RIP Sweet Pogo; Welcome Home Happy Go LUCKY

Oh that is hilarious, bobbing at Lucky. And yes, they sound the same "age" hormone wise. Should prove intersting :lol:

Well, Lucky weighed in at 206g and was 15.75" on Sunday! But his appetite has decreased for the last couple of days. He is eating, but definitely not as much. He lost a few grams. I am not worried yet . . . he is normal other than the slowing down in eating. I was generally feeding him three times a day. I think that I will back that down to 2x. I leave salad and phoenix worms in his viv all day, but he doesn't touch them. He is spoiled and has to be hand fed!!! He is weird - his appetite seems to decrease right after he finishes shedding instead of during shedding (part of him is almost constantly in shed, but right now he is completely orange with nothing looking like it will shed any time soon). I am wondering if he is just slowing down naturally. He is almost the size of a small adult now. I have been giving him baby food squash because I want him to start eating SOME veggies. He will only eat salad by accident or if I shove it in there when he is chomping a roach. He really likes the baby food squash, though. So maybe he is just getting ready for the veggie component of the diet to start going up and the bug component to go down. I just can't get him to eat inanimate things . . . he will lick them, but not eat them!!!

Do they normally just switch over to veggies on their own, or do we have to train them to eat non-moving food?

And some pics to go with the new adult-looking Lucky . . .

You can see here how his black eyes are really dark, dark brown (you can only see it in certain light):


Here he is looking big:

Wow, he's just like Imp, who is now 229g and 15 1/2", they are so close but Lucky is definitely bigger because he's a bit younger, right? As for the lack of salad, not sure, Imp gets hand fed collard greens in the am, he'll eat a few pieces and then I put the rest in his dish. Some days there are still some left, other days none have been eaten. He's also really annoyed because I ran out of dubia and being in Canada I can't buy any, as they're illegal to come over the border. I contacted a friend who used to raise and sell them (kind of a black market around here) and he's not doing that anymore but will keep me updated if he hears of anyone who has any for sale. I also checked out the big 20 gal tank and had way too many males, which means they fight instead of breeding. So I culled the extra males and make the 20 gallon into a breeding tank, which means I won't even touch it except for food, for a few months. Meanwhile I've found a few here and there in the 10 gallon tank, which is now the feeding tank, but not enough for Imp. So he's stuck with crickets and small super worms and that's all he gets. Phoneix worms are had to keep in my place because it gets too warm and they shed too fast. I won't bother with silkworms because they're hard to find locally and I'm not home to get shipments and hornworms are way too expensive. I get crickets every weekend from a friend in exchange for picking up collard greens, so he'll just have to get his nose out of joint. Soon he'll have his pick of roaches, well maybe not soon, but down the road. He is so spoiled! He has a good appetite and he's just going to have to eat his 2nd and 3rd choices for now.

Luckily is beautiful! I love his eyes and he sure is colourful! Imp is nowhere near as colourful, but his last shed was his back and his belly, his colours are burnt orange with a red tail and his tail has a diamond pattern. I'll have to take a better picture of his when he's showing off his brightest colours and post.

He also got out of his tank the other day (I was waiting for him to figure it out) and found him on the top of the sofa. I'm so glad he stayed there, because if he'd made it down to the carpet, that's the side of the living room that's the free roam part and Castiel was out...I hate to think what would have happened but Imp woudn't be alive right now. So I fetched the tank top I had put aside, and covered 1/2 his tank with it and taped it in place. It leans against the sofa across the back of his tank. Well he spent a few hours staring up at this strange thing :lol: trying to figure out what it was, but at least he's safe in his tank and can't get out. His lights are at the front of his tank so don't have the layer of mesh between it and his basking spot, so he still gets full UVB.

His hormones are acting up, because he keeps bobbing and black bearding at Cierra, but only when they're out in the living room and in my bedroom, never when he's looking at her from his tank to hers. Strange that. My Imp is growing up, he's 7 mo old now...they grow up so fast!

Thanks for sharing the pictures of Lucky and don't worry too much about greens, he will eventually eat them or you'll have to hand feed him. I hand feed Imp, Nathaniel and Gabriel, they hardly ever eat a green on their own. Cierra laid 22 eggs last week, she's now recovered and eating her bugs and greens. Castiel is also eating both, sort of, but that's because it's Spring Fever time and he goes nuts over Cierra when she's on the ramp. They're nutty at this time of year.

It has been a while since I posted here. Lucky is doing fine. He had a pulled muscle and a coccidia overload, but he seems to be recovering well. He is getting big very quickly now, and eating so many bugs that I can barely keep myself stocked up.

Finally, though, it looks like I might have some luck with breeding dubia:


I saw that a couple of days ago, and she took it back into her body (rather than dropping it), so I am assuming that is a good sign that I might have little roaches at some point in the not too distant future. Several other females in my adult bin look pretty hefty, so I am hoping that they are gravid as well.

I have also decided that I am going to try to breed superworms - not sure how that will go, but I have successfully produced a pupae. Waiting for it to turn into a beetle now. I have another one that is about to pupate. Hopefully, I have a male and a female. I am going to try to get more going soon.

Lucky still won't eat his veggies unless I sneak them (or give them to him in the form of baby food).

Here he is stretching his beard right after shedding it:


I could see him doing it out of the corner of my eye - and every time I tried to get a picture and he saw me looking at him, he stopped doing it (like he didn't want me to see him doing it). It was pretty funny, because he just kept popping it in and out. Not sure why he wouldn't keep on doing it when I wasn't watching. When I moved away, he started back up again (I was hiding down low where he couldn't really see me).

Question - I have seen people on videos feeding adult dubia to adult beardies. Most adult dubia are bigger than the space between the beardie's eyes, though. Does that rule not apply once the beardies are adults? Or should they just not be fed adult dubia?

I'm so glad Lucky is recovering from both issues. And the beard thing is so funny, mine stop if I'm watching, too. They won't eat if I'm watching either.

I don't feed off my adult dubia, I leave them for breeding only. But Imp did grab one one day when he was on my lap & I was checking to see if there were any left. He was fine. I don't think dubia go by the same rules as crickets. Imp has eaten every one of my dubias except the adults, so he's not getting anymore. Living in Canada is the pits because they're illegal to buy up here, so it's all underground. I've put out feelers but so far, no-one has any, they've sold their colonies or let them all die. So Imp has to wait until mine produce more babies and they grow up. Then he'll be allowed more. So he's on crickets and superworms only, he's not thrilled, that's for sure, he loves dubia roaches.

So don't feel off the adults, but any other size is fine, it's amazing how Imp eats roaches, he cuts them almost in half with his first bite, then eats each piece separately and he digests them well.

And yes, that's how the female has her babies. I think she lets that out so it can be fertilitzed, not exactly sure. I've notice a couple in one of the tanks and I'm hoping I won't find anymore, but I do have babies in both tanks now. I just put food in, only time I disturb them and only during the day when they're sleeping.

I can honestly call Imp a dubia vacuum cleaner now :lol:

Well, Lucky is up to 19" and 433 grams. He is favoring superworms over all other bugs now (other than wax worms, which he only gets occasionally). He still won't eat his veggies (or fruit), unless it's baby food squash out of the eye dropper, or if I shove collards in his mouth while he is chewing his bugs! I have him on supers, dubia and phoenix worms, with collard salad and baby food squash. I have tried the occasional fruit and a thin slice of carrot - but he is not interested at all. If it doesn't move, he doesn't want it.

Today, he was looking at the window and a flying beetle of some type that I have never seen before (but BIG) landed on the screen. Well, Lucky tried to get it and bonked himself on the window glass - he REALLY wanted that bug. He kept on watching it and trying to get it through the glass until I moved him away for fear he would give himself a concussion!



This was about 50 grams ago:

I told you Lucky would beat Imp. Imp has stopped eating unless I feed him, which isn't always possible now that I'm getting back to work tomorrow. He did grow 1/2" so he's 18" long now but he's still 367, didn't gain a gram this last week (unless my scale needs a new battery, so will change it before I weigh him again next weekend). I've put out feelers for roaches, I think he'll do much better on those and don't want to wait until the babies that have hatched grow to the size he likes. Cross your fingers, living in Canada means I can't buy them outright, have to go black market, so to speak, as they're illegal to sell up here.

Can't wait to see pics of Lucky as he is now, even though that picture you posted is WOW, he's so colourful and so BIG!

I wish Imp loved his supers as much as Lucky does, I'm lucky to get 8 in his daily, which isn't helping him grow. Oh well, will keep at him. He won't eat crickets and phoenix worms are hard to keep in my place, it's just too warm, even in my bedroom with the window open...

It has been a while - I have been really busy.

Lucky is now 517 grams and almost 20 inches. He is a little under 9 months old now. He has been mainly eating medium supers and some dubia. When he eats phoenix worms, he eats them whole without chewing and then poops them out whole - so that isn't really working any more. He still won't eat veggies on his own, but he loves baby food squash and I provide him with collard salad (collards are the only green that he doesn't spit out when I stick it in his mouth!). I tried mustard greens and bok choy - but no luck. He wants none of it.

He has seemed a bit grumpy lately. He still has never bobbed at me, and he only does a full fledged beard occasionally and seems more like he is testing it out than doing it for a reason (he will pop it in and out). He did give a clap of thunder a big beard when he was watching the rain out the window the other day - that gave me a good laugh!

His shedding has slowed down. He actually went a few weeks without anything going white. Now his head is going white - and the bottom of his tail shed recently. It was looking a little scary (he still has the crimp, so the vet told me to keep an eye on it). It was looking black, so I put some coconut oil on it for a couple of days and the old shed came right off and it is as good as new (but still with the crimp).

I am working on breeding dubia. I have a lot of adults now, and what I think is a decent ratio of females to males (about 6 to 1). I have seen some of the females sticking out their ootheca, but no one has had babies. Some of the females look like they are about to burst though, so maybe soon . . .

I have also made some superworm beetles. I only have four right now - and I am having a hard time telling the difference between males and females. I have a bunch of pupae that should turn to beetles in the next week or so. I will let you know how that goes.

Here are some Lucky pics:

Lucky is so big now! WOW! He's going to get even bigger, as he still has some growing to do

I really enjoyed the pictures, he's just so colourful and such a big part of your family.

As for the beard, they do push it in and out to stretch it. As for the grumpy, could just be because his head is starting a shed.

Thanks for the update!

So we're back from the vet and it turns out that Gabriel has an aneurysm, which is
an excessive localized enlargement of an artery caused by a weakening of the artery wall. There's nothing the vet can do, she said surgery could cause it to pop, which means Gabriel could bleed out. So it's a waiting game to see if it could possibly reduce over time. My vet took a blood test as a baseline, and also to make sure his results are all normal.

Lucky grabbed his first fruit or vegetable from me today. In the past, the only way to get him to eat a fruit or veggie was to stick a piece of collard greens in his mouth while he was chewing bugs, or feed baby food squash through dropper. Today, I tried raspberries. I know they are a "feed rarely" item, but he actually took a small piece from me and chewed it up and swallowed. FIRST TIME! Now if I could only make collards look like raspberries! I think I will try putting a couple of really tiny pieces of raspberry on a collard salad to see if the color gets him over to the salad dish.

Good idea, if it works, let me know. Imp, Nathaniel and Castiel LOVE raspberries, so when I get some, not very often, I give them treats. None of them are really eating collards except Cierra and Imp, but the other 3 I put on my lap, open their mouths and starts them eating one piece, once that's chewed and their mouth is still open, I shove another piece in and that's how I get them to eat their greens. I was lucky to find collard greens at an organic market and I'm hoping they'll continue to bring some in. I called and told them I'd take 8 bunches a week, they're going to call me back.

