Floof
Juvie Member
Hi there! I joined the forum a couple days ago (though I've lurked on-and-off for the better part of a year and a half), and decided it's time to whip up a little introduction.
My name is Taylor. I'm a 17 (going on 18) year old resident of Washington State, and loving caregiver to 1 Bearded dragon, 1 Russian tortoise, 1 Corn snake, 2 dogs (though my family owns 4 total), 3 rats, and 2 bettas. Just how I like it--a total ZOO! I actually used to care for several more snakes, including a few boas (2 boa constrictor, 1 sand boa, 1 rosy boa, and, at one point, a couple Dumerils), a couple ball pythons, an asian rat snake, and several more corn snakes, but a recent disaster took all but the one remaining corn snake... =( But, crap happens, and that's NOT why I'm here.
My bearded dragon is named Man Ray. He was a rescue (no ifs, ands, or buts about that one!), who we took in on January 4th, 2009. His story in a nutshell: we go to buy big aquarium from Craigslist person, person mentions lizard (after we mention snakes), person says "You can have him for free--I'll even throw in the cage and lights and stuff!", goes on to explain "I was just going to toss him in that field there, anyway, if no one wanted him" (keeping in mind where I live and the month), we say "yes," and sickly sub-adult/adult (not sure which) bearded dragon and his 20 gallon Long, 3 heat (none UVB..) lamps, and crappy pellet food (no greens or bugs to be seen) gets loaded into the back of our SUV alongside the two other tanks we had just bought from the guy. Well, it's not like we could just leave him there, right?
In the middle of February, we finally got him in to see a vet, who diagnosed him with MBD (no surprise), as well as telling us he was emaciated and dehydrated. All of that after a month and a half of feeding well on dusted silkworms, greens, and the occasional crickets, with regular baths and UVB. of At least his fecal exam was clean... =/ He weighed 195 g at the vet office (after pooping on the way there), and was probably about 16 inches. Yikes!
I don't have any pictures of what he was in before we got him, but here is his first enclosure with me (taken Jan 11th)... It's mostly the same set-up (the sticks and rock), only with fresh paper towels, a cardboard hide, some heat lamps removed, and a bowl of REAL food. The red pelleted stuff in the container on top and the bowl next to the rock is all the previous owners were trying to feed him.
YUM! Real food! And photographic evidence that he did once like greens... (January 23rd)
Taken February 1st, almost a full month after we got him...
EDIT: I completely forgot about his x-ray! When we took him to the vet, she x-rayed to confirm her diagnoses of MBD. This is what we saw:
These days, he's in much better shape. He just weighed in at 503 grams (after eating a couple large Dubia nymphs), and came in at around 17 inches. He's much, much more active than he was when we got him (though he's not exactly the most hyperactive beardie), as shown by his habit of taking off across the room when he gets bored of bath time! Here's a picture of him just a few days ago (May 20th):
And his enclosure (taken today)... On the far right, in the black heat lamp, is a 150 watt incandescent bulb. This keeps the basking spot (below) between 100 and 105*F (roughly) during the day. Next to that, toward the top of the picture, is his CHE... This is meant to keep the entire enclosure warmer than the rest of the room, but, obviously, the whole set-up is way too open for that... Haha. It keeps the right half of the top of his log hide in the upper 90s or so, though. The white fluorescent fixture is his UVB--Reptisun 10.0. The black fluorescent is another Reptisun 10.0, only this one is long since expired... It's mostly there for some extra light on the cool side. On the far left is a "moist hide"--aka, 15 qt tub full of moist sphagnum moss. The UTH on its lid is meant to bolster the temps inside, since my room does get pretty cold sometimes and he does use the hide pretty regularly... The plants, if you can see them, are a Jade plant and a Spider plant. They're just there because I don't have room anywhere else... Except the tortoise enclosure, but she keeps trying to eat them! lol. Any input on his set-up is welcome... Hence why I went into so much detail. Haha.
Anyway, sorry for the novel... Kind of a bad habit of mine, lol. Before I go, here are a few shots of the rest of the "zoo."
First, Mallie, my first-ever herp and the last of my snakes. She's an '07 Anerythristic corn snake from Serpenco. Kind of an old pic, sorry...
Then comes Zoom the Russian Tortoise, who, like Man Ray, was also a rescue... A local kid got bored of her after 3 years, and his older sister happened to find out that I keep reptiles... And so, I got into the shelled things in much the same way as I got into beardies!
Stump is a 3.5 year old Brussels griffon mix. You can kind of see his brother, Mac, in the background... Mac is my grandma's; he just likes to come over for play-dates. A lot.
Romeo, the 2.5 year old Boston Terrier/something (I think APBT or AmStaff terrier; rescue said Boxer) mix. He's a total pain in the butt, and my sweet baby boy.
Sammy is the family's boxer, still going strong at 10 and a half years old.
An older shot of my mom's 4 year old deaf corgi mutt, Ginger...
The rats, Papaya (b&w hooded), Mango, and Kiwi (REWs)...
And the bettas, neither of whom have names.
