Caesar and Cleo are now 1.3 years old ( I suspect Cleo is more like 1.2 years old ).
Meanwhile , my tanks are not quite complete , not willing to get my worker back while my wife and I are self isolating and there are known active cases of covid19 in my local area ( he works as an Uber driver at night so that makes him a higher risk of picking up covid19 from a passenger or group of passengers , even more so now NSW is starting to relax restrictions and people are starting to go out more and gather for small parties ).
All I need is the stacking frames finished , and the lids sealed with stained varnish ( by him ) and I'll take care of fitting the lights and sliding front doors.
I wish I hadn't pulled the old adult bearded dragon tanks apart and sent them to the green strip back in November , I was planning on having Caesar and Cleo in the new forever homes back in March ( then Covid19 threw a spanner in the works and my projects all came to halt with us self isolating and not being will to run the risk of catching this nasty virus from my handyman or the builders ( I was going to have do the deck and my rolloff roof observatory ).
So Caesar and Cleo are still sharing a mega (converted) tub and so far we've never seen any sign of any issues ( apart from Cleo ( the littler one ) asserting herself by commandeering the best basking spots (even bull dozes Caesar off if he beats her to the desired spot).
Caesar will not stay on me if I have Cleo on me ( unless he's really relaxed and she's already nodded off on me , all she needs to do is look at him and he gets the hint , dad's her territory).
Down to one meal of insects per day , greens when I can convince them , neither are fans of the green stuff .
Caesar loves his BSFL , crickets , and occasional superworms .
Cleo is more fussy , it's crickets or BSFL , her response to superworms has been a stubburn NO.
Both have been spending more time napping now we are moving into winter (esp this week with cold wet windy weather outside) , but are both up and basking every morning , pooing regularly, and just retiring for a siesta about 4pm.
So since they aren't as active, I'm giving them one or two fasting days per week ( individual days ) without a meal.
When I feed them , they both have their own preferred routine .
Caesar demands time on the floor to check all his normal spots and then heads over to mum and asks her for a pat, and most days to be picked up for a mummy snuggle ( he's definitely a mummy's boy ) , wont settle on me until she's given him some petting .
Cleo demands time on my fav seat , and has become quiet the explorer the last few weeks , I've now got to watch her closely else she'll climb off the lounge ( has climbed down a few times , first I know of it is I hear the "plunk" of her landing on the carpet . I don't want to risk her hearting herself so if she heads for the edge of the lounge I help her down to the floor .
She is getting more confident every day and spending more time on the floor and exploring longer but stays close to me and returns to me when she's ready to be picked up for more chair time , or a daddy or mummy snuggle , or to go to bed.
Caesar doesn't seem to care now when she's on the floor even if she follows him about ( a big relief since she's a big smaller than he is and if he decided to he could do her a serious injury ).
Silkworms
I'm having a holiday from raising them , can't guarantee I can get fresh ( uncontaminated with covid19) mulberry leaves ( my supplier lives in Sydney near Penrith , a Covid19 hotspot , and I hear from someone else chow is in short supply (they wanted some and were told it's on backorder with time frame when it'll be available ==> it's imported from china and not made locally , so I've opted to conserve the chow I have in powder form for now til spring ( when the mulberry trees start growing leaves again ( late August , or into September) and I'll reassess the situation then ).
Growth : been a bit lax with weekly weighins lately , preoccupied with crazy neighbor issues , baking stuff , watching national and international covid19 and foreign relations news ( lots of bad stuff going on ).
Here is the raw growth chart :
Caesar is on much the same gradient still .
He prefers sleeping and napping under the jumbo sized hubbahut or sometimes under the acrylic grotto.His preferred temperature looks like 29 - 32 degC .
Cleo is having another period of slower growth ( shed coming ?? she's starting to look a little that way , nostrils look blocked to me again but not seeming to bother and she's not breathing through her mouth and I see moisture when she eats particularly juicy ( well
hydrated / gutloaded with greens ) bunch of crickets.
I'm giving her nearly as many bugs as Caesar ( who's a fair bit bigger ) in the hope she'll get a wriggle on with the growth , but never over filling her, when she starts loosing interest I stop.
Cleo prefers to stay on top either the jumbo Hubbahut , the old acrylic fake hollow log, or ontop the sticks ( puts her spending most her day quite close to the 26W UVB200 and NanoHood and the mini halogen , helps her metabolise her food ) , her preferred temperature is 32 to 35 degC and she likes UVB about 170 microW / sq.cm ( measured today at next to top of her head ).'
Cleo is regular as clockwork in the poo depart, Caesar typically goes every 3 or 4 days.
Normalised growth data
I've seen this type winter plateau in the growth chart before with my other beardies , what is surprising me is Caesar's constant growth gradient throughout ( apart from a few wobbles assoc with shedding ).
Meanwhile , Cheakie is still outside ( likely found a good spot under the house to brumate now ).
Gutzy is still a eating machine and doesn't seem to have noticed winter has arrived , she was in shed yesterday , even let me pick her up ( accidentally - though she was Fluffy ) , oh the laserbeam stare I copped for daring to pick her up , but she didn't back off , or run off and hide when realized my mistake , just sat there and glared at me.
Fluffy is as aways a sweetheart and lets me know every few days she wants out and some 5 star service - handfeeding + a snuggle ( she likes to wrap snuggle into my neck under my chin or near my ear now ).
George and Mildred , well they are just being themselves , I don't think they are aware of winter.
Godzilla has been showing up occasionally in the kitchen , I've seen him ( he's getting big ) stalking a bug on the kitchen floor ,but mostly he stays out of sight and we only know he's around because he churps at us ( especially if we disturb his nap ).