21 Beardies Hatched; 1 With a Problem!

Well, we had a successful hatch, 21/26 Eggs.

Hooray! German-Giant Babies out of my best male and female, Van Halen and Blondie.

We thought all was normal with 21 bouncing baby beardies. Everyone was eatting good, and the oldest is one week old, the youngest 3 days.

Well, the youngest one is a runt. Probably 2 1/2, to 3 inches long. His brothers and sisters are all about 4 1/2 already. So, he's tiny!

I only did quick glance-overs, picked everyone up to get them used to it, and fed them.

Lo and behold, my cousin picks up the little guy, examines him, and calls me in the room.

He only had one eye! Not like it got torn out by a sibling, but birthed, with no left eye.

He's been lovingly named 'Pirate' for now.

I need to know, how to take care of a one-eyed baby. I really want him to make it. I know Zack and Weezy made it, and I hope little Pirate, with his one eye, can make it, too.

give the little pirate his own bin, and just do everything else like its suposed to be.

Hello
He should do just fine with only the one eye so dont worry too much although the only thing I do recommend is that you house him seperate from the others since he is so small and may have difficulty hunting food as well as the others or even see them coming at him if they get agitated.We actually have a moderator here named Diane who had a lovely beardie who was born with the same ailment and he lived a wonderful life,his eyeloss never disrupted any of his beardie activities.I will PM her and see if she has any tips for you as well.

Vicky

Love the name btw!

i demand pictures lol. they said it all so im really no help

Pirate has his own small tank now, with finely chopped greens. He'll be getting some small crickets after dinner.

My mom, who breeds the dragons with me, thinks he won't make it since he's so small. I, on the other hand, am confident my little Pirate will be just as big as his daddy, Okay, maybe his momma. (Dad is 24in, Mom is 19). I'm hoping Pirate's a boy, atleast. Watch him be a girl.

Is this a genetic thing, or an incubation Hiccup?

We had a wild time incubating, first, we weren't expecting eggs, so we got a styrofoam hovabator thing, that the temperatures kept fluctuating. We lost two eggs.

Then, we bought some nice incubators that were digital and stabalized themselves. We swapped the eggs out of fear we'd lose all of them. Mom rolled three, and we lost them later, too.

We were happy to have atleast one hatch, let alone 21!

I've been trying to google One-Eyed beardies, but evidently there aren't many like Pirate, so any help will be appreciated. I'll be happy once he's a couple of months old and the fear of losing him is gone.

You should name him Black Beard!

does he seem ok? basking, eating, pooping, general baby beardie stuff? i hope he pulls through hopfully its just an development hiccup and he will grow big and happy

With a little extra TLC I wouldnt count him out trust me when I say there are much worse things.As for why it happened it is hard to know.If inbreeding was involved it could be a genetic deformity but judging by what you said you had a difficult incubation period which is more likely the cause.

Hi, Vicky sent me the link to this thread so that perhaps I could help you with your "very special" little one. It's true, we had one with an eye that seemed to never develop. He could actually move the area just a little bit but it was obvious that there was no way he had any sight in it at all. When we got him from a petstore, he was only about 5" long. We're thinking that his egg was somehow damaged, possibly stepped on or turned. He also had a lump on the base of his tail that was like a bone protrusion but not through the skin. Does your beardy's eye look anything like this?


If you want to read about how I handled things, here's the link. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52855&start=0&hilit=widge

The best advise I can give is to make sure he is in his own tank. Because he only has the one eye, he will probably be more jumpy like Widge was. I always made sure I talked to him before entering the room so as not to scare him. I set up his basking platform so that his good eye was to the front of his tank so he was able to see us better. I started feeding him pin sized crickets but they were too fast & hard for him to see and catch. So, I used small crickets instead and would always start out by hand feeding him so that he didn't get frustrated trying to catch them by himself. After he ate about 1/2 dozen, then I would add another 6 to his tank and push them toward his "good side." You can also slow the crickets down by putting them in a ziploc bag and placing them in the frig for a few minutes to make them easier for him to catch. He did very well eating his greens, climbed all over his tank and jumped up & down his hammock. He also liked laying in plastic vines attached with suction cups to the glass. I also wanted to mention that his small size doesn't matter, he will gain and grow and may even bypass the others from his clutch. Widge grew to 23 inches and he also had some German giant in him, quite a coincidence isn't it? I also rescued another baby that was only about 3 1/2" when we got him and he is now about 20" long.

Let me know if you have any other questions and I will help in any way I can.

Update:

Pirate's doing good! My mom was worried he wouldn't move and whatnot, but, he's proven her wrong!

Pirate scampers very well, in a straight line no less. (You'd think he'd run diagonally or something.)

She put a couple of phoenix worms in his tank this morning, and they appear to be gone. I pick him up and after he realizes its me, he lets me catch him, and he sits still in my hand, but perky.

He likes to tilt his head to look up at me, but since he has one eye, his head's almost completely sideways most of the time!

He's still his dark grey hatchling color, while most of the others are showing the orange of their daddy, or yellowish of their momma. I'm contributing that to the fact he's only about 4 days old.

Everyone who's heard about him is pulling for the little guy so far, except for one nay-sayer, who said I should put him to sleep, but I refuse to do such a thing to a baby dragon just because he's a little different.

Really the only difference in caring for a one eyed beardie vs. a beardie with 2 eyes is just that. You have to be aware that he only see's things from the one side....so not to startle him when approaching. Other than that you go little baby.

Pirate is the best name ever! Please keep me updated, I would love to see pics of the whole fam!

Pirate's fast becoming a spoiled little brat , hehe.

He runs around his tank a full lap before he lets me scoop him up, then when it's time to go back, he clings to my finger and refuses to let go unless I put him on his log.

BeardieNewbie15: I'll manage to take pics of everyone someday! We have lots of beardies. There's Van Halen, Blondie, Bon Jovi, Madonna, Dolly, Ozzy, David Bowie,and squishy. Then we have the "Special Needs" Beardies: Ilean(Only has one full leg.), Tripod(Three legs), and Pirate (One Eye). Then there's the multitude of babies. I'm keeping the first one that Hatched out of Pirate's siblings, since its so orange at a week and a half.

My male Beardie has two eyes but is blind in his left eye. He's fine, doesn't fare well with crickets so he gets mealworms and chopped veggies. He can get the crickets, just takes a while so I make it easy for him.

Hi,
I also hatched out a beardie a few months back with only one eye. He was able to hunt on his own and I placed him in his own enclosure and he seemed to do fine even caught up in size to his siblings. A friend of mine who is also a school teacher took him to her class as a class pet and I get updates every now and then. he seems to be no worse for the wear....I hope yours does well too.