Alinannyms
Member
- Beardie name(s)
- Marcy
Hey all! Marcy's been happy as always, I just want to make sure everything's going well with his growth and I'm not missing any small ailments that more experienced owners might be able to better spot. Putting important stuff in bold for people just skimming.
Firstly, growth. I'm having a few money issues with getting a 4x2 tank, so im going to end up building it custom. I've started modeling the layout as a model in blender, a 3d modeling software that I use for art. I'll be making it out of wood most likely; overall the decorations are probably going to be the hardest part. If anyone has any experience, please give me tips and resources! I'd like to be as quick as possible to not stunt his growth in this very, very small 20 gallon. Hopefully have this project done before summer!
Another note, I recently contacted the Petco I bought him from for breeder information. While they didn't keep the information of the specific breeder (or the guy on the line just didn't wanna tell me), they told me that they recieve the baby dragons after they're exactly 2 months old. Marcy was apparently shipped with 5 other lizards and arrived on December 17th. While it's probably not exact, I'm assuming his birthday is October 17th from now on! This will make him 6 months old by April 17th. They grow up so fast!
As for numbers, since January 28th to March 28th (2 months), Marcy grew about 4-5 inches. He went from being exactly 10 inches head to tail to being about 14.5 inches. Hopefully that means I'm doing something right! I'm not sure whether this rate of growth is good or whether he should be a lot bigger or smaller, etc. I've been continuing to feed him a diet of mostly dubia roaches to very occasional fruits and vegetables. He's always very excited to eat, but I think he's about the age to switch over to more vegetables, no? Weight is something I haven't measured until basically yesterday, and even though I forgot to write it down, I believe he was in the ballpark of 117 grams. This is something I'm more worried about, because weight estimates widely fluctuate online. I think he looks healthy enough, his fat pads look good (as far as I know), so I'd like some more input on whether or not I need to pack on some more weight.
For health, Marcy hasn't had anything major that I've noticed. Despite some watery poop (probably a cause of feeding dubia roaches high moisture carrots along with their own water source) that has now gone away, he seems very happy and energetic. He's been shedding regularly, eating, and been just as much of a wiggleworm as ever. Some possible concerns I had in the past were tail rot which was just him having a darker tail, coccidia which was just cause his poop was so watery, and more recently some kind of RI because of his saliva being on the sticker side. Humidity is rising here again, so the risk of an RI might increase soon, so that's the only one I'm truly worried about. I don't know whether it's time to clip his nails or not, but they feel quite long. Suggestions on whether I should/how to do this are appreciated.
And finally, some miscellaneous stuff, like his personality. First of all, he has been much more feisty recently. I'm attributing this to hormones, cause he's not aggressive but just strong and cares much more about his presence in a room. If he's not above everything and the biggest he tends to get stressed. I found that out firsthand when I took him outside and he got so scared of how open it was that he used his hide for the first time ever when we got back inside. He's been much more of a bobber recently, but it's a very stiff bob. He could just be doing it to look around, but I think it's cute when he tries to act confident. Also, I think he's becoming sexually mature, but I don't know what the criteria for that is. His hemipenal bulges are HUGE and very noticable, and he has prominent femoral pores. He hasn't tried any mating procedure things. Also, he's been such a needy boy for sleeping. Half the time right before bed, he makes me take him out so he can fall asleep on my chest before I put him back. Then when I do put him back, he refuses to let go
!
All in all, this was a much wordier update than I expected, sorry. I appreciate all your help and I hope Marcy can grow even bigger and happier in the future!!
Bonus Marcy as always.
Firstly, growth. I'm having a few money issues with getting a 4x2 tank, so im going to end up building it custom. I've started modeling the layout as a model in blender, a 3d modeling software that I use for art. I'll be making it out of wood most likely; overall the decorations are probably going to be the hardest part. If anyone has any experience, please give me tips and resources! I'd like to be as quick as possible to not stunt his growth in this very, very small 20 gallon. Hopefully have this project done before summer!
Another note, I recently contacted the Petco I bought him from for breeder information. While they didn't keep the information of the specific breeder (or the guy on the line just didn't wanna tell me), they told me that they recieve the baby dragons after they're exactly 2 months old. Marcy was apparently shipped with 5 other lizards and arrived on December 17th. While it's probably not exact, I'm assuming his birthday is October 17th from now on! This will make him 6 months old by April 17th. They grow up so fast!
As for numbers, since January 28th to March 28th (2 months), Marcy grew about 4-5 inches. He went from being exactly 10 inches head to tail to being about 14.5 inches. Hopefully that means I'm doing something right! I'm not sure whether this rate of growth is good or whether he should be a lot bigger or smaller, etc. I've been continuing to feed him a diet of mostly dubia roaches to very occasional fruits and vegetables. He's always very excited to eat, but I think he's about the age to switch over to more vegetables, no? Weight is something I haven't measured until basically yesterday, and even though I forgot to write it down, I believe he was in the ballpark of 117 grams. This is something I'm more worried about, because weight estimates widely fluctuate online. I think he looks healthy enough, his fat pads look good (as far as I know), so I'd like some more input on whether or not I need to pack on some more weight.
For health, Marcy hasn't had anything major that I've noticed. Despite some watery poop (probably a cause of feeding dubia roaches high moisture carrots along with their own water source) that has now gone away, he seems very happy and energetic. He's been shedding regularly, eating, and been just as much of a wiggleworm as ever. Some possible concerns I had in the past were tail rot which was just him having a darker tail, coccidia which was just cause his poop was so watery, and more recently some kind of RI because of his saliva being on the sticker side. Humidity is rising here again, so the risk of an RI might increase soon, so that's the only one I'm truly worried about. I don't know whether it's time to clip his nails or not, but they feel quite long. Suggestions on whether I should/how to do this are appreciated.
And finally, some miscellaneous stuff, like his personality. First of all, he has been much more feisty recently. I'm attributing this to hormones, cause he's not aggressive but just strong and cares much more about his presence in a room. If he's not above everything and the biggest he tends to get stressed. I found that out firsthand when I took him outside and he got so scared of how open it was that he used his hide for the first time ever when we got back inside. He's been much more of a bobber recently, but it's a very stiff bob. He could just be doing it to look around, but I think it's cute when he tries to act confident. Also, I think he's becoming sexually mature, but I don't know what the criteria for that is. His hemipenal bulges are HUGE and very noticable, and he has prominent femoral pores. He hasn't tried any mating procedure things. Also, he's been such a needy boy for sleeping. Half the time right before bed, he makes me take him out so he can fall asleep on my chest before I put him back. Then when I do put him back, he refuses to let go
! All in all, this was a much wordier update than I expected, sorry. I appreciate all your help and I hope Marcy can grow even bigger and happier in the future!!
Bonus Marcy as always.
