Claud's Crew! - New Girl In The House! - New Pics

Welcome to my journal for my crew! This will be the thread I post all my pictures and updates in regards to my crew! This is going to be like a journal of sorts. A tool I can use to look back on and see how I was doing things, and important events that have occurred for my crew! I really like being able to go back and look at things like that.

To start off with, since all my dragons had a thread previously, they will all get their own post under this to kind of catch up to where things are right now.

A bit about me (EDIT: Ok it's a lot about me now..)

I've had dragons for almost 20 years now. My first dragon was named Shredder. Information was so scarce back then, and I was so inexperienced, Shredder didn't last long under my care. He was housed on walnut shell, typical petstore setup (you think they are bad nowadays, think back 20 years ago) and I honestly don't remember much else about how i cared for him besides the fact that I had grown attached to him. After shredder died, I dedicated a good portion of my free time to learning about dragons. I knew I wanted another, but I didn't want him to suffer the same fate. I read, I learned, I talked to other owners that I would meet at petstores. I read every caresheet I could find online. I even talked breeders ears off when they'd let me. I got another dragon eventually, Hawk. And then another, Buttercup. Then I rescued Scorpio. And shortly after that, I saw a runt in a petstore that I bought, Rusty. For awhile, this was my crew. They all lived for 5 or 6 years. Their care wasn't perfect, but it was better and I was learning and growing as a dragon keeper.

One day the petstore owner and I were talking, and he wanted to give me his dragon. He didn't want to take care of her anymore. I had never taken in an adult dragon. I had always only had babies that I raised myself. I wouldn't have said yes if it wasn't for the fact that I wanted to stay in good with the petstore owner (this came into play massively a few years later)
So, now I have a 3 year old dragon, who I named Naughtica. Her name is based on Naussica, a character from a movie (she was the start to how I name all of the rest of my future dragons, after hayo Miyazaki film characters). Around the same time I got an adult Male, Spyro. I don't remember exactly how I got him, but I believe also from a friend I had met at the petstore. He was trying to produce white dragons (back then they were basically unheard of, and light grey hypos were the closest most people had gotten to that) and spyro was a light-grey hypo.

Naughtica and spyro were the only two dragons I had for a few years now. Around this time is when I also found this website, and my knowledge, care, and love for this hobby grew immensely. I loved being surrounded by people who understood. I loved being able to talk dragons all day long if I wanted. And I loved being able to help people. Obviously in the beginning, it was me being helped. But I soaked it all up like a sponge. I loved it.

Eventually I decided I wanted to breed. So, Naughtica and Spyro were put together for a week. And, it was successful. It was honestly a lot of fun, it was scary, but it was rewarding. Coming home that one day and seeing that a few hatched was one of the happiest moments of my life. I was so filled with joy and excitement.
But now a new learning curve. Caring for around 20 baby hatchlings. And it was a learning curve for sure. I was not at all prepared for how much they eat. I wasn't prepared to separate ones that started to get picked on. For that reason some lost parts of tails, some lost toes. One even completely lost a foot. But, i grew and I learned with later clutches.

Remember wanting to stay in good with the petshop owner? It came into play now. His shop was how I was able to sell my babies. It was either just my town, or the time, but he basically couldn't keep dragons in stock. Worked out great for me, and great for him. I had a solid consistent place to sell my babies to, and he had a reliable person to buy from.

I only did that for about two seasons before life changed and breeding as a hobby was no longer a viable thing to do. Spyro had died a year or two later. I really don't know how old he was.

But Naughtica was going strong. And a few more years passed and I had bought Kiki. I had always had a thing for red trans, and Kiki was the perfect girl to fit that bill. I had gotten over breeding and just wanted a dragon or two of the "higher end" morphs to enjoy. By this time I was very active on this site, and Naughtica and Kiki both had their own threads here (I will link to later). So did Calcifer, a uromastyx that I had bought from that same petshop I used to sell to. Naughtica was getting pretty old at this point. But, my care and knowledge had grown so much that I knew she was gonna be with me for the long haul, and that's what I was hoping out of kiki and calcifer. These three were my new crew. I was happy with everything I had.

