Broly the new super saiyan beardie

Picture coming up!

I can't turn upwards!!! But there he is!

 

[SHBailey]

Hi...

Sorry to hear that you lost your service dog. Hopefully the new one will work out for you. German shepherds are good at all kinds of service things as I understand it. We had a young one once but she disappeared on the 4th of July and we never found her. Probably panicked because of the fireworks and got out of the yard somehow.

Our weather has been warm and not too much rain -- not enough, really. We've got a fire burning somewhere around here -- it's smoky today and the sun is orange. This is forest fire season and we usually get them in the summer, worse when it's dry.

Puff is doing as well as can be expected considering his age and adenovirus. Eating lots of Repashy grub pie (he likes it and it makes a good laxative) and a few crickets and almost no veggies, and pooping more often, but lately he usually makes a big mess in his tank instead of doing it in the bath like he used to. He's not so good at staying out of it anymore either, so he often makes a mess all over himself as well. My husband usually cleans up after him while I cuddle him (after he gets washed up). He tolerates it and he's usually quiet about it, but I'm not sure if he really likes it.

My husband has more staycation at the end of this month. We have some plans for a day trip and one overnight visit with friends and relatives (Puff is ok alone for one night) and a few doctor's appointments and such. Happy summer...

 

[BlueDragon09]

Hey,

Not much going on. It’s summer but also raining on Monday. Unusual as it never rains here in summer.

I’ve been doing a decent job caring for the reptiles and modding a friend’s discord server. I never thought I’d be on discord being a moderator. It’s partly why Im not on here as much. We even go outside for real uvb while I sit in shade because skin cancer risk and the dragons are in the bunny hutch. Don’t worry the screen isn’t blocking UVB it’s big enough for it.

Same old stuff. Everyone is healthy, eating, drinking and baths if anyone needs it. They don’t get much baths. They do drink lots of water and eating food with water content. I recently picked up mustard greens. They eat collards but I decided to switch it up when one goes bad. Every other week will be collards then 2 weeks later will be mustard greens. It’s quiet here. We did see Jurassic World Dominion. I enjoyed it though lots of people didn’t. They had some negatives about it. Tom and I enjoyed it. I watched it for fun not like it was a homework assignment. I was glued to the screen from start to finish. Good movie. I love dinosaurs what can I say? Lol.

Oh Reaper the puppy is doing well. He’s really learning. He watches over the beardies, hamster and our cats. He does his best to calm my anxiety at night, especially when Tom works late. I have an anxiety disorder called GAD - Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I have anxiety over friends knowing I can’t control anything. Im learning to cope through therapy and having my service puppy there to help. I take Reaper anywhere and he loves having a job to do. He’s at my feet right now and we’re gonna go walking in a bit (gets dark 9:40pm here). Tom will be home soon so we’ll wait then go walk. I just thought I’d give an update on everything before disappearing on Discord again lol.

 

[SHBailey]

Hey,

Not much going on. It’s summer but also raining on Monday. Unusual as it never rains here in summer.

I’ve been doing a decent job caring for the reptiles and modding a friend’s discord server. I never thought I’d be on discord being a moderator. It’s partly why Im not on here as much. We even go outside for real uvb while I sit in shade because skin cancer risk and the dragons are in the bunny hutch. Don’t worry the screen isn’t blocking UVB it’s big enough for it.

Same old stuff. Everyone is healthy, eating, drinking and baths if anyone needs it. They don’t get much baths. They do drink lots of water and eating food with water content. I recently picked up mustard greens. They eat collards but I decided to switch it up when one goes bad. Every other week will be collards then 2 weeks later will be mustard greens. It’s quiet here. We did see Jurassic World Dominion. I enjoyed it though lots of people didn’t. They had some negatives about it. Tom and I enjoyed it. I watched it for fun not like it was a homework assignment. I was glued to the screen from start to finish. Good movie. I love dinosaurs what can I say? Lol.

Oh Reaper the puppy is doing well. He’s really learning. He watches over the beardies, hamster and our cats. He does his best to calm my anxiety at night, especially when Tom works late. I have an anxiety disorder called GAD - Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I have anxiety over friends knowing I can’t control anything. Im learning to cope through therapy and having my service puppy there to help. I take Reaper anywhere and he loves having a job to do. He’s at my feet right now and we’re gonna go walking in a bit (gets dark 9:40pm here). Tom will be home soon so we’ll wait then go walk. I just thought I’d give an update on everything before disappearing on Discord again lol.

