Brand new baby dragon: Ziggy

[YavannaV]

He/she is named Ziggy for his/her zig-zag back pattern. I am still grieving for my beloved Dreganna who sadly passed after having trouble digesting superworms and a bad reaction to the enema that her Vet performed. She was just at 1 year old and I had trouble with her growth at first by following the advice from the pet store for the first 3 months that we had her. After coming here, our husbandry issues were fixed (wrong lighting, too few feeders per day, etc.) I was not going to look into having another beardie so soon, but a friend told me about PetSmart having their 25 year anniversary sale and beardies were half price. My new little leatherback baby was mixed in with the normal beardies so was a grand total of $30.

Here she is for her debut:

While we are still very sad over the passing of our first dragon, I am already feeling my heart being tugged in Ziggy's direction. She's been home a grand total of 4 hours now and had 4 pinhead crickets when I first introduced him/her to his/her new enclosure and another 3 just now. I was told that he/she had already had 4 crickets earlier this morning as well.

I am hoping, begging, praying for our new addition to live a long and happy life. I'm really worried about how tiny he/she is and don't think pet stores should sell them this small. My little ones have been crying right along with me over Dreganna as she was their first pet loss so I hope Ziggy can help fill the void. I'm still crying over my first beardie love, they really do grab your heart and hold on tight, don't they?

So, with bittersweet memories we're embarking on our new beardie adventure and Ziggy will be a happy part of our family, hopefully for many many years to come.

 

[morphmom]

Dreganna is in Bearded Dragon heaven looking down at little Ziggy. She knows that it was she who paved the way for Ziggy to live a long healthy life with a wonderful family who would do anything for thier Bearded Dragon babies. Welcome little Ziggy, you're a very luck little dragon :wink:

 

[SherryInFL]

She is beautiful and I hope will heal some broken hearts!

 

[SammyBaby]

Beautiful!! so sorry for your last dragon

 

[BeardieMommy3991]

Very beautiful baby! I am very sorry to hear about Dreganna, but I know she would be proud to see that you are providing a loving, happy, healthy life for this new little one. Ziggy won't ever replace Dreganna, but hopefully she will snugglebutt her way into your heart as well.

 

[YavannaV]

We're trying to decide on a birthday date for Ziggy, does anyone have an estimate of how old he/she might be?

This is a close of pic of her on my fingertips. She seems so incredibly tiny to me. I know the pet store had him/her a total of 5 days (2 on display). I'm not really sure how old he/she was before the breeder sent him/her to the pet store. I am leaning towards thinking that he/she is around 3-4 weeks old at most. What do you all think?

 

[SammyBaby]

Thats about the size of my baby. he grew an inch in the first week i had him. im guessing yours is about 4 weeks...the same age as mine

 

[YavannaV]

Here's another picture for size comparison. Ziggy vs the temperature probe. Ziggy likes to put his/her right arm down against his/her body while basking sometimes (about 1/3 of the time). Is this normal? He/she is walking perfectly fine on it. No hand waving, just stretching it down the length of his/her body.

 

[YavannaV]

Did anyone have any thoughts on his arm from the picture on my last post? Dreganna never held her arm down along her body like that, so it's a new behavior to us. Ziggy is walking great so I think maybe it's just part of his personality.

In the meantime, here are two more pictures. Bath time and eating his salad. We're going to go with 'he' until proven otherwise on the gender so I can stop saying his/her about everything.

 

[BeardieMommy3991]

Oh yes, they have the strangest basking positions. The arm thing is quite normal- at least my dragon will do it as well.

I simply LOVE his coloring!

 

[YavannaV]

Thanks. I love that his white that runs along his spine is zig-zag and the orange spots beside that aren't a matching number on both sides. (Five on the left, six on the right). It makes him really unique and adorable to me.

 

[YavannaV]

So, my little guy had his first experience with Reptiworms. They arrived this afternoon so after 4 crickets today (two in the am, two near noon) I put 10 worms in for his evening meal and was hoping he would at least try one.

He did try one almost immediately then jumped out of his worm bowl and ran off across the viv. I kept watch for 15 minutes and he didn't go near the bowl again. I finally decided to go in the other room and give him another ten or fifteen minutes to have another look at them. When I came back by 10 minutes later, there were 2 left in the bowl. Wow, he ate 8! He must like them.

Yay. I bought a wine fridge from Walmart that I pick up early next week, so I'm hoping to add in reptiworms as a staple to Ziggy's diet. He seems to approve.

 

[SpitFyre]

I love his coloring and patterning- especially the white on his tail. I'm sorry to hear about Dreganna.

Their antics are so funny, aren't they?

 

[YavannaV]

Yes, their antics are very funny.

I have news about my little Ziggy Zig Zig. He is a he. I checked today and saw two very distinctive bumps at the base of his tail just above his vent. From the pics I've seen on here, he's a guy. I'm actually quite happy about that too as infertile egg laying and lay boxes weren't something that I've been looking forward to.

So yay, Ziggy is a male.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

:wave: