Concerned

[beardie1434]

A family member of mine has two beardies and really doesn't have the time to spend with them and their vivs are not as clean as they should be. I have dropped hints about the things I have noticed as far as diet and offer to clean the vivs for her. They are not neglected per say, but they need more. I have offered to take them in if they get to be too much for her and left it at that because she is clinging to them as a way of not letting go of another family member who has passed away. They rescued them and took great care of the beardies, but now I think she is overwhelmed. Does anybody have any ideas that may help bring peace of mind to me?

 

[jscott]

so they are the pets of a deceased family member? you'd think she would take extra-good care of them for that reason.

you could try to give them caresheets and offer to go with them to a petstore to set their tank up right. if she doesnt want to do that then i am stumped.

you could try and convince them that if you take the dragons they will be in a much bigger, healthier enviornment. you can let her come over and see them occasionaly.

*question* do they have proper lights? are they together? they are arent they :| ... what are the sexes?

i think your getting yourself wrapped up in a bigger thing than you might want. if you think you can keep them both seperate and properly lit then i say go for it. it is a bit of a hassle though :roll: ...

i have 5 rescue lizards all of which have their own tanks, lighting and heat gradiants... im kinda in over my head with the changing of all the poopy tiles and listening to scratching at the glass but it makes me happy to see them happy.

anyhow, good luck with the beardie. i hope those people learn to take better care of their loved ones pet or give it to you.

 

[beardie1434]

Thank you. There is a female and a male, they share a 55x12x24 sand substrate viv. They two are very bonded but they are not interested in breeding. The female is 12 and the male is 8. They are very loved by my family member (I am not diclosing names in case she frequents this site to) they do have proper lighting and temps. The protein source is only non-gutloaded crickets and she has change from romaine to collards carrots are given as treats as they love them. They unfortunately only get handled about once to twice a week. I am not looking to hurt her feelings, but I am the kind of person that can be very blunt and am nevous I will offend. A I over-reacting?

 

[jscott]

besides the handling i would be concerened about the substrate.

they probably use that vita or cali-sand and that stuff is no good. even if it was silica/quartz sand, that is only borderline safe with healthy mid-aged dragons; not the very young and the very old.

sand can get stuck in their digestive system causing a serious or even fatal problem called impaction. sand or any other partical substrate also soaks up the wet part of the dragons feces. if they accidentally ingest this contaminated sand while trying to snatch up a bug then they can possibly get sick.

now im not sure if that dragon is 12 but if it is they really should ge that sand outta there. 8 is even pretty old for a BD. i would really try to convince your friend to moving to a more sanitary substrate. heres a couple pics of my vivs:

so as you can see, alot can be done without sand. feel free to send those pics to your friend :wink: .

 

[beardie1434]

ok I will be going to her house Sunday and I think I will go ahead and purchase a repti-carp until I see what I can do as far as tiles.

 

[jscott]

instead of repti carpet go to walmart and go to the carpet and throw-rug section. look for 2' x 3' outdoor door mats. they come in 3 colors: black, green and blue. they only cost 4 dollars a piece so their great. they can fit perfectly in most sized tanks with just alittle alteration.

you could buy like 4 pieces of that and cut them to size. tell the people to pick up the solid poop and spot clean when that happens. if the poop is messy, tell them to just throw it away and slide a new one in.

if you can get a dozen or so 6x6" tiles it would decrease the chance of them pooping on the carpet. tiles are a cinch to clean up.

 

[beardie1434]

thank you jscott