Craigslist rescue beardie

[bumblebee]

Hey everyone! Sorry in advance that this is kind of long, but there are pictures at the end!

I picked up a beardie off of craigslist on Sunday evening, and I need some help/advice. I was told that the previous owners had had him/her (looks like a girl to me, but may be too early to tell) for 9 months, and that they got her from a flea market. I'm guessing from this information that she is approximately 10 months old. She is only about 12.5 inches long, and weighed 71 grams after her bath. She was very cold when I picked her up - they had her outside waiting for me and it was in the low- to mid-50s :shock: Even though she was cold, she lifted her head up and looked around when I picked her up. I held her the whole way home, and when we got home, she woke up and seemed very alert. She actually climbed up my arm to get out of her bath She then proceeded to fall asleep on my hand in the bath. She also did several laps around her new home until lights out, licking everything, of course :lol: She appears to be very healthy, from what I can tell, except for her ridiculously small size, and her eyes look a little bit big to me (but they are clear). She had no UVB, but the guy did know what I was talking about when I mentioned calcium powder. I haven't noticed any tremors or other signs of MVB, but will obviously be watching her.

I did give her 3 butter worms after we got home. She attacked them and she probably would have eaten more, but I am afraid of giving her too much food too fast. I was told that she has been fed cilantro and water every day, crickets every 3 days or so, and meal worms occasionally. The guy said that the last time she had been fed crickets was four days ago. My main question is how much food can I safely give her, and how quickly can I let her move up? I am very concerned with stressing her system, and her going into shock. I plan on giving her a salad in the morning (endive, butternut squash, beardie bites), and then maybe 3 more butter worms? I definitely want her to gain weight and grow, so she can hopefully catch up a bit, but I want to ease her into food.

Her current set up is a 105 qt sterilite bin (until I can get the 55 gallon she came with cleaned to my satisfaction), she will be getting my other beardie's Repti-sun 10.0 tube (it's about 2 months old) until her new one gets here, and paper towel as substrate. I didn't have time to play with her temps to get them just right, but I am aiming for 100-105 basking, 80-85 cool, etc.

Here are some pictures!
Trying to escape the bath

Falling asleep on my hand

Basking after her bath

Hunting a butter worm

Warming up again

Doing a lap around the enclosure

Asleep (the lights were off, so the picture is awful quality, but she looks so cute!)

If anyone has any advice about how much to feed her or just rescue advice in general, I would really appreciate it! This is my first "rescue," as my first beardie came from someone who knew what they were doing. I want to do everything that I can to give her the best chance at getting better.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Start out with no more than 10-15 feeders daily spread out in several feedings. Be sure to give 2 hours before lights out for digestion also.
You can give the greens/veggies daily in hopes she will learn to eat a good amount of them, too.
The best thing is to monitor her urates to be sure her kidneys are working properly before going to heavy on the protein initially. If she is not digesting properly then back off on the protein some to give more time. I would keep her on the lower protein end for at least a week to monitor urates & digestion. You can bump her amount up if she is having regular & normal stools after that with good sized urates that are not rock hard, as well.
Has she gone to the bathroom yet since you got her?
I think she will grow & catch up some but may not get full size. Only time will tell just how much she has been stunted. They are shockingly resilient though with good care.
Is she interested in her salads or have you tried them yet?

Let us know how she is doing & adjusting!

Tracie

 

[bumblebee]

Thank you, Tracie!

We will definitely start slowly with the feeders, and I will make sure she gets the 2 hours to bask after her last feeding. I actually didn't turn off her lights until about 10:30pm last night (Sunday night), because we got back so late from picking her up and I wanted to give her some food. By the time I got her tank set up and gave her a bath and the three worms, it was 8:30pm.

I think I've read on this site something about giving beardies two hours to warm up before offering food, too. Is that true, or can I offer worms a bit earlier than that and she'll eat if she's ready?

We will definitely give her salads! Last night I didn't bother because it was so late, but she will be getting one this morning.

