Foster Dragon (Now a Foster fail)

Status
Not open for further replies.

GeckoGarden

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Urg. The powers been out since 10:40 am. It’s now 4:05 pm. It was projected to be back at 2pm then 4pm.

Ziva bless her soul is just sleeping not a care in the world. Spitfire is having a harder time with out lights so we are having bonding time outside since it’s 77°f out but feels warmer in direct sunlight.

44170-3893372538.jpg
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
Your dragons are lucky that there's warm sun outside during a power outage. One nice thing about living in California. (I used to live there, long ago and far away in another time and another place and another life.)

When we had the "big" Alaskan earthquake (not to be confused with the really big one in '64) in November of 2018, the power was out almost all day and not anywhere near warm enough to take a beardie outside, so I used mammalian body heat to keep Puff warm -- in other words, we cuddled all day while my husband cleaned up the mess from the earthquake. It was dark so Puff just went to sleep (like Ziva) and didn't make any trouble. Luckily they got the power back on later in the day so we could feed him and put him back under the heat lamps to bask.

It sounds like Ziva would probably tolerate something like being cuddled by a human for warmth, but Spitfire maybe not so much. Good to have a place for either of them outside in the sun. :)
 

GeckoGarden

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
SHBailey":2u17xuz4 said:
Your dragons are lucky that there's warm sun outside during a power outage. One nice thing about living in California. (I used to live there, long ago and far away in another time and another place and another life.)

When we had the "big" Alaskan earthquake (not to be confused with the really big one in '64) in November of 2018, the power was out almost all day and not anywhere near warm enough to take a beardie outside, so I used mammalian body heat to keep Puff warm -- in other words, we cuddled all day while my husband cleaned up the mess from the earthquake. It was dark so Puff just went to sleep (like Ziva) and didn't make any trouble. Luckily they got the power back on later in the day so we could feed him and put him back under the heat lamps to bask.

It sounds like Ziva would probably tolerate something like being cuddled by a human for warmth, but Spitfire maybe not so much. Good to have a place for either of them outside in the sun. :)

Ziva loves cuddles. Spitfire not so much, but she’s learning to like them. She is calming down quicker once she’s out.

It’s now been over 12hrs with out power. Neither of the girls wanted to eat today due to the lack of warmth.

I’m trying to stay up until it’s supposed to come back on to make sure my filter on my fish tank doesn’t fail, but with my luck it’s gonna be an all night thing.

In my 30 years of living I’ve never had a power outage last this long. 2-4 hours tops usually. It’s so quite in the house and it’s really really weird.

Spitfire hit 25 grams yesterday!
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
I hope they get your power back on soon. Wondering how you're managing to still be online -- batteries?

We have a UPS for our computer but the battery doesn't last very long once the power goes out. Just enough to save things and shut down. Wouldn't be able to depend on it to keep a fish tank filter going for very long. And believe it or not, they're pretty good at keeping the power on here in Anchorage, especially considering everything they have to deal with -- earthquakes, snowstorms, freezing, etc.

It sounds like you're going to have Spitfire tamed sooner or later. You might have to change her name. :wink:

Good weight gain for her. We're watching our beardie's weight even though he's an adult because he had an episode of nearly starving on what we were feeding him a couple of years ago. At first we thought he was doing well because he started eating lots of greens, but it turned out he was mortally hungry. He has adenovirus and we were afraid we were going to lose him, but he managed to pull through. It was almost like raising a baby to get that poor little beardie back up to his healthy weight, and fortunately he cooperated - there was never anything wrong with his appetite. Massive quantities of bugs, so nowadays we feed him daily as much as he wants to eat, and weigh him weekly. Not going to get blindsided by that again if we can possibly avoid it. Fortunately Puff's weight has been fairly stable, the way it's supposed to be, at least for this last year.

It sound like your baby is well on her way to a good healthy future. :D
 

GeckoGarden

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
SHBailey":3gxxuat8 said:
I hope they get your power back on soon. Wondering how you're managing to still be online -- batteries?

We have a UPS for our computer but the battery doesn't last very long once the power goes out. Just enough to save things and shut down. Wouldn't be able to depend on it to keep a fish tank filter going for very long. And believe it or not, they're pretty good at keeping the power on here in Anchorage, especially considering everything they have to deal with -- earthquakes, snowstorms, freezing, etc.

It sounds like you're going to have Spitfire tamed sooner or later. You might have to change her name. :wink:

Good weight gain for her. We're watching our beardie's weight even though he's an adult because he had an episode of nearly starving on what we were feeding him a couple of years ago. At first we thought he was doing well because he started eating lots of greens, but it turned out he was mortally hungry. He has adenovirus and we were afraid we were going to lose him, but he managed to pull through. It was almost like raising a baby to get that poor little beardie back up to his healthy weight, and fortunately he cooperated - there was never anything wrong with his appetite. Massive quantities of bugs, so nowadays we feed him daily as much as he wants to eat, and weigh him weekly. Not going to get blindsided by that again if we can possibly avoid it. Fortunately Puff's weight has been fairly stable, the way it's supposed to be, at least for this last year.

It sound like your baby is well on her way to a good healthy future. :D

15hrs with out power.
Yeah cellphone. I had a back up battery pack and was able to keep my phone charged all day thankfully.
I’m turning on the lights a bit earlier than normal this morning since everyone went with out them yesterday.

Fish seem fine at least, Spitfires already basking under her UV, and Zivas glaring at me from her log ?

That virus is something I never want to deal with. I’ve had my fair share of crypto cases with leopard geckos from working in a pet store with a ****ty reptile vendor (same one spitfires from) but in my 7 years there I never had much issues with the dragons besides nips from cage mates or people taking them home and not giving them right care then returning them on deaths bed : /.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
Glad they finally got your power back on. Us 21st century folks are just not adapted to live without electricity. And glad your fish are ok. Sounds like back to normal with the beardies -- one of them basking and the other one giving you "The Look" that dragons are so famous for. :lol:

When Puff was diagnosed with ADV, our vet told us that it was not a death sentence but it can be serious. He's had it for about 6 years now. We've had some close calls with infections and an episode of extreme weight loss -- it was like raising a baby to feed him back up to his healthy weight, but he's doing well for now.

Sounds like you've had some experiences working in a pet store. :shock: I'm surprised that adenovirus didn't rear its ugly head while you were there -- they say that there's an epidemic going on (and I don't mean covid :wink: )
 

GeckoGarden

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
SHBailey":1g50yjxm said:
Glad they finally got your power back on. Us 21st century folks are just not adapted to live without electricity. And glad your fish are ok. Sounds like back to normal with the beardies -- one of them basking and the other one giving you "The Look" that dragons are so famous for. :lol:

When Puff was diagnosed with ADV, our vet told us that it was not a death sentence but it can be serious. He's had it for about 6 years now. We've had some close calls with infections and an episode of extreme weight loss -- it was like raising a baby to feed him back up to his healthy weight, but he's doing well for now.

Sounds like you've had some experiences working in a pet store. :shock: I'm surprised that adenovirus didn't rear its ugly head while you were there -- they say that there's an epidemic going on (and I don't mean covid :wink: )

I don’t think we ever had dragons long enough to even see signs of ADV in the store. I did have one case of yellow fungus. That wasn’t the suppliers fault. She caught it after a trip to the vet for an unrelated issue. That was fun. I ended up taking her home once she was all clear and finding her the perfect home.

I got tired of how bad the store was getting (corporate) and how sick the animals kept coming in so I left about 4 years ago now.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
GeckoGarden":3f6fq33f said:
I don’t think we ever had dragons long enough to even see signs of ADV in the store. I did have one case of yellow fungus. That wasn’t the suppliers fault. She caught it after a trip to the vet for an unrelated issue. That was fun. I ended up taking her home once she was all clear and finding her the perfect home.

I got tired of how bad the store was getting (corporate) and how sick the animals kept coming in so I left about 4 years ago now.

I've never had to deal with yellow fungus, but I understand that it can be pretty nasty. It was good that you were able to find good homes for some of the dragons (and probably other reptiles too, I'd suppose) that weren't well cared for at the pet store.

