Dundee

[CooperDragon]

Dundee ate on his own for the first time (since I've had him - Jul 5) tonight! I had a cup of supers and just tipped it and let them squirm around and he watched them for a while and eventually ate one. Then another. Then a few more. They should be pretty good for him. They've been gut loading on his veggies for two and a half months now. Probably the biggest step forward he's taken so far. Going to order some silks and butters from Linda tonight. Will get some roaches too. Next step is to get him to eat salad. Picked up a bunch of fresh greens tonight and will try that in the AM. Will puree them again if he isn't interested but at least he doesn't need the baby food protein anymore (for now) and will have some fat in his diet.

https://vimeo.com/106233390

In other news, I've noticed that he seems to have developed a limp when he walks around. His back legs seem to be moving with a little more hitch than they should. Going to keep an eye on it and speak with the vet if it continues. Perhaps it's a side effect of his Voriconozole.

 

[Heyimbrit]

Hooray, Dundee!!! I'm so proud of him! This is a pretty big step forward.

 

[brandymulvaine]

Good job! You must be so relieved!
**sigh**

 

[jenn4turtles]

Yay!

 

[CooperDragon]

He ate a couple more this morning. He is having a lot of trouble chewing greens though. He spent a few minutes on a small leaf and barely dented it. Will need to work on that a bit. Syringe salads continue for now...

 

[Esther19]

Fabulous news that he is eating some worms! Have you tried tearing up the greens into smaller pieces?

 

[CooperDragon]

I tore the greens for his salad down to about the size of a dime. He seemed to have trouble chewing when he tries and doesn't swallow the leaf it just sticks to his mouth (still very sticky/mucous filled) or he spits it out. Went back to the salad slurry for now which works pretty well and allows me to make sure he gets a nice balanced veggie diet (collards, turnips, mustards, squash, green beans, and bell pepper all in one). He's still eating a few supers a day so far though. When Linda gets silks back in stock I'll order some of those and some butters as well.

 

[Taterbug]

He is looking so good! Like a whole other dragon!

Have you thought about raising silkworms from eggs? It's not too hard and you can even get diapaused eggs that you keep in the fridge so you just hatch out a as many as you need at a time.

 

[CooperDragon]

I never thought to do that. If he likes them perhaps I'll give it a shot. Will need to stock up on mulberry food mix. I'm really happy that he is eating *something* on his own now, but do want to keep the focus on veggies and salads as much as I can with the worms and roaches being a handful of his daily food. He is limited to 3 supers per day at the moment (he looks for more but I don't want to overdo it). I'm looking forward to seeing how he reacts to roaches too.

 

[CooperDragon]

After a vet visit earlier this week it was determined that he will continue on anti-fungals for another month. The fungus he has is slightly resistant to the medication so it may take longer than usual. Will re-visit after the next round and discuss some different antibiotic treatments if needed. He is still hunting down worms pretty well. He'll go after the silks and butters now rather than just supers which is good. Here is an updated photo.

 

[brandymulvaine]

He's looking super! It looks like some of that dragon attitude is starting to show! lol!

 

[jenn4turtles]

Has he eaten any of the dubias?

 

[CooperDragon]

Yeah he is getting enough energy to be a pain in the butt sometimes now =)

He hasn't eaten many of the bugs yet. They are just too fast for him. I put them on a screen once to slow them down and he was able to eat a few of them. It's about all he can handle to track and attack the worms (that usually takes a few tries). The colony seems to be thriving though. They are very active and go through all of the leftover veggies/greens happily. I'll give them time to grow and re-introduce them down the road when he's a bit faster.

 

[CooperDragon]

Dundee is still progressing (slowly). He's still on his medication and still has coughs and mucous mouth. He likes Supers and Butters (just ordered another round from Linda today). I've been trying everything I can think of to get him to voluntarily eat a veggie or green but no luck so far. I implemented my latest trick yesterday. I pulled a couple of small kale plants from the garden and put them in small pots after rinsing them. Put them in his tank on the cool side. I want to see if I can get his interest in greens by providing small live plants for him to go after. No dice yet, but I'll leave them and see how it goes. In the meantime he still gets his syringe of salad smoothie which is pretty well balanced. We painted the livingroom and re-arranged some furniture so I put a bookshelf next to his tank and put the webcam on it while we were away last weekend. Decided to leave the webcam running because it's pretty unobtrusive there. Feel free to have a live peek (he is out of the tank a lot of we're home though). http://173.19.90.242:2222/live.htm username is admin, no password. Camera has IR LEDs so you can see him at night as well. I'm tempted to do one of those time lapse videos that Taterbug did because his coughs would make it look like he's running around talking. That's a project for another day though. =)

 

[CooperDragon]

I forgot to add that although I was pulling for the Orioles, Dundee, being a Kansas City area dragon, was quite pleased with the Royals win today. *He threatened to decorate his tank blue, but we prepared to dump his stash of supers and he backed down.




*This didn't happen but would have amused me if it did.