Nathaniel, Cierra, Castiel, Freya, Grrl; RIP GABRIEL

Hi Deb! I've been keeping up here every few days but I don't have time to post much. Love your new girl! I like the name Cierra a lot too. And that is great She's such a good eater! Sid is a horrible eater still. Oh well. But hes eating smaller roaches better. So that's what he shall get.

Love all your pix and I will be watching to see what the swollen eye socket could be. Looks painful and I bet you are worried. Fingers crossed it clears up easily and quickly.

Pic of Broly of him going to bed.

Hi Brenda, I've been keeping track of your site, too. Sid might not be eating alot, but he sure is a good weight. I'm glad you like her new name, it comes out alot easier than Ariel ever did.

I did get a vet visit but not until the 28th. That's the Saturday that she's in the office. I can't get in during the week, just getting back full-time and can't get more vacation time. But I just realized that I do have 2 vacation days, the 24 and 25, and can see if I can get a vet appointment for 1p on the 24th, so I'll call tomorrow and get him in then. I have to be on a bus into town at 3p, so that gives me plenty of time to get home & out again. That way, if he needs to be seen again, I can keep the appt on the 28th. And yes, I hope it's fixable, too.

And yes, Kami and Lindz, I've been telling her to knock off the egg laying for the past 2 weeks. So I'm hoping 26 is the limit and she has no more. Now to fatten her up, she looks like some rescues that I see on a different site that I belong to. I'll be working on her this week, next week will be interesting, being back full-time means I leave at 10:30a, so I'll be getting up at 7:30a to make sure I can get everything done I need to do. Also putting a schedule together so I don't forget anything.

So Cierra must have eaten at least 100 crickets this am. :shock: I would just dump them in, go do something else & she'd be sitting in the middle of her empty tank, looking around "where did all the crickets go?" Then she'd look at me "well are there more?". Too funny. Now I know why I get 500 a week! I'd get more but stuffing 500 into a large cricket keeper is bad enough! As it is I have to dump them in the bathtub and then siphen them off into the cricket keeper, that's the only way I can keep them from jumping out. What a pain, but she's worth it. I'm hoping her appetite will get less as she gets bigger so I can give up crickets altogether. Once my roaches get back to full production, I'll introduce her to those, but I sure can't keep up with her at this point, so crickets and small worms it is!

100 crickets?! Wow, she has quite the appetite! Good for her.

I hope you'll be able to get an earlier vet appointment for Leo. Did the vet see the photo of his eye that you had sent to her? What did she say?

I know exactly how you feel about Puff losing 100 grams. Both MoMo and Digi lose that much after each pregnancy, and they end up looking like starved beardies

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Letter to Puff from Auntie Gina:

• Dear Puff,
  
  I know you can't always control what your body wants to do, but would it be remotely possibly for you to brain wash yourself to think that you are all done with making and laying eggs, forever? Just keep repeating this to yourself: "I don't want anymore eggs. I don't want anymore eggs." And after that, you need to start eating again so you can gain all of the weight that you lost, all 100 grams. Or, at least lay all of the eggs at one time, in one day, so you can rest until the next time.
  
  Your mommy is very worried about you, and she doesn't want you to end up being sick because you had lost so much weight.
  
  So, please be a good girl and stop stressing your mommy out.
  
  Love, Auntie Gina

Aww, Gina, I'll read that out to her a few times a day, maybe it will do some good. I'm hoping this is the end of it and will continue feeding her supers until she starts eating on her own again. I'll mix up the Carnivore Care mix and give it to her to, plus Nathaniel, he can use some extra, too.

And Cierra is amazing with the amount of food she takes in, I'm hoping she continues to do that and keeps growing. I would be great if she ended up a regular sized beardie, Nathaniel, too. That's my goal with these two but whatever size they get to is fine with me.

Well, I read her what you wrote, Gina, but she still laid another egg in her bath this am, that's 27 total, so hopefully that's the end of it.

Gabriel was in his bath, as usual & drank some water like he does sometimes. So I get him out of the bath & he starts to choke. He puts his water in his beard, guess it went down the wrong pipe. So I got him upside down, got the water out of his mouth & beard but he stopped breathing. So CPR & he's now breathing, he even ate 20 worms and collard greens, too. I check his breathing every time I go past his tank and he's back to normal. What a relief, I told him he's not allowed to die on me Guess he listened. Thanks goodness

Cierra wasn't as good with her crickets this am, so guess I won't give her as many daily, then she did eat worms. I weighed everyone this am & was surprised to find:

Cierra 256g

Puff 392g She ate 4 worms on her own this am, then I fed her 2 more. So eating 6 supers a day is helping her gain weight, even with all the eggs she's laid. YEAH!

Gabriel down to 477, so fed him 20 worms and collards

Nathaniel up to 305, even though he's not eating alot, I fed him what was left in his dish & will put more worms in there b4 I leave.

And Leo is steady at 547. He's back on just greens until we figure out what's wrong with his eyes. He has an appt on Mar 21, that was the earliest I could get on a Saturday. Dr Wall is really good at getting blood samples and then I'll get the results the following week, Dr Prus leaves messages if she can't contact me directly. So cross your fingers that he's ok, otherwise, it's meds.

So it's been a heck of a morning, I"m off to have lunch then off to work. Feeling much better this week and see my doc tomorrow. So that's good news.

Puff sweetheart, why do you do this to yourself and your mommy? Doesn't it bother you that you have to squeeze out a few eggs every few days? And then having to be force fed? Oh, did mommy ever tell you that just because you are able to make eggs, that doesn't mean that you can make them fertile and have babies? Is that why you won't stop?


Everyone's gaining weight! Hooray!
I'm sure Cierra overfilled her little tummy yesterday and just wasn't as hungry today. It happens.

Oh, Gabriel, what a traumatic experience you had Was this the first time that he choked on the water? I wonder what happened, other than the obvious.

Hi Gina, I'll try to talk to her again, I"m really hoping she's done now, 2 weeks of laying eggs is more than enough, right?

And yes, it's the first time Gabriel has ever done this. He drinks water once in awhile but has always handled it just fine, but I'm not taking any chances, he can have more baths. Now to get the schedule done for next week & I'll be up 1/2 hr earlier than usual, only way I can fit everything and everyone in. And he was fine when I got him, I was really worried about him all day at work. Such a relief that he's back to normal!

Yes, I'm glad they've all gained except Gabriel, didn't realize I wasn't feeding him enough. Hi belly was really full this am, though!

Cierra's belly was huge this am but no poop when I got home. She'll get another bath tomorrow am before she gets any crickets. She's got a nice belly going on, though, she was so skinny when I got her home. She also another Leo, doesn't really like to be out of her tank. I snuggled with her before I left and introduced her to a quiet Gabriel who was on the ramp. I put Cierra beside him, she put her paw on his paw and just looked at him, he looked back at her but no black beard or anything. So guess he was still recovering, was a good time to introduce them. She's starting to like being snuggled, which is good, but she wants back in her tank within minutes. Just like Leo :mrgreen: I'm hoping she'll feel more comfortable out of her tank as she gets used to us all.

Cierra sounds like how Squirt was during the first few months. He was ok being held as long as we were in the bathroom (after a bath), but as soon as we walk out, he starts to squirm and wants to bolt. It took a long time for him to graduate to sitting with me on the couch, still wrapped up in his post-bath burrito; if I unwrapped him, he'd freak out and take off running. Now, he would want out to roam the living room and sit in front of the window, but never for more than an hour. He would run back to his tank and stand there until I put him back in.

That's great that Gabriel was a perfect gentleman with Cierra. I wonder how long that would last

Probably not long, knowing Gabriel. He seems to be over his trauma from yesterday, but he's still very quiet, which is not him. But he did have his black beard back this am, just not the usual running back & forth, trying to jump out of his tank, etc. I'm sure he'll be fine in another day or so. He's never had that happen to him, the CPR, I mean, takes it out of them when that happens. Poor sweetie...

I guess it is going to take some time for her to feel comfortable around the bigger beardies. Will give her all the time she needs. And snuggle her for awhile as often as I can. She didn't feel like crickets this am again, of course after I'd dumped a bunch. So I put Puff in her tank (Cierra was then on the ramp where she watched some TV). Puff had already eaten 8 supers on her own ; she did try to catch the crickets but kept getting a mouthful of newspaper instead :mrgreen: Poor girl, she's never run after crickets so she did a good job of trying. Gabriel just lay there. So did Leo and Nathaniel just bobbed the dragon in the glass :lol: So I ended up catching the darned things and putting them back in their cricket keeper. I guess I'll just try a few tomorrow am, see how she does. Cierra did an enormous poop this am (yeah) but still got her bath. Now she's sitting on the beehive again, she seems to love sitting up on it.

I'm back from the doc and have a wheeze, so the puffers should take care of that. Otherwise, my lungs are clear, yeah! The sinus xray came back normal. So all good. Got my B12 shot, still get those for a few months then don't have to get them anymore as I'm taking them orally daily. Anything to get my energy back. Still working on that but will be full time on Monday.

Can't believe I'm going to say this, but I hope Gabriel will be back to his crazy hormonal self soon. :laughing6:

Congrats on a clear lung and sinus!

Thanks Gina. Gabriel had his black beard on this am & was running around before I left for work So I'm glad he's back to normal. As for being a gentleman with Cierra, I won't try it again. Before he had his episode, when Cierra was on the ramp, he was his usual crazy self, enough so that she ran over to me to be picked up :lol: He is a stud, after all :mrgreen:

I turns out I have a wheeze, so a bit of asthma, so just have to use my puffers day & night for awhile.

So I'll try the crickets again tomorrow. I called on Tuesday and ordered another 500 :shock: so the bunch I have need to be eaten...Cierra, did you hear Mom? Hope you are ready for a big load of crickets tomorrow :mrgreen:

Gabriel is still a bit quiet, so I"m hoping he gets his energy back soon. He's getting a daily bath because his urates have been hard. Same for Cierra and Nathaniel. Hope it works, always has in the past.

Cierra vacuumed up over 100 crickets this am:
That is a total cricket belly :lol:

I emptied out 3 of those tubes in the cricket keeper and there were only a few left when she was done. It's great to feed, her empty her tank, go on to other chores. Check in 15-20 minutes and the crickets are usually all gone. So I guess it's crickets every 2-3 days and worms in between. Guess it takes her a couple of days to digest so many crickets, but she sure loves them!

Nathaniel is starting to eat more out of his dish, so has worms and roaches. Still not eating as much as I'd like, but did a great poop this am, so I guess I'll have to be satisfied. On the weekends, when I have more time in the am, I still feed him sometimes. And today I dropped worms on the ramp for him and he ate 10.

Puff only ate 1 worm this am, but did eat alot of her greens. She's already looking better but is still low bobbing the boys.

I had Puff and Leo out at the same time this am. (I was on the chair in the living room to keep track of them). Puff stayed on the ramp, Leo investigated around and behind the chair I was sitting on, then down towards the cricket keeper. Then it was their turn for calcium so I put them both on the counter. I don't think Leo has any male hormones anymore because Puff just sat beside him and no issues at all.

It's funny that neither have any reaction to each other, no low bobs from Puff, no black beard or bob from Leo. They were rescued together but it was 4 years before Puff came to live with me and Leo has never had a reaction to her since she's moved in. Isn't that strange?

Leo is just laid back isnt he? I suppose Puff knows it and doesn't care. I hope someone has a different idea to why Puff and Leo have no reaction to each other. I only get one reptile at a time.

Hope Gabriel is normal after his episode yesterday.

Thanks Kami, Leo is getting on, so is Puff, they're about 7 or 8 years old, never did find out how old they were when they were rescued together (they were in the same tank) back in 2010. But it's nice to have a laid back beardie, after Gabriel and Nathaniel :lol: And yes, Gabriel is starting to feel better. He's a bit quieter than normal, but has his black beard on, so I know he's feeling better. He's walking fine, too, which is a good thing And he's now running around the living room, bobbing & black bearding like normal, so that's all good!

I just measured Nathaniel and he's almost 18" long. Cierra has grown, too, she's almost 16" long and that's just in not quite 3 weeks. I'm so proud of the two of them!

I cleaned out Nathaniel's newspaper this morning and discovered 2 worms and about 10 roaches inside the newspaper. Little brat, he's been letting them escape :lol: So they're back in his dish where they belong. I'll see what he does tomorrow, guess I'll have to keep an eye on that. That's what Gabriel did when I tried to get him eating out of a dish, too, found not only the females I'd put in the dish, but babies, too :lol: They do keep me hopping :mrgreen: