Well, the thing is, she also has visible signs of moderate MBD, and some odd deposits in her eyes. Those two things are why I want to have her checked out by the vet. In particular I want to know what's going on with her eyes, if it's dangerous or just cosmetic, and if there's anything that needs to be (or can be) done about it. I also want to make certain that the way I am treating her MBD is appropriate. Plus, I'm no expert on neglected/abused beardies so it's entirely possible that something else is going wrong that I don't see. Better to be safe than sorry.
On the other hand, she has definitely made far more progress in a much shorter period of time than I believed possible. Her appetite is fantastic compared to what I was expecting and like I said before she began producing healthy poops yesterday. I'm a little worried by how -often- she's been pooping, given she's a year and a half old or so, but I'm guessing it's probably because her system has been basically shut down for so long that it's running at unusually high speed now that it's gotten running again and over time I expect her to settle into a more normal adult pattern of pottying. The poos themselves are well-formed, firm but not hard, wet but not runny, with nice soft white urates. When she first arrived her first poo was mostly sand and had no visible urates at all. x.x
On the first day, she only ate three phoenix worms, a few licks of slurry, and about five or six crickets. But yesterday she ate about a teaspoon worth of slurry, a butterworm, a piece of fresh collard from my hand (the first non-slurry veggie she's been willing to eat!) and at least two dozen crix! They are warming up right now before their morning bath but I am hopeful that her appetite will continue to improve today. I am particularly keen on convincing her to eat from the daily salad, which she has, thus far, snubbed, except for the one piece of collard greens yesterday. A girl of her age and condition needs a diet with far less protein and far more veggies than she's thus far been willing to consume. But I'm hoping that the collard-taking yesterday is a sign that she is beginning to accept foods she isn't used to seeing. It is obvious to me that she was fed nothing but crix at her old place and is therefore puzzled by the offering of any other kind of food.
And I do have to admit, she has grown on me tremendously. She's a real survivor. No sign of relocation stress, either. If anything she's seemed relieved to be somewhere else from day one! It's kind of pitiful. x.x I will do my best to find room for all three of them. I'm just trying to brace myself against the possible reality that I won't be able to. But yes thanks to the incredibly generous help of the people who have donated to Goldie's fund, I am not only going to be able to take her to the vet, but I have already purchased the supplies I need to start a roach colony (both dubias and discoids probably though mostly dubias) and a hornworm colony. My silkworm colony I intend to get going in spring 2013, when my mulberry trees have their new fresh foliage out (so I can feed new-hatched silkworms.)
She has even been rather physically active, although I notice that she can't hold herself up as high as Sunny and Pele do, her limbs tremble and her toes twitch when she moves, and there's an awkwardness about how she holds her limbs. I suspect all three of those are because of the MBD, but, again, she's going to the vet just to be 100% certain nothing else is going on beyond what I've deduced on my own.
On the other hand, she has definitely made far more progress in a much shorter period of time than I believed possible. Her appetite is fantastic compared to what I was expecting and like I said before she began producing healthy poops yesterday. I'm a little worried by how -often- she's been pooping, given she's a year and a half old or so, but I'm guessing it's probably because her system has been basically shut down for so long that it's running at unusually high speed now that it's gotten running again and over time I expect her to settle into a more normal adult pattern of pottying. The poos themselves are well-formed, firm but not hard, wet but not runny, with nice soft white urates. When she first arrived her first poo was mostly sand and had no visible urates at all. x.x
On the first day, she only ate three phoenix worms, a few licks of slurry, and about five or six crickets. But yesterday she ate about a teaspoon worth of slurry, a butterworm, a piece of fresh collard from my hand (the first non-slurry veggie she's been willing to eat!) and at least two dozen crix! They are warming up right now before their morning bath but I am hopeful that her appetite will continue to improve today. I am particularly keen on convincing her to eat from the daily salad, which she has, thus far, snubbed, except for the one piece of collard greens yesterday. A girl of her age and condition needs a diet with far less protein and far more veggies than she's thus far been willing to consume. But I'm hoping that the collard-taking yesterday is a sign that she is beginning to accept foods she isn't used to seeing. It is obvious to me that she was fed nothing but crix at her old place and is therefore puzzled by the offering of any other kind of food.
And I do have to admit, she has grown on me tremendously. She's a real survivor. No sign of relocation stress, either. If anything she's seemed relieved to be somewhere else from day one! It's kind of pitiful. x.x I will do my best to find room for all three of them. I'm just trying to brace myself against the possible reality that I won't be able to. But yes thanks to the incredibly generous help of the people who have donated to Goldie's fund, I am not only going to be able to take her to the vet, but I have already purchased the supplies I need to start a roach colony (both dubias and discoids probably though mostly dubias) and a hornworm colony. My silkworm colony I intend to get going in spring 2013, when my mulberry trees have their new fresh foliage out (so I can feed new-hatched silkworms.)
She has even been rather physically active, although I notice that she can't hold herself up as high as Sunny and Pele do, her limbs tremble and her toes twitch when she moves, and there's an awkwardness about how she holds her limbs. I suspect all three of those are because of the MBD, but, again, she's going to the vet just to be 100% certain nothing else is going on beyond what I've deduced on my own.
