Meet Penny (or Pedro ... :) )

[pennyorpedro]

Hello everyone,

it's very nice to meet you all, and find such an amazing forum for Beardies.

Let me introduce ourselves, I am Walter, a Vet Medicine student (hopefully not for long) and this is Penny (Or Pedro, i am not really sure yet, i will try and sex her/him a bit further on).

Penny came into our lives on Sunday (2nd October 2011), from a Reptile Fair. I passed in front of a guy with two plastic boxes, one containing the mom Beardie and one of the sons, and the other containing about 6 more juvies, all much smaller than their brother, and all with half tails! The guy told me that the 'big' brother, very dominant, had made it his mission to remove as much of the tail of his brothers and sisters as possible! Anyhow, i was moved seing these little amazing creatures, and being a reptile lover, i handled Penny, stroked her, and started asking questions about how one goes about having a Pogona.
I already have some experience with iguanas, and own Selvaggia, a 7 year old beautiful female iguana 'rescue' (well, the owner just could not keep her anymore, so i inherited her gladly, but she still comes by to see how she's doing etc).... so i had doubts about bringing her home (more than home, it's starting to resemble a Zoo....), but i tried to let her go down with the rest of them again, and there was no way.... she wouldn't let go of me..... she climbed my arm, and every time i tried putting her down, she would just grab me, turn around on my arm, and move up. So, love at first sight. (yeah, corny, i know.... still... i couldn't let go ).

So, the guy gave me some crickets (supposedly good size for her, though i doubt it now...), told me the basics, and i brought her home. Already had a small terrarium, so i just bought a couple of lights and off we went.

As soon as i got home, i read the complete care-sheet (http://beardeddragoncaresheet.weebly.com/) and from there moved here.

So, now that i got our introduction out of the way, here are some questions i have, if anyone kindly has the time and willingness to help out. I know possibly many of the questions have been answered, so i'll try not to repeat too many of them. I've red quite a few questions and answers, so hopefully i won't be too much of a bother.

HOUSING AND LIGHTING:
Here are a few pics of Penny and her housing at the moment, so you see what i am working with to start:

the heating mat behind the terrarium is actually just for show. Placed it there in case night got too cold, but i know not to use it now...

I am working on getting a bigger terrarium for her from a friend, cause this one just seems too small!

So, first of all, i know the coil UVB lamp ('solar rep uvb 5%) is not indicated, so, is the ReptaSunGlow (in the pic) any better for the moment? i will replace it anyway as soon as i get the 'Neon D3+ Arcadia - 12% UVB' (can't find the Reptisun 10.0 so easily here in italy).

I am just waiting to see weather to buy it after the new terrarium comes (if it's soon enough) or for this one. Also, had a little question here. I've red that the best ones for UVB output and heating are the new Mercury Vapour ones, but they need quite a big terrarium to be used..... I am going to get one for Selvy (my iggy) seen as i am soon expanding her terrarium (here's a pic of the current one...) but i am not sure about Penny, should i opt for that one for her as well? i was looking at the 'LUCKY REPTILE BRIGHT SUN ULTRA DESERT 150W', that i can get here in Italy, or the 'Mega Ray® 100w Self Ballasted' which i can get from the UK.

Moving on.
FEEDING
As i mentioned, the guy that sold me Penny, also sold me some crickets. Saying they are the size she should be eating. Now, reading on my own, i see that they are a bit larger than the space between her eyes, so not very keen on giving them to her. In any case, i've offered her the smallest crickets in a different plastic terrarium, a few hours after she's awake and i've switched the lights on. Then again a few hours later, and a third time a few hours before lights-out.

She ate one the day after i brought her home and from then on, not interested! Actually, i think she may be scared of them? is it possible? I keep 4 in the plastic feeding tank, and she hasn't touched them! When i put her in, she'll stay there, and then start trying to get out like crazy. I let her there for 5-6 minutes at a time, cause it was too hard to see her jump away from her food like that and let her stay in there.... i'll try and make a video to show you what i mean.