Okay, NOW I'm done. I promise! Hahaha. It's nice to meet you all, and I'm happy to finally be part of the forum! =)
My name is Taylor. I'm a 17 (going on 18) year old resident of Washington State, and loving caregiver to 1 Bearded dragon, 1 Russian tortoise, 1 Corn snake, 2 dogs (though my family owns 4 total), 3 rats, and 2 bettas. Just how I like it--a total ZOO! I actually used to care for several more snakes, including a few boas (2 boa constrictor, 1 sand boa, 1 rosy boa, and, at one point, a couple Dumerils), a couple ball pythons, an asian rat snake, and several more corn snakes, but a recent disaster took all but the one remaining corn snake... =( But, crap happens, and that's NOT why I'm here.
My bearded dragon is named Man Ray. He was a rescue (no ifs, ands, or buts about that one!), who we took in on January 4th, 2009. His story in a nutshell: we go to buy big aquarium from Craigslist person, person mentions lizard (after we mention snakes), person says "You can have him for free--I'll even throw in the cage and lights and stuff!", goes on to explain "I was just going to toss him in that field there, anyway, if no one wanted him" (keeping in mind where I live and the month), we say "yes," and sickly sub-adult/adult (not sure which) bearded dragon and his 20 gallon Long, 3 heat (none UVB..) lamps, and crappy pellet food (no greens or bugs to be seen) gets loaded into the back of our SUV alongside the two other tanks we had just bought from the guy. Well, it's not like we could just leave him there, right?
In the middle of February, we finally got him in to see a vet, who diagnosed him with MBD (no surprise), as well as telling us he was emaciated and dehydrated. All of that after a month and a half of feeding well on dusted silkworms, greens, and the occasional crickets, with regular baths and UVB. of At least his fecal exam was clean... =/ He weighed 195 g at the vet office (after pooping on the way there), and was probably about 16 inches. Yikes!
I don't have any pictures of what he was in before we got him, but here is his first enclosure with me (taken Jan 11th)... It's mostly the same set-up (the sticks and rock), only with fresh paper towels, a cardboard hide, some heat lamps removed, and a bowl of REAL food. The red pelleted stuff in the container on top and the bowl next to the rock is all the previous owners were trying to feed him.
YUM! Real food! And photographic evidence that he did once like greens... (January 23rd)
Taken February 1st, almost a full month after we got him...
EDIT: I completely forgot about his x-ray! When we took him to the vet, she x-rayed to confirm her diagnoses of MBD. This is what we saw:
These days, he's in much better shape. He just weighed in at 503 grams (after eating a couple large Dubia nymphs), and came in at around 17 inches. He's much, much more active than he was when we got him (though he's not exactly the most hyperactive beardie), as shown by his habit of taking off across the room when he gets bored of bath time! Here's a picture of him just a few days ago (May 20th):
And his enclosure (taken today)... On the far right, in the black heat lamp, is a 150 watt incandescent bulb. This keeps the basking spot (below) between 100 and 105*F (roughly) during the day. Next to that, toward the top of the picture, is his CHE... This is meant to keep the entire enclosure warmer than the rest of the room, but, obviously, the whole set-up is way too open for that... Haha. It keeps the right half of the top of his log hide in the upper 90s or so, though. The white fluorescent fixture is his UVB--Reptisun 10.0. The black fluorescent is another Reptisun 10.0, only this one is long since expired... It's mostly there for some extra light on the cool side. On the far left is a "moist hide"--aka, 15 qt tub full of moist sphagnum moss. The UTH on its lid is meant to bolster the temps inside, since my room does get pretty cold sometimes and he does use the hide pretty regularly... The plants, if you can see them, are a Jade plant and a Spider plant. They're just there because I don't have room anywhere else... Except the tortoise enclosure, but she keeps trying to eat them! lol. Any input on his set-up is welcome... Hence why I went into so much detail. Haha.
Anyway, sorry for the novel... Kind of a bad habit of mine, lol. Before I go, here are a few shots of the rest of the "zoo."
First, Mallie, my first-ever herp and the last of my snakes. She's an '07 Anerythristic corn snake from Serpenco. Kind of an old pic, sorry...
Then comes Zoom the Russian Tortoise, who, like Man Ray, was also a rescue... A local kid got bored of her after 3 years, and his older sister happened to find out that I keep reptiles... And so, I got into the shelled things in much the same way as I got into beardies!
Stump is a 3.5 year old Brussels griffon mix. You can kind of see his brother, Mac, in the background... Mac is my grandma's; he just likes to come over for play-dates. A lot.
Romeo, the 2.5 year old Boston Terrier/something (I think APBT or AmStaff terrier; rescue said Boxer) mix. He's a total pain in the butt, and my sweet baby boy.
Sammy is the family's boxer, still going strong at 10 and a half years old.
An older shot of my mom's 4 year old deaf corgi mutt, Ginger...
The rats, Papaya (b&w hooded), Mango, and Kiwi (REWs)...
And the bettas, neither of whom have names.
Okay, NOW I'm done. I promise! Hahaha. It's nice to meet you all, and I'm happy to finally be part of the forum! =)
