Hi, My name is Jacqui Botha, married to Rudi Botha and mother of 2 children, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 50 fresh water fish and now, mother of one beautiful Beardie!!
My beardie's name is "Rango".
He/or she as I still dont know,
was baught at a pet shop yesterday morning with a new large wooden glass door cage with the the UV light and infro red heating light, a heating pad covered with sand on one side, a water bawl, small container with veggies as suggested by many sites, and hidden cave, rocks and a wood log for him to climb up higher and closer to the Bulbs. The cage is well ventillated with "tea cup ring" size Air vents on all 4 corners in mesh. The cage gets well warm quicly with the lights and heating and works very well.
He/She is "14" inches or 36cm in size, and ate 7 smallish crickets yesterday, No veggies, drank no water apart from a few drops (20) dripped off from my finger and was a bit scared I thought mostly hiding behind cave. Late afternoon, I realized she wass gasping a bit with a mouth open wile lying underneath the infro red heating bulb.
During this first day, I switched off the heating pad, but left the UV light and infro red heating light on. Switching the heating light off for 20 minutes at a time when she was gasping. At bed time, I switched the UV light off, left the heating pad off and only left the infro red heating light on. And went to bed.
This morning, Rango was very still hardly moving, pick her up and she hardly moved anything, She felt very dry, her skin. I was very worried, then put her on the sand and frew in 9 crickets in front of her. Then finally she/He got some life and ate all 9 quickly, placed the water bowl in front of Rango, still no drinking, dropped a few more drops above her mouth, but no luck in swallowing it, didnt open his/her mouth. Dripped a few more drops on the dry body and rubbed the moist in with my fingers. Half hour later I realized she is starting to shed from her legs and nails up towards the body and is getting very active now tapping at the window glass looking at us.
Then just a few seconds ago realized apart from eating 16 or so crickets in about 23 hours all together since I got he/her, Rango still hasnt drank water by itself, still hasnt eaten any of the veggies I placed in front of it, still hasnt made any wee or poo!! Will in the next few minutes try some corn and papaya to see if that works.
Our enviroment where we live is in southern Drakensberg, South Africa at about 1565 metes (5165 feet) above sea level and as it is now winter, it is a cold place, with tempreture in our house dropping to about 4 degrees Celsius (39/40 F Degrees) during 10pm - 07:00am and rissing to about 17 degrees celsius (61/62 F degrees) during mid day. Outside of house, allot colder. In the cage, I have no moniter for degrees as in yet, but it is warm when i place my hand in!
The petshop we bought her: The owner only recently started selling them and could not provide us with allot of info on it. There were 3 beardie's all the same size, Rango we chose was most active with no funny spots or illness we could see. She was in a vey cleen enviroment.
Now, my questions:
1) Is there annything you can note from the above that sounds bad or is wrong?
2) Is it normal not to have made NO poo or wee after 23 hours?
3) Is it normal that she wont eat any veggies as in yet?
4) Is it normal that she hasnt drank any water as in yet?
5) How do I tell her/his gender?
6) Can anyone guess it's age from the size? as we have no idea.
7) gasping with mouth open, is there any other reason to do so apart from getting to hot?
8) Am I turning off heat and bulbs off/on correctly? When should the heating pad be left on?
9) How close should the Rock/wood stump be to the UV and Heating bulb for him to lay on?
10) Having 2 more mates in one cage at the petshop, and now having none, would it cause a diferent behaviour such as lonlyness.
Please can any or many respond to my questions and above info to help me tell what to do, what am I doing right and what wrong?
Your help will be much apreciated.
I will try to aploud some pictures of cage and beardie soon!!
Thank you so much and for having me registered on this site!
great regards
Jacqui Botha
My beardie's name is "Rango".
He/or she as I still dont know,
was baught at a pet shop yesterday morning with a new large wooden glass door cage with the the UV light and infro red heating light, a heating pad covered with sand on one side, a water bawl, small container with veggies as suggested by many sites, and hidden cave, rocks and a wood log for him to climb up higher and closer to the Bulbs. The cage is well ventillated with "tea cup ring" size Air vents on all 4 corners in mesh. The cage gets well warm quicly with the lights and heating and works very well.
He/She is "14" inches or 36cm in size, and ate 7 smallish crickets yesterday, No veggies, drank no water apart from a few drops (20) dripped off from my finger and was a bit scared I thought mostly hiding behind cave. Late afternoon, I realized she wass gasping a bit with a mouth open wile lying underneath the infro red heating bulb.
During this first day, I switched off the heating pad, but left the UV light and infro red heating light on. Switching the heating light off for 20 minutes at a time when she was gasping. At bed time, I switched the UV light off, left the heating pad off and only left the infro red heating light on. And went to bed.
This morning, Rango was very still hardly moving, pick her up and she hardly moved anything, She felt very dry, her skin. I was very worried, then put her on the sand and frew in 9 crickets in front of her. Then finally she/He got some life and ate all 9 quickly, placed the water bowl in front of Rango, still no drinking, dropped a few more drops above her mouth, but no luck in swallowing it, didnt open his/her mouth. Dripped a few more drops on the dry body and rubbed the moist in with my fingers. Half hour later I realized she is starting to shed from her legs and nails up towards the body and is getting very active now tapping at the window glass looking at us.
Then just a few seconds ago realized apart from eating 16 or so crickets in about 23 hours all together since I got he/her, Rango still hasnt drank water by itself, still hasnt eaten any of the veggies I placed in front of it, still hasnt made any wee or poo!! Will in the next few minutes try some corn and papaya to see if that works.
Our enviroment where we live is in southern Drakensberg, South Africa at about 1565 metes (5165 feet) above sea level and as it is now winter, it is a cold place, with tempreture in our house dropping to about 4 degrees Celsius (39/40 F Degrees) during 10pm - 07:00am and rissing to about 17 degrees celsius (61/62 F degrees) during mid day. Outside of house, allot colder. In the cage, I have no moniter for degrees as in yet, but it is warm when i place my hand in!
The petshop we bought her: The owner only recently started selling them and could not provide us with allot of info on it. There were 3 beardie's all the same size, Rango we chose was most active with no funny spots or illness we could see. She was in a vey cleen enviroment.
Now, my questions:
1) Is there annything you can note from the above that sounds bad or is wrong?
2) Is it normal not to have made NO poo or wee after 23 hours?
3) Is it normal that she wont eat any veggies as in yet?
4) Is it normal that she hasnt drank any water as in yet?
5) How do I tell her/his gender?
6) Can anyone guess it's age from the size? as we have no idea.
7) gasping with mouth open, is there any other reason to do so apart from getting to hot?
8) Am I turning off heat and bulbs off/on correctly? When should the heating pad be left on?
9) How close should the Rock/wood stump be to the UV and Heating bulb for him to lay on?
10) Having 2 more mates in one cage at the petshop, and now having none, would it cause a diferent behaviour such as lonlyness.
Please can any or many respond to my questions and above info to help me tell what to do, what am I doing right and what wrong?
Your help will be much apreciated.
I will try to aploud some pictures of cage and beardie soon!!
Thank you so much and for having me registered on this site!
great regards
Jacqui Botha
It does help to have contact with people in the same country as you though!
