AprilMayJune
Hatchling Member
I am very concerned about my dragon and this is going to be a lengthy post so I can give you all the full history as far as I know about Lance, my oldest male dragon. I'm not quite sure where to put this thread and if need be a moderator can put it in it's proper location.
His history: We bought Lance and Samantha from kijiji from their original owners for my two sons. We didn't do any research before and they were housed together. We were told Lance was about 2 years old and Samantha was about 1 1/2 years old. Their substrate was calci-sand. They had a red basking light. They had a ReptiSun 5.0 UVB bulb that was original from when Lance was a baby. They also came with their tank which measures 36Wx18Dx19H and a digital probe thermometer. They had a large water dish. We were told they ate crickets every other day and romaine lettuce every other day. They never mentioned anything about calcium or vitamin supplements.
I did find this site and so far everyone has helped us tremendously with proper set-up and care. This is what we changed for them within the first couple months of them being here.
Within the first week we changed their red basking light to a bright white one and changed their UVB to a ReptiGlo 10.0. We couldn't get anything else at the time and it was 12 inches away from them. We got rid of the sand and used newspaper for their substrate. We bought RepCal calcium with D3 and Reptivite vitamins and started dusting their crickets with them. We changed their salads and got rid of the romaine lettuce and gave them a variety of bak choi, parsley, cilanto, collard greens, dandelion greens, squash, blueberries, carrots, yams, kale, broccoli, peppers and whatever else looked good at the grocery store that is the safe foods list. Mind you, they weren't all given at the same time. We mixed them up for a good variety. We continued to feed them crickets and the occassional superworms. They also got some treats from time to time of hornworms, silkworms, butterworms and waxworms.
Lance and Samantha chased the crickets around and ate as many as offered and munched occassionaly on their salads. We continued to do some more research and observed their behaviours towards each other. Lance had a fairly large gap at the tip of his nose when his mouth was fully closed. His tongue always sticks out. I thought maybe that he may have had a bit of MBD and ensured we dusted with calcium regularly. We switched them from crickets to superworms about a month after we first got the two of them. We noticed that one morning Lance had a mark on his tail that looked like it could have been a bite mark. Samantha had one as well. We had read and seen enough interraction with them that we seperated them. We went and bought a 160W MegaRay bulb and put Lance in his original tank without Samantha and Samantha into a temporary tank with the ReptiGlo and basking bulb until we figured out what we were going to do. We happened to have had a smaller tank for Samantha until we could find something bigger for a reasonable price. I know it was small for her but it was better for her at the time. It got the two of them seperated.
During this time of seperation we began to notice that Samantha was getting fairly fat and Lance was starting to get skinny. Lance hardly ate anything even when hand fed. We decided to switch the dragons into the opposing tanks. Samantha is now in the larger tank and Lance into the smaller tank. The two seemed to manage quite well on their own. Except Lance wasn't eating very much. It was a fight to get him to eat. We would literally hold a worm or piece of his salad in front of his mouth for ten minutes or until he ate it. About the end of December or early January Samantha decided to go into brumation. It wasn't long afterwards that Lance went down too.
During this time, we built a 3 decker condo for our 3 beardies. (I accquired a dragon of my own by someone who was giving him away due to a move to another country.) We built styrofoam and grout structures for all of them as well. You can see pics of the completed project in the DIY section.
Early March comes around and Samantha decides to come out of brumation. We scurry to get the new vivs set-up and finished. As we thought Lance came out shortly after. Lance took awhile to come out of brumation. Slowly he would emerge from his new hidey and have some water and bask awhile. He eventually ate a full dish of salad. He must have been ravenous because that's the most salad he's ever eaten. For a few days he accepted 3 or 4 superworms with some salad. He tended to eat his salad on an every other day basis with not touching a single worm. We offered him roaches (we started a colony in January as well) and I think he's eaten two since March. We even tried using his old tank for a feeding tank and let him run and chase his roaches and superworms. That didn't work. He just glass-danced to get out.
Two weeks ago, I noticed Lance didn't eat anything. Day after day after day he refused to eat. We held the roaches in front of him for what seemed like hours and he refused to eat them. We held his salad in front of him for what seemed like hours as well. Three days ago I had decided I had worried enough!! I went to the grocery store and bought some chicken broth baby food and some organic squash baby food and a needleless syringe. Of course I had been reading in these forums and discussions about which food to buy. Thanks for helping me even though you didn't know I was seeking help at that time.
I mixed up some chicken and squash, threw in some calcium powder, mixed it well and sucked it into the syringe. That took some creativity and effort. I never thought I'd be sucking babyfood into a syringe for a lizard in all my life. So, I got 5ml into the syringe. I picked up Lance and put him on his basking platform in his viv. I pull out the syringe and show it to him so he's not scared. He licks it and probably thinking "Whhooooa Mom what's that for? It can't be anything good. Where's the best hiding spot?" I squirt a little on the tip of his nose and wait. The liquid from it seeps into his mouth. His tongue juts out. He gives it a taste. His tongue juts out again and again. I continue to squirt small bits of this babyfood onto his tongue. He seems to be enjoying it quite a bit. He at 3mls total. A couple hours later, I do the same thing to get the same result. He loves the babyfood!! I try and offer him some of his salad after eating 3ml's more of the babyfood. He refuses to eat that. Two days ago, I make up some for him and syringe fed him 4 times in the day. Total food he ate was 8ml's. Yesterday Lance was a trooper and ate a total of 12 ml's in 4 feedings.
Last night I attempted to puree some roaches, superworms, kale, dandelion greens and mango up for him. It turned out pretty good. I refridgerated it overnight and took some out this morning for Lance and warmed it in the microwave and sucked it into the syringe. It was more difficult than the babyfood but managed pretty good. Squirted it on Lance's nose. He looked at me. His tongue didn't come out. I squirted a little bit more, ensuring he saw the syringe. (The little booger knows what the syringe is for now. He hears me tapping the food down and he scurries onto his basking platform for when I'm ready.) He ate some of it but clearly didn't like it as much as the babyfood. He ate 1 1/2 ml's but most of that ended up dripping down his beard. Quickly, I make up more of the chicken and squash babyfood mixture and syringe it up and offer it to him. Low and behold, Lance eats a record breaking 5ml's!!! Yaaaaay!!
This is his current set-up which I think is pretty dang fantastic!! 4x2x2 custom enclosure with custom built furniture (pics in DIY section). 100W MegaRay bulb. Temps are 108 basking and 80 cool side. He can get anywhere from 12 inches to 3 feet from the MegaRay. He has a cool side and hot side hidey and logs to climb. Slate tiles for substrate. His bowel movements have been non-existant due to not eating. He did have one yesterday which was small and a bit runny. Lance used to get baths every 2-3 days but now requires one everyday because he is a messy eater of babyfood.
I have also noticed within the last few days of syringe feeding him that he has only a few teeth. There are currently 2 on the bottom on his right and 4 on the bottom on the left. I only see a few little remnants of teeth on the top of either side. Since noticing this, I can see why he refuses to eat the roaches and superworms and salad. Looks like he may have trouble chewing them due to the few teeth he has. My other dragons have 4 rows of teeth in their mouths. I have also noticed that since we got Lance the gap in his mouth has gotten a little bit smaller. His last shed was mostly around his mouth.
Lance looks like he's already starting to put a little weight on. He isn't skinny anymore. The wrinkles are disappearing. Lance is quite a bit more active than I have ever seen him. He used to just bask for a bit and go nap and then bask and nap with the occasional head bob thrown in for a good hormone release. Now, he runs all over his viv, climbs, basks, ventures out of his viv whenever we open his door and is exploring whatever he can.
I had always considered all 3 of my Beardies rescues due to the fact that their previous owners didn't care for them properly and we changed a lot of their set-ups and diets. For now, hopefully, Lance is going to be a special needs dragon but at the same time a normal dragon all the same.
So, this is what I need help and advice with...
How much babyfood is enough for him?
Can I feed him too much babyfood?
Will his teeth grow back?
What variety of babyfood can I offer him?
Should I keep trying to make his food with the blender? (I am growing a garden full of all kinds of foods the beardies and the rest of the family will enjoy.)
Any advice on how to get the same consistancy of babyfood with the food I make?
I thank you for your patience on the long thread but I wanted everything out there so you could help and offer advice without too many questions back and forth. I hope I covered everything but if you do need more, please don't hesitate.
His history: We bought Lance and Samantha from kijiji from their original owners for my two sons. We didn't do any research before and they were housed together. We were told Lance was about 2 years old and Samantha was about 1 1/2 years old. Their substrate was calci-sand. They had a red basking light. They had a ReptiSun 5.0 UVB bulb that was original from when Lance was a baby. They also came with their tank which measures 36Wx18Dx19H and a digital probe thermometer. They had a large water dish. We were told they ate crickets every other day and romaine lettuce every other day. They never mentioned anything about calcium or vitamin supplements.
I did find this site and so far everyone has helped us tremendously with proper set-up and care. This is what we changed for them within the first couple months of them being here.
Within the first week we changed their red basking light to a bright white one and changed their UVB to a ReptiGlo 10.0. We couldn't get anything else at the time and it was 12 inches away from them. We got rid of the sand and used newspaper for their substrate. We bought RepCal calcium with D3 and Reptivite vitamins and started dusting their crickets with them. We changed their salads and got rid of the romaine lettuce and gave them a variety of bak choi, parsley, cilanto, collard greens, dandelion greens, squash, blueberries, carrots, yams, kale, broccoli, peppers and whatever else looked good at the grocery store that is the safe foods list. Mind you, they weren't all given at the same time. We mixed them up for a good variety. We continued to feed them crickets and the occassional superworms. They also got some treats from time to time of hornworms, silkworms, butterworms and waxworms.
Lance and Samantha chased the crickets around and ate as many as offered and munched occassionaly on their salads. We continued to do some more research and observed their behaviours towards each other. Lance had a fairly large gap at the tip of his nose when his mouth was fully closed. His tongue always sticks out. I thought maybe that he may have had a bit of MBD and ensured we dusted with calcium regularly. We switched them from crickets to superworms about a month after we first got the two of them. We noticed that one morning Lance had a mark on his tail that looked like it could have been a bite mark. Samantha had one as well. We had read and seen enough interraction with them that we seperated them. We went and bought a 160W MegaRay bulb and put Lance in his original tank without Samantha and Samantha into a temporary tank with the ReptiGlo and basking bulb until we figured out what we were going to do. We happened to have had a smaller tank for Samantha until we could find something bigger for a reasonable price. I know it was small for her but it was better for her at the time. It got the two of them seperated.
During this time of seperation we began to notice that Samantha was getting fairly fat and Lance was starting to get skinny. Lance hardly ate anything even when hand fed. We decided to switch the dragons into the opposing tanks. Samantha is now in the larger tank and Lance into the smaller tank. The two seemed to manage quite well on their own. Except Lance wasn't eating very much. It was a fight to get him to eat. We would literally hold a worm or piece of his salad in front of his mouth for ten minutes or until he ate it. About the end of December or early January Samantha decided to go into brumation. It wasn't long afterwards that Lance went down too.
During this time, we built a 3 decker condo for our 3 beardies. (I accquired a dragon of my own by someone who was giving him away due to a move to another country.) We built styrofoam and grout structures for all of them as well. You can see pics of the completed project in the DIY section.
Early March comes around and Samantha decides to come out of brumation. We scurry to get the new vivs set-up and finished. As we thought Lance came out shortly after. Lance took awhile to come out of brumation. Slowly he would emerge from his new hidey and have some water and bask awhile. He eventually ate a full dish of salad. He must have been ravenous because that's the most salad he's ever eaten. For a few days he accepted 3 or 4 superworms with some salad. He tended to eat his salad on an every other day basis with not touching a single worm. We offered him roaches (we started a colony in January as well) and I think he's eaten two since March. We even tried using his old tank for a feeding tank and let him run and chase his roaches and superworms. That didn't work. He just glass-danced to get out.
Two weeks ago, I noticed Lance didn't eat anything. Day after day after day he refused to eat. We held the roaches in front of him for what seemed like hours and he refused to eat them. We held his salad in front of him for what seemed like hours as well. Three days ago I had decided I had worried enough!! I went to the grocery store and bought some chicken broth baby food and some organic squash baby food and a needleless syringe. Of course I had been reading in these forums and discussions about which food to buy. Thanks for helping me even though you didn't know I was seeking help at that time.
I mixed up some chicken and squash, threw in some calcium powder, mixed it well and sucked it into the syringe. That took some creativity and effort. I never thought I'd be sucking babyfood into a syringe for a lizard in all my life. So, I got 5ml into the syringe. I picked up Lance and put him on his basking platform in his viv. I pull out the syringe and show it to him so he's not scared. He licks it and probably thinking "Whhooooa Mom what's that for? It can't be anything good. Where's the best hiding spot?" I squirt a little on the tip of his nose and wait. The liquid from it seeps into his mouth. His tongue juts out. He gives it a taste. His tongue juts out again and again. I continue to squirt small bits of this babyfood onto his tongue. He seems to be enjoying it quite a bit. He at 3mls total. A couple hours later, I do the same thing to get the same result. He loves the babyfood!! I try and offer him some of his salad after eating 3ml's more of the babyfood. He refuses to eat that. Two days ago, I make up some for him and syringe fed him 4 times in the day. Total food he ate was 8ml's. Yesterday Lance was a trooper and ate a total of 12 ml's in 4 feedings.
Last night I attempted to puree some roaches, superworms, kale, dandelion greens and mango up for him. It turned out pretty good. I refridgerated it overnight and took some out this morning for Lance and warmed it in the microwave and sucked it into the syringe. It was more difficult than the babyfood but managed pretty good. Squirted it on Lance's nose. He looked at me. His tongue didn't come out. I squirted a little bit more, ensuring he saw the syringe. (The little booger knows what the syringe is for now. He hears me tapping the food down and he scurries onto his basking platform for when I'm ready.) He ate some of it but clearly didn't like it as much as the babyfood. He ate 1 1/2 ml's but most of that ended up dripping down his beard. Quickly, I make up more of the chicken and squash babyfood mixture and syringe it up and offer it to him. Low and behold, Lance eats a record breaking 5ml's!!! Yaaaaay!!
This is his current set-up which I think is pretty dang fantastic!! 4x2x2 custom enclosure with custom built furniture (pics in DIY section). 100W MegaRay bulb. Temps are 108 basking and 80 cool side. He can get anywhere from 12 inches to 3 feet from the MegaRay. He has a cool side and hot side hidey and logs to climb. Slate tiles for substrate. His bowel movements have been non-existant due to not eating. He did have one yesterday which was small and a bit runny. Lance used to get baths every 2-3 days but now requires one everyday because he is a messy eater of babyfood.
I have also noticed within the last few days of syringe feeding him that he has only a few teeth. There are currently 2 on the bottom on his right and 4 on the bottom on the left. I only see a few little remnants of teeth on the top of either side. Since noticing this, I can see why he refuses to eat the roaches and superworms and salad. Looks like he may have trouble chewing them due to the few teeth he has. My other dragons have 4 rows of teeth in their mouths. I have also noticed that since we got Lance the gap in his mouth has gotten a little bit smaller. His last shed was mostly around his mouth.
Lance looks like he's already starting to put a little weight on. He isn't skinny anymore. The wrinkles are disappearing. Lance is quite a bit more active than I have ever seen him. He used to just bask for a bit and go nap and then bask and nap with the occasional head bob thrown in for a good hormone release. Now, he runs all over his viv, climbs, basks, ventures out of his viv whenever we open his door and is exploring whatever he can.
I had always considered all 3 of my Beardies rescues due to the fact that their previous owners didn't care for them properly and we changed a lot of their set-ups and diets. For now, hopefully, Lance is going to be a special needs dragon but at the same time a normal dragon all the same.
So, this is what I need help and advice with...
How much babyfood is enough for him?
Can I feed him too much babyfood?
Will his teeth grow back?
What variety of babyfood can I offer him?
Should I keep trying to make his food with the blender? (I am growing a garden full of all kinds of foods the beardies and the rest of the family will enjoy.)
Any advice on how to get the same consistancy of babyfood with the food I make?
I thank you for your patience on the long thread but I wanted everything out there so you could help and offer advice without too many questions back and forth. I hope I covered everything but if you do need more, please don't hesitate.
It looked like babyfood but it was the colour of beardie poop with a white urate stuck in for decoration. It didn't smell any fouler than normal.
