It seems like once most beardies get used to being hand fed, they don't want to bother chasing their own bugs anymore -- not if they can get their human slaves to do it for them. :roll:
Rechargeable batteries for "critical systems" are a nice thing to have when your power goes out, especially when it's cold. You can use human body heat to keep reptiles warm for a while (in other words, cuddle them), but I guess there's not much you can do about fish tanks if your water filtration system goes down, although I don't have much experience with fish. We had a little tetra for a little while, but only because my husband tried to feed it to our corn snake when he was little and wasn't eating anything else. I was still working then and my husband had the day off, so I wasn't there to keep him out of mischief. I came home and the fish was in a little deli cup staring at Squirmles, and Squirmles was sprawled out on the bottom of the tank, disinterestedly staring back. Not gonna happen. :| I could have told my husband that... Not a garter snake. I had a pretty good idea that the fish wasn't going to last very long without proper water chemistry, so the next day we bought a little one gallon tank with a little filter, and a book on the care and feeding of fish, and set it up next to the snake tank. I remember thinking "Ok, now we have a fish." and having dark fantasies about acquiring a whole menagerie of tiny little live animals that Squirmles wouldn't eat to learn how to take care of. "We can't keep doing this," I thought. "I have a full time job." (At least I did, back then. That was about 15 years ago, just before I burned out the second time and had to quit my last job.) A few days later my husband tried to feed the fish to the snake again. Squirmles still wasn't interested but the fish was traumatized and didn't make it. That's the extent of my experience with fish. Fortunately, we managed to get Squirmles to eat a mouse a few days later, and he's been eating frozen thawed mice ever since, except during his annual spring hunger strikes when he apparently wants a lady snake instead of a mouse.
Sounds like your lizards are all healthy and either growing slowly or maintaining. I don't weigh and measure Puff because his size is pretty much stable. I have a little scale but I don't think it's accurate enough to give me useful information where the reptiles are concerned, so they only get weighed at the vet's.
I was surprised that Puff came out of his "burrito" almost as soon as I turned on the lights this morning, and gave me The Look ("Do I get my Good Morning cuddle today?"), especially since it started off cloudy this morning, but it's starting to clear up and looking pretty nice now, pretty much like the weather forecast said... what a coincidence. :wink: