Adventures of (: *UPDATE - help? - pictures!*

This is the thread about my two favorite little Beardie, Fiz And his brother KD
"Your hand is nice and cozy... I think I like you!"

He's giving me the stinkeye "Get that camera out of my face before I eat it AND you"

He's such a sweetheart! I love him a lot & I love Bearded Dragons now!

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Hey guys, just thought I'd give an update

Gonna feed the buddies in a few minutes. One pooped, still a few pieces of squash in it but it seems that they're digesting more and more of the squash with each day.

Oh yeah, and my family thinks I'm crazy.

All I want to do is spend money on my Beardie. They think it's not neccessary for you to buy all these pieces of equipment for a lizard. I don't know why they think it's a waste (They haven't said it's a "waste" yet, but I'm waiting for it). So far I've bought a Reptisun, a fixture, a probed thermometer, and now I want a better-quality cricket keeper. They question me all the time of why I bought the reptisun when I have a good reptiglo already in place. Well, then I have to go on and tell them how horrible the compacts are and how good the tubes are. They don't realize how crucial it is for me to get the best stuff for my Beardie now before it's too late. I mean, I'd rather spend the money now on UVB's rather than spend the money on Liquid Calcium later when my Beardie is crippled with MBD. I've never had a reptile before, just hermit crabs. I have a dog too but reptiles are WAAAAAY different. I'm just the crazy one in the family that is Beardie-Psycho!

I plan on ordering my better-quality cricket keeper this afternoon, and then I'm good on supplies until next week when I see something I want for my Beardies.

Well, Gonna go! I have to go and feed my Buds!

See yah!

 

[HaleyMaree]

Don't let them get to you. ; ) Aren't they crazy for not owning such a perfect little reptile! Uh oh! I"m CRAZY too!

~Haley

 

[PumpkinJelly]

I agree! I just really want to have a happy and healthy reptile that will be with me for many years. I'm not one to spend my money, trust me. I don't like spending it because then I'm broke and have to save up again. I think I've broke my habit of saving because I love my Beardie so much. I'm ordering them a brand-new cricket keeper as an early Christmas present! Yippee! (Right after I reply to all my posts, I'm buying it!) It'll be a month or two before I'm done purchasing everything I want for them. I'm trying to get the most important things first and then save up for their first vet visit.

Okay, now I'm off to buy my Exo Terra Cricket Pen! I currently have the Lee's Cricket Keeper but I figured I'd try a different brand since my Lee's is currently being held together with duct tape :roll: The exo terra one looks pretty good at the same price, so I'll try it out! I'll be sure to post reveiws once It's shipped

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Hey Guys...

I INSTALLED MY REPTISUN!

I'm super happy right now, since my Beardies now have access to the best light out in the market right now! Reptisun 10.0! I hung up my fixture on command hooks, and it looks GREAT. When I put it in there, My Beardies were like "Whaaaa is that?" and they stared at it. Too bad it was time for bed after I installed it. So I flipped off the UVB switch, the Night Time Purple Bulb Switch, and the Basking Light Switch. I couldn't install it sooner, since I made a late-afternoon cricket run. Which brings me into a whole other story about how careless people can be when purchasing reptiles. The dude there was a pure example of why reptiles shouldn't be available to just buy at any pet store for any person. They should be sold only online or at specialized breeding facilities, where you have to be approved before you are able to purchase a reptile. There are so many poor Beardies (and other reptiles) dying because people's carelessness. I wish I could just take every adoptable Beardie out there and bring them under my roof to be cared for and loved for the entirety of their lives. Too bad that this is reality, and I can't do that.

The pet store had the cutest baby Beardies. Their big heads and tiny little bodies are ADORABLE! It reminds me of how small Fiz was when I first got him, from that very same pet store/tank where those baby Beardies were. I'm so glad I took him from that tiny tank, tail-nipped, and into my warm, loving home. And his brother too!

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Fiz has finished shedding.................... for now.

Yesterday all four legs shedded.

This morning, his eyes, ears, nose, and the rest of his head/neck shedded.

This afternoon his body shedded.

I'm proud to welcome the new colorful Fiz! He's got a lot more orangey-sunburst colors on him, with streaks of dark, reddish-orange on the sides of his face. His brown isn't an ugly greyish brown anymore, it's more of a light tannish-brownish color. He's got the white on his belly and his shoulderpads are a deep dark brown. Sorry, I had to visualize it for you since my cell phone takes low quality pictures and it would be impossible to tell the difference between before/after. He did his shed mainly on his own, with help from a small bath under running warm water. Well, I'll admit it. I pulled his noseplugs and eyelid sheds for him, since it was keeping him from eating and seeing very well. That's all, and I have him a couple hours to remove them himself, but the poor buddy was just sad not being able to smell everything and see everything as well as he could before.

I also switched up their diet. I give them calcium dust, gutloaded crickets (same old, same old). Collard Greens that are lightly dusted in calicum. You know my troubles with diarrhea because of Squash, so now that's just a weekly treat, and they only get a few bites of it when they are permitted to eat it. But, while I was in my pet store, I found Nature Zone Baby Beardie Bites! It looked like it would be pretty good, considering there were a few good things in the ingredients. It's this moist squishy food, that once you open the vaccuum sealed package it must be refrigerated. I put a little piece (the baby bites are little shredded pieces, while the regular Beardie bites are larger, formed cubes) on my finger and they immedietely licked it right off. It was a hit! They now eat two half-teaspoon servings each per day. Sometimes I allow about a teaspoon when they're really liking it. So far the poops are fine, and the package is ACTUALLY telling the truth! It said it would promote bright colors, and so far my Beardie's do look a little brighter (Not just because of Fiz's Shed, either!)

I reccomend Baby Bites 100%! (Bearded Dragon Bites & Baby Bearded Dragon Bites by Naturezone are both the same thing, except the Baby Bites are in small, shredded chunks and the Bearded Dragon Bites are in larger cubes)

 

[HaleyMaree]

To be honest I don't see brown or greyish color "Ugly"

~Haley

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Okay maybe ugly is the wrong word, because no Beardie color could be ugly

But the reason I said ugly is because he was that color because he was in preshed, and the presheds aren't the prettiest colors a Beardie displays. When they shed, their colors are much brighter.

Brown and Grey Beardies aren't "ugly" (Again, wrong use of wording) . When it's their natural color, it looks better. But when it's just because of their preshed, it makes their scales look a little foggy colored, you know what I mean? Still not "ugly", but not as pretty as they are when the preshed aaaallll falls off.

Edit: I forgot to mention, my Beardie is brown and I don't find him ugly at all. I just mean his preshed wasn't as pretty as his natural, non-shed colors.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Well,

Today I peeked in my Beardies tank to see what they were doing. The same old; just chilling on their rock under the hot basking light. I was about to feed them, when I decided to check what the temperatures were. I was pretty shocked to find that the basking site was 102, the hot side was around 95, and the cool side was around 85. I was pretty happy, too. Since I had been getting readings like, 95 degrees at the basking site, 90 degrees on the hot side, and 80 degrees on the cool side. I'm happy it's all straightened out.

Also, I had ordered the Exo Terra Cricket Pen yesterday. I ordered it from JoshsFrog.com, since they had low prices and weren't too harsh on the shipping charges, unlike other places. Right now, I have a small Lee's Cricket Keeper. I have nothing wrong with the Lee's brand, but their cricket keeper is falling apart on me. It's about a year old. Until recently, it was going great. It cracked here and there, and had to be fixed up with some strips of duct tape. Still functional, but I was going to upgrade soon no matter what. I found the Exo Terra Cricket Pen, and decided it's worth a try, considering there wasn't much of a price difference. I got the large size (The Lee's and the Exo Terra both have a large and a small size. I had the small Lee's size, and was going to upgrade to the larger size no matter what brand I picked). It should be here tommorrow, which is pretty cool, and I'm looking forward to try it out!

Well, Fiz's colors are popping and are brighter than ever! He's got some nice citrus-y colors in him now, with a tannish brown. He looks great!

 

[Bwalter]

Glad your enjoing your baby, they are fun to have. A lot of work getting evrything right for them, but its well worth it.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Bwalter, I soooo know what you mean. But they are well worth the work

My Exo Terra Cricket Pen came in the mail yesterday. Went out and bought a fresh supply of crickets to put the new toy to use. It's SO nice! It's got so much room in it! I've only had 3-5 deaths (I bought a little over a hundred, so), and the odor is FAR less than what it used to be in my tiny Lee's. It may just be that I was putting too many crickets in my Lee's that caused the smell, but I'm glad the smell is gone! The food and water dishes are great, since even the tiny tiny crickets that get mixed in with the bunch can get out! Recently I've been getting huge crickets in my batches of small sized crickets. I've had to flush them down the toilet whenever they pop out of the tube, since they're too big for my Beardies to eat.

Fiz has been doing pretty good. His tankmate has the foggy, cloudy, white preshed on his tail, so that will be shedding soon. Their tank is in desperate need of a good deep-cleaning (I do a deep clean every month, which includes scrubbing the reptile carpet with soap and water, using window cleaner to clean off fingerprints on the glass, etc) so I'm planning one this weekend if I have the time.

They've been enjoying life in their tank with plenty of attention and crickets!

 

[PumpkinJelly]

I'm finally done my monthly scrubbing of Fiz's enclosure

I decided that it was time to do the monthly cleaning of the viv. Meanwhile, this month the two had pooped and shedded about a billion times, littering the reptile carpet with stains and flakes of skin. The outside glass was graffitied with fingerprints and cloudy smears and marks from who knows what. I started by taking everything out (except the reptihammock, since there was nothing but open glass on the bottom of the viv and I leave them in the viv as I clean everything. Of course, one of them just HAD to poop right on the reptihammock...).