So, here are the specs for the cage that we are building for Lucky.

Size/Structure: It will be 2'x2'x4' (4' being the length) made from red oak and birch. The front will have two doors that are plexiglass with wood framing and will hinge at the bottom so they can open down like ramps. My hope is to keep the cage low to the ground so ultimately I can make a safe space outside of the cage and leave one door open so that he can come out and go back in at will. We are planning on painting the inside white, and putting vinyl plank tiles on the floor (they only have adhesive on the very edges). We will heat & UVB the cage for a few weeks before we move Lucky in there to gas off everything. I haven't decided whether to install built in shelves for basking areas and cave areas, or to just use cage furniture for that.

Lighting: The UVB will be mounted on the "ceiling" of the cage - we are planning on using a ReptiSun 10 T5 tube with a reflector that runs three quarters of the length of the cage. In addition to the heat source (described below), we will install three LED puck lights to the ceiling. The LEDs can change color - they have a white setting that they will remain in most of the time, but I will have the ability to change them to yellow/orange/purple to simulate sunrise and sunset.

Heat: The heat will come from a double dome fixture that is above the cage - we are going to cut an oval in the top that the domes can slide along so that they can be moved from all the way to one side more toward the middle depending on the temps we get. They could also go on a bracket and be lifted up if the heat is too high with them sitting directly over the hole. Some heat will be able to disperse through the part of the hole that is not covered by the domes. I am not sure whether I will use lights in one or both of the domes - it depends on the temps that we get when we start testing.

Venting: In addition to the hole in the top for the domes, we will put vents close to the top of the sides and back. We haven't decided whether the vents will be simply slats cut into the wood across those areas to let air in or out or actual vents.

So, hopefully that, along with decorations and cage furniture will make a nice place for adult Lucky to live. I sewed a hammock with a corduroy-type fabric, but I am not sure whether I will use it yet. We have purchased all of the materials/paint except for the plexiglass for the doors which we will order at the last minute when we know the final measurements.

Lucky weighed in at 590g and 20.25" this morning. He is about 9 months old. (Sorry for repeating myself on this, but I wanted it on my thread for posterity.)

Here are some new pics:

Getting ready to shed tail ~

That head shed just finished yesterday ~

Sitting on my lap outside in this crazy hot weather (even he got too hot) ~

Can barely fit on his basking ledges so this is one of his new positions (functions well as a potty too - since it causes poo to go on the papertowels on the floor rather than on his ledges!)~


LOL!

Oh he is getting so big. You'll have to see if that is enough ventilation but it sounds like you have though of everything and being able to come and go will make him feel so much better.

I have to stick with 40 gallons because having 5 in a 1 bedroom apartment doesn't leave enough room for a 75 gallon (that's the size you're building) My friend Joanne has 4 75 gallon tanks on a built for them rolling book shelf that covers the living room wall, that's for 4 of them. Then she has a 40 gallon along one wall for her 5th dragon and Stevie seems to like it. She also has a much bigger place than mine, too :mrgreen: Mine all have very little furniture so lots of running around space and they get ramp time. They like it better when I'm home for the day because they get MORE ramp time. I don't get the pouts when I'm at work, I get home when they're already asleep, so that works. 5 dragons pouting at me at the same time is a bit much :roll: :mrgreen:

It'll be great to see the finished product and see how Lucky likes all the spaces. Alot of people have made shelves for basking at different levels and it's worked well. And some have built in hides, too. You might want to consider real tiles instead of linoleum, it's very slippery and he won't get the right purchase for his nails. The slate tile trims their nails, too, and are easier to walk on. Plus you can get it really cheap sometimes. Alot of people I know use slate or porcelain tiles, the porcelain that isn't glazed.

There are lots of ideas in the DIY section that you can check out for ideas. I like the wood you're using. I know Pine is toxic to dragons, so you've chosen well, have you not thought to leave the wood natural inside, too? Or does it have to be painted?