Derp.

I had been worried about my big dragon, Tsam, for the last few days: he's been sleeping a lot lately, being grey faced and generally quite grumpy - until I facepalmed on realising what the problem was.

Tsam hasn't been sitting in his bath or eating his greens like he usually does - he'd been loading up on the bugs whenever a locust wandered past his bed - causing a vicious cycle of not bothering to get up to have a soak or eat his greens, instead sitting there and just grabbing whatever bug went past close enough.

I gave him 5mls of water via oral syringe and lo and behold, 20 minutes later, much happier dragon. (He's happy to bite a syringe to get the "good stuff", but most of my dragons prefer licking drips from the syringe.)
He must have had dehydration headache!

I'll be giving him another 5mls tomorrow and the day after, and making sure he gets in his waterbowl a bit more regularly (they all have a bath in the big bath upstairs on a Sunday). Yup, desert creatures need water too.

Here's a good guide to hydration limits (be aware that OVER hydration can also be dangerous): http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Dehydration.html

Why bother going after the food if it can be delivered right to you? =) I'm glad to hear he is feeling better now.

That hydration table is very cool to have on hand. Thanks for posting that!

Very welcome Coopers.
He's not keen on his blackberry after his run-in with the last one, but he's happy to have butterworms (of course).

He got a bit carried away with a gigantic sized blackberry and, instead of chewing and shaking it to bits like he usually does, he swallowed it whole. It gave him a bit of a sore tummy until he was able to hock it back up... and then eat it again. _shrugs_

*facepalm* poor little guy. Coop liked blackberries as a treat as well. I used to cut them in half or into quarters to make them a bit easier for him to manage (and he got 2 or 4 on his salad instead of 1!) =)

Speaking of blackberries, he just scared the bejaysus out of me.

He was sat gaping (it's a bit toasty, summer's finally here) and I saw this weird dark mass in the back of his throat. I opened the door to have a look, and he shut his mouth - as dragons are inclined to do. He was a very good boy though, let me open his mouth and gently push the mass up by gently pressing under his beard...

And it turned out to be a blackberry he's got stashed for later.

He grumped at me for making him open his mouth, but has since gone back to sitting and gaping...

Sheesh, you stole his stashed snack right out of his mouth! Meanie.... ;-)

! I didn't steal it!
When I realised what it was, I left it be. He happily consumed it later on and went to sleep IN his food bowl. Eh.