Mufasa and Norberta

I already introduced me and Fasa, but I thought you all might like to see his cuteness, lol. I also have a question for you professionals: do you have any idea what morph he is?

Here he is sleeping in his new tree, slept in it all of last night.
Mufasa will just sit on my chest and nap or watch whats going on.
One last question: Half the time he doesn't eat his crickets, is there anything I can do to help him eat?
Well, I think that's all for now!
Makayla.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Your girls should be fed a few bugs a day, every day, might help them grow a bit. Imp has to eat every day because if he doesn't, he'll lose weight. I still don't have a scale, will have to get one soon.

I've never gone by the 80% greens and 20% bugs, mine would get really sick if I followed that. So Imp eats supers and dubia every day and Gabriel eats 10 or more every 3 days. Only to give him time to digest. He poops great, doesn't always get it where it should be, but I clean him up with pleasure when he makes an oops. I haven't even gotten them up yet, and it's going to be a very hot day. Again it was 84F in my hallway, had the fan on until midnight, but can't sleep with it on...tossed and turned alot because it was so hot. We're supposed to start getting rain on Tuesday, haven't had any rain for more than 3 months, everything is parched and dying. Will be so good to finally get rain, if it shows up.
Time for breakfast and to put the boys out to spend time with Bella.
Catch you later.

 

[SHBailey]

I agree that beardies are just like people in the sense that just because they're not "normal" sized doesn't mean they're not healthy. Both Mufasa and Norberta look good. Lots of different colors.

Roaches and crickets are about all the main staples we can get at the local pet stores here, except for superworms and mealworms, and we don't feed those to our beardie anymore. They also have waxworms and nightcrawlers, but Puff gave up on nightcrawlers a long time ago -- too long and too slippery. Waxworms would probably be good for an occasional treat, but we haven't tried them yet because we'd have to buy too many at a time. One of the local stores has also started carrying hornworms, but I wouldn't buy too many of them at once for our one little beardie because they grow really big really fast.

I ordered some Phoenix worms online and we're trying those -- not too sure if he likes them or not. Might try silkworms too eventually, but we have to order them too. None of the local stores carry them so far as I know. I'm trying to get a few of the Phoenix worms to pupate to see if Puff will enjoy chasing the flies.

How often you feed bugs to your beardie depends on the beardie. Our vet recommended only once a week in order for our little carnivore to get hungry enough to eat his veggies in the meantime, but he holds out for bugs. :roll:

 

[sweetiepie9]

Don't go more than 2 days without giving Puff bugs, he needs bugs more than veggies as the vit/min you give him keeps him healthy. Mine won't eat greens unless I feed them, so not everyday. But Imp gets bugs every day, Gabriel every 2/3 days, the rest every 2 days (when they're awake). I learned the wrong way that not getting enough protein will actually make their blood vessels leak, that's why I don't agree with the 80% veggie and 20% bugs. This happened to Puff when he was 7, I decided to put him on a diet without going to the vet first and that's what happened to him. Had to up his bugs to every 2nd day and dubia only, to avoid fatty liver disease; so give him bugs at least 3x a week, the rest of the time he can just get greens and see what he does. Maybe he's like mine, won't eat unless offered by a human hand. Cierra and sometimes Castiel are the only ones who'll eat greens on their own.

I go with the dragon. Older dragons need regular protein just as much as babies, juvies and young adults, just not as many or as often. But definitely more than once a week. Regardless of greens.

 

[MufasasMomMakayla]

Thanks guys!
Sorry I haven't been on, life has been a bit busy.
Noberta is doing good, we're trying black cherry juice again (which she hated!) and she's taken it pretty well so far.
Mufasa was doing good until this morning, she pooped and there is red in her urate, I'm guessing blood seeing as she hasn't eaten anything red in a while. I looked a several different sites and have seen multiple answers from impacted/constipated, parasites, intestinal injuries to ovulating. She seems fine and the rest of the poop looked fine. I have no idea. Should I just wait for her next poop and see if its back to normal?

 

[sweetiepie9]

Yes, wait until the next poop to be sure or is she going back to sleep?

I'm glad Norberta is doing ok, but her joints are bugging her again? I'm glad she's taking the cherry juice, it's supposed to help alot. Does gout ever go away? That's what Norberta has, right?

We're all good here, got the 3 sleepers up on Sunday for a 1/2 warm bath. No poop from Cierra and didn't have pumpkin, so after the 3 had their long soaks, they stayed up to bask and dry and went back to bed. They all look good, but Cierra has to do that last few poops probably by now. So now I have pumpkin and I'm going to wake her up on Sat am and feed her pumpkin until she poops again. It's as if she woke up from brmation and forgetting how to poop. All year it's been the same, have to fill her full of pumpkin, with daily baths and massages to ge ther to poop, can take a week of this before it works. I'll soon have $ to take her to the vet and at least can get a fecal done to see what I have to do. If I need her to stay up, I put her hide upside down (it's a cardboard box) so she can sleep in it, but her lights stay on. If she's up more than a week, I'll have to feed her, too. So maybe not doing brumation as she usually does, from Aug to Feb :shock: Shocks me every winter that she does this. So need to make sure she's empty to sleep or keep her up. There's always something.
Nathaniel and Castiel, of course, know just what to do. They sit up for a day or two, then settle back sleeping again.

So nothing new on the Tara front. Eric is still having issues with getting the kids to behave, they can be so stubborn, all of them. The letter that Eric requested 2 weeks ago and has called almost daily to find out when it's going to be ready (he needs it to get a gov't income for taking care of the kids), it's so frustrating because we're running out of $ to help pay his rent/food with. This month is the last. Next month he'll have to figure out how to get some temporary work.

So we'll see how he gets that done and to the right department.

I'm almost back to work full-time, this week and next week part hours and then full time on the 25th. Just in time to not have a reduced income. My chiro stabilized my back enough to work and I have a day off every week, as I can't do 5 days right now.

I'm off to eat breakfast and get Gabriel and Imp into their baths, plus feeding, then off to buy worms for Imp.

Give your girls snuggles from all of us, especially Imp, he's now a full grown beardie

I probably sent you this one, but doesn't Imp look like he has a normal belly again?

 

[MufasasMomMakayla]

Will do that. No I don't think she is, she's still up from when I flipped her hide.
Norberta's joints have been great for the past few months! The allopurinol is a life saver, yes we're pretty sure its gout. It wont go away, she'll have to take her meds daily for the rest of her life pretty much or she'll swell back up.
Wow, Cierra likes to keep you on your toes lol! Hope things work out with her soon. And I hope things can get figured out with Eric and Tara and the kids. That's great you're back to work!
I will! Oh my goodness Imp turned two?? That's crazy! He looks so much better, love his little belly that's so great to see.
I uploaded some pics from the other day and today.

They fell asleep like that the other day and were still like that when I woke them up lol.

Norberta seeing the roach tank (I was feeding them, they are actually pretty regularly reproducing!)

 

[sweetiepie9]

Awww, those are all great pictures. Yes, gout seems to be like that. Once it gets it'self settled it doesn't want to go away. At least the meds are working. Keep her on the Serrepeptase, too, it will help her, too, .5 ml per day should do fine as she's 1/2 Gabriel's size and he gets 1 ml/day.

I put Imp outside as the sun was coming out, so better check on him. It's so nice to have a day off mid month. When I look into possibilities of working 4 days/wk until retirement, I'll be taking Wednesday off. Work 2, off 1, work 2, off 2. I think I can manage that for the next 3 years, having that day of rent in the middle of the week makes all the difference.

 

[SHBailey]

All your beardies look good. Imp definitely looks better, and Norberta appears to be giving you the "I'm going to be really angry if you don't feed me some of those roaches" Look.

I talked with my husband about feeding Puff some extra "protein snacks" during the week, and managed to try him with a wiggly pile of Phoenix worms this morning. I figured it would make it easier for him to get one even if he misses the one he's aiming for. He managed a few, and I put the rest back in the cup.

Your 4 day a week work schedule sounds like it will be nice if you can get it, with a day to rest in between. My husband was able to do 10 hours a day 4 days a week at his previous job, and it made it really nice because he had an extra day off during the week to help me with all the stuff I'm not up to doing anymore, including critter care and grocery shopping (I don't drive anymore), but he doesn't have that option at his current job, so we only have Saturdays to try to get everything done. He insists on spending half the day in church on Sundays, and after that we're both usually too exhausted to do much of anything else before Monday. Fortunately, the difference between him and me is that he seems to be able to drag himself out of bed and do what needs to be done when necessary, so the reptiles don't get completely neglected when I'm down for the count -- if it wasn't for my husband, we wouldn't be able to keep them. But midweek feedings are going to be a little bit difficult to be consistent about because my husband doesn't get home from work early enough to leave enough time for digesting before bedtime, so it will be up to me. I managed it this morning, but I'm afraid I'm not going to be very reliable, as much as I'd like to be. We do the best we can, and my husband and both reptiles seem to be willing to put up with me.

 

[Mushupork]

Hello there! I'm Jessie. Me and Mushu just wanted to say hi. I'm about to go back and read your whoooole thread seeing as your beardies are so darn cute.

 

[MufasasMomMakayla]

Thanks Deb! And I'll do that too. That sounds like that could be a great schedule for you!
Thanks SHBailey! Haha yeah, but when I threw her one she ignored it cause she could still see the adults crawling around lol. Sounds like Puff liked the phoenix worms, he sounds like such a cutie. You guys sound pretty busy, but you have such a cute little family.
Hello Jessie (and Mushu)! Thank you!
Turned the lights on and the girls are still not up, I realized recently that if I don't move them they are pretty happy to just stay in their wake up spot all day pretty much :roll: So I'm trying to get into the habit of getting them up and onto their basking logs.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I have to do that, too, move Imp and Gabriel to their basking spots. Winter slow down is here!

So yesterday it was sunny so I have Imp out on the chair in the sun and Gabriel on the living room floor. So I found Imp, after he jumped down and hid but I couldn't find Gabriel anywhere!. Then got a call from my son, he's got the flu and could I watch the kids (luckily it was a day off for me). So spent all afternoon with the kids, who were grounded because they literally ripped the top cushion off one of the sofas. So I gathered it all up and sewed part of it together. Eric was sound asleep when I left so never told him it was only 1/2 sewn together. I'll have to check in this am before I leave for work. So back to GAbriel, when I got back from Eric's I got the flashlight and finally found him, he'd tucked himself up on an old towel behind a tray that I couldn't see behind until I got the flashlight out. He was sound asleep and looked very comfy, but it was dark and getting colder, so he went to bed after a long snuggle to warm him up a bit. He's still able to hide from me, so that is a wonderful thing. Go Gabriel, Go!

 

[SHBailey]

Hello Jessie and Mushu -- if that's Mushu on your little sidebar picture, he's a cutie.

We're not really sure about Puff and Phoenix worms. My husband thinks he doesn't like the taste of them, but I think he gets frustrated and gives up because he has so much trouble "catching" them. He's a really lousy shot with his tongue, and they're a pretty small target one at a time. I haven't decided yet about ordering any more of them. They're pretty expensive, especially since the shipping costs almost as much as the worms themselves. :roll:

My husband is the busy one. I'm able to do very little due to my unpredictable and debilitating episodes of depression and fatigue, so I just do whatever I can in between.

Puff is a mixed bag when it comes to getting up in the morning. We usually wrap him up in a little towel and cuddle him at bedtime, and then put him on his basking platform in his "burrito" for the night. When I turn the lights on in the morning, sometimes he crawls right out within a few minutes and gives me "The Look" like "Do I get my good morning cuddle today? or maybe some crunchy creepy crawly critters? crickets? roaches? worms? No, I'm not interested in eating my salad. Yes, I know it's there..." etc. Other days he stays in his burrito and sleeps half the day, and if I have one of my episodes and have to go back to bed because I can't make myself do anything, when I get up later he's still in the burrito, so he's warm but not getting his UVB, and I feel bad for not having at least had the energy to unwrap him. (I don't know what the SPF factor is on the towel, but I'm sure it's not zero.) But hopefully he's getting enough overall, especially now that we've got the high powered T5 HO tube.

Between Eric's kids and Gabriel, it sounds like you've got lots of mischief going on in your family lately, Deb. :lol: I'm glad you found him and got him safely warmed up and tucked in for the night.

 

[sweetiepie9]

He was fine this am, too, didn't want to do any walking, though, just sitting in the sun, so he's there with Bella and Imp is outisde on the ramp because it turned warm and sunny, but this morning was cold, had to wear my fall jacket to walk Bella this am.

I now have to feed Imp, almost forget and need to get out to work, so will talk to you all later.

 

[MufasasMomMakayla]

This whole winter thing is a pain with beardies lol. How funny, glad you found Gabriel and that he has the energy to find new hiding spots.
SHBailey gotcha, my girls aren't fans of them, and they are pricey sometimes. That's completely understandable. Puff is such a funny dragon. :lol:
Deb its so sweet Bella hangs out with Imp and Gabriel.

 

[SHBailey]

Gabriel must have been worn out from the previous day's adventure. I don't blame him for wanting to just lay around in the sun for a change. :wink:

Not particularly looking forward to the whole winter thing here in Alaska either, but it's not so bad really. The reptiles and I just hole up in the house all day like we do just about all the time anyway. Snow is beautiful just as long as I don't have to go out in it. :mrgreen: