Hi...
Puff and Broly are in the same boat with weight. We try to keep in mind that when you weigh a beardie (or any animal for that matter, including humans), it's hard to get the "net weight" because there are 3 things that are just passing through: food, water, and poop. When we weigh Puff, my husband keeps track of whether it's a "before poop" or an "after poop" weight.
Puff's "after poop" weight was down to 488 grams this last Saturday. He's been eating squash and a little Repashy grub pie, which is good nutrition for him as well as good
hydration, but very few roaches. Fortunately, the roaches aren't growing too fast because they're kept pretty cool, around 65-70 degrees F, which is fine because I really don't want to end up with a breeding colony to care for, even though it would save $.
We have gotten some covid vaccines shipped here to Alaska, but they are being given first to frontline people (doctors and nurses, etc) and not expected to go out to everyone for a couple of months yet, which is as it should be, as far as I'm concerned. A few people have had allergic reactions, and they are also trying to keep track of "flu-like symptoms" which could probably just be due to the person's immune system reacting to the vaccine, and could probably just mean that it "took." Lots of illness is caused by an immune system overreaction and not by the virus itself. So I for one am looking forward to getting the vaccine
, and as you say, hoping that it works. After that, I may be more anxious and willing to get out of the house, now that I haven't had a choice for so long, and that would probably be good for me.
Yes, it's rough for people not to be able to be with their pets at the vet, especially it they need to be euthanized
. I agree that Tom is doing the best he can under the circumstances.
Puff is getting the same artificial photoperiod as Broly, and sometimes he basks for a couple of hours and then goes in his hide. So between that and not eating enough to get much in the way of vitamins and calcium, I hope he's getting enough food and UV to prevent MBD. That's all we need, :roll: in addition to everything else.
You sure have a lot of critters to clean up after, but it sounds like you've got it on a good schedule. We're only up to cleaning up after one reptile, but we don't have to change out the stuff in the tank very often, because we can usually spot clean whenever Puff has an accident. How much we have to clean out depends on where it happens. Otherwise it's pretty easy when he does it in his
bath, except that the
hydration sometimes gets cut short -- not going to let him continue to soak in poopy water.
My husband is planning to host a drop-in and drop-out Zoom meeting for family members, and he invited everyone who he has email addresses for. We are likely to have only a few if any, because so far we haven't gotten a commitment to attend from anyone. So we may end up doing it the old fashioned way and talking to some of them on the landline phone. :mrgreen: (Soooo 20th century)
Here's a TLDR for Christmas -- have a nice one. :wink: