Brick's thread- no more surgery hopefully!

We've had our dragons since the beginning of August and Brick has been at my house for about 2 weeks; it's about time His Highness got his own thread!
For those of you who don't know, my fiance and I got Lady and Brick from his mom's friend's son (or something along those lines) who was moving and couldn't keep them. He gave us the vivs and lighting too, which was awesome! Their setups are great (except for the crushed walnut substrate! It didn't cause any problems but I don't want to risk anything so I switched to shelf liner when Brick moved in with me. Lady is still on walnut because my fiance thinks it's fine. :|), and they were well taken care of. So we got two healthy, happy dragons. They didn't have names, but we fixed that. The female is now Lady Fromage, and the male is Captain Brick Bordeaux (fromage is French for "cheese" and Bordeaux is a type of wine. Get it, wine and cheese? I'm a dork I know ).

About two weeks ago I finally convinced my dad to let one of the lizards live here (Yep, I'm 26 and I still live at my dad's. For now anyway. I do kind of like it though, since it's good food and cheap rent and sane company, plus my younger sisters are here as well). Anyways. My fiance is already quite attached to the sweet, cuddly, sociable Lady; so I got Brick. He's kind of a grump but I love him all the same. And without further ado, pictures!

Coming to my house! I waited til after lights-out and burrito'd him up, and he slept through the whole car ride and moving process. Sorry about the bits of scale and substrate lol-

Showing a bit of (shedding) sexyleg. I feel bad for moving him during a shed though. All that stress! I totally wasn't thinking. Luckily he's handling everything like a champ.

And a few pics of him exploring (the walls look extra-bright green in these pics! I definitely didn't paint them or choose that color, haha)

And here is my current favorite picture of him. It was his first bath in the bathtub instead of his shallow rubbermaid container, and at first he acted like I was trying to put him in a tank full of sharks! Of course I had to get a picture

He's still going through a bit of relocation stress, but is doing great overall! And now I have to go make dinner. I'll post more if I think of something, thanks for reading! <3 <3

 

[snazzyglasses]

Couldn't resist posting these new pics right away!
So we're back to the rubbermaid container for now, especially since it uses less water. Brick doesn't seem to mind the cats but I try to keep them out of my room during bathtime just in case. Tonight I let my sister's cat, Toffee, in the room while Brick was still in the bath, just to see what they would do. I supervised very closely! I think she's more unsure of Brick than he is of her lol

... Toffee also enjoys drinking the lizard-flavored bathwater once Brick is back in his viv. Strange little cat. :shock:

 

[tazznzeppelin]

Very cute pictures. My cat likes the beardies too. Although I would never trust her alone with them.
Amy

 

[BeardieMommy85]

That picture with your beardie and that cat is PRECIOUS!!!!!!!!! It looks like their kissing! I definitely wouldn't leave them alone together though, but I am sure you already know that There's been way to many sad stories on this forum about cat attacks etc...I have 3 cats and they don't seem to care at all about my baby, but I still would never leave them alone together, just to be safe.

 

[snazzyglasses]

Thank you both for the sweet compliments! <3 <3 Brick says thank you too, hehe

And don't worry, I'm kinda paranoid about one of our furry carnivores eating him (especially after coming across some of those sad dog/cat attack stories! ). So even though they don't act very interested in Brick I keep a super close eye on them when they're in the same room, just in case. Actually for those pictures my sister was sitting right by the cat in case intervention was required

 

[snazzyglasses]

Well, once upon a time (a.k.a. about two weeks ago), I tried to mount Brick's UVB fixture inside of his cage. I ended up dropping it twice before managing to get my ghetto snipped/bent coathangers to work and hang it in there. I also dropped it back in September when I moved Brick to my house... I don't usually drop things so much! Out of ALL the stuff I drop, it just has to be the ReptiSun. Ugh.

The UVB is hanging nicely, except I noticed on Saturday that there is now about a 2-inch weird colored section at one end of the light that Won't. Stop. Flickering. Actually I noticed it about a week ago but didn't think anything of it. And I checked and am very sure it's not a fixture problem. Grrr. I did some research, and my dad the fish/plant lighting semi-expert confirmed my fears when he said that the flickering could definitely mean it's not putting out the right wavelengths anymore. I called Zoo-Med (makers of ReptiSun) and they said the same thing.

So I'm convinced I broke my ~2-month old ReptiSun 10.0 tube, because my poor baby is now showing what I'm pretty sure are symptoms of inadequate UVB (eating less, sleepy looking, sleeping more, less active but still alert, faint stress marks on the sides of his tummy, urates suddenly hard despite adequate dragon hydration).
And he had just started getting over his relocation stress too!!!!!!! What an awful butterfingered mama I am. :?

If someone from ASPCA or another animal welfare organization is reading this because my bearded dragon reported me, please know that I ordered a new ReptiSun 10.0 tube on Saturday night and paid extra for quicker shipping, and it should be here by Friday at the very latest!

So the moral of the story is don't drop your UVB fixture. Or at least, don't drop it three times.

 

[snazzyglasses]

Finally got my new ReptiSun and put it in Sunday, saw an instant improvement in Brick's attitude and appetite! His eyes were irritated from the damaged ReptiSun 10.0 tube, but I'm 99.9999% they're all better! Yay! (He was UVB-less for a week so his eyes could heal. HUGE props to Tracie for answering all my questions! She's the best ever!! <3 <3).

And, after a few weeks of general slow-ness, I think it's finally time for the big guy to brumate. I walked upstairs to this:

No clue how he squeezed himself under there! :shock:
He does have a hide on his cool side, but I made him a slightly larger one in case that was the issue? Crazy lizards. He still owes me a poop though.
Anyways. He was scratching around in his new hide last time I checked, but now (a few hours later) he's standing in the cool end and can't seem to decide what he wants to do. Strange little critter.

Edit: I really do think he just can't decide what he wants to do! He ate a few supers at 5pm, and has been basking since then. It's now 9:30 and his lights will go out in half an hour.

 

[snazzyglasses]

So far Brick has refused to leave his rolled-up towel "couch" today, and has been snoozing on and off. This is the look I got when I put his dinner dish of superworms in the viv and woke him up. Look at that glare lol!:

(He's never been able to decide what he wants to use as a basking spot, the actual platform or that rolled-up towel. But he's pretty mellow about everything else, plus he black beards and scatters his greens if I take out the towel :roll: , so I'll humor him lol)

 

[Mariah94]

Just caught up on this thread. Loving it! Brick is so cute.

 

[snazzyglasses]

Thank you! <3 He's such a grump lol. But it's so endearing :love5:

 

[snazzyglasses]

Here is my grumpy, adorable, almost-brumating-but-not-quite-there-yet dragon Brick.
On the right-hand side, you will see part of the hide that I painstakingly fashioned especially for him out of a men's size 13 shoebox. 'Why isn't he sleeping in his hide?', you may ask. That's a very good question. I know he fits in there, because he slept in it for a day and a half about a week ago. I'm sorry sir, were you expecting a different box each week? :shock:

Thought I'd share, because I think it's quite funny! He looks super grouchy sleeping in that corner but still won't go back in his box no matter what I do or where I put it, haha. (I'll try a different hide if he hasn't "moved into" this one by the weekend though. Picky little hooligan.)

 

[FranktheTank]

That's too funny :laughing6: :laughing6: :laughing6: :laughing6: It's not up to his exquisite beardie taste! Has he still not gone in to it?

-Kaleen

 

[ohmybandit]

'Why isn't he sleeping in his hide?', you may ask. That's a very good question. I know he fits in there, because he slept in it for a day and a half about a week ago. I'm sorry sir, were you expecting a different box each week? :shock:

Haha, I have a feeling that a dragon's mindset is "silly human, don't you know you're supposed to be a slave!" They have us trained better than we have dogs trained haha. Adorable dragon, btw!

 

[snazzyglasses]

That's too funny :laughing6: :laughing6: :laughing6: :laughing6: It's not up to his exquisite beardie taste! Has he still not gone in to it?-Kaleen

Yes, finally! He's been sleeping in there since sometime Friday afternoon. Yay!

They have us trained better than we have dogs trained haha. Adorable dragon, btw!

Lol I totally agree! Besides the whole not giving him a mansion thing, I think he's got me pretty well trained so far haha. :wink: And thank you! <3 I'm sure Brick says thank you too

 

[BlueDragon09]

Expecting another box? LOL I was cracking up!
Vash is the same way. he likes new changes, even
if it's a challenge.