Introducing Beebz

[shmoomunchkin]

Beebs looking good after her bath:

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Basking after breakfast:
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Supervising: the testing of a new probe thermometer:
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He is quite long...wondering and thinking that he is going to be a big beardie. Great job on keeping him so healthy!

 

[Axil]

Man he looks happy!!!
If you want hornworms to grow faster keep them kind of close to your basking lights, if you need them to not grow as fast keep them cooler (70ish i think)

I think he's pretty content. He spends most of his day basking somewhere on his mountain, or next to it. He still sleeps in old stump which is the smallest hide he had but apparently it's the best place to sleep even if he barely fits.

Our house stays 68-72. So hopefully these new bigger hornworms won't grow much. If so they will become chicken snacks.

My halogens produced less heat than the zoomed bulbs. So I'm now up to 3 100w zoomed bulbs to get my temps right. Got my extra probe out to verify and that's what it takes to get the uppermost basking platform over 105 consistently. The lower one he is hanging out on in the pictures is around 100. He spends most of his time there.

Sometimes I catch him gaping on the floor I'm front of the basking platform, that's why I brought in the other probe to verify but my readings seem to be accurate. My temp gun reads about 5-8 degrees hotter which is odd because in the old enclosure it was always within 3-4.

 

[Axil]

He is quite long...wondering and thinking that he is going to be a big beardie. Great job on keeping him so healthy!

Thank you, we are trying. He spent way too long in his little enclosure but that's behind us and he has plenty of space. It is possible he's older than the petshop estimated.

He's really a good sport about everything. Would take bugs, and veggies from our hands from day one. Happy to be handled. We are very lucky to have him and want to give him the best.

 

[Axil]

We've been busy so Beebz hadn't had playtime outside his enclosure for a week or two. Today we got him out and let him run around in his playpen which gave me an opportunity to weigh and measure him.
He was 134g and 14in.

From what I've read that makes him bit heavy for his age. I'm not sure if he's actually overweight though. I'm also not sure the 6-8 week estimate we got from thr per shop on ~Feb 5th was accurate. Though he was a bit over 6in then which seems to track about right for a 2mo old.

After playtime he got fed, and man did he cram down those roaches quick. He had been less excited about eating the last couple days. Time out of the enclosure always seems to give him some extra energy for a while after his return. He got a superworm after he finished his roaches and while he enjoyed it I got a sullen look to let me know it didn't replace the hornworm he was expecting.

We are out of hornworms, more are on the way. Actually that's not entirely true one hornworm managed to grow to the size of my index finger and I keep forgetting to bring it out to give the chickens. Beebz assures me he is perfectly capable of eating it. I disagree.

He is also down to 2 meals a day now. We decided about a week ago that his size qualifies him as a juvy even if he may be only 4 months. He informs me he will be lodging a complaint.

We've mixed in some cilantro with his daily salad of kale and collards. He doesn't seem to have much preference. He'll eat a decent amount of whatever green when I hand feed it before bug time and sometimes comes back for the rest in his salad bowl after bugs.

I wish I could keep them in the enclosure longer for him. I mist them until it's nearly a soup and if I don't come back and do it again every 2 hours it's totally dried out.

He has been exploring his hide options at night and has spent at least one night in each one. I think he's finally settled on the largest of them.

He's currently wandering around his enclosure eating little bits of shed basking every so often then coming over to remind me I owe him a hornworm

 

[xp29]

He's not overweight, he looks pretty good.
Careful with the hornworms they can very quickly start refusing other feeders.

So if we start seeing random messages demanding we all donate and mail hornworms to your house, we will know Beebz has taken matters into his own hands lmao

 

[shmoomunchkin]

We've been busy so Beebz hadn't had playtime outside his enclosure for a week or two. Today we got him out and let him run around in his playpen which gave me an opportunity to weigh and measure him.
He was 134g and 14in.
View attachment 79518
From what I've read that makes him bit heavy for his age. I'm not sure if he's actually overweight though. I'm also not sure the 6-8 week estimate we got from thr per shop on ~Feb 5th was accurate. Though he was a bit over 6in then which seems to track about right for a 2mo old.

After playtime he got fed, and man did he cram down those roaches quick. He had been less excited about eating the last couple days. Time out of the enclosure always seems to give him some extra energy for a while after his return. He got a superworm after he finished his roaches and while he enjoyed it I got a sullen look to let me know it didn't replace the hornworm he was expecting.

We are out of hornworms, more are on the way. Actually that's not entirely true one hornworm managed to grow to the size of my index finger and I keep forgetting to bring it out to give the chickens. Beebz assures me he is perfectly capable of eating it. I disagree.

He is also down to 2 meals a day now. We decided about a week ago that his size qualifies him as a juvy even if he may be only 4 months. He informs me he will be lodging a complaint.

We've mixed in some cilantro with his daily salad of kale and collards. He doesn't seem to have much preference. He'll eat a decent amount of whatever green when I hand feed it before bug time and sometimes comes back for the rest in his salad bowl after bugs.
View attachment 79519
I wish I could keep them in the enclosure longer for him. I mist them until it's nearly a soup and if I don't come back and do it again every 2 hours it's totally dried out.

He has been exploring his hide options at night and has spent at least one night in each one. I think he's finally settled on the largest of them.

He's currently wandering around his enclosure eating little bits of shed basking every so often then coming over to remind me I owe him a hornworm
View attachment 79521

Not even a bit overweight! Feed him...typically length in babies, comes before weight.
Your guy looks awesome!

 

[hdochow]

i tend to ignore the growth/weight charts because the numbers are all relative to care anyway. when we rescued sir henry at 6 months old he was only 8 grams and about 9.5 inches long. he's now almost 3 and 22 inches long and coming in at 522 grams. this is him currently, just chilling out, waiting for snuggle time before lights out. there's a picture of him all sick and tiny in my profile media files if you want to see for comparison. it is the very last one in there.

 

[Axil]

He's not overweight, he looks pretty good.
Careful with the hornworms they can very quickly start refusing other feeders.

So if we start seeing random messages demanding we all donate and mail hornworms to your house, we will know Beebz has taken matters into his own hands lmao

I'll definitely be watching for this. So far we've been incredibly lucky with Beebz willingness to eat whatever we ask him to. Him "going off" his roaches means he only wants 7-10 instead of the usual 20-30. Hornworms are definitely the favorite though.

Yesterday after my daughter fed him roaches he went into his hide instead of basking like usual. "That's wierd" I said. "See if he will come out for his hornworm" he tore out of there at a speed I wouldn't know he had if I hadn't started feeding hornworms.

He gets one after he's done eating his veggies and whatever high protein bug we are feeding that session. So far that's worked well but we will see if he decides to "alter the agreement" at some point!

Not even a bit overweight! Feed him...typically length in babies, comes before weight.
Your guy looks awesome!

Thank you! It might be my imagination but I swear I see a pattern where he starts to look a little thicker then leans out and gets longer. That matches my experience raising puppies, and, well humans. I normally hear reptile growth described as more of a slow constant thing though.

I'm trying to do a better job getting him out of the enclosure consistently to keep him active. He is pretty lazy in his enclosure either basking or laying around somewhere else. I also keep meaning to find a big bin and glue some plastic mesh to the bottom to feed him in. He likes to run after roaches that escape the bowl but I don't like them disappearing in his enclosure.

He didn't like eating outside the enclosure when we tried before but I think it was because the tub was too small and too smooth on thr bottom.

i tend to ignore the growth/weight charts because the numbers are all relative to care anyway. when we rescued sir henry at 6 months old he was only 8 grams and about 9.5 inches long. he's now almost 3 and 22 inches long and coming in at 522 grams. this is him currently, just chilling out, waiting for snuggle time before lights out. there's a picture of him all sick and tiny in my profile media files if you want to see for comparison. it is the very last one in there.

View attachment 79534

Yeah I'm not real worried about him being a bit outside the weight bracket. I'm the kind of person who always needs some sort of metric as a guideline though. Mostly I fret over hydration to protect his kidneys and try to throw in some lower protein feeders to dilute all the roaches for the same reason.

