very endearing.
Cleo may be about 1/2 the mass of Caesar (12g vs 20g) , but she has no problem pushing him around and pushing him off the prime basking spot (always assumes the highest spot ==> she's telling him "I'm the boss").

Run out of 1/4 sized crickets today, fortunately I still have some BSFL to tie me over and I have some small silkworms that are getting close to useful size as feeders and I've more 1/4 size crickets on order (from Frog Arcade (Vic) & from Livefoods (QLD)).
 
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Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

Things to do:
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Material to raise surface for basking spot
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