It's been almost 2 years!!!

March 26th is the day we brought Spike home. My 7 year old son picked her out at our local Exotic pet store and named her Spike. She was in an enclosure with other dragons around her size and away from the smaller ones. We were told that the babies she was in with were moved because 'they were growing faster than the rest'. Spike ran right to the front of the glass and started scratching when my son walked by. Needless to say, she got his attention and we took her home. She had a full body shed 3 days off getting her home, too. ('She' does look female (I looked when we brought her home, but not since) Spike is now, roughly 3 months old and weighs 31g at 9 inches long.
We have had some set backs with her lights, which you guys have so graciously helped me with, and her lack of eating for a little while due to her relocation stress, but she is definitely a hearty eater now. BSFL being her favorite.

When we first brought her home:

Throughout the month:

New tank:

Cuteness:

10 minutes ago, waking up and warming up:

Sorry for all of the pictures! ^-^

 

[smackey2]

My sleepy little chubby baby. <3
She hasn't left her hammock, other than for dinner, since I moved it up higher. I think my baby is getting braver! Who knows, maybe I can start putting her logs back in and she might actually use them.

 

[smackey2]

Spike is still a little grumpy this morning and taking a lot longer than normal to get up and going. I can't say I blame her though, the weather this morning is horrible so I figure that is playing apart in her mood. The clouds are dark as can be and it looks like it is about to storm like crazy. It is still decently warm outside, but just looks miserable as can be.
I am even having a difficult time functioning this morning. Pretty sure I am going to need the whole pot of coffee. Lol.

 

[smackey2]

Little miss grumpy butt, is still, grumpy. Her chest and front legs have finished shedding, but it seems that by just over night, now her snout and mouth are peeling. She isn't inclined to want to bask much, either, but instead, to hide under her hammock on the hot side.
Unfortunately, she only ate one roach for breakfast, refused lunch, but did manage to eat 7 roaches for dinner for me. This shed has really put her appetite off.

On a more interesting note, the bowl I had originally intended to use as her salad bowl is no more. Instead, Spike has turned it into her own personal place to go and do her business. I guess in a way she potty trained herself. Rarely, does she ever go else where to go to the bathroom. (Salad hasn't been put in that bowl sense a few days after bringing her home and she started using it to poop in, just fyi.)

And as I type, miss grumpy scales is under her hammock, with her little nose in the corner of the tank. I know shedding can't be comfortable or enjoyable, but I miss my ball of energy, light basking, little gaping mouth dragon. Poor little one.

 

[SHBailey]

Frequent shedding is just something little growing dragons have to put up with. But it's nice when they can plump up enough to be able to afford skipping a few meals if it makes them lose their appetite. Spike seems to have that pretty well figured out. :wink: She'll probably be back to her usual self when she gets done with the latest shed.

Sounds like you've got a pretty good system there just as long as you don't put the salad in the "toilet bowl". If she's neat about getting it all in the bowl, it would make cleaning it up pretty easy -- just dump the contents of the bowl down the drain and wash it out...

When we're lucky, our beardie poops in the water during his bath, but we can't always count on that. Sometimes he makes a mess on the bottom of the tank, but he's usually careful about going "downstairs" to do his business so he doesn't mess up his basking platform where he spends most of his time.

BTW, it was probably good to "vent" on here about the beardie you saw for sale -- there may be someone around here who has room for another one and would be able to take better care of him.

 

[smackey2]

Her appetite is slowly coming back around. Most of her shed has come off, except for a little patch left on the top of her nose.
I took her outside today to enjoy from sunshine since she hasn't been feeling like herself and it definitely seemed to help. And the photo shoot I did with her probably helped boost her confidence, too. Haha. I have it posted on another thread.

She basically trained herself. Once I replaced the reptile carpet (sort of) with tile (tile is actually on top of the carpet so not to scratch the glass) she just started using that bowl to poop in. Although, not sure if her butt will fit once she is adult size, but it does make for an easy clean up! I tried the whole getting her to poop in the bath thing.... it never actually happened, so.

I honestly don't know if anyone took that poor guy or not as now I can not find the post on FB. Definitely makes me sad not knowing, but I do hope that someone got him and is giving him a better life.

 

[SHBailey]

Our beardie got a little bit of time outside this weekend too -- just a little. He was overdue for his "good morning" cuddle and "daddy" was already out in the yard getting carried away with some project because it was a fairly nice day and he wanted to be outside anyway (it's really hard to keep my husband indoors on a nice summer day). It was a little on the cool side (between mid 60s and 70) for the beardie so I took him out with his little towel to cover up with and we went to see his daddy. He doesn't get to go outside very often because it usually isn't warm enough, and this summer so far has been even cooler and rainier than usual, so he's not used to it and I think it tends to freak him out a little, but he didn't seem to get too terribly agitated this time, although he did turn several shades of black. Hard to tell if that was about temperature or emotions or both, but I would figure that cool air + warm sun = turn black and soak up as much heat as you can.

 

[smackey2]

Spike does that a lot when I first take her outside. She'll turn dark colors (which is when the blueish purple coloring on her back really shows up), pancake flat against whatever she is sitting on, whether it be my hands and she is holding on for dear life with her little claws around my fingers, or up on her rock.
I think I am going to order a harness for her. I found one that seems to be quite adjustable, even for her being so young. She tries to get down into the grass sometimes, but the thought scares the holy crap out of me. Without a harness, I would be worried she would take off so fast and that I wouldn't be able to catch her.

 

[SHBailey]

It sounds like Spike's color and behavior is about both temperature and emotions too -- she's trying to soak up as much heat and light as she can, and she may also be a little nervous about being outside.

I've seen "hip leashes" for beardies but haven't tried one with ours. I doubt if he could run fast enough or far enough that either my husband or I wouldn't be able to catch him as long as we could keep him in sight, but I'm still nervous about putting him down on the ground, even though we have a lovely patch of clover in our yard (I'd asked my husband to mow around it and save it), and I thought about setting him down there for a little while, but I chickened out and took him back in the house. Maybe we'll try again next time we have a nice warm day, if we even do get another nice warm day before the end of the summer -- in Alaska, you never know. :roll:

 

[smackey2]

Yeah, without a harness or something I don't think I would feel comfortable letting her down in the grass. I mean, I have never had the problem of her trying to take off or sprint away or anything, but there is always that possibility that anything could happen. Spike is still small, and extremely fast when she wants to be. I am definitely not a track star, that is for sure, so. There really isn't anything in my yard to hide under or anything like that, but again, with her being so small, whose to say that she couldn't run so fast that I couldn't catch her and disappear into the neighbors yard (we don't have fences) and find some kind of crevasse or something.
Maybe I worry too much, that is what the hubby tells me, but still. I like to think ahead of what could happen and then try my very best to avoid it. I don't like 'what ifs'.
If something happened to her, I would never forgive myself.
I am the same with my dogs. Even though my dogs have leashes or chains depending on if I am outside to sit on the porch for a while or to let them out just to potty, they never go without me and I never leave them outside alone or unattended.
And my kids I am even worse with. We live down a country road and traffic isn't too bad and most of our neighbors are nice people, but when my kids are outside playing, I get my lawn chair and I sit in the middle of the gravel road. My boys are only ever in the road to play basketball, but still. Yeah, I could sit on the porch and watch, but my view isn't the best and I am further away. I don't like that, especially when too many people don't like to watch where they are going, how fast, or their surroundings.
I am overprotective and I will gladly admit it.

 

[smackey2]

Spike's appetite is slowly picking back up. I took her outside a little bit ago to enjoy some more sunshine with me on the porch while my boys were splashing around in the pool. (Inflatable pool since my youngest is only 3) She ate 15 medium roaches this morning, nothing for lunch which isn't out of the ordinary for her as she usually only eats twice a day even though I offer three times, and just ate 12 more medium sized roaches for dinner. I'll take it.
She is now sitting on her hammock, on the part that is under her basking light, watching my oldest play on his laptop. Not sure why, but she sure does like to watch what games he plays. I guess because they move, maybe? Or just something different?

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

Simon, my girl that passed, used to love watching TV and would even react to jump scares. It was really adorable, clearly fixated.

I had little Alucard outside today.

She loved it...?

She's usually out when being held or in a carrier. I think sitting on the grass was a little overwhelming for her

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

The sad look of a girl who was told she can't have any more crickets tonight. So heartbreaking

 

[smackey2]

I don't have it in me to put Spike in the grass. If I already had a harness for her I would probably feel differently.
When my oldest, now almost 8, was 2 years old, we got our first bearded dragon. We weren't aloud to have any animal that didn't live in a cage as we were living in an apartment at the time. (Originally we were going to get a guinea pig, bunny, or a hedgehog. That didn't happen though.) He named him "Dagon" because he couldn't say Dragon. Dagon, unfortunately, was already roughly 3 when we got him from a pet store that went out of business not long after. The owner actually just gave him to us because I pointed out that he was 'deformed' (A sever case of MBD that I knew nothing of at the time as I had never seen it before nor ever owned a reptile before). My son fell in love with him immediately regardless. He used to 'walk' Dagon in our yard on the harness we had for him. Dagon made it a year with us after that. Sadly, he did pass and abruptly at that, but according to the vet it was most likely due to his kidneys failing and not the MBD.
I wish I knew then what I know now about bearded dragons.
I think Dagon is one of the reasons my son wanted another beardie. Dagon, the bearded dragon, was his first ever pet and friend. Dagon was a very sweet boy and loved nothing more than to be held, cuddled, and lounge on my son's lap while he watched cartoons on tv.

On a happier note, this is the outcome of Spike's outside enjoyment with me yesterday. I made a whole thread dedicated to it. Haha.
https://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=234584


Darn it! But she has this LONGING look! "But.... But... BUT!"

**Edit**
So many typos. >.< Jeez. Lol.

***Edit one more time***

This is probably one of the best pictures I have of the two together. Dagon LOVED kisses. Towards the end, Dagon started shaking really bad, hence why my son is holding him like that to give him his kiss. (Yes, for the longest time, my oldest had a mullet lol.)

 

[SHBailey]

The sad look of a girl who was told she can't have any more crickets tonight. So heartbreaking

When our beardie gives me that "Aren't you going to feed me some more crickets?" look, I tell him that if he's still hungry, he can eat some of his salad. What a concept. :roll:

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

She could see the cricket keeper from her enclosure as I had it set out still. She was booping her nose on the glass like she was trying to ask for some. It was 30 mins to lights out, it was so sad. I told her no more tonight and moved the keeper out of sight, then took her out and put her in the window to watch fireworks instead which she really enjoyed.

Poor little Dagon. I'm sure he was very loved, though I can imagine you have times where you realize now things you could have done more back then. I do the same with Simon, but it's in the past and nothing you can do except learn from it and use that knowledge to better the lives of the dragons you keep from now on.