Phira VS The Hooman

Haha cute story--is it based on true interactions between you and your beardie?

Yes. I take some creative liberties naturally but every story I post is something Phira has done that I thought was funny. He is shedding around his face so he is uber grouchy. In this case though he was being very very stubborn. He let me put him back after with no fuss but he just wasn't done running around and playing.

Wow!!! Peaches gives me grief like this when I mist her when she is shedding... She's such a diva, lol!!!
I love these stories about Phira.... He's got to be the most stubourn little fella out there, lol!!!

:lol: :laughhard: :laughhard:
I can relate to this -- reminds me of some of the conversations I used to have with Puff in the bath when he'd be trying to jump out of the tub while I'm dribbling water on his nose with an eyedropper...
"You don't want to be in this water? (and you don't eat your veggies and you don't drink out of your water dish) -- Can you say 'dehydration'?" [then he drinks a few drops and resumes trying to get out of the tub]
"See? you're thirsty." [more attempts to get out of the tub] "Puff? Can you say 'kidney failure'? Can you say 'gout'? Can you say 'dysecdysis'? (you've got it going on there on your [fill in whatever is shedding at the moment].)" [and still more trying to get out of the tub] "Puff? I'm bigger than you." [does the beard thing] "Don't you pull that big bad macho dragon routine with me. I'm still bigger than you. Put it down..."
Sometimes I can get him to settle his beard down by stroking him gently under the chin. I figure that if I can get him to assume a more relaxed body posture, it might feed back into his little reptile brain and he might actually calm down. Or not. They definitely have minds of their own.

Nowadays, "Daddy" gives Puff his baths, and he's gotten really good at slipping greens in the beardie's mouth whenever he opens it :mrgreen: That's about the only way we can get him to eat any veggies at all these days. As you say, *sigh* :roll:

Phira hated baths too, but I bought him a long shallow rubber made tub. Fill it with warm water and he will swim around with no freak outs. Actually likes to run under the water faucet sometimes. The veggies was an issue youmfor me too. However, I would roll up kale leafs in little balls and push them around. Phira would go after them like bugs. Worked on every veggie I've ever given him. Still doesnt like squash.

Too cute and funny! I go through this with Thane whenever I have to move her around or mist her. I get the mouth open wide and the puffy beard. Is she trying to be intimidating?

I figure the mouth open wide and the big puffy beard probably means something like, "I'm a big bad dragon. Don't mess with me!"

We tried rolling up a leaf so it would look like a worm the other day -- Puff was not particularly impressed :|

Thaney has been doing this a bit more often and it's just so stinking cute because it's harmless with her. She'll open her mouth big and wide, and I'll try to stick my finger in there. She closes it as if to say, "Oof, that didn't work!" And then she snuggles. Always snuggles.

YoursTruly":afua4piy said:

Thaney has been doing this a bit more often and it's just so stinking cute because it's harmless with her. She'll open her mouth big and wide, and I'll try to stick my finger in there. She closes it as if to say, "Oof, that didn't work!" And then she snuggles. Always snuggles.

Click to expand...

She never bites when you do that? :shock:

She is so tolerant of any sort of handling, I think because we had to syringe feed her for almost two months when we first got her. She was so underfed and malnourished at first, and she's ADV positive, so we continue to have to give her liquid supplements daily. I think because of that, she lets us touch her in any way. I don't actually shove my finger into her mouth. I just poke her nose when she gapes at me. Then she gives up lol.

That explains a lot. Our beardie tested positive for adenovirus two years ago. He was really sick for a while, but then started to make a slow recovery. We don't have to give him any special supplements or medications now, but his appetite and energy levels have never quite come back up to what they were before he got sick. He has also always tolerated handling very well. He was a rescue when we got him, but he had already been tamed and nursed back to health, so we didn't have to deal with the worst of it, although I heard some horror stories about the condition he was in when he arrived at the rescue. (shudder ) It made me want to take the best care of him that I possibly could so he would never have to go through anything like that again, but it has turned out that I'm not able to do that on a regular basis without help from my husband. Fortunately, his "daddy" loves him just as much as "mommy" does, and he's willing and able to take up the slack for me.

He snuggles when he's in the mood, and when he's not in the mood he gets all wiggly and lets me know that he wants to get back to the very important business of worshiping his light bulbs and making Vitamin D, so I put him back on his basking platform and he often lines his body up with where he seems to know that the UVB tube is going to go, even before I get it back on top of the tank -- he really seems to like that "pretty color".

SHBailey":i3pc9cur said:

the very important business of worshiping his light bulbs and making Vitamin D

Click to expand...

:lol:

Thane ALWAYS seems to be in the mood for snuggles. She'd lounge around on me all day if I let her! But I know when to put her back: when her belly stripes show up and she starts climbing in my hair to get warm.

SHBailey":15f0n123 said:

I figure the mouth open wide and the big puffy beard probably means something like, "I'm a big bad dragon. Don't mess with me!"

We tried rolling up a leaf so it would look like a worm the other day -- Puff was not particularly impressed :|

Click to expand...

Yep, works with dumb animals like dogs , little children , but when you know dragons , you will also know it's all bluff and the beardie would rather run away than actually bite you.

Fortunately none of my beardies have ever been "bad arses" and I don't get that kind of attitude from them .... too laid back, too well fed, too spoilt.... just give a nice cuddle daddy ....

Only gaping I get is when beardie has been getting a long snuggle and getting too hot, so it's a gaping to cool off not to say go away....

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I think it's impossible to "spoil" anything with too much love :love5:

However, I'm forced to admit that the way Phira handles his "Hooman" may just so happen to be an exception to that rule :laughing6: