Dear All,
After much pestering, we allowed our daughter to get a Central Australian Bearded dragon. She saved up money, then we were advised that given our inexperience with lizards, we would be better served buying an adult lizard as there are copious numbers on swap/buy/sell websites (gumtree here in Australia) - or through an animal rescue site (RSPCA). So.... we did. We found one for sale with its enclosure - after a few missed opportunities - so when the guy said it was available - we agreed to buy it 'unseen'.
The seller was special needs, and didn't have great communication skills - and my husband and daughter didn't know what they were looking at. When I got home - I saw that the front feet were turned outwards, the lizard walks on his forearms predominently. We took him to the vet (a specialist in reptiles) the very next day - he said that all things considered, our lizard is in reasonable health. Was probably subjected to poor nutrition as a juvenile (he is pretty small) and his front feet are likely a genetic abnormality from poor breeding, rather than MBD (which was what I was worried about ). So now we need to work on his enclosure to give him a flatter basking area.. and learn all we can about lizards! Kind of feel like we bought a 'rescue' unintentionally - but now we just need to make the best of it... His name is "Rocky"
After much pestering, we allowed our daughter to get a Central Australian Bearded dragon. She saved up money, then we were advised that given our inexperience with lizards, we would be better served buying an adult lizard as there are copious numbers on swap/buy/sell websites (gumtree here in Australia) - or through an animal rescue site (RSPCA). So.... we did. We found one for sale with its enclosure - after a few missed opportunities - so when the guy said it was available - we agreed to buy it 'unseen'.
The seller was special needs, and didn't have great communication skills - and my husband and daughter didn't know what they were looking at. When I got home - I saw that the front feet were turned outwards, the lizard walks on his forearms predominently. We took him to the vet (a specialist in reptiles) the very next day - he said that all things considered, our lizard is in reasonable health. Was probably subjected to poor nutrition as a juvenile (he is pretty small) and his front feet are likely a genetic abnormality from poor breeding, rather than MBD (which was what I was worried about ). So now we need to work on his enclosure to give him a flatter basking area.. and learn all we can about lizards! Kind of feel like we bought a 'rescue' unintentionally - but now we just need to make the best of it... His name is "Rocky"