Close Call :( *Rescued* *PICS*

[rclay]

well i'm back on the forum again.

just wanted to report m story,
well as you know i have a one year old beardy and a few months before i got mine a guy i know also purchased one as a baby.
after several months of excellent care and great body size the care of the dragon dropped significantly as the "WOW" factor wore off.
the poor dragon has been starved for almost two months now (this is not the first time it was not feed consecutively).
their room mate came to me and informed me of the situation and they actually believed it was dead so i brought some crickets with some spare brocoli over.
the poor dragon was triple the size less than it use to be, it's poor bones are very brittle, it barely can open it's eyes.
it's so bad i almost thought it was dead because when i got there it would'nt move and it's skin is kinda saggy too.
after giving it alot of heat, force fed food it is now moving on and off slowly instead of laying lifeless in the cage.
after alot of convincing i was able to get the dragon, however i only have a ceramic heat bulb, 10 gal tank with small amount of decor inside.
i do have some spare crickets and brocoli left to feed it, i will unfortunately not be able to get it a proper bulb for 2 days and i will not be able to get it another enclosure unless i can get the person to give me the tank it was in (tank is an upright exo terra tank so it's not necessarily the best either).

i will post two pic's i took of it, it's very skiddish and a little agressive so i couldn't get better pic's.
sorry if the pic's are big but it's the best way to see his/her's condition.

any suggestions on helping bring it to a speedy recovery?
should i try to plump it up with a daily diet of crickets or is there something else that would work better?
all feedback is greatly appreciated as i would love to save this beautiful creature!

btw they named it Quagmire after the family guy character and mine was named Cleveland from the show as well.

 

[Buggsy]

Try and get the largest plastic container you can find, and put a mesh over the top, its not perminant, but it will be fine for a while until something more perminant can be sorted (i do this for a 'travel tank' for holidays)

I would also not force feed, if they haven't been fed for a while too much protein may shock the system. Instead get chicken and squah baby food and using a dropper place some on his nose, he should start to lick it off.

Take the CHE out, and use a bright white house hold bulb, they produce nice heat and the light will be nice.

Just to check, which UVB are you getting? I assume he hasn't had good bulbs so far so please make sure you get him the reptiSUN 10 tube, and nothing else, they are very cheap from www. petmountain.com. You will also need to get down to walmart and get a digital therm with a probe (or anywhere else really) to make sure the temps are perfect for him.

Please also look at:
http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html
for nice veggies to give, broc although a nice treat isnt a staple veggies that should be fed every day.

Its lovely of you to take him in, he does look very ill, but im sure that can be turned around, does he have a tail nip there??

 

[rclay]

thanks for the reply

i've got a 10 gal tank so i think that should work for now until i get his/her size back up

i have squash and a few other baby foods already as i have a 5 month baby who has just started to like these type of foods.

i was using some hanging lights above the island in our kitchen for light then the CHE but i can certainly get down to a hardware store and pick up a house bulb, that's pretty much what was used before when they decided to ever turn it on.
they also had one of the repti-glo compact 10.0 type bulbs which luckily was never used.
what type of wattage should i get for the house bulb?

as for a permanent bulb i'm thinking of ordering the smaller watt Mega Ray as i already have the 160watt for my beardie and love it.

my beardie is in a 120 gal tank do you think it might be better to half that tank and put the dragon in their instead of the 10 gal?

i do have a flukers digital thermo+hydro gauge reader too

i also picked up some kale to give with the brocoli, will check out link posted for other veggies.

i'm trying to find some older pic's i have of the poor guy/girl when it was at regular size

*update*
still not eating on his/her own yet, if we open his/her's mouth put the food in there it will start chomping away but i think it's still to weak to eat on it's own
haven't tried the baby food yet, that will come tomorrow.

any other suggestions are very needed

 

[rclay]

there is also no tail nip but its tail is very frail

 

[jeserah]

you are a very good person for rescuing this poor beardie. Just remember to give more liquids than food in the beginning because too much initial food can kill an emaciated animal. I hope it gets better soon!

 

[rclay]

thank you for the replies

i've taken the above suggestion and purchased some baby food squash and have been feeding that daily with a side of Kale greens
then every 3rd day 4-5 crickets, finally starting to become active instead of sitting in one place all day

although it will not eat on it's own yet, i have to still force feed it a few times then it will open it's mouth and start eating.
however the next day it's like were back at sqaure one, i hope it's only due to lack of energy and it picks up eating again.
when it was a healthy you could drop food in and it would rush over and eat it, mines healthy and doesn't even do that!
i always gotta hand feed mine then make a pile and put it infront of it because i think i spoiled it too much hand feeding

so as an update i have been getting it to fill out more, more color to his/her skin and i think it's only been 3-4 days so i'm pretty confident i can get it back on it's feet, oh oh the agression is gone and it's actually a very nice dragon

i was also waiting to see if someone could suggest with a bit more detail a bulb to pick up to replace the CHE??
went to get one yesterday but there's so many different kinds and wattages.

 

[pamelacoe]

If you are getting plain house bulbs, I would get both a 75 watt and a 100 watt if you keep your house cool for summer, or if your house is quite warm in summer, I would get a 50 watt and 75 watt. I find in my own house that on days when it is cloudy and the sun does not beat down, our house stays cooler, so I need a warmer bulb for basking; the opposite is true on days when our A/C just isn't cutting it. By having both, you're prepared.

It is important not to buy a coil bulb or a soft white bulb. Just buy the old-fashioned bulb shape but in absolute clear - you may see blue or pink tinged clear bulbs, but don't buy those. Get the clear ones.

 

[rclay]

i'll check out one of those type of bulbs then

i do have access to one of these bulbs, im just not sure which one it is exactly
are any of these better then the house bulbs?

 

[pamelacoe]

I have the All Living Things basking bulb, plus my lower wattage clear house bulb for hot days. My little guy seems happy with it, but someone who has owned more BD's will be able to tell you if there is better.

However, he was quite freaked out by the temp probe thing stuck on basking rock. He hid from it until I removed it. Picky, picky. :roll:

How is your little guy doing?

 

[rclay]

guys doing good im going to try the bulb from above since it's free and keep an eye on the temps...

the little guy is getting a little bigger but still fussy with eating on it's own so ill just keep at it

i feed it the baby food squash first then kale, tomorrow is cricket day so it will get some squash later on in the day

also going to see if i can pick up it's other tank and clean it up real good as it and the bulb were originally mine anyways
other tank is not a beardy tank but i believe its bigger than my 10 gallon

i believe the tank is a Medium Exo Terra Desert Habitat terrarium, size: 45 x 45 x 45 cm 18" x 18" x 18"

 

[Buggsy]

Its still a very small cage, and would need replacing soon anyway. Beardies like to roam so need more floor space than height.

 

[rclay]

ya i'm going to use that tank until i figure out how to split my 120gal properly

as for the dragon update,
he was force fed one cricket today but ate the other 4 on his own.
had to fight with him to eat some squash
will try squash and kale tomorrow
he is also swimming and pooping in the tub
i'm thrilled with his progress, i should have no problem saving him
any other baby food i can try for him?
also im using a plastic baby spoon to feed him, any other idea's that may be easier?

 

[Freeie]

I use a needleless syringe you can kind of get it in the mouth and then put the food in. Only babyfood i use is butternut squash and pea. Mine love both.

 

[rclay]

wow.... the needless syringe works awesome, thank you!
i'm going to pick up some pea's in baby food tomorrow too.

i'm starting to bulk him/her up finally. (will also check google again to see if the dragon is male or female)

 

[fez09]

Congrats that he/she is starting to feel better! It should be safe to start letting him have crickets everyday now. I hope you're able to get a bigger cage soon! Good luck and keep us posted, any pics??