Hey all! Brand new to the forum, reddit sent me here. I have a beardie I rescued maybe two months ago. I found him on Craigslist and drove two hours to get him, I could tell from his picture he was in bad shape. They had him on pea gravel, no UV light, and a small heat light that does nothing in his 40gal tank. When I cleaned it out I found old food, soda tabs, small toys, ect under all the wet gravel. He is now in a large homemade enclosure, with an mvb and repticarpet over tile. They were feeding him jars of freeze dried grasshoppers (flukers).
I bathed him everyday for a while as he was seriously dehydrated, started him on live crickets, and syringe fed him repti-aid. When I got him he wasn't mobile at all, he just literally flopped around. Now he is regaining weight (181g now) and crawls. I just got him to actually eat some tiny dubias, and he eats baby food for vegetables.
He obviously has/had a bad case of mbd. He has the jaw deformity, no teeth, spinal deformity, and while he can crawl, he cant lift his belly off the ground.
His weight has fluctuated a lot. Original was around 145, then slowly climbed to 190. Back down to 160… now he's back up to 180. I'm also concerned about his enclosure. Right now there is really nothing in it. I have the light now on one side since he can't climb, and the temps on the hot and cool side are good. But he just lays there all day. I'm wondering if it's from lack of things to climb on in his cage? But how do I make something safe for him? He has been really cranky lately as well. Eating just fine but he doesn't poop very often (never has) and now he opens his mouth like he is threatened when ever I open the cage... Any ideas?
Poor little guy. Probably doesn't realize what to do with proper care and gentile handling. =( I'm really glad he found his way to a good home. Now he has a fighting chance. You can upload pictures from your phone by going to tinypic.com in the browser and uploading photos. Copy the url with the img tag and post it here.
It breaks my heart to hear so many sad stories like this one. I just can't imagine getting an animal and letting it suffer like that! It's torture. I'm so glad that you found him and are helping him recover!
Given his past history with his previous owners, I doubt he has a lot of trust in people. He is probably just scared… I wish I had some advice for you, but I've never done anything like this before! I hope that things turn out well for him and you, though!
Oh gosh I know! When I originally saw him, in afraid I came off too pushy and the owner stopped texting me back. So when I saw him again about a month later, I couldn't believe he was still alive and I knew I had to get him. So I was nice, met up with her and managed to hold my tongue. Forked over the best sixty bucks I ever spent and brought him home.
I converted an old console TV into a cage for him. This pic is before I finished the decorative rock wall. But any suggestions on making it better for him? A friend suggested building a lowish platform with a ledge to deter him from jumping, with a ramp, and memory foam topper under the carpet in case he does jump. Any thoughts?
Also, his name is Raphael
And this cute little bugger with the sexy legs
Is Michelangelo.