Close Call :( *Rescued* *PICS*

[rclay]

thanks for all the great feedback...

as for the sexing, i followed this thread.. http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/sexing/ and now i'm confused the sex of both my beardies haha, it's fairly late here so ill check them tomorrow again

as for pic's i'll get some up in the next couple days here so check back

and finally for the great news... today it was eating by itself, no more force feeding, will have to see what happens tomorrow

one last question, do you think it would be ok to split my 120gal tank in half so i could put the other dragon in? if so what should i use to split it?

 

[rclay]

stay tuned for an update tomorrow, have the day off work

will need y'all help tho, you'll see

 

[rclay]

k i've got two old pic's of the dragon before it started to become starved
the older pic's are a bit blurry, sorry

older pics

new pic of him getting better, still doesn't look the best yet, eats by hiself now

here is my healthy shedding dragon haha

now for the sexing... if someone could help me with this.. this is for the rescued dragon as my other is shedding and couldn't get pic's of the area

*can you also inform me what the yellow/orange may be underneath (almost like a stain maybe?), i have bathed him several times, does not come off

thanks in advanced

 

[tedrickrumohr]

You are such a good person, I feel so bad for that beardie

 

[jeritta]

thank you for rescuing that poor baby.

 

[jeserah]

Looks like it might be a male to me... however the poor thing's still to emaciated to be sure. A little more meat on 'em and it should be easier to tell.

 

[rclay]

thanks for all the replies, certainly doing my best to help it back on it's feet

 

[Ethelia]

thank you for rescuing this little sweetheart. I hope he/she makes a recovery with you.

a needless syrine as christy suggested can be a great help. be careful not to try to force the tip into his mouth though. with my stubborn male he thrashed at me and ended up cutting his own lip.
failing the syringe you can use the Q-Tip technique. you can either:
1. place some babyfood on the tip and dollop it on his nose and when he finally takes a sneaky lick you can continue applying it in dollops.
2. if he refuses to open his mouth you can can put your fingers about 2cms away from the tip of his jaw either side and applying gentle pressure. then take the q-tip and place the ball sideways against the tip of his mouth. when he opens his mouth a tiny bit you then work the qtip inside of his mouth, then roll it down his teeth so its right at the back of one side of his mouth (the q-tip never goes more than half the white-head inside his mouth). then with that open gap you can put in the syringe tip without having damaged any part of him.

the second method is favourable to prying his jaw open with your hands in my, and my vets oppinion, and also its better if he thrashes or resists you using the syringe

all the best x

 

[rclay]

i certainly appreciate the tips..

i'm sorry i haven't been around to update lately. very busy with work and my 6 month on baby, what a hand full.

as for the dragon it's doing great, eating regularly and all around making a comeback.
this dragon is a fighter!

i recently swapped the CHE for a 100W t-rex basking lamp which has added some needed heat and restored energy back to this little guy.

i'm not working on plump the dragon up with crickets and super worms.

i also got a temporary exo-terra tank donated to me, it's tall but unfortunately more built for a chameleon or some type of dragon that likes to be up in the tree's so i'm trying to find atleast a 40gal tank.

will be looking into a 90W MVB, still deciding as my 160W had to be removed from my 125gal as it was too strong for my dragon. may just stick to dusting the food unless i get a 90W for my 125gal too.

well more work so the weekend i'll be cleaning the one tank and setting it up until i get the 40gal, will try to get pics up soon.

 

[gogga]

Any new news on how he/she is doing?

 

[sweetiepie9]

Thank you so much for taking in this dragon. He's improved so much. You're getting great advice about this dragon. It sounds like it has Metabolic Bone Disease. We also rescued a dragon, we called her Angel, she'd never had UVB in 1 1/2 yrs. She also was very skinny and couldn't walk, she shuffled about on her elbows. So I started giving her liquid calcium, it make all the difference. I also gave her a bath daily and encouraged her to try to jump out. It's a deep kitchen sink, so Angel would try to get out of the tub. It gave her muscle tone in her legs and arms. Doing that helped her bones and the liquid calcium helped her bones get a bit harder. You give it to them with a needless syringe. Only a small one that shows mL. What I was told by a moderator here was to give my beardie .01 mL per 100 grams of weight. For Angel she started to walk in two months. She had a year of being a regular beardie with the rest of our dragons. She ran and had outside time, ate crickets, super worms and greens & veggies. I made an easy salad to eat. I ground the squash in a small food processor and mix it up with small cut greens. She ate her salad every am before worm time. I had 6 dragons at that time and this combination of UVB, liquid calcium, greens/veggies & squash. I started her on babyfood, like you, we live near Vancouver, BC. I found a chicken + 5 veggies. That was the protein staple when any rescue needed to start that way, also gave babyfood organic squash. Angel had a very healthy year until her kidneys started to malfunction. We lost her this past Feb, but she sure had a great time the year we had her. She know what being loved was all about & turned out to be a fiesty dragon.

I'm in New Westminster, BC, near Vancouver, I noticed you're from BC, too, which area?

Sounds as if your dragon is doing very well. If you feel that he's getting enough calcium with his food, you don't have to use the liquid calcium. I have a female named Sweetie, she's an egg layer, so I use the calcium to help her make eggs, then recover from the laying. It always works great.

There's also something called Critical Care or Carnivore Care, that you can get at the vets, I'm not sure if Pet Stores carry it. You mix the powder with water and feed it to them on a spoon, if you can, otherwise a syringe would work, too. It gives your dragon extra vitamins and minerals, helps their immune system.

Deb


So good luck and keep me posted. Your dragon is now knowing what it's like to have food and care without him having to do a thing but eat, rest a

 

[rclay]

hi Deb,
i'm actually from Chilliwack, so about an hour away.

sorry i haven't updated in awhile... got a new position at work, 8 month old baby haha big handful..

the dragon is a she i have found out, very very energetic now.
she just went through her first shed since i've got her so that's great news.
i've been feeding her super worms, crickets, spinach, kale and the odd fruits.
she can see my other beardie im pretty sure as he bobs his head at her and she does weird arm movements which i have found out means she is responding back to him in a flirty manner hahah
funny creatures..
i'd love to get pic's up soon, maybe the coming weekend as both my beardies have grown quite a bit.
i also did get a 40 gallon tank for her but i have no stand or bedding stuff for it.
was able to salvage some tank decorative from my other tank so it's coming along but still plain.
am hoping to get her to the size of my other beardie and introduce them but that could be in a year or so as she has alot of catching up to do.
i'm also trying to get both of mine more calcium intake as i have the calcium but always forget to dust my crickets.
was thinking of sneaking it on the veggies, would this work still?

thanks again for checking the thread

 

[rclay]

*duplicate, please delete*

 

[sweetiepie9]

It think it's great that he's getting better. Try not to give them spinach, it's supposed to work against calcium absorption. You can chop up veggies for them, I chop up butternut squash; they also like fruits, they love raspberries, they get little bits daily. I know of a dragon that loves cantaloupe, strawberries (cut all up into little bits). Just no citrus fruits. Our female likes blueberries, too.

I really loved the colours of your healthy beardie, how old is he/she?

Deb

 

[rclay]

lucky i only fed them spinach one day... i was under the assumption spinach has calcium in it?
my colored beardie is a year and 2 months..

im going to go back to the food chart that use to be on here and check it, only thing sucks is it's very americanized and we don't have alot of that stuff easily available here or in my city