I had seen that picture of Sir Henry, but forgot just how emaciated the poor little guy was when you got him. Props to you for saving him, and Sir Henry for being such a tough little guy. It's hard to believe he survived being so tiny.

 

[Axil]

So Beebz got weighed and measured again today. I tried to do it yesterday to make it exactly a week since his last measurements were taken but my scale died on me.

He weighed in at a out 185g. I couldn't quite get his whole tail on the scale but I think I got it pretty close.

I was pretty surprised to see him increase his weight by 30% in a week. He also grew at least another inch. He has hard to line up with my tape-measurer, but I'm reasonably confident he is in the 15-16in range.

He seemed to enjoy his time out. My daughter was busyso there was more room for just the two of us in his playpen.

The last picture shows what he does when he's done. He'll shove his nose in one of the holes like he thinks he can fit then start scratching at the pen.


I still don't trust him enough to just let him loose in the room.

First, because my daughter's room is a disaster area! And second because while he's usually easy going and meanders around slowly I've seen him move pretty quickly when he wants to and don't want to lose him.

He tried bell peppers for the first time today
He took two pieces from my hand and got my hopes up thinking he was going to like it. He then proceeded to glare at me anytime I offered more.

I took a picture of his arm last week because I had gout on the mind and was convinced myself it looked swollen. I've since decided it looks normal but I may as well post it to get you guys' thoughts:

 

[shmoomunchkin]

So Beebz got weighed and measured again today. I tried to do it yesterday to make it exactly a week since his last measurements were taken but my scale died on me.

He weighed in at a out 185g. I couldn't quite get his whole tail on the scale but I think I got it pretty close.
View attachment 79747
I was pretty surprised to see him increase his weight by 30% in a week. He also grew at least another inch. He has hard to line up with my tape-measurer, but I'm reasonably confident he is in the 15-16in range.

He seemed to enjoy his time out. My daughter was busyso there was more room for just the two of us in his playpen.
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View attachment 79751
The last picture shows what he does when he's done. He'll shove his nose in one of the holes like he thinks he can fit then start scratching at the pen.


I still don't trust him enough to just let him loose in the room.

First, because my daughter's room is a disaster area! And second because while he's usually easy going and meanders around slowly I've seen him move pretty quickly when he wants to and don't want to lose him.

He tried bell peppers for the first time today
He took two pieces from my hand and got my hopes up thinking he was going to like it. He then proceeded to glare at me anytime I offered more.

I took a picture of his arm last week because I had gout on the mind and was convinced myself it looked swollen. I've since decided it looks normal but I may as well post it to get you guys' thoughts:
View attachment 79752

View attachment 79753

Beautiful baby!!!! Great weight.

I had a guy with gout, and this just looks like the position of the leg, no swelling to my eye. Line of wrist demarcation looks good.

 

[xp29]

Yeah just looks like a good ole healthy boy to me to. Beautiful coloring.
They can run at like 10 to 12 m.p.h. and they can reach top speed 3 seconds ago lol. Even my big male can move insanely fast when he wants to.

 

[Axil]

Thanks guys. I was leaning that way. Those are the pictures that make it look most swollen. I took about 20 ('cause I'm insane).

 

[Axil]

So Beebz got his weekly weigh in and had a bath while his enclosure was cleaned. His tail has looked like it was going to shed any minute for about to weeks. Instead his face started shedding a couple days ago. So we're hoping a good soak will speed up the process.

He now weighs 220g and is 16in long

These were taken after his bath. First he wanted to go right back to his enclosure and scratched at the gate for a while.

It wasn't ready yet, and when he realized I wasn't going to put him back he just stood there and stared at me for s good 10 minutes.

 

[xp29]

YO HOOMAN whaz ya waitings on?
You can definitely see he has attitude lol

 

[Axil]

YO HOOMAN whaz ya waitings on?
You can definitely see he has attitude lol

pretty much.

I think that look was a mixture of: "Told you the bath wouldn't help - It's cold, why is my basking spot sitting outside the enclosure? - I haven't had a hornworm in 3 days, this is abuse!"