New to Bearded Dragons: adopting a neglected beardie

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AHBD

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I agree that physically she doesn't look too bad. Her eyes look a little tired, but then she has no real stimulation or varied diet, etc. I would say that her back legs look like they are folded under, with the joints looking rounded too which may indicate mild MBD [ it could be just the way she's sitting ] ....but she's holding herself up [ as opposed to laying flat, lethargic ] + looks of decent weight, so those are good signs in themselves. I would hold off on any deworming until the future, let her get settled in + eating well before putting her through that. It will be fine. Once you have her, don't overfeed her even if she's eager to eat a ton of bugs right away. Give her a good salad early in the day, then bugs mid afternoon....large crickets, medium -large dubia , superworms [ 3-4 at a time to start ] and hornworms. By the way, when your parents ship her, it's best to do it Monday - Wed., and check your temps. on both the departure area and your destination. If it's very hot, you may need a cool pack, or you may adjust the day to when temps. are more favorable. You'll find the info on the shipyourreptiles.com site, you've probably already seen it all. She looks like a sweet girl, and will probably be a real joy and enjoy her new luxurious life and banquet of good things that will be offered.
 

greenbeanette

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Thanks for the responses :)

Stacysbuddy: I don't have a picture of her from the top, but I don't remember the fat pads looking sunken in when I was petting her. Of course, I could be wrong since I have an untrained eye. I agree that her face looks pointy, not sure what that means. I didn't even notice the stress marks, thanks for pointing that out. So I presume that those indicate that she is not content with her conditions and hopefully I'll be able to fix that :)

AHBD: I'm glad you don't think she looks to bad off. I was thinking the worst lol. For feeders, I was thinking of doing silkworms, hornworms, and maybe superworms (but those creep me out). Would this be ok? How many should I feed her a day? I'm trying to figure out how many silk/hornworms to order and how often I need to order them. Also, aren't superworms too big, if she is only 13"? The phoenix worms creep me out big time, so that's definitely not happening. I'm ok with buying individual servings of crickets locally but I'm concerned they wouldn't be good for her since they wouldn't be gutloaded and I read that that they aren't nutritious unless gutloaded. Plus the whole pinworm thing. Also should I dust both her salad and feeders in the beginning?

I'll hold off on the vet trip. I'll be getting my amazon order late next week, so I'm think I should be able to have them ship her around the 17-19th. I'll order the feeders around the same time so they don't get too big before she gets here. I'm thinking maybe a month after I get her, I'll take her to a vet. Is that long enough for her to settle in and gain some health back?

She does seem like a sweetheart. I was so surprise when she let me pet her and handfeed her. I thought when the lack of handling and proper care she would be snappy. She has bitten my brother before, but I'm sure he deserved it lol. I'm looking forward to getting her in good health/dewormed so she can ride around on me :)
 

AHBD

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Hi Greenbeanette....as for where to order bugs, some people order from Mulberry Farms, others from Lindasgonebuggy [ you can get horn + silkworms from both, as well as superworms ] I think your girl would be fine with medium supers, just don't give her more than 3-4 at first, she will want more but give her a variety. After a week or so, you can give her more superworms, try 5-6 and always feed veggies before bugs, otherwise she may not eat her salad if she has the " main course " first. You might also consider Ghann's cricket farm, they sell Crix as well as supers, so for an example you might order 500 large crickets [ these won't be too large, I've ordered there for years ] and 500 - 1,000 medium supers. The supers can be kept in a plastic storage bin, no lid needed, they can't get out and will live for months at room temperature. Just dump in a box of oatmeal and a cut up carrot, sweet potato or regular potato, throw some greens in a few times a week and they will thrive. You can set up the crix similarly, but only throw in a handful of oatmeal, and similar veggies. Use egg crating that they are shipped with for them to climb on, [ I break it up into squares about 7 X 7 and lay it flat though so the crix can't climb too high + jump out. The crix won't live quite as long as the supers, so you can feed more of them as a staple. You'll get the hang of it once you order stuff + see ho long it lasts you. Horn + silkworms are the most expensive, and I know the horns grow REALLY fast but beardies love them. You can give medium -large hornworms to her, they are soft + no impaction risk.
 

greenbeanette

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My dad shipped her today, so I'll be picking her up tomorrow at the fedex center!

I went to the nearby reptile store and asked them if they carry different size superworms. He tried to tell that mealworms were the same thing, just different sizes. :roll: Would large superworms be too big?

I'm thinking about ordering from lindasgonebuggy, but I'm unsure about the shipping part. How long can superworms be in the mail for? I wanted to do one of the value packs with hornworms, but I know they grow quickly. Would US postal service or UPS 3 Day select be ok?

These are my options:
2-3 Days US Postal Service
UPS Ground
UPS Next Day Air
UPS 2nd Day Air
UPS 3 Day Select
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Oh, good, you should be getting her any time then ! Be sure to have an I.D. to pick her up at the FedEx hub. They are shipping to a hub, and not a FedEx store hopefully ? It must get shipped to the actual hub nearest to you. As for having superworms shipped, they don't do well at all in the heat, so be sure to wait for the coolest part of the week. Superworms actually generate extra heat by the friction they cause from constant movement in the bag/box. They can actually survive freezing temps. if packed properly, but if it's above 80 they will die easily. If temps. were cool, 40 - 50 F, they could survive for days in the box, but you don't want to leave them in the mail any longer than they need to be, 1-2 days. So you need to check temps. at the departure area as well as your own area. So you might actually call Linda, her number is right on her website and see what she recommends. Crickets survive hot weather shipping better than supers, but at 90 degrees they can die during shipment. Ghann's can ship overnight if you want to try 1K supers or 1K large crickets. That will last you several weeks. Large supers should be fine for your girl, just offer 3-4 at a time at first [ increase to twice a day as she gets used to them] and offer plenty of veggies. Hopefully she'll settle right in for you. :)
 

greenbeanette

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It's a fedex ship center, hopefully that will be ok. According to the tracking she hasn't arrived in town yet, but I'm sure she will be here by later this morning. I'll stop by the reptile store and get her some superworms then, and save the big shipments for cooler weather. Thanks for your help AHBD :)

I will update after she arrives :)
 

greenbeanette

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She is here! I put her in her new tank, which just has paper towels, lights and a thermometer. I need to find her a basking rock and once she gets tested for worms, I'll be replacing the paper towels with shelf liner. I bought 25 large super worms, I'm thinking that should last her about a week. She is warming herself up and I pet her a couple of times, which went fine.

I feel like she probably needs some water. She looks dry. I have applesauce too if that would be a good thing to dilute with some water. No syringe though, is there another way to offer her liquid by mouth? I plan on giving her some salad once the tank gets to around 100 and stays there for a hour.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
I'm glad to hear she's settling in to her new home. :) And yes, water should be offered after she warms up. You can try 2 ways....1) a plain old bath/soak which should be about 2" deep, lukewarm for 10 minutes and then dribble some water on her snout. The other way is to use a spray bottle, syringe or eyedropper to drop water on her snout while she's in the tank. My beardies all drink that way. And don't give her applesauce, that may give her diarrhea, it's only used if a beardie is impacted + needs to have a b.m. So try one or two superworms after a while, but wait until tomorrow to give her a bigger helping. Don't be surprised if she doesn't eat for a few days due to relocation stress. Hopefully she'll settle in quickly. Enjoy your new friend + try to post pics, especially of her back legs + a full body shot from above.
 

greenbeanette

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She's been eating great actually :) Yesterday I handfed her a bit of salad. She wouldn't take it at first, but after dusting a piece with calcium she ate it and realized she likes greens and squash. She also had 5 superworms (3 dusted with calicum), 4 earlier in the day and then one with her salad a bit later. I couldn't get her to drink from a feeding syringe, I dripped it on her snout, no luck. She really started to brighten up after being under her lights for a couple hours which was cool to see.

