Bunsy44
Member
We got Zig on January 1st so its been about 6 months now. Its been going good but Im always learning. This forum has always been my go to place for info.
Zig is about 20 inches long and he's roughly a year old. He's seems to be in a constant state of shed so I know he's growing steadily. His head and legs just shed and his body before that so his tail will be next Im sure. He eats around 20-30 large crickets and a couple super worms every day, plus all the veggies he can eat (mustard green, collards, dandelion greens, peppers, carrots, strawberries, endive, etc.) I limit the fruits but he does love them and peppers quite a bit. He's super mellow most of the time and rarely gets worked up or black bearded. We take him out at least once a day but probably dont bath him as much as we could/should. I clean out the enclosure once a week and give him fresh water daily. I haven't weighed him but I assumed since he always sheds that he must be growing ok.
Tank temps are 100 under the basking light, 90 in the surrounding areas of the basking light, 80ish in the rest of the tank. Night time drops to 70ish. Im going to be upgrading my tank soon to a taller one so I can remove the screen on top so the lights aren't blocked by the screen. I currently have a 90w Halogen basking bulb, a 36" Retipson 10.0 UVB T5 that spans the back of the tank, a ceramic heat bulb hooked up to a temperature gauge so it goes on and off when needed. Tank is a low profile one with a foam back wall. The foam back wall is starting to fall apart so need to get rid of it soon.
One thing I noticed about him is how widely different he is from day to day. Some days he hides out in the cave half the day and sleeps in there at night after eating and warming up a bit. Other days he's walking and climbing all over the tank, eating like crazy, messing up his tank and sleeps in his hammock at night.
Concerns:
Lately he seems to have some loose stools. Sometimes it looks undigested with bug parts still distinguishable. His urea looks normal. One day he pooped and then a few minutes later he went again but it was just clear liquid and quite a bit of it. He seems fine otherwise. His eyes look good, he's alert, eating well, body looks fine, color is good, he never gets a black beard when being handled, no vomiting or anything like that. I'm wondering if he has a parasite or something? Maybe stressed out for some reason? I don't have an exotic vet in town so its a couple hours away if I need to get him checked. He has never been a regular everyday pooper. He's usually every other day or every 3 days sometimes. One time he went for a week and then his poop looked totally normal so I was worried for nothing I guess.
A couple times in the last month he went totally bonkers. He would climb up on his cave and start bobbing head head like crazy in really jerky movements and his whole body was going from bright orange to dark brown rather quickly and then back again. Then he would storm around the cage knocking things over, spilling water and food. One time he pooped and before I got home he must have got into one of his modes and just trashed the tank. Food and poop everywhere. I'm wondering if his reflection is pissing him off? As you can see in the picture below is a pretty clear reflection. Maybe he's just reached that age where he need to display some aggression sometimes? Im thinking when I get the new tank I should cover the back and sides with landscape pictures or at least black them out.
Should I be feeding him crickets more than once a day maybe? I have tried in the past and he usually doesn't want to eat a second time in a day. I dont like leaving crickets in the tank unattended because they hide and he cant get them and then they chirp all night.
I just notice in that one picture he looks a bit thin but he was cold at the time after being in his cave for a bit and must have been on an exhale when the pic was taken because he doesn't normally look that skinny. Maybe he needs to eat more? I guess I'm not really sure how fat they are suppose to look? Sometimes he looks huge ahah.
Anyway, I hope I'm doing things right so far but as I said, I'm always learning.
Zig is about 20 inches long and he's roughly a year old. He's seems to be in a constant state of shed so I know he's growing steadily. His head and legs just shed and his body before that so his tail will be next Im sure. He eats around 20-30 large crickets and a couple super worms every day, plus all the veggies he can eat (mustard green, collards, dandelion greens, peppers, carrots, strawberries, endive, etc.) I limit the fruits but he does love them and peppers quite a bit. He's super mellow most of the time and rarely gets worked up or black bearded. We take him out at least once a day but probably dont bath him as much as we could/should. I clean out the enclosure once a week and give him fresh water daily. I haven't weighed him but I assumed since he always sheds that he must be growing ok.
Tank temps are 100 under the basking light, 90 in the surrounding areas of the basking light, 80ish in the rest of the tank. Night time drops to 70ish. Im going to be upgrading my tank soon to a taller one so I can remove the screen on top so the lights aren't blocked by the screen. I currently have a 90w Halogen basking bulb, a 36" Retipson 10.0 UVB T5 that spans the back of the tank, a ceramic heat bulb hooked up to a temperature gauge so it goes on and off when needed. Tank is a low profile one with a foam back wall. The foam back wall is starting to fall apart so need to get rid of it soon.
One thing I noticed about him is how widely different he is from day to day. Some days he hides out in the cave half the day and sleeps in there at night after eating and warming up a bit. Other days he's walking and climbing all over the tank, eating like crazy, messing up his tank and sleeps in his hammock at night.
Concerns:
Lately he seems to have some loose stools. Sometimes it looks undigested with bug parts still distinguishable. His urea looks normal. One day he pooped and then a few minutes later he went again but it was just clear liquid and quite a bit of it. He seems fine otherwise. His eyes look good, he's alert, eating well, body looks fine, color is good, he never gets a black beard when being handled, no vomiting or anything like that. I'm wondering if he has a parasite or something? Maybe stressed out for some reason? I don't have an exotic vet in town so its a couple hours away if I need to get him checked. He has never been a regular everyday pooper. He's usually every other day or every 3 days sometimes. One time he went for a week and then his poop looked totally normal so I was worried for nothing I guess.
A couple times in the last month he went totally bonkers. He would climb up on his cave and start bobbing head head like crazy in really jerky movements and his whole body was going from bright orange to dark brown rather quickly and then back again. Then he would storm around the cage knocking things over, spilling water and food. One time he pooped and before I got home he must have got into one of his modes and just trashed the tank. Food and poop everywhere. I'm wondering if his reflection is pissing him off? As you can see in the picture below is a pretty clear reflection. Maybe he's just reached that age where he need to display some aggression sometimes? Im thinking when I get the new tank I should cover the back and sides with landscape pictures or at least black them out.
Should I be feeding him crickets more than once a day maybe? I have tried in the past and he usually doesn't want to eat a second time in a day. I dont like leaving crickets in the tank unattended because they hide and he cant get them and then they chirp all night.
I just notice in that one picture he looks a bit thin but he was cold at the time after being in his cave for a bit and must have been on an exhale when the pic was taken because he doesn't normally look that skinny. Maybe he needs to eat more? I guess I'm not really sure how fat they are suppose to look? Sometimes he looks huge ahah.
Anyway, I hope I'm doing things right so far but as I said, I'm always learning.
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