Forrest the Handicapped Dragon

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DragonQueen3

Hatchling Member
I recently rescued a male beardie that is missing his back legs from the reptile shop well associated with my Exotic Vet.

Forrest's back legs looks as if they were amputed by a vet at sometime. One leg goes down to his ankle but is missing the foot and the other has been removed to his knee, as you can see below.
107227-2886091797.jpg

My original plan was to house him with my 10 month old female beardie Pancake once he has finished being quarantined and seen by the vet. Pancake has a 120 gallon that I plan on making bioactive so I know it will be enough space.

However I noticed some backlash on disabled dragons breeding. Is this because it can cause pain for the dragon? Or issues with offspring? I hadn't planned on breeding them purposefully but if it happened I wouldn't be upset.

In the end I would really like to house them together but not if it's going to cause Forrest anymore unhappiness or pain.

Thanks! - Sydney
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Hi Sydney, I remember this pic of Forrest from your other thread. :) It's always best to house dragons separately, you never know which one is going to hurt the other. I have had females in very large enclosures together in the past with NP but even then it's best if they were raised together, have tons of room [ over 200 gallons ] and are both docile.As for breeding, there's nothing at all wrong with breeding an amputee male but not a female. You just have to supervise because if the female is not receptive they may fight. So I'd steer away from dreams of breeding, another reason being the huge flood of unwanted beardies out there . BTW, it would not be painful for him but Forrest may not be able to successfully breed for one reason, males use their back legs to hold a female in position so I'm not sure how successful he would be. If you Google youtube videos of dragons breeding you'll see what I mean. That's not to say that he couldn't breed but it may be a factor.
 

Claudiusx

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hi Sydney,

I would advise against housing them together. It's basically not possible that the leg amputation would cause any carryover to the offspring, unless it was somehow genetic, but still males need to use their hind legs to mate properly. He might be able to effectively, but i'd still recommend against it for other reasons. Not to mention, typically when housed together, if one is weak or disabled, it will get dominated and live not the greatest of lives. He would be much happier in his own private domain :)

-Brandon
 

DragonQueen3

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Ok thank you for the info!

I've noticed my female and older male are definitely interested in each other but I'm unsure if it's curiosity, dominance or maybe even just that breeding season will be soon.

They have never puffed at each other and my female even tried to lick the male yesterday. I don't feel comfortable letting them interact until the quarantine period is over though
 

DragonQueen3

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Hello everybody.

Forrest has been acting a little different lately and barely wants to eat anything. I took him to the vet at the beginning of March and they said he was looking great and didn't have any problems. (I thought he had mouth rot)

I can't tell whether he is pouting due to the lack of super worms, or if maybe he is trying to brumate because we have had a super bad storm the last couple weeks and our temps are between the 30-50s. The heater in my room is always 75 though.

So far he will only eat his greens and maybe 5 or so calcium worms. He was eating calcium worms alot before so maybe he just wants a change, but I can't get many live feeders right now.

Any suggestions and advise are helpful.

Ps. I have been providing liquid? nourishment. I have reptiboost, rephashy grub pie which is 75% ground up insects, and rephashy pumpkin pie
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
If he's missing his superworms , that is probably it. Some dragons can be VERY stubborn, almost addicted and will refuse other food for a while but most of them will eventually eat the " new " and inferior [ in their opinion ] insects. :) It just takes a while.
 

DragonQueen3

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
He took to calcium worms well when I had both those and supers But I've been unable to get any for about 2 weeks now.
He is also refusing crickets it seems.

Just waits till he is really hungry in the late afternoon and will finally eat his veg and some calcium worms.

Also do you know of any veggies similar to mustard greens? That's the only one he really likes, aside from maybe kale. Turnip greens and collard greens are just licked and then ignored.

Thanks!
 
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