I noticed though that she ate veggies quite happily, so that's a good sign i guess (see video)


So today i went on to try and buy some Mealworms but i cannot seem to find them (i'm trying to get them from the net now) and bought some 'moths of honey' (Sorry, have no idea how they are called in english, i found out it's an ok feeding worm from an italian forum about bearded dragons). Here is what they look like

She was very happy about them! already eaten 4.... Any contradiction? Are they any good? I suppose they are a bit on the 'substantial' side.... so not sure whether i should keep on feeding them to her regularly. I am also waiting on the Calcium supplement in a couple of days. Is it ok to sprinkle veggies as well?

As for water, i have a water bowl in there, and give some to her with a pipette (saw the video on training to drink from the bowl, and thought i might try...). She takes it quite happily, then moves her head when she's had enough...

HANDLING
So, she lets me pick her up, and pet her, no problems there. But i wanted to understand if i should be petting her more, or less... Is there anything wrong with having her on me for a few minutes at a time? Wanted to try and get her used to me....
Read about the 'beardie burito wrap'.... Is it something to do? I think i'll try it tonight, and see how it goes...


I think that's all for the moment, unless anyone has something to add.

Thank you all for the great work you are doing here!

Keep it up!

 

[pennyorpedro]

UPDATE:

Hey there guys, sorry to bother, i am just trying to understand a few things...

Ok, so today i tried giving her some crickets in the plastic terrarium and once again she refused to eat them. I gave her a couple of those 'moths of honey', holding them with 'pliers' (don't really know if it's the correct term... long ones to grab the crickets...) and saw she took them from there quite happily. So i tried with the crickets too and WoW! She grabbed the little bugger lighting fast.... One fell in her usual terrarium, and she chased it like crazy and ate it.... I fed her about 8-9 crickets that way.... i think she might eat some more.... but i am kind of worried it might be too much? what do i do?

Thank you all again very much!

 

[bltkpo]

I'm not much of an expert, I'm learning as I go alone! But we have noticed with our little Bindy, that she eats till she is full. Even if there are extra crickets in her cage, if she is full, she will not eat them! So I wouldn't worry about over-feeding her.

 

[1proudmom]

Nice to meet you and Penny. She is a cutie.

I'm a fairly new beardie owner myself but I'll be happy to share what I know. I also tried to feed my Baby in a separate container and she wasn't very happy about that. I found that if I feed her in her home that she is much happier to eat. Beardies are not fond of change. Also, while they are babies, you should let her eat however many crickets she can eat in about a 10 - 15 minute period at least twice a day. I'm not sure about how long you should hold them for. I have gradually kept Baby out longer and longer the older she gets and she seems to be doing fabulous. Hope this helps.

 

[pennyorpedro]

Thank you both for your answers...

I will try and keep those things in mind.

Penny says hi!

 

[pennyorpedro]

Hello everyone,

I just needed to ask something that's been bothering me.

Looking at some growth charts for Beardies, I've seen that by now my Pedro should be like Twice the length he actually is!

I know that they are all 'averages' and nothing is set in stone, but it just seems to be quite a big difference! Now he is missing a part of his tail, so that definitely would change things, but i just wanted to ask and see if he seems to be growing ok, or if i am doing something wrong!

Now, i got him on the 2nd of october 2011, the guy told me he was 4 months old. So by now he should be almost 6 months, and approximately 16 inches (40.64 cm). Actually, he isn't even 8 inches (20 centimeters).

Here is a picture.

Any ideas? Is he missing THAT much of his tail? Could it be that he is much younger than what he told me? Last thing, his brother, the very dominant one who bit his tail and two toes, was actually 3 or 4 times his size when i saw them together..... Is that something that i should take under consideration?

Thank you guys...

 

[bltkpo]

You would be surprised how much that tail accounts for! Our little Bindy is 15 inches long, and only 7.5 inches of it is her body. She's half body, half tail. So take that into account; that tail would have counted for a lot of length

I would think a more accurate measurement would be weight. If Penny is growing in weight, you have nothing to worry about. Maybe buy a cheap scale, and weigh Penny once you get it, and again in a week. Take note of the difference. That would help give you a good indication of growth. =]

She also just may not have hit that growth spurt yet. Bindy has been in a constant state of shed and grew over three inches in a week. Before that, he didn't see like she grew at all. They have growth spurts, so maybe little Penny is just between spurts.

As long as she is happy, eating, and pooping regularly, I wouldn't worry too much