Good on you for leaving that job when you did. What are you doing for employment nowadays?
 

GeckoGarden

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
SHBailey":19i302h0 said:
GeckoGarden":19i302h0 said:
I don’t think we ever had dragons long enough to even see signs of ADV in the store. I did have one case of yellow fungus. That wasn’t the suppliers fault. She caught it after a trip to the vet for an unrelated issue. That was fun. I ended up taking her home once she was all clear and finding her the perfect home.

I got tired of how bad the store was getting (corporate) and how sick the animals kept coming in so I left about 4 years ago now.

I've never had to deal with yellow fungus, but I understand that it can be pretty nasty. It was good that you were able to find good homes for some of the dragons (and probably other reptiles too, I'd suppose) that weren't well cared for at the pet store.

Good on you for leaving that job when you did. What are you doing for employment nowadays?


Currently I work at a vet Hosptial on the boarding side, as well as the drop in tech position. I’m in school to be able to sit for the RVT exam once I pass all the classes. I just finished up my Intro to Bio section and passed the exam with 100%.

Our vet hospitals great because we have three vets on staff that know about exotic animals. Each have a preference on what they will see.

The women I use is great, she’s really nice, and if she doesn’t know what’s going on, she’ll research it and learn more about it. If she still can’t figure it out, she’ll refer to Berkeley Dog and cat. They have vets there who are some of the best around for exotics.

She’s well aware of the dangers of Enemas in bearded dragons too. She may not be on that list of exotic vets we use on this site, but I trust her.
 

GeckoGarden

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Spitfire has officially tripled in weight!!!! ?

It’s so weird for me to have a dragon that eats as much as she does. Zivas always has a lower appetite, even for an adult.

1,000 medium black solider fly grub lasted just about a month haha. I just had to put in another order.

About 300 hatched into flies on me, so 30 of them got tossed aside in a container to see if they’ll breed (they are native to my area so I could set something up outside)

The other night of the 83 flies that hatched she at 70...I was shocked. Then again she also didn’t eat greens that day.

She loves sprouts, collard, dandelion greens so far. I don’t buy a lot at a time unless I will eat it too since Ziva won’t eat it fast enough before it goes bad.

(I don’t know how they like dandelion greens. I ran out of greens for my sandwich before work one day and used the dandelion greens as a replacement. Never again. So bitter and hard to chew. I had to remove them to eat my sandwich.)

She also finished her second shed with me! She’s so pretty. Her temperaments getting better slowly as well. I’ll have to get a photo of her in good lighting.

I set up more garden space in my room to grow plants for them that I can’t grow outside in the summers heat.

I’ve got mint and basil on one shelf.

In another container I have two types of kale seeds I planted, spinach(for me), carrots (for the insects/dogs and I), cauliflower(for me) and lemon cucumber (for mom).

Plus outside I have cucumbers, strawberries, pepper plant, endive that’s now producing flowers and seeds that I need to replant, sunflowers and water melon. But that’s all for me hahah. Some of it as a treat for them, but mostly me.
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
Wow. Sounds like you and Spitfire have your nutrition all planned out.

We tried gardening but ended up mostly giving up on it. The soil here isn't too good. Lots of rocks and spirea roots. Spirea makes a beautiful hedge, but the problem is it doesn't stay there. It's invasive and send out roots all over the place and little plants sprout up overnight where you don't want them. You have to keep mowing them down and digging them up, and my husband has spent hours doing that. Last summer he tried growing collards, endives, and mustard greens in pots, but the only thing that did well was the mustard. The summers are short here but lots of people garden and have some success with various things. We used to have mint growing wild, and we also have raspberries growing wild in the back alley even though I don't seem to be able to grow them in our yard. Go figure.

This year my husband cooked up a fresh kabocha squash for all of us. It's Puff's favorite squash and I tried some of it myself and liked it -- a lot. So my husband saved the seeds, dug up some dirt from the yard, and planted them in an old barbecue. A little late in the season so I think he's going to be disappointed, but what the heck. We'll see what happens.

