Darwin

[akacazza]

I can only hope that poor Athena had a little comfort in the end with people that actually cared about her.

I'm sorry it ended that way for the poor little one, I've no doubt that you meant a lot to them and so thankful that they were actually able to spend their last days with someone who loved them.
My boys a rescue as well, i can't stand humans sometimes

No doubt her previous owners would have just let her suffer to death, so thank you so much for not letting that happen. I'm a strong believer in quality of life rather than longevity of life.

 

[akacazza]

I've loved reading about his progress, when i first started reading, i was like....oh no....but to here how well he is going is amazing. He was so skinny, poor little guy. Mine (another rescue) was very skinny when i got him, but certainly not as skinny as Darwin.
My boy was in a tank with a blue tongue that starved to death due to the lack of food they were fed and my boy, being the bigger of the 2, would take it all for himself.
So your boy being skinnier is really saying something lol.

PS sorry if I've messed this 'posting' thing up a bit - i only created my account today - long time stalker, first time member as per usual

 

[Heyimbrit]

How's he doing?

 

[Tommyst]

How's he doing?

If I see right, his tank is just being cleaned 8)

 

[Tommyst]

Sorry, Cooper, I have to share this, he's super cute! :lol:

He didn't want you to leave 8)

I have to say, the little critter looks much, much better now!

 

[CooperDragon]

Little guy was abandoned for a few days while we went out of town but our friend checked in on him and gave him some fresh salad. His tank was super stinky after him running all over and spreading poops everywhere. Poor guy got a nice soak and all of his stuff got cleaned and sanitized this morning. He got a bug meal and dug into his fresh salad quite a bit and enjoyed running around the house. Still a little ball of energy but he was down to 302g this morning. We'll get that weight on him eventually. His activity level is so high now I'm not too worried but I started calling him stickbug this morning. He definitely didn't want to be put back into his tank when we left for work and now I see that he's doing his usual glass dancing. He'll get more time to roam the house after work though. He's a good bugger.

I received the MegaRay heat projector while I was away. I set that up and programmed it on the second outlet of the Herpstat. It's keeping the cool side at 75 min during the day (so it's off) and will keep the cool side at 73 overnight. It's a small/relatively narrow bulb compared to the basking lights. it has a mesh cover where a lens would go to protect access to the filament. It heats up but it just feels a bit hot to the touch. Not going to cause a burn as advertised. The dome fixture heats up a bit but most of the heat is sent downward. I'll have to take some closer readings and adjust the height tonight when it's the only bulb running. So far so good though.

 

[Heyimbrit]

I'm having Darwin withdrawals. Can we get an update and maybe a picture? How's the MegaRay?

 

[CooperDragon]

I'm having Darwin withdrawals. Can we get an update and maybe a picture? How's the MegaRay?

There's a live webcam... =P
He is doing well. Hasn't put on weight as I'd hoped but he's a ball of energy so I'm not worried at all. I've never seen a dragon with so much energy and exploring desire. He wrecked his tank the last couple of days with poo - you probably don't want pictures. Lots of steam cleaning, baking, and scrubbing =x. The only real milestone is that he got to go outside for a bit today. I kept him in my hands so no wandering but it was 60 (with 60 mph winds, had a hard time keeping the car on the road driving to Des Moines for work this morning!) but a little taste. We (I) made a deal that if he stays alive until summer there's lots more outside free roaming to be had and he was pretty curious and seemed on board with that. Bugger still eats everything we throw his way. He loves squash but has a hard time catching it. Blew through his collards and dandelion greens. I've started giving him adult dubias every day or two so he can build up weight a bit. He's a good hunter. I snuck some bene-bac on the back of one of the bugs the other day. Kinda sneaky but he didn't care.

 

[Heyimbrit]

Either I'm looking at the wrong times or the livecam isn't working for me.

 

[BeardieScout]

Its good he's got a new home!

 

[CooperDragon]

He got a shipment of silk worms today but one of the two jars appears to have a dead set unfortunately. Maybe I'll wait till summer to order more. They arrived a day late thanks to USPS but were still warm (temps are unusually high at the moment). He didn't know what to make of them at first (went after his salad instead) but when I convinced him to try one he licked it, then ate it, then ate another and seemed to like them. Now he's basking on his portable spot in the dining room.

 

[CooperDragon]

He started attacking the side of one of the jars so I opened it and offered him more but he wouldn't eat them. Silly dude.

 

[CooperDragon]

I was watching him bask under his portable a while ago and since he was in pacman face mode I gave his mouth a good inspection. It's really nice to see such a healthy looking mouth after dealing with the awful (and I'm sure very painful) mouth rot Dundee had. I did notice one thing that got me thinking - despite his healthy looking mouth, he is missing the sharp front tooth that Cooper had. Dundee didn't have it because it fell out (I'm guessing) due to his mouth infections. Darwin should have it. I also notice that his lower jaw is slightly misshapen like MBD was starting to set in. I also notice that his teeth look good but are smaller than I'd expect and they are shorter as they move to the front of his mouth. My theory is that his body was reacting to the start of MBD by taking calcium away from developing teeth and going to the rest of his bone development. This caused his teeth to not form fully and his front tooth never grew (it wasn't lost). Not sure if that's a crazy theory but it makes sense in my mind. He has plenty of calcium in his diet and has proper UVB exposure now so it should be stopped in it's tracks now, but I can't help but think we took the poor guy in just in time.

 

[AHBD]

He sounds like quite a character ! I'm sure you enjoy watching his hyper- active antics and his feisty personality blooming. Too bad some of the worms came in dead, I always hold my breath if my order is not overnighted. As for his teeth, he may have broken one or two by biting on something hard at some point. The way you described the tooth size back to front [ smaller in front ] is actually typical. If you Google beardie teeth or b.d. with mouth open you can compare to other dragons but it sounds normal. And I've read that the teeth are called " acrodont" and do not have sockets but are attached as part of the jaw.

 

[CooperDragon]

That's true, I just looked at an old photo of Cooper and his teeth got smaller going forward too. Darwin seems to do OK without that front spike (and my fingers remain safe!). I'm just glad he has a healthy mouth.