Big Bertha made it to St Louis MO!!!

I picked the Large Lizard Lady up at Fedex at 08:05 this morning. When I opened the bag, she was still asleep, but woke up quickly.
She is large and lovely! Really, 1.5 pounds of yellow Loveliness!

Once awake, she was on the move! This girl moves a whole lot faster than my poor old Lizzy ever did. We started with a few collard greens since I figured that travel would make a Large Lizard Lady hungry, and she pronounced our collard greens edible. Then we moved on and tried a bath. She had a huuuuge drink of water, and then made 3 ginormous poops! She had to go! :shock: :shock: :shock:
I bagged one up for a fecal later this afternoon, so that was easy. After the bath, she decided to try out the play yard and pronounced the basking area acceptable.

another pic of the play yard.

for some reason, my red flip flops under the ironing board were very interesting. Come to think of it, Lizzy always liked crawling on shoes, too.

That tail was straight up in the air most of the time! She tried some dubia too, and decided that Missouri dubia are just as edible as California dubia. She seemed to have a good time chasing them down and would run from the far end of the play yard to grab one. I swear, she had the biggest grin on her face as she chewed them! Such a predator! She snarfed down 5 small ones and was looking for more, but I thought we'd wait awhile. She tried some grated carrots and ate them greedily off the tip of my fingernail. Rachel was not exagerating; this woman lives to eat!
She decided to bask for awhile so I left and took the sample to the vet to have a fecal run and to do some errands. By the time I got home, her lights were out and I couldn't find her in the play yard. I was starting to panic and thought maybe she'd escaped, though she really hadn't seemed interested in escaping before. I happened to look under the ironing board, where I had parked several pairs of shoes, and there she was!

Stretched out across several pairs, dead asleep! I covered her with a blankie so she'd stay warm. Thanks so very much to Rachel and to Reptiles Express!

 

[FranktheTank]

Great pictures! So does Bertha have an enclosure or just the play yard? It looks really awesome, is it blocked off somehow so they can't get out in to the house?

-Kaleen

 

[sweetiepie9]

I'm so glad she made it to you & that she's settled in so well. CONGRATS!

 

[Lauram63110]

Kaleen, she has the play yard now. It was 6 ft x 6 ft, but I reduced it for the time being to about 4 ft x 4 ft until she is s little more at ease here. Once she is more acclimated, I will give her more space. My husband cut some 1x6 boards and they make the sides of it. Lizzy never was interested in getting out of it, and she hasn't been yet, either. I have a large piece of cardboard that I put up in the door way of the laundry room in case she does climb out of the play yard, it will keep her in the laundry room, so she doesn't get into the rest of the house. She also has a 40 gal breeder tank for a viv, but she is large and it seemed so small for her. Just a hide that covered her seemed to take up an awful lot of it! As is, we are starting summer here now, and that laundry room stays warm. We don't do a lot of air conditioning so her temps will be good in that room, and of course, she has her basking light and Reptisun in that room, same as her viv. I had thought of putting her in the viv to sleep last night, but when I found her crashed out across my shoes, I just left her and pulled a blankie over her.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I just saw the Reptisun, now isn't that the smartest thing I've ever seen. This way she just has her huge "viv" to hang around in, as she'd need a huge tank, she's such a big girl. I'm so glad you thought of this for her, she'll have all that area to roam around in. I do the same thing, but having 5 males they all have their own tanks, but the living room is blocked off. My hubby made a ramp that they can run up & down on. There's a power sun at the top of the ramp, plus beside the ramp, on top of the stereo stand, there's a small TV that's on all day & they watch it when they're on their outside time.

Your playroom is ingenious & I can already tell that she's going to love it. It sounds as if she's found her favourite sleeping spot too, I don't know what it is about shoes that dragons like so much. I'm so glad Bertha's found a wonderful home, she's going to give you some great memories!

Congrats again, glad she made it in one piece & you'll have to measure her & weigh her for me, she's a big lady!
Deb

 

[Gymgirlx]

So many applied for this girl, I'm glad I waited. Love the pictures!

 

[FranktheTank]

I love the play yard! It's really the greatest idea and she looks so happy. The picture of her sleeping all stretched out across the shoes is so sweet.. I wish I could do something similar for my beardies.

-Kaleen

 

[Lauram63110]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! She took a good bath this morning, made 3 more huge poops, and let me scrub her gently with a soft tooth brush. We clipped her nails tonite, after she was asleep. She loves grated carrot, and the look on her face when she chases those dubia down is absolutely the best!

 

[FranktheTank]

More pictures please!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

-Kaleen