Fluffy, Crystal, and Skellington

I've been gone so long that my old thread locked. That's ok. I need to start a new one anyway. After talking with Deb, I wanted to post pictures of all the kiddos without cluttering up her thread. So, here we go...

First I will post the last picture I have of Figment before he passed away. He turned into such a bright, beautiful dragon and we miss him dearly.

Because I couldn't stand the dark vivarium, I brought home a sweet little rescue from the local pet shop. Meet Skellington. He is roughly 5-6 months old and a tiny little guy at only 72 grams as of this morning.

It's tough to see. I can't manage a decent picture of him with all of his pretty colors showing. He sheds and gets incredibly bright and then immediately starts to darken and prepare to shed again. His head is a bright citrusish pattern that has a lot of orange. His legs and the thick part of his tail are a very bright red/copper color, and his back shows up as a gorgeous rust shade right after he has shed. There are crayola red stripes by his ears. It's an intriguing mixture of colors and I can't wait to see what he looks like when he is all grown up.

Here is Fluffy. She has the biggest jowls I have ever seen and we all just laugh at how precious she is when she uses them for a pillow.

Crystal is sweet and pretty, but generally just really exhausting. She bounces off the walls getting into everything. And she is my only one who hasn't learned a poop routine to keep herself out of it. It feels like I am perpetually bathing her to clean off the poop. But we love her to pieces and if we ever decide to breed her, she will do fabulously.

And last, but not least, I thought you would get a kick out of seeing how big Neo has gotten! This one was taken last year. (Yes, I only get around to taking photos on really big occasions, that's why my last good photo is a year old and he's holding a trophy.) I really should do something about that, but I'm always busy enjoying what's going on and never think to stop and photograph it.

And Neo enjoying his first winter out of Florida!

I hope I got all the pics to work right and you get to see the family. I will try to keep posting and being sociable.

 

[AHBD]

Your kids are all good looking, reptilian as well as human. I'm sorry that you lost Figment, the others don't replace the ones we lose but they do add new life + excitement to our homes. And that Fluffy DOES have some serious jowls.

 

[BrendaKay]

Hello and welcome back! I saw your posts on Debs thread and thought I'd come her for the pix! Love all your kiddos!

 

[NeosMom]

Thank you. I'm glad to see everyone again.

Mindi

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Those are great pictures of everyone! Your new one is very sweet & will grow quickly, too.
It is so horrible to lose one & none ever really replace them but just give new memories.
Shoveling snow is a huge change from Florida!

Tracie

 

[NeosMom]

Thanks Tracie. He finished his rounds of meds and the weight started piling on. He's up to 80 grams yesterday. I'm thrilled with how well he is doing.

Losing Figment was hard for everyone, but I must admit life is exciting again with a baby in the house. I forget how different they are.

Believe it or not, Neo didn't mind shoveling snow. :shock: He says it's far better than mowing the lawn while it's 95 out, the walk is much smaller, and he only had to do it like 3 times this year as opposed to mowing 50 times. He's pretty happy. His only demand was to have gloves with fingers next year. Ha! Ha!

Mindi

 

[BlueDragon09]

Hi Mindi, I remember you I lurked on your old thread just never responded.

Sorry about Figment (is that his name?)

Fluffy is cut I like her big jowls.

I lost Vash at midnight on September 25, 2014 he was 10 years old. I then got one from a breeder, he dies of a fungus and stomach cancer.

I now have a beautiful 11" 4-5 month old (maybe he's that old) male dragon named Broly! I'll post a link soon. Hes my new super saiyan.

Congrats on your son holding his trophy! Also those babies will grow so quick. I already dont remember mine being tiny.

Kami

 

[NeosMom]

Thanks Kami. I'd love to see your pictures. Definitely send me a link.

 

[BlueDragon09]

I hope this works my phone is mean.

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=214271

 

[NeosMom]

Thanks for the link. He's cute. I will follow.

Mindi

 

[BlueDragon09]

Thanks for following and welcome back!

Hes definitely cute.
Your kids are cute as well. Love Neo's hair.

 

[NeosMom]

It's been a fun week. Sorry I haven't been around much. My parents took my son to Tennessee to visit my sister and while they were gone, my husband took a week off of work. So, I've been hanging around with hubby all this time. Now that I'm homeschooling Neo, I have him with me ALL THE TIME. I love him to pieces and I wouldn't trade my life for anything. I'm blessed to have this opportunity with my family. However... I haven't had a single "day off" since he got out of school the first week of June last year. This week was desperately needed.

We went to the flea market. We watched a number of movies while I caught up on some of my knitting. And we went in search of beer and tea. Pretty dull people, huh? I don't care. You can call me boring all you want. I feel a million times better. After my parents brought Neo back, we all went on a tour of a local craft beer brewery. Everyone seemed to enjoy that and Neo gets a laugh out of the fact that I mark it up in his school records as a science field trip.

Jeff helped out with the dragons while he was home on vacation. It was adorable to watch him get up and retrieve everyone's food dishes, clean them out and refill them with fresh greens each morning. He felt like he was really participating in caring for them instead of just enjoying snuggle time after work each evening. I didn't have the heart to tell him that those greens he just pulls out of the bucket each morning take me an hour to chop up each week to make the chore that easy. Oh, and following behind him giving out doses of liquid calcium. Cleaning the vivs. Bath time for everyone. Daily poop cleaning (he was very proud of himself for cleaning 2 poops himself all week). It's really very sweet. I sit and quietly smile when he comes and tells me that he already "took care of the dragons for me". My only fear is that if something were to happen to me, neither him nor my son would know what to do.

The dragons were a riot all week. Who needs television if you have multiple beardies in the house, right? Here are a couple of pictures that I took.

Skellington shed and I was finally able to take him out in the sunlight and get a nice picture that shows some of his pretty colors. It's amazing. He is growing and shedding so fast that sometimes after he sheds, his colors don't completely show. See those spots of gray on his back? I'm fairly certain that is him getting ready to start his next shed before the first one was completely off.

He's up to 102 grams now! He weighed 26 grams in early April. I can't believe how fast he is growing. Sometimes I step back and wonder if it's too fast.

I got some dubias. I haven't decided yet about breeding. Instead I figured that a smart way to approach this would be to get some feeders first. So, I bought 500 medium so I could see how badly they creeped me out - and what the babies thought of them. Yes, they creep me out. Not as bad as they did a week ago, but still pretty icky and I don't want to touch them. But progress is progress.

The dragons LOVE them. Crystal was eating them out of a little bowl and when I went to remove the empty bowl she had this one on her head. She was looking around for him everywhere. You could tell she was thinking "Now I know there was one more of those that I didn't get!" I laughed, put her on the dining table and took a quick picture. Afterwards I was nice enough to flick it off her head so she could chase it down and finish lunch. My hubby was not so amused. He is not liking this whole dubia thing.

Another note, this is also the first picture I have taken of her that I can clearly see the leucistic in her. I'm surprised. Her mother was listed as 100% leucistic and I never thought she looked like she was. Crystal is the spitting image of her mother, so same thought. Then this picture... Wow! Wonder if I found a leucistic male to breed with her...

Anyway, I've been goofing off here typing for long enough. I need to go finish some of my chores that I neglected this last week. I will see everyone soon.

Mindi

 

[NeosMom]

Good morning. I hope everyone is doing well today. We are good here. Life is starting to settle back into some semblance of a routine again. Yes, I'm a boring old lady and I appreciate my routines. Ha! Ha! My grandmother gets so annoyed when I say things like that. She says if I call myself an old lady at 42, then what does that make her? Ummmm... An old lady at 85? I mean, you're only as old as you feel, right? What can I say? Happiness is having all of the daily chores finished and then sitting on the sofa with a really good cup of tea and some knitting.

Neo starts his summer bowling league at the new alley today. He's really excited. I hope this goes well for him. The move to NC hasn't been the easiest thing for him. He's not what you would call outgoing. :? I set him up at a really competitive place and he liked it, but unless you are part of the official competition team, the kids kinda have a clique and you aren't part of it. We are spending the summer at a much smaller place. Back to basics. Maybe I will get lucky and he will make a quick bunch of friends here. I'm praying anyway. (A great first day with a 600 series wouldn't hurt either :wink

As for the other kids... They are fairly quiet. Skellington is growing. At last check he was up to 108. He doesn't like to be touched when he's shedding - and he's always shedding. So, I have to gently pick him up and let him sit on my hand and look for the spot where he's not shedding and rub him there. It's odd, but it works. He LOVES his dubias. We have a routine now and it's adorable. I put them in a dish and set it at the bottom of the viv. He sees them and runs down from his ramp to the bowl. I should video it because it's just so cute. Except he's getting the routine now. At about 1:00 he's off his basking spot watching. If he still doesn't have dubias by 1:30, then he is down in the spot where I put them just staring expectantly at me.

Crystal is scratching at everything again. Not more eggs... :| I swear she is exhausting. 3-4 infertile clutches every summer. By the time she is finished, she's downright skinny. Then I have to work my butt off fattening her up from September-November before she brumates. :roll: Enough with the eggs already!!!

Fluffy is just Fluffy. She hates the other dragons and has an apoplectic fit if she sees me loving on one of them. But so long as that isn't happening, she is sweet and laid back and loveable. When we were moving last summer, we ended up staying at my grandmother's house for a few weeks between our lease ending and time to leave Florida. I had temporary vivs set up that covered necessities and not much more. Fluffy's was in our bedroom on a desk. Within 2 days, she figured out how to climb out and into the window. It wasn't a huge deal because all she did was sit in the windowsill staring outside and never tried to run off. Well, I've always loved Deb's ramp and wanted one of my own. I decided when we got to NC I would make one and put it where Fluffy could use it to look out a window. Well, we got a townhouse. It's long and skinny and although there are bay windows at the front and back, furniture layouts just wouldn't allow for a play ramp. Then winter came and it seemed like a waste of time anyway. (It gets cold up by the glass.) Now that I've rejoined here, I am longing for a ramp again. So, I finally built something yesterday!

That's Crystal in the picture checking things out. Fluffy actually got first shot at it and was in heaven. Basically, it's cinder blocks covered in fleece with a stuffie. Not much to it yet. I put up my plexi glass "playpen" so that if they wander on the floor they aren't going anywhere. I plan to hang a light from the ceiling to create a basking spot. I would also like to add a bit more to play on, but I feel pretty good so far. Since I had to shift furniture and clean quite a lot back there, it took me a couple hours to get this far. Everyone got a little bit of time there yesterday. Fluffy was in heaven. Just like at Grandma's. Crystal was very curious and at one point trying to get through the window. Probably wanted to chase a squirrel (there are tons of them here). Skelly is the only one who really ran around an explored a lot. Go figure. Babies.

Anyway... I'd better run. It's the big bowling morning and I still need to get Neo out of bed. I hope everyone is well. I will try to get some cute playpen pictures this weekend to post.

Mindi

 

[NeosMom]

Well, it's been a little while since I posted. Life has been absolutely insane. But the babies are doing well.

Fluffy is turning into one of those old lazy dragons that I used to read about. If she were human I could just picture her sitting on a porch in a rocking chair whittling and occasionally saying "Yup." Although, she did actually get excited on Saturday. I couldn't believe it. I was having a yard sale and it was really hot out. I brought her out to sit on my shoulder thinking she would enjoy the weather and watching the people. After a lazy half hour she started to move around. She ended up on my shoulder standing with her feet on the back of the chair watching behind me. It took me a while to figure it out, but she saw huge carpenter ants on the tree behind me and was having a grand old time watching them crawl around. Then she would spot a dragonfly. It was like a little kid at Disney World. She was entranced. I had a great time watching her. At one point she actually climbed down to the grass and acted like she wanted to go over to the tree. Then it seemed like she realized it was much bigger than she originally thought, so she just froze.

I also tried taking her upstairs and letting her sit in the window with it open. She really loved that. She seemed to feel safe looking down on things from up high and that made her a bit more excited. I plan to try it again soon.

Crystal has mellowed out. No digging or anything, but she is suddenly eating 2-3 bowls of veggies per day. I sure hope it's not another clutch of eggs. But I doubt I'm that lucky. Will have to wait and see.

Skellington has taken to hissing at me in the mornings. I think it might be because I've overslept the last couple of days. He is very particular about his food. He expects fresh veggies to be waiting for him when the lights come on and he makes his way up to his basking spot. And at 1:30 if his bugs aren't delivered he is standing down on his brick where I put them staring like "Excuse me. It's lunch time. Where are my bugs?" It's very cute. Except I slept to around 9:30 two days and when I came down to get his dish he actually hissed at me. Seriously. Sounded like a little cat. Darndest thing I've ever seen. Today I was on time and he just started at me with grumpy morning face and seemed fine with everything. I swear, these little guys are crazy. Oh... He's up to 170 grams now!!!!! Can you believe it? He has been with us for 11 weeks tomorrow and has gone from 26 grams to 170 grams! I'm just giddy.

Hubby is away for the week because of work. I miss him. But, at the same time, it's a lot less pressure. Neo is going through one of his not eating much stages. It's a growth spurt thing. Sometimes I have to cook extra food because he eats like two enormous plates at every meal. Then just when I think he's starting to put on a little bit of weight, he grows a couple inches overnight. After that he sort of stops eating for a while. Right now he's on his one meal and a snack per day sort of moods. Makes it a little tiresome to cook dinner. So, with hubby gone, I have been eating lots of mini wheats and chicken salad sandwiches (something I don't get when he's around). It's a nice break. Except I'm so used to being in the kitchen I couldn't stand it yesterday and spent a couple hours making a chocolate pie yesterday afternoon. The most ridiculously rich thing I think I've ever made. And my son is begging me to write the recipe down quick before I forget what I did. Ha! Ha! He is such a goof. His poor wife... She is going to hate me. Either that, or he will end up one of those eternal bachelors bringing me his clothes to wash and wanting home-cooked meals every day at my house.

Anyway, the other big things I get to do this week are sit around watching all kinds of movies that my husband doesn't like and knitting. It's great. Yesterday I watched "What if..." with Kevin Sorbo, John Ratzenburger, and Kristie Swanson. Such a sweet movie. One of those ones where the angel comes and shows the guy what his life would have been like if he had made different choices. Yes, I've seen a hundred with that same theme, but always love it anyway. I'm also watching lots of old stuff from the 50's with Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, Ginger Rogers... Would you believe my 15 year old son loves that stuff? He can even quote Casablanca.

So, I'm off to get my morning chores and daily reading done before the munchkin gets out of bed. I hope everyone is having a fabulous day. I promise more pictures soon.

Mindi