I didn't realize that it didn't rain much in Oregon in the summer -- I thought it rained all the time. We haven't had enough rain here lately and the fire danger is getting high. We've even had a few fires right here in Anchorage. So far they've managed to put them out before they did too much damage, but it's been too close for comfort.

We just got back from an overnight trip to visit family in Homer (200+ miles south of here) -- My step mother in law who lives on the wildlife preserve that she started with my father in law (who is dead now) and we also got to see my niece who also lives in Homer now. We were lucky to get in touch with my niece and find a way to get together. Last year we missed her.

Puff spent one night alone so the heat lamps were on all night, but he was still on his basking platform when we got back. I was surprised that he didn't get more than enough heat and light and go in his hide. I don't think he did while we were gone because once he goes in there he usually doesn't go back "upstairs" until we put him there. I think maybe he's not up to climbing back up anymore. He missed his bath and feeding for one day but he got taken care of yesterday after we got back -- a little late in the evening but at least we did it. All the crickets died off before he ate them this time around, so my husband is off to the petstore now to get more.

We do collard greens and mustard greens for Puff too. Mostly dandelions now that it's summer. The yard is full of them so they're free. Puff doesn't eat greens very often, but my husband likes dandelion greens himself. I don't -- they're bitter, as far as I'm concerned, although the flowers are pretty bland. They say they're not so bitter when they're young, so I may have to try that.

We used to go to movies when we were first married, but we don't anymore. They've gotten too expensive. So I have to wait until they go on TV or the internet or whatever it is nowadays. I've seen most of the other Jurassic Park movies except for the most recent ones. I liked them all even though some of them didn't get good reviews. I love dinosaurs too. Maybe that's why I like beardies. It's more or less a little dinosaur

My husband has a few more days off and then back to work next week. Dental appointments for both of us this afternoon (routine cleaning) and then he's going to go do volunteer work for the day on Friday. He gets paid for doing a day of some kind of volunteer work one day a quarter, I think it is. He works for a non profit and they're into all kinds of community service, so that's how they encourage their employees to do that. My husband loves to help people so he loves his job, and I'm glad he's found a job that gives him so much fulfillment.

Have fun on Discord!

shb

 

[BlueDragon09]

Hey,

Not too much happening except found out I have metabolic syndrome. Which is a big word for heart problems, pre diabetes, problems with weight loss. I have meds for the high cholesterol and diabetes. Insulin resistant too. Idk if I ever told you this. I might have Idk... I told many people because they all wanted to know what the doctor said. Ive been walking a lot in July and I plan on it this month since next month she’s gonna check my results from bloodwork. This determines stay on meds or get off them. I want to get off so we’ll see what I can do. I may turn out diabetic anyway but Ive lost some weight already. I gotta keep going though some muscles are sore.

As for beardies, leo geckos, dogs and cats, they’re doing fine. Broly isn’t a fan of mustard greens lol. The others will eat them. Broly’s a squash, collards and bugs guy. Picky boy. He’ll be 8 in January if I remember correctly that’s when beardies start hitting senior years. Oh well, time for softer foods, grated squash, repashy grubpie etc. I mean they still eat grubpie every now and again. Broly will need softer foods more. Other than the pickiness he’s fine.

Time to train, Reaper and walk time. So we’ll talk soon.

 

[SHBailey]

Hi...

I'm probably headed down the road to "metabolic syndrome" too, but I gave up on dieting and exercising a long time ago. At least I'm not diabetic (yet!) I'm on blood pressure, cholesterol, and anti-clotting medication now, as well as my "crazy pills," as I call them. As my husband once said, "I've got enough drugs to open a pharmacy!" He's in the same boat with meds, but for different reasons. He's as skinny as I am fat. We are even getting some of my meds from Canada because they're too expensive in the U.S.

Puff has been going through phases as far as eating and hiding. He'll stay out of his hide every day for several weeks, then back in it every day also for several weeks. Today is a hide day. He's still pooping in his tank instead of in his bath, and making big sloppy messes for us to clean up, but at least he's pooping more often. We'll take it any way we can get it these days. We get worried when he doesn't poop for too long, especially since he had that almost prolapse a while ago. Turned out he was trying to pass a big hard urate, and once it was out, everything went back in. Phew. Repashy grub pie seems to help with that.

He went through a phase where he was eating nothing but crickets, but for the last few days he's been eating nothing but grub pie, squash, and greens. He gets mostly dandelion greens in the summer -- our yard is full of them.

Congratulations on keeping Broly alive for almost 8 years! You're obviously taking very good care of him. Our vet is impressed that Puff has managed to survive for 10 years, especially with adenovirus.

We've been getting some much needed rain lately, but it's been "warm" (70s) when it's sunny, so it's nice when it cools off. I'm an Alaskan now -- 70s is too "hot" for me, especially since it tends to get hotter in the house than it is outside, even with the windows open. We don't have much "summer" left -- it usually turns cool and rainy in August. August used to be the hottest month in California, but nowadays I couldn't stand the heat they're getting in the "lower 48" lately. I hope you're getting whatever temperatures are comfortable for you when you go on your walks.

 

[BlueDragon09]

Hey, been a whole month. I really don’t have much to say.

Dragons are all heading to brumation so this will be the time of year nothing to post about. Well except Broly he doesn’t fight brumation he just rather not miss anything. He stopped eating greens, normal for this time of year. Squash, fruit and bugs. Ya know the favorites only.

Reaper is doing fine and growing every day. I hear german shepherds get medium sized maybe large. I only have pup pics lol. He’s still a pup basically but bigger.

It’s a warm 70s here too but it will cool off soon.
Venom the hamster is now 9 months old. She’s not slown down yet in age. That’s around 1 yr and that’s a few months away.

I guess that’s all I didn’t want my thread locked due to inactivity so here’s an update.

 

[SHBailey]

Hi...

Nice to hear from you whenever you have time. I think a thread has to be inactive for a whole year before it locks, at least that was the way it worked before all the changes were made to this site. So if you post at least once a month you're probably ok.

Puff's beard is black almost all the time now, although the rest of his body still turns light colored when he's warm or asleep. I'm afraid he's in pain, maybe because of pinched nerves -- he still has the curve in his spine and it seems to be getting worse, or maybe constipation because it's usually a long time between poops lately. He has hard urates that probably plug everything up until he can pass them. Hasn't been eating much repashy grub pie lately even though we offer it, so not getting the laxative. He seems to like a certain food for a while, and then decides he doesn't like it, then he likes it again after a while. It's hard to tell what he's going to eat or not eat on any given day. He skips meals now and then, but we don't worry too much unless he doesn't eat for about a week or so. His weight is still stable, but I plan to email the vet about the black beard. I don't think there's much we can do about it. She didn't want to give him pain killers because it might push his liver over the edge, but I think it might be worth it just to keep him comfortable, since he's probably not going to live much longer anyway, although I don't know... I keep saying that and he keeps surprising me by making it through another year.

No sign of brumation -- he's never done that, and the vet says he's not healthy enough for it anyway, so it's good that he doesn't want to. The black beard isn't due to mating season either -- he's not exhibiting any other signs of that. Not healthy enough to be interested in making little dragons, and he's got an "STD" anyway (that's what I call adenovirus when it comes to making whoopee with a female beardie), and we don't want to pass that around. Besides, there are already enough bearded dragons in the world -- more than there are good homes for them, it seems.

German shepherds get pretty big. We had one once when I was still living with my mother -- wanted a watchdog. She was still a puppy when we got her. She was almost full grown, turning into a handsome young dog, but she disappeared and we never found her -- got out of the yard somehow on the 4th of July, probably panicked by the fireworks. I hope she found a good home.

Lots of rain here lately, and cooling off gradually. September is supposed to be our wettest month, but we usually get quite a bit of rain in August too.

We are having all 8 of our windows replaced this fall. They're in pretty bad shape, and we may have to coordinate with a contractor who will have to repair the walls around them while they have them out so we don't end up having to board some of them up between repairs and putting in the new windows. Some of the wood around the windows has rotted out. This house is older than I am. Talk about expensive -- it's costing almost half as much as I paid for the house 20 years ago, but the city assessed value has gone up (more property taxes), so now it's only about 1/5 the value of the house. Still, I'm having second thoughts about whether or not it's worth it instead of looking for a new house, since the rest of this one might be getting ready to fall apart. It's going to be a big hassle to move everything away from the windows so they will have room to work -- don't know where else in the house to put it and I refuse to rent storage. It's going to be expensive enough as it is. We have too much STUFF! But we'll see how it goes...

TLDR.

 

[BlueDragon09]

Wow, been a while.

Dragons are asleep except for Broly of course. We had our last remaining dwarf frog die. Nothing serious just old age. He was 5 years old and most websites say 4-7 years. We’re not exactly sure what to do next. I’ll probably tear it down and start over in the near future. Tom was thinking about starting up a betta fish community tank. I know we can’t stock it with too many animals and of course check the temperament of the fish first. If he/she seems too aggressive we’ll keep he/she alone. Bettas like to be alone...for now Idk I’ll think on it. My dragons, salt water fish, hamster and hedgehog is my #1 priority. Ive kept bettas before and Ive had horrible luck in the past with many untimely deaths. Who knows maybe it’s worse or better now.

Wow Im sorry old man Puff is probably in pain. I wouldn’t know though. Is he still with you guys? I understand if you stop coming on after his death. He has lived a long life. Broly’s doin that whole “no greens” phase. It’s October I was expecting it LOL. Cold months he’s not interested in anything but bugs, squash and fruit. Repashy grubpie for a treat and he’s still eating it. While Kane and Jamie are asleep Broly’s getting all the attention. Our live wire Tom calls him. We’ve already done fecal checks everyone is clean. We’ll do another when they wake up. Nobody has dropped a serious amount of weight.

That’s all for now.

 

[SHBailey]

Sad news -- Puff died early in September. Funny you should mention it -- kind of prophetic in a way. We noticed he was bleeding from the mouth on a Sunday morning. I checked on him before church because I thought it was strange that he stayed light colored like he usually did when he was asleep and didn't darken when we turned the lights on, and that's when I noticed the blood. I told my husband I wasn't going to leave him alone and go to church in person, but they're still doing it on Zoom so we stayed home. My husband never wants to miss church either way.

These things always seem to happen on weekends when the regular vet is closed, so we called several pet emergencies and no one had a reptile vet on staff, but there was probably nothing they could have done anyway. My husband had brought Puff in the bedroom for me to cuddle the night before and he had seemed fine, but on Sunday morning besides the blood he was just limp. I held him for a while when he was still alive and then we put him back in his tank, and a little later I saw that he wasn't breathing. I'm glad I got to cuddle him one last time and say goodbye.

My husband wanted a necropsy done even though we knew that what probably killed him was adenovirus and/or old age. They found out that his liver gave out -- it had been marginal for a while.

The tank was in good shape so we gave it to a local aquarium store since we're not going to get any more reptiles or other pets after this, unless one that needs a home falls in our lap, such as my sister's turtle in case anything happens to my sister. Since I'm not good for much of anything anymore my husband gets stuck doing all the hard work taking care of them. Not fair to him.

Glad to hear that your guys are doing well, except for the frog, but it sounds like you gave him a good life. And I would still like to keep up our correspondence even though I don't have a beardie anymore. I enjoy hearing about your critters and about what is going on in your life and theirs.

 

[BlueDragon09]

Oh sorry he’s passed away. He had a great life.

We rescued a sick betta. Yes we spent $5.99 on a sick male. He’s in a hospital tank not the main 10 gallon. It’s nothing serious he has swim bladder bacterial infection. Tom ordered the correct meds for him. We been treating him. He is getting better.

Broly still the only one awake. Im goin to my parents for thanksgiving. Broly’s coming, other dragons will stay behind. It’s fine they’ll get turkey treats.

I don’t have much to say...caught covid, UTI then head cold...covid shot my immune system...I hadn’t been able to catch a break to relax yet. Im gonna get some rest.

 

[SHBailey]

Hi...

Getting used to being without Puff. Sometimes when I walk past where his tank used to be I still think for a moment that he's there, and then I remember that he's gone. I dream about him sometimes too. I like to hope that we gave him a good life.

It's looking like we might end up with my sister's turtle after all if there are no better options. My sister is in the hospital and it's looking like she might have to go into assisted living. She's 14 years older than me -- almost 80, and is having a lot of trouble getting around. What's scary is that I'm fatter than she is, and it's getting hard for me to get around too, so I may be in the same situation if I live to be as old as she is, or maybe even younger.

So Tom does fish too? I hope your betta will get well.

I was lucky that we never had to worry about Puff brumating, since he didn't seem to ever want to, which was just as well because the vet said he wasn't healthy enough for it anyway. It's nice that Broly will get to go with you for Thanksgiving. We don't have any special plans -- maybe we'll get something "special" from Costco -- one year we got a microwavable turkey roll there -- no bones, no fuss, no mess, no leftovers etc. I did miss the leftovers - it was only good for two meals, but still a lot easier. I'm not up to cooking the big turkey dinner anymore, especially since it's just the two of us nowadays. We used to get together with the rest of the family, but we're all getting older and none of us are up to it anymore.

Sorry to hear you got covid and all the rest all at once. My husband and I are keeping up with all of our booster shots and still wearing masks whenever we're around other people - we've managed to escape covid so far but I'm not counting on anything - I've got covid paranoia, I guess. I'm usually only around other people at church on Sundays. I've been trying to talk my husband into staying home and watching it over zoom, but he insists on going in person nowadays so I go with him. His office is open to the public again and he does the grocery shopping, so I'm always reminding him to wear his mask.

I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving with your family and at least one of your beardies.

 

[BlueDragon09]

Ive been gone a while. Sometimes I wished I didn’t start discord lol. Im on break so other mods will have to pick up the slack I won’t be doing. Though Im not with them physically I still learned to be on a team. Im actually on head listener team as well. It’s a support server for mental health and listeners though not professionals do try to help people feel better and give resources. I do that and also moderate the server too. Two different teams one server.

Broly was good he had a piece of turkey, no bigger than the size of my thumbnail. He got protein there. Everyone else is asleep so they don’t usually get turkey it won’t stay good till February unfortunately. Oh well.

Got ourselves a betta with a nip in the tail. Idk if I told you. Probably not as I was last on before getting him. He’s a bluish purple, black head maybe dark grey. We named him after our current QB of the Eagles (which are doing very well this season 12-1), Jalen Hurts. He’s an eager, always hungry (good sign) fish. I think I saw white on the tail might be the healing process as Ive raised frogs to their fullest life no issues so I can’t imagine him having problems if they didn’t. I don’t overfeed hmm maybe it’s nothing or maybe how the light hit the ends of his fins. Idk I’ll keep watching but I’ll be totally baffled how he got anything bad. It’s been 2 weeks and nothing bad has happened to him. He’s a tail biter but I know I have good bacteria in there kept my frogs alive for 6 years.

I think you did fine with Puff as he doesn’t know anyone else doing a better job. I think I worded it wrong I do this a lot. Im not trying to offend.

No I do research and Tom just helps confirm what I need to be done. He can do hours of research before throwing random medication in the tank. He looked at Jalen he didn’t see what I saw. Oh god tell me Im not freaking crazy...I know what I saw. Am I delusional? Lol. Oh well, I’ll figure it out.

 

[SHBailey]

Hi...

Sound like you're doing a pretty good job managing the stuff on your social media "plate." I know it can get out of hand sometimes. The only one I'm on is "NextDoor" where people post about what's going on in the neighborhood. Mostly lost cats and dogs and crime, and sometimes good and bad comments and recommendations about local businesses. I get a number of emails from them per day, probably no more than a dozen, so it's not overwhelming. Sometimes I have things to say, but usually not much. You can also do "likes" and other similar things like "agree," "thank," "LOL," etc.

Your mental health server sounds like a good idea. Probably helpful to a lot of people.

Never tried Puff on turkey, or any other source of protein besides bugs. We usually didn't have a problem getting him to eat those -- just couldn't get him to eat enough veggies. But that didn't seem to do him any harm -- he lived to be 10 years old, after all, and that wasn't a bad run for a beardie, especially one with adenovirus. And no offense taken -- you didn't word anything wrong.

I guess any of your beardies who sleep through Thanksgiving will have to do without turkey -- maybe they can get something special for some other holiday that they're awake for.

Jalen sounds like a pretty fish. Bluish purple is my favorite color.

Sounds like your Eagles have a pretty good crack at the Super Bowl this year. I just checked the standings and my Packers aren't doing so hot -- 5-8 They played the Eagles last month and lost. I won't hold a grudge

More sad news (way too much of it this year) -- one of my sisters died about 3 weeks ago. Systemic infection. She was getting to the point where she was probably going to have to go into assisted living if she had survived much longer. Her son was taking care of her but her needs were getting above and beyond what he could manage, as he's not a nurse or anything like that. She almost made it to 80 years old. I still can't believe she's gone. My other sister is only a year younger than she was, but she's in really good health for her age. I may be the next one to go even though I'm 13 years younger.

We're getting snowed on tonight and it's piling up. My husband just got done snowblowing and shoveling the last batch and here we go again. The snowblower was a good investment.

Christmas is coming up (too fast) so I hope you have a nice one. And another good thing -- in less than 2 weeks the days start getting longer again. Yay!

 

[BlueDragon09]

Christmas was fine unfortunately my art tablet my sister bought me didn’t work. We tried fixes, installing/uninstalling drivers. Everything failed so I had to pack everything back into its box and send it back and replace it with one that works. Im borrowing my sister’s digital art tablet so it’s great it DOES work and no additional fixes. I like the step up from hand drawing everything from a young age. Im getting into digital art but not gonna make any profits from selling any. A few times I pressed the button on the tablet that ruined the drawing lol. I was just exploring everything it did. It was a fun 4 hours learning it.

Broly will hit 8 years old Jan 14. Considering I’ve had people call Vash an old man at 8 years old I guess Broly is now an old man himself. Geez already 8 and at the beginning of this thread he was a 2-3 month old. Ive cut squash to smaller bite sized pieces so he can chew them better. He’s had bite sized but now they’re smaller as he’s had a hard time chewing the appropriate sized pieces so I made them smaller and he eats them fine. I don’t get how he had a hard time if they’re appropriate sized but ok. Repashy grubpie and veggie burger (he eats this one well too), bugs, fruit and squash he’ll eat. Uninterested with salad as it’s still winter but it’s in there. Ive grated carrot, he’ll eat that.

Kane and Jamie still asleep they’ll wake up in March.

Betta completely healed! No more dreadful fin rot I honestly think he came home with it as frogs have been great in that tank no problems. I can say successfully healed a betta fish. He’s growing out his fins without a sign of them receding backwards. They’re a bit of a different shade of blue but that’s what happens when fin rot attacks.

Sorry to hear about your sister. 80 is pretty good.
I gotta get things charged up another wind storm is coming this is our 6th storm so far.

 

[SHBailey]

Hi...

I used to play with computer art -- usually making patterns of little squares with different colors. Your new art tablet is probably way more sophisticated than what I had -- that was probably more than 10 years ago or more. It was just the program that came with the standard software on the desktop, so nothing fancy.

We had a quiet Christmas. My husband had a few days off and got a few things done around the house, including painting the new window frames. We only have 2 out of 8 windows done because there was a mistake with the sizes on the rest of them -- turned out our house isn't built the way they thought it was around the windows -- something to do with the studs. So we're going to be doing this again, probably in the spring. It takes several months for them to order the windows and have them made and shipped. Expensive $$$. But it will be nice to have it done when it's warmer so all the heat won't go out the holes in the walls when the windows are out.

Happy birthday Broly! 8 is a respectable age for a beardie. Sounds like his eating habits are not too different from Puff. He rarely ate greens, but he liked squash. Good for hydration since squash cubes soak up water like little sponges. We always had a heck of a time getting him to drink water and keeping him hydrated.

Glad to hear that your betta healed up. I think it's a pretty good guess that he came home with the fin rot. If you got him from a pet store, sometimes they're not too careful about things like that.

We've been lucky not to have had too much trouble with wind this year, although there have been a few windy days. But right now it's COLD -- about 0. Typical for Alaska in January. If we can just "survive" this, it should start warming up in a month or two.