Long story short, life got in the way again, and my crew had to be put under someone elses care. They were entrusted to my family. Unfortunately, that didn't work out well at all. And I feel awful. They were not taken care of properly. They eventually all passed. Naughtica was around 12 I believe. And I have no doubts she would have lived even longer if she were to have been under my care, I just wasn't able to.

It took me a long time to feel like I could get back into this hobby. One thing never left me, and that was my love for this hobby, and my love for these creatures, and my love for talking anyones ear off about them that will let me.

And here we are today.

-Brandon
 

Claudiusx

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DorgEndo":3av3bq74 said:
Ms. Kiki is rocking the chin strap style beard.
Haha I WON'T tell her you said this :D

DragonPete":3av3bq74 said:
Too cute! Love her colors and racing stripes!?
And the 'Opera length gloves' are to die for! LOL!
-Dee
I didn't even really notice that haha! What a diva huh? :p

And, the King in all his glory:

full


-Brandon
 

DorgEndo

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Claud's Crew is a very aptly named thread. Makes the logistics of keeping a quintet of dragons seems quite reasonable. Stack those enclosures. Build them yourself. You weren't using that space near the ceiling. More dragons! Always go for more dragons.

I have a request for Suki pictures. More Suki please
 

DragonPete

Sub-Adult Member
claudiusx":3s3ck3fx said:
DorgEndo":3s3ck3fx said:
Ms. Kiki is rocking the chin strap style beard.
Haha I WON'T tell her you said this :D

DragonPete":3s3ck3fx said:
Too cute! Love her colors and racing stripes!?
And the 'Opera length gloves' are to die for! LOL!
-Dee
I didn't even really notice that haha! What a diva huh? :p

And, the King in all his glory:

full


-Brandon
She's a diva for sure!
The king, he doesn't have the bristles, is he a leatherback? Is that what they're called? What caused the dark spot on his back/side? He looks so much smoother than Petey. Like he'd be nice to pet. Noticed Kiki is smooth too. What are they again?
-Dee
 

Claudiusx

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DorgEndo":d2qdtmj0 said:
Claud's Crew is a very aptly named thread. Makes the logistics of keeping a quintet of dragons seems quite reasonable. Stack those enclosures. Build them yourself. You weren't using that space near the ceiling. More dragons! Always go for more dragons.

I have a request for Suki pictures. More Suki please

You got it! I'll get some Suki pictures up tomorrow. Oddly enough, she's the only one (besides Kiki obviously) who decided they weren't going to brumate or semi brumate. So you'd think i'd have more pictures of her :oops:

DragonPete":d2qdtmj0 said:
The king, he doesn't have the bristles, is he a leatherback? Is that what they're called? What caused the dark spot on his back/side? He looks so much smoother than Petey. Like he'd be nice to pet. Noticed Kiki is smooth too. What are they again?
-Dee

Hey Dee, Yeah he is a leatherback. All of mine are leatherbacks except for Mei. I'm not partial to leatherbacks really, that's just how things ended up lol.

Thats part of Tombo's colorings.
This is him as a baby:
31715-879280358.jpg
A bit older:
31715-9606465422.jpg
And him awhile back or so:
31715-3839772418.jpg

They call them "blue bars"
When he's warm and happy, he really is quite blue/grey on his sides. When he's cold and trying to warm up, he gets dark. Look how dark he got once here:
31715-6493308791.jpg

-Brandon
 

DragonPete

Sub-Adult Member
Wow that's neat. I've only had contact with 2 dragons, Petey and his sister so they are all I know. I've seen so many variations here, cool colors and patterns, spikey to smooth. They are amazing creatures.?
-Dee
 

Claudiusx

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Thanks Dee :)

Yup back when I first started there were really only 2 or 3 different morphs. Leatherbacks were the big new thing. Now we have a dozen or so and it seems to be continuing to increase as the hobby gets bigger and bigger.

Tombo is a Hypo leather Dunner
Moro is a Hypo Witblits leather
Suki is a trans leather dunner
Mei is a Hypo Dunner
Kiki is a trans leatherback (phantom stripe)

I put phantom stripe in parenthesis because I'm not sure if there is a consensus as to whether phantom stripes/color stripes are a morph, or just a trait.

My old girl Naughtica was a standard morph, and she to this day has stayed as one of my favorites. I do miss her.

-Brandon
 

Claudiusx

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If a dragon doesn't have any morphs they would just be called a standard or normal :)

-Brandon
 

Claudiusx

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DragonPete":2ma34yjo said:
I wouldn't know if he has any morph. LOL! I'll go with 'common' Dragon. ?
You have quite the ADDICTION there Brandon. ?
-Dee
I fixed your post for you... LOL

Petey doesn't have clear nails does he?

-Brandon
 

DragonPete

Sub-Adult Member
Too funny!
Not sure about his nails, will look next time he's up, can't see them right now but thought he did have clear or very light nails. I may be wrong, haven't really paid attention to them except when he was shredding me in a bath. ?
-Dee
 

Claudiusx

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I haven't used sand in nearly 12-15 years at this point, but I think I'm going to revisit it today and pick some up for Moro.

What I'm hoping for is that it adds a bit of enrichment for her. I'm hoping it either excites her and wakes her up and gets her active again, or at the least makes her more comfortable while she semi-sleeps.

Also, I wonder about how she feels with the tile. I don't really see her supporting her weight too often on it (although she does fine on carpet) I wonder if she would enjoy the sand being softer more.

Anyways, It will be a fun little experiment. 50lb bags of sand are around 5 bucks for me, so there will be no reservations about dumping it in a week if I decide it's not a good idea.

-Brandon
 

ComicBookMama

Sub-Adult Member
Kiki is just the prettiest little dragon! And Mr.Tombo is a handsome fellow, too. I've got no space for another hab, ot your crew would have me wanting another dragon to go with Figment! I never really thought about leatherbacks, but I bet they'd be a lot less prickly to handle than Figment is. He still puffs out his sides when I pick him up... ouch! :D

Keep us posted on the sand experiment. Are you going to cover Moro's hab with it, or put in a box?
 

Claudiusx

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Original Poster
ComicBookMama":1jd6pxjp said:
I never really thought about leatherbacks, but I bet they'd be a lot less prickly to handle than Figment is. He still puffs out his sides when I pick him up... ouch!
You'd be surprised. Tombo still has quite prominent side spikes, and he puffs when I go to pick him up, I swear they puncture skin lol. I've learned to act like im going to, before actually doing it, that way I can see if he's gonna spike me lol.

ComicBookMama":1jd6pxjp said:
Keep us posted on the sand experiment. Are you going to cover Moro's hab with it, or put in a box?
Whole Habitat. Just put the sand in.
Fun fact, a 50lb bag of sand is the perfect amount for a 4x2x2 tank :)

Well, it definitely woke Moro up, she looks like a deer in the headlights her eyes are so wide open lol.
She hasn't had much time in it yet, (sand was a little damp, so didn't get it in until late today) but so far she's actually moving around.

I also put her branch back into her tank since I only removed it to discourage her from brumating. That didn't work lol.

31715-9745474658.jpg
Here's the tank. I definitely need to get some greenery in there or something. I do like how it looks though.

31715-1102680280.jpg
I placed her on her log. LOL see what I mean about deer caught in the headlights.

And a few minutes later, here she is:
31715-1372808898.jpg
I did put one square of tile in there, just so she can pick to be on the tile or the sand. Plus it makes it easy to put her salad bowl on the tile.

Like I said, it's all pretty much an experiment at this point, we will see how things go. Sand is still a bit moist, I put a humidity gauge in and am monitoring it. If need be I'll have her sleep in a separate enclosure if humidity ends up getting too high. I don't think it will though.

I bought 2 bags thinking 1 might not be enough, so total investment was 11 dollars lol.

-Brandon
 

DragonPete

Sub-Adult Member
What's the reason for the sand? Was she not acting normal or unhappy? I know there was an issue with her beard not long ago. What are you hoping the sand will do? Just curious as to why your doing this 'experiment'.
-Dee
 

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