She has not gone to the bathroom yet. She did get a bath last night, and she had some poop stuck to her vent/lower belly, but the guy did not know when she had last gone (because I guess she was his 13-year-old son's pet ). How often should we expect her to go to the bathroom? I know it might take her a few days to go because she's stressed, and it will probably depend on how much she's eating, but then do you think she'll go every day?

My mom went to adjust her light just a few minutes ago, and was hissed at, so she's definitely a feisty little dragon

Thank you for your help!

 

[bumblebee]

So she seems to be doing very well. She ate all 7 butter worms that were offered to her right away - 2 in the morning, and 5 more in the afternoon, and she did not have a problem eating with an audience. I'm not sure if she ate her salad, but she did eat all of the bearded dragon bites (about 5 of them) that were put on top. No potty yet, but she will be getting another bath tomorrow, and we got some unflavored pedialyte to add to her bath. She was very alert and basked most of the day.

I'm planning on ordering some phoenix worms for her tomorrow, and then will hopefully be ordering some small silk worms and horn worms later next week.

 

[bumblebee]

She went potty today! My mom took two pictures of it, but it’s kind of hard to see. It was definitely soft, but not really well defined. There was a puddle, so it looks like she’s well hydrated, and the urate was soft.

The butter worms are almost gone, so my mom had to pick up some crickets for her today. I’ve ordered 1000 large phoenix worms, and they will hopefully be here by this weekend (because I hate crickets ).

She's eating well. She seems to like the beardie bites. It’s hard to tell if she’s touching her salad other than that.
Her stress marks are still pretty dark, but I think her belly looks lighter than the first night when it was kind of gray. She has not hissed again, and she seems to be more curious than scared. She also seems to be getting a bit rounder

 

[Esther19]

What a sweetie pie! She is a very lucky girl to have you and your mom.

 

[bumblebee]

Thanks Esther! We think she's pretty sweet, too!

 

[bumblebee]

She went potty again today! She was a brat and pottied down the side of her basking rock. :lol: Didn't take a picture of it, but the urate was soft, and kind of an off-white color. There was quite a bit of liquid with it because she's been eating her salad! She loves her butternut squash and the beardie bites (she was actually digging through the salad to get to the squash), and she is even eating some of her greens. She eats all of the crickets offered, and then looks for more. Hopefully she'll like the phoenix worms when they get here in the next couple of days.

Only one picture today. I think she looks kind of proud of herself for going potty on her rock. :roll:

 

[bumblebee]

Update on rescue:

We've decided to call her Poppy

She loves the phoenix worms, and has gotten 15-16 per day the past two days. I gave her a bath this evening with some pedialyte in the water, and she took two long drinks from it, and then pottied in it. She has gone a total of 5 times since we got her last Sunday night, and the past 3 times have had white urates. I weighed her after her bath, and she has gained 5 grams since last Sunday night.

I cleaned and sanitized her 55 gallon tank today, put in non-adhesive shelf liner, and her lights and furniture. She settled in right away. Her stress marks are definitely lighter, though they are still pretty dark while she basks.

Sexy legs in the temporary tank

55 gallon

Eating her salad

Basking

More sexy leg

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Poppy is a cute name for her!
She is doing very well now & even gaining weight, too that is awesome.
One thing, can you get the tube UVB mounted directly overhead for better coverage & less glare into her eyes?
The basking light is on one end so be sure to mount the tube bulb in close proximity of the basking light.

I am glad she is doing so well now! Great job with her.

Tracie

 

[bumblebee]

Thanks Tracie!

You said that we can start to slowly increase her protein intake. Does increasing it by about 5 bugs a day per week sound good (so about 15 a day this week, 20 a day next week, and so on)? Also, because she's getting a low number of feeders per day, should we be dusting all of her feeders with calcium (except the phoenix worms) or just the one feeding per day?

I'm not sure about the basking and UVB situation. As her tank is a 55 gallon, it's 21 inches high, so in order to get the UVB close enough to her (6-8 inches while she's basking), we had to mount it as it is inside the tank. She does not have a screen lid, so the basking light is attached with a clamp to the end of the tank. Do you think we should clamp it to the back of the tank so it's above the UVB (which would basically move the basking light a few inches to the left)? I'm just afraid that that would cause the temperature on the cool side to rise (the cool side is currently about 80-85F).

Here are two more pictures of how the lights are currently set up.

Thanks again!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

You can increase safely to as many feeders as she wants now if she is digesting properly & you are confident that her kidneys are 100%. She will likely eat 25+ feeders daily or more if you let her.
I can understand regarding the lighting. The problem lies with the way the UVB can glare into her eyes from that angle as well as refract everywhere except for downward onto her. So she wont benefit very much from that angle. It needs to be directly overhead as close to the basking as possible. Since you don't have a screen top, you could get a piece of wood a 1x2 or something & attach the light to it with the fixture. If you can get the the shield to go around it like the reflectors you see in fixtures, that would be great. Or you can build one out of flashing or mylar photo paper for increased UVB output.

Tracie

 

[bumblebee]

Tracie, thank you so much for your help!

We've upped her feeders, and have ordered some horn worms, silk worms, and crickets. This weekend, we got some turnip greens and mustard greens, and more butternut squash, so she'll have some more variety.

We are trying to work out some way to get the lighting issue fixed. We'll definitely look into making a reflector as well. I'm hoping this weekend will be warm and sunny, so we can take her outside for a bit, too.

 

[bumblebee]

Sorry it’s been a while since I updated. I’ve had a crazy few weeks. Poppy seems to be doing great! She was 71 grams when we got her 3 weeks ago. On Sunday afternoon (yesterday), she weighed 105 grams! So she’s gained about half her original weight in 3 weeks (about 10 grams a week). She is also about 13 inches now. And her front right leg/arm is going into shed! She is a huge pig! On Sunday she ate 140 large phoenix worms, 5 small-medium silkworms, and 3 medium horn worms! :shock: The horn worms are now gone, but she loved them! She was literally jumping several inches off the ground for them. Her belly is so big it drags the ground when she's eating, and she's actually gotten a phoenix worm stuck under her belly, and she dragged it around for a bit :lol: She is very active, and she glass dances for food

She has been nicknamed Poppy the Pain (for repeatedly pooping on her very heavy basking rock, hence the washcloth, and the absence of the basking rock, in some of the pictures), and Poppy the Pig (for eating a ridiculous amount of food).

I am a little concerned because I think I might be seeing some signs of a respiratory infection, even though her humidity has been around 29-34% in the past week or so. She has some saliva in her mouth when she gapes, and this weekend I noticed a few times that her mouth wasn’t all the way closed when she wasn’t basking. This only happened a few times, so I’m not super concerned yet, but we're trying to get her night temps up to about 80F, so that hopefully she won’t need to see a vet and go on antibiotics.

Here are some more recent pictures of her!

2/24 Sleepy

3/2 Sexy leg. If you compare this one to the previous picture, it's pretty amazing the difference a week can make!

3/2 Basking

3/2 Sleepy girl

3/2 Glaring at me because I woke her up :lol:

3/7 Glass dancing for food

3/7 Getting quite a belly

3/7 Watching the worms outside of her tank

3/7 Basking

3/8 Gaping while basking

3/8 Balancing on her basking rock

3/8 Gaping while basking. This is what I mean about the saliva (in the corner of her mouth).

3/8 Very full belly

3/10 Her right leg is going into shed!

3/10 Getting ready to sleep. This is what I mean about her mouth being slightly open.

Does anyone else think it might be a RI? I'm wondering if (hoping) there might be another possible explanation. I know she had a water bowl in her tank in her previous home, but I would have thought that she would have shown signs before this. I've noticed the saliva before, but I thought it meant she was dehydrated, and I gave her a bath or dripped water on her nose, and she drank and I didn't see the saliva again. I offered her water by dripping it on her nose on Sunday afternoon, but she didn't take any, and I assumed she was hydrated because she's been eating so many worms. Around the time of the last picture (with her mouth slightly open), I did notice that she seemed to be gulping a bit. Is it possible that she's just dehydrated and we should try to get her to drink again tomorrow?

Thanks in advance for any help/ideas!

 

[ToothlessMom]

She's so pretty! The coloring on her face in the light is gorgeous.