Baron the Beardie

Just making this to put stories/pictures of Baron in.
I got him on Friday. I think he was laid in Jan/Feb, and he hatched in March but I'm not 100 percent sure.
He's a Super Red, and pretty gentle for now.
Here he is:

No exciting stories about him yet...aside from his logic being "No I don't want dinner 2 hours before my lights go out, Mom" and then 15 minutes before lights go out, he is dancing along the glass where the cricket keeper is and trying to eat them through it.
And then when I go to feed him this morning...nothing. Silly Beardie.

 

[sweetiepie9]

They will always find ways to make us wonder if we're doing the right thing :lol: and this is from someone who's been taking care of dragons for 7 years, so it's just part of the bundle. I think, when you get the phoenix worms, you'll find his appetite improves. And relocation stress is very real and can affect them for up to a week, sometimes more. So you'll be celebrating your first week together tomorrow, things will get better from now, you'll see

 

[CountofCasualty]

I sure hope so. I love how cuddley and clingy he is and hope that doesn't change. But if he does start saying 'nope' to handling, I do know how to handle that. I had to do it with Arya, and while she still freaks out-but that's a hedgehog thing. She doesn't handle people well at all. At least she doesn't bite me anymore(and she hurts!).

 

[sweetiepie9]

Baron will stay a cuddler, they love to be on their humans, we're so warm and soft!

 

[CountofCasualty]

So the stink likes being syringed fed.

Left him in there with crickets for 15 minutes. Nothing. I take him out, and frustrated he won't eat, give him some baby food. he gobbled up over a milliliter of it in 5 minutes, tried feeding him for another 5 but he just kept jumping out of my hand and onto my lap and from there trying to jump onto the floor. What a stinker.

I'm going to grind up crickets tomorrow morning and see if he'll eat them like that. If not, I'll try mixing it with a bit of baby food and see if he likes it like that.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Well he sure is showing his personality :lol: And driving you nuts at the same time. Grinding up the crickets and mixing that up with babyfood might just do the trick!
Keep me posted!

 

[CountofCasualty]

Holy crushed up crickets stink so bad. But he ate them smushed with a bit of baby food(about 1:1 ratio, with the cricket having been dusted with calcium before being smushed)

I'm getting Brandon(boyfriend) to pick up silk worms and horn worms tonight from petsmart. About 10 of each and smallest sizes possible. I figure if I have to have feed him, I can cut up pieces and feed them that way. I can NOT deal with the smell of smushed crickets again. I almost vomited. He probably will also only need like 1 or 2 worms per day so I can keep them stretched out until I get pheonix worms.
Hopefully he likes those. I should order 1 cup from bugorder and make sure before I buy a bunch from the states.

 

[sweetiepie9]

So you order them from http://www.bugorder.com? I'll have to check it out. And your PetSmart sells silks and horns? I'm so envious, there's a new PetSmart close by but I didn't notice if they sold them, I'll have to ask. More food for Titan, he's not eating much right now, being on Baytril, which is a really strong anti-worm med. Poor guy, he has just lost his appetite, luckily there's only 4 more days and he's then off it.

I can sure say the same thing about crickets, I've never had to smush them, thank goodness, but I have to keep them for my geckos and Titan was eating the large ones, but no more, I hate the big ones, they stink so much! I have to clean them out, then I'm not getting the big ones anymore, just the medium sized ones for the geckos.

Hopefully the silks and horms work for Baron, they're really good bugs and don't need to be dusted with calcium at all, they're very high in calcium the way they are. Just the vit/min twice a week is all you need. Hope he likes them!

 

[CountofCasualty]

Bugorder is in Alberta, so it's quicker for them to get here which I'm happier with if I order crazy priced worms. When I order from the states I'm ordering from the Reptiworm site. They do the big bulk for cheap.

And they sell horms for sure. I remember seeing them and thinking 'oh my god those things are massive', and I faintly recall the silks there as well.

and I hope so too! Though I think he'll eat anything if I hand feed him. I noticed he wont take hand feedings in the tank, he has to be out and in my lap.

 

[sweetiepie9]

They get to like being out to be fed, Lonzo's like that & Titan is watching me type right now, I'm going to try to feed him again, maybe he'll be a bit hungry now.

 

[CountofCasualty]

Very very lucky to have a smart boyfriend...He went to Petsmart and asked for the Horn Worms(they don't have silks.), and they told him to go with mealies instead for Baron. He called me because he wanted to make sure that was okay.

They said Baron would have a 'hard time ingesting' the horn worms and to go with meal worms instead. :x

 

[sweetiepie9]

Well aren't they just wrong, wrong, wrong. Horns are very soft bodies and easy to digest, so I don't know what they're talking about. God pet shops just make me so mad So did your boyfriend bring home baby horns for Baron after all? Mealworms can cause impaction in baby beardies, they are the hardest of bugs to digest. So can you go over there and smack them around a bit :lol:

 

[CountofCasualty]

Yeah, he brought some horns home. They're pretty much full sized, though I grabbed the smallest one (about an inch and a half) and Baron ate pretty much half of it after I cut it up. No baby food for him tonight! Petsmart almost refused to sell him the Horns because he said they were for Baron and the sales person kept insisting they wouldn't be good for him/long term food, so he shut them up by saying they would be for my hedgehog as well and they were happy with that.
It's not like he'll be on horns for long anyways, I'm trying to source a good place to order Silks from but shipping is so expensive. :x I wonder if any other pet places in Vancouver sell Silks.

 

[sweetiepie9]

There's a place called Aquariums West that sell silkworms, but they're not in your area, they used to be downtown, but they moved by the water, by Stadium skytrain, I think. There is a place in Canada at http://www.silkworms.ca that you might want to check out. I know someone who got some there and they weren't too pricy. They sell between 75 cents & $1.00 each but they're just so good for babies, full of calcium. So try that site. I've bought them before, and might check it out, too, for Titan. I'm glad you cut it in 1/2, they must get babies at some point at the pet shop, you'll have to ask them. The problem with silks and horns is their whole life cycle is a month. For silkworms you might want to look into getting eggs and finding out how to raise them, that would be cheaper. Just remember they only eat mulberry leaves, so you have to get the chow that you can make as you need it.

 

[CountofCasualty]

I know the Aquarium place, it's a short bus ride for me(30 minutes) there. But I just learned Mr. Pets carries them and there's a location in North Vancouver. I'll call and see if they have any little ones(babies) available and go get them, or if they can order them in.

I did check out that site, but there shipping is 30 dollars, and if I'm only going to be buying 50-100 worms for 15-20 dollars. I might to some research on how to grow the eggs...I know the eggs are a better deal generally lol. If they're easy to grow and generally low risk I might go for it until we get the Reptiworms on the 12th next month.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I'll have to see if there is a Mr Pets in our area. I haven't been able to find phoenix worms in any pet shop and I just checked the bugs site, the shipping thru Canada Post was $27 for a $19 order! I'm not paying $54 total for a $19 order, that's for sure. It's not as if I'm that far away from Alberta. Maybe I entered the shipping wrong, but I sent them an email asking what would be the cheapest shipping to get here as I would like to try phoenix worms for Titan, see if he'll eat them. I know they're tiny, but they might suit him better right now. And it would have been only a few days for shipping. I didn't realize the silkworm site was also that expensive for shipping, jeez. If you want more info on how to raise silkworms, if they don't have all the info on that site, try www.mulberryfarms.com. They'd be expensive for shipping I'd thing, they're in the USA, but they sure had a lot of info on silks when I checked out their site awhile ago.