The way she's eating and shedding, it sounds like Spitfire is going to grow really fast. You're lucky you've got one that's not a finicky eater. I am amazed that she can catch flies. Our beardie has trouble catching things that jump and crawl (crickets and roaches), let alone anything that can fly. He once caught a UFI (Unidentified Flying Insect) that wandered into his tank, apparently when we had the lid off. He scarfed it up before I had a chance to get a good look at it, but that sort of thing definitely doesn't happen very often.

My husband likes dandelion greens, but I don't. Like you say, too bitter. Some people say that they're not so bad if you pick them when they're little, but they get really big really fast around here in the summer with all the extra daylight. We aren't buying too many greens for Puff lately because we have a whole yard full of dandelions, which are supposed to be a good staple for beardies. Puff doesn't think so, but he's not good with any other greens either.

Oops. TLDR. :oops:
 

GeckoGarden

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
SHBailey":lbinzm0r said:
Wow. Sounds like you and Spitfire have your nutrition all planned out.

We tried gardening but ended up mostly giving up on it. The soil here isn't too good. Lots of rocks and spirea roots. Spirea makes a beautiful hedge, but the problem is it doesn't stay there. It's invasive and send out roots all over the place and little plants sprout up overnight where you don't want them. You have to keep mowing them down and digging them up, and my husband has spent hours doing that. Last summer he tried growing collards, endives, and mustard greens in pots, but the only thing that did well was the mustard. The summers are short here but lots of people garden and have some success with various things. We used to have mint growing wild, and we also have raspberries growing wild in the back alley even though I don't seem to be able to grow them in our yard. Go figure.

This year my husband cooked up a fresh kabocha squash for all of us. It's Puff's favorite squash and I tried some of it myself and liked it -- a lot. So my husband saved the seeds, dug up some dirt from the yard, and planted them in an old barbecue. A little late in the season so I think he's going to be disappointed, but what the heck. We'll see what happens.

The way she's eating and shedding, it sounds like Spitfire is going to grow really fast. You're lucky you've got one that's not a finicky eater. I am amazed that she can catch flies. Our beardie has trouble catching things that jump and crawl (crickets and roaches), let alone anything that can fly. He once caught a UFI (Unidentified Flying Insect) that wandered into his tank, apparently when we had the lid off. He scarfed it up before I had a chance to get a good look at it, but that sort of thing definitely doesn't happen very often.

My husband likes dandelion greens, but I don't. Like you say, too bitter. Some people say that they're not so bad if you pick them when they're little, but they get really big really fast around here in the summer with all the extra daylight. We aren't buying too many greens for Puff lately because we have a whole yard full of dandelions, which are supposed to be a good staple for beardies. Puff doesn't think so, but he's not good with any other greens either.

Oops. TLDR. :oops:


I stick her in the small like 3 gallons cage that has the flies and she goes nuts chasing them. They are not very smart or fast at all. The few that get out always end up attracted to my lights so if they are out I just place her on my hand and hold her up to them and chomp. Spitfire snack. Lol.


Yeah our soils straight up clay so I have to have raised garden beds
 

SHBailey

Gray-bearded Member
We feed Puff in a separate bin too -- a large plastic tub with a bright lamp over it so he can see what he's trying to catch. If we were to put the bugs in his tank with him we'd have escaped crickets and roaches hopping and crawling all over his living space, since he's a klutz as a hunter. Sometimes he even sticks his tongue out and expects the bugs to hop on there all by themselves. :roll:

Spitfire is developing very pretty colors, and pretty soon she won't be able to fit in one hand anymore. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Staff online

Members online

Still Needs Help

Latest resources

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

What is a quick way to warm up a cold beardie? His heating element went out overnight and now he's very cold.
Pearl Girl wrote on moorelori1966's profile.
i feel so sad reading your about me 😢
Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

Things to do:
Buy calcium powder
Material to raise surface for basking spot
Scenery decals for back of tank
Taking my beardie for a walk

Forum statistics

Threads
155,854
Messages
1,255,170
Members
75,936
Latest member
KarmaChild99
Top Bottom