I shook off any crumbs or loose litter from the reptile carpet outside, and then scrubbed it in a sink full of soap, water, and bubbles up to my elbows. I scrubbed their favorite basking rock, and their reptihammock, too. Then I went upstairs and went to work on the viv glass. I vaccuumed the crap out of it, getting any skin flakes and calcium powder that went underneath the carpet. Then I used reptile-friendly, natural-oil-based cleaner-wipes to deodorize the viv and kill any germs on both the inside and the outside. Then I went back and used a wet paper towel to wipe any of the excess off, since the reptile cleaner leaves smears on the glass. Then I used window cleaner on the outside to take off any fingerprints. And then, I added everything to the tank (I even re-wired my thermometer w/ probe so that the probe wasn't messy looking!), gave the Beardies both a nice long soak (Fiz hadn't pooped in a day or two, and I was getting extremely worried. During his soak, I gave him two drops of vegetable oil to see if I could make it easier for him to pass everything. I didn't need to, though, because three minutes later he went. Right in the bathwater).

Afterwards I decided that the clutter beside the viv from the wires from the lighting, all my supplies, and some more junk, just had to go. I threw away some trash (wrappers from reptile products and such), and then cleared out some un-needed stuff in the cabinet right below the mess (why hadn't I thought to use this junk cabinet before?). I vaccummed out the cabinet and where the clutter was (it was dusty) and then started putting everything in there, neat and organized. The cabinet was big enough (and had holes in the back for air-flow) so I put my cricket keeper in there, since crickets like dark spaces anyway and it's much more inviting now that there's not jumpy crickets in a clear box right in the middle of my room. I put my extra clamplamps and bulbs and powders and food and cricket supplies all down there, and cleared the way. Then I took all the wires from the lights, and stuffed them behind the dresser and made it look pretty nice! Now everything is clear, and it looks neat and tidy. I'm very happy with my work, and I'm sure my Beardies are too! Everything went great, no complications, nor did I break anything!

 

[Esther19]

Isn't it nice when everything is tidied up? If your parents comment again on your "crazy" beardie fascination, gently remind them that there are far worse things you could be spending your money on. :wink:
Fiz is fortunate to have such a caring human.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Aw esther! I really do care for him soooo much! Im usually not a fan of cleaning but i never mind cleaning fiz's things! And youre sooo right about the spending thing. Im spending my money on the things i care for when i could be buying insane things like drugs! Not that i ever would but ill use that next time to prove my point

 

[PumpkinJelly]

It's been a few days since I updated, I've been a little busy.

Fiz and his tankmate are both doing pretty good. Haven't had any diarrhea cases since I stopped feeding them the squash. Their tank is squeaky clean, and they're overall happy little critters. I just got a fresh batch of crickets today, and they're currently being gutloaded as we speak. They'll get their fresh crickets first thing tommorrow morning. Fiz is sitting on the back of my couch where I'm sitting as I type this. He's such a little cutie, just looking out through the window at the rain dripping down the glass. He's entertained by the smallest of things. :wink:

We took a couple of cute pictures of him on my keyboard. He's so cute, I can't get over it

Oh yeah, and I added a new light to his tank. Aside from the fact that I installed my reptisun & walmart inside fixture (see one of my previous posts to hear about that), I used one of my extra clamp dome lamps and put a regular household bulb in it (I believe it's a 75 wattage household bulb). I put it on the cool side so that I'd increase the light and heat. Since my readings were around... 95 Basking Spot & 80 Cool side. Now, I have readings of 100 Basking Spott & 82 Cool Side. Which is great since I've been struggling with temps. I may put a higher wattage household bulb in the lamp if my temps seem to linger to low, but so far so good!

 

[PumpkinJelly]

This morning I noticed something awfully wrong with Fiz's tail. His tail was dark at the end, there were grayish splotches all over his tail, and the end had sections where it was bleeding.

I was so worried and I wanted to aid him as quick as I could, since I was so terrified of him being in pain or getting an infection. So I gave him a warm bath and tried to rub away the gray spots, but they didn't come off. I gently tried to rub away the blood on his tail, but it didn't come off, so I'm guessing it's a wound or the blood is underneath the skin. I took him out, cuddled him in a blanket to dry, and then applied Neosporin to his tail. I put him back in his tank and then came on here, but with no luck. There isn't anything they can pinpoint to my problem except that KD may have bitten him, but I don't know if he did. It doesn't look like a bite wound, and how do you explain the grayish splotches?

His behavior hasn't been affected. He reluctantly chased down crickets like normal, gobbled down some Baby Beardie Bites, and lounged around on his rock. Poor baby, I don't know what's wrong with him. He doesn't seem to be in any pain but he didn't appriciate it when I tried to clean his wound in the bath today.

I went to Pet Smart to get more crickets and I bought him a new fake acrylic-type ramp with suction cups on one side so they have more upper space room. They're lounging on it right now. I was hesitant to buy Repti-Heal or something close to that name. It had a picture of a Boa on the front. It says it's a wound healing agent for reptiles. I was going to buy it but I decided not to and see if I could find any home remedies on here.

I'm scared for Fiz. He hasn't had anything like this happen to him before. I mean, his tail nip fell off and he had some diarrhea problems a few weeks ago but he's never had anything too major like this mystery!