Today, I put in a plate of salad, then while she was looking, I took a piece from the plate a fed it to her. She then ran over and started eating on her own :) I also did two super worm feedings of 4 a piece, dusted with calcium. I also gave up on the paper towels, because she would bunch them up. I think since she is used to sand, she thinks she can dig in them somehow. She pooped once yesterday and once today. I spot cleaned with vinegar, I hope that is sufficient?

She definitely doesn't not want to be picked up, she doesn't bite or anything, but she will black beard me and move away with her mouth open. This morning, she thought I was going to try to pick her up when I touched her side, so I took the opportunity to squirt some water in her open mouth lol. She had a couple mouthfuls. I tried giving her water again this afternoon after her superworm feeding #2, and she seemed curious. She licked the syringe tip once, and then tried to grab it from me with her mouth lol. I wasn't able to get her to really drink from it though.

Pictures! Here's how she looks today.
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AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Well, glad to hear that everything is going so smoothly, and she is really a cute girl. :) She also looks to be in pretty good condition, not really underweight at all, so although her former living conditions were not ideal, she was taken care of pretty well. Since she's eating greens, just wet them down when you offer them to her, she will get a decent amount of hydration that way, along with a soak twice a week. She doesn't appear dehydrated, so don't worry about getting water in her mouth, she'll be fine. Hopefully she'll warm up to you soon.
 

greenbeanette

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That's wonderful that you think she's in good health :). I have been wetting down her greens like you suggested. I gave her a bath a couple days ago and she had diarrhea the next day, I guess it was too hydrating lol. She hasn't used the bathroom today or yesterday.

I'm wondering about her basking temperatures. She won't bask if the temperature is over 93f. Is this ok? I keep reading that 95f is the minimum for digestion. I'm using a zoomed digital thermometer with a probe.

She still doesn't trust and blackbeards me a lot, but has stopped hissing for the most part. I hold her 1-2 times a day for a couple minutes, and pet her in her tank. I also handfeed her some of her salad when I give it to her. Is it a good sign when they close their eyes when you pet them? Sometimes I'll pet her when she blackbeards me and she will close one or both eyes. Just wondering if it's a sign that petting her helps her feel less nervous.

She has also started glass dancing for her supers and salad lol.
 

greenbeanette

Member
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So I've been told by someone on another site that reptiles close their eyes when they dislike something and wish it would stop. Basically to pretend you're not there lol. So, I've stopped petting Rocko for the time being and handfed him some of his salad today. Then when superworm time came (he gets super excited and starts glass dancing) I fed him three, then picked him up to feed two more. If he can associate my hand with superworms I bet he'll warm up really fast.

I tried holding him against my chest and watching tv for a little bit this morning before he warmed up and became active. She laied there with his eyes shut for a few minutes. Then open them and tried to escape. I put her back and repeated the process. So, I guess she kind of just froze up and close her eyes, and once she thought it was safe she try to get away. I'll hold off on trying that again and just continue feeding her bugs while holding her and see if I can build off that. Any suggestions are appreciated, since I've never own a reptile before so I keep treating her like a mammal.

Still have the problems with the basking temperatures. Low 90s, like 92-3 and he is gaping. Higher than that and he starts moving away from the basking spot. Should I increase the temperatures anyway and hopefully he will get used to it? He also hasn't pooped in 3 days which is concerning me.
 

greenbeanette

Member
Original Poster
He finally used the bathroom yesterday for the first time in over 3 days, and it was super runny. I'm not sure if he is digesting right. I stopped wetting his greens in case he is getting too much liquid. I have his basking spot between 93-5 because he doesn't seem to like hotter temperatures. I did put a basking rock in his viv yesterday, and he wouldn't use it. I put him on it today and he stayed there, so I'll see what happens tomorrow with that.

With the lack of response recently, I'm wondering if anyone has some insight on this issue.
 

athenacp

Extreme Poster
IT's a bad week this week, a lot of people are away...I am not an expert by any means, but will bump this up for you....for someone with more experience to come on here:)
 
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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.

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