My mischievous Bandit

She's the cutest little reptile I've ever seen. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that I would own a beardie. I've always heard negative things about them. Boy, were all the things I've heard wrong... I've learned not to freak out over the small things anymore, that a reptile is a reptile and does as she pleases. I've learned how to properly care for her all because of the wonderful people on this site and I would like to thank you all for all the advice. I bought her when she was around 5 inches.. She's now over 8 I bought her July 24th at a Petsmart near my work.She fell off a tree when we approached the tanks and ran to the glass when I was looking at her. I would say she picked me instead of me picking her I did hours upon hours of research but I made my mistakes especially with those "starter kits" but now I've fixed everything and we are on our road to a healthy, long beautiful life. Without further ado, here's some pictures
Our first day together!

My favorite picture by far,

sexy leg

can you find the dragon??

she was shedding a bandanna apparently which suits her name perfectly lol

Queen of the castle,

nom nom, crazy face,

look at those little spikes... AAAH so cute...

I have no idea how she kept herself up like that... I came home from work to find her sleeping like this...

I love her.

I feed the dragon a nice breakfast... How am I repaid? With a cranky dragon...

 

[ohmybandit]

More photos

I'm team Matty, She's apparently team Jake.

What?

Today she ate 29 Phoenix worms and absolutely refused to touch or go near the only brown one I put in the lid... I put 20 in the first time she ate the 19 so as an experiment I put 10 more in and left the brown one but she wouldn't touch it. What a buttface.

And there goes the brown one... lol....

Can't keep her fat little belly up.. bahaha

 

[ziggydoodles]

She is super cute! & WOW what a fat little beardie belly in those last few pics! :mrgreen:

 

[ohmybandit]

She is super cute! & WOW what a fat little beardie belly in those last few pics! :mrgreen:

Haha, thank you. You can see the look of regret on her face from pigging out on worms :lol:

 

[JangoMom]

Awww.. so cute!

 

[FranktheTank]

She is too cute!

-Kaleen

 

[ohmybandit]

Thank you! She's growing so fast, oh my goodness. She was 5-6 inches at the end of July and she's now currently just short of 12 inches. I was so worried she wasn't growing because in my eyes she's still as tiny as the day I got her and looking at other bd's online made me worry because they all look so big at young ages but now with the start of dubia's and phoenix worms she's got quite the belly

 

[ohmybandit]

Picture update time

The grumpiest face yet,

She would never sit in the other bin I had to feed her in until I tempted her with Dubia's and how she always knows it's feeding time when she's in there

"Are all these for me?"

Took down 30 large phoenix worms,

Then proceeded to her bowl to look for freeze dried crickets and ate some pellets,

And this is Bailey. Over a month ago, my boyfriend and I went to a reptile shop. They had a bearded dragon just sitting in an open enclosure and since I've never held an adult bearded dragon before, I scooped her up immediately. She was literally skin and bones and felt like she had shattered ribs. I put her down and asked one of the guys working there, "What's wrong with her?" His response was "Oh, nothing she's just a little funky", he picked her up put her on the branch I was giving to Bandit and then put her down back in the enclosure roughly. She was limping away and trying to hide from people. I scooped her up again staring at her and I felt awful. (We didn't even realize her right back leg way entirely swollen and broken because I was so focused on her rib cage) The guy came back after 10 minutes and said that she was dropped off here a week prior and was "beaten up by 2 males" he then said we look like good people and he would give her to us for free. I immediately said yes and looked at my boyfriend. I wasn't going to be able to bring her home because I have Bandit and while still living in my mothers home/working/going back to school soon, I couldn't keep her. He said couldn't at the time because he didn't have the proper funds but I was not leaving her, whether I had to sneak her home or I was going to force her upon him, she was coming home with us. I bought her all the stuff and now she's been at my boyfriend's for over a month, completely a different reptile. She has energy, she a finicky eater (but when I come over to feed her, she eats ) Her body is almost back to normal, she's gone through 2 sheds. She's been to a vet, had a fecal, he said she was perfect, nothing to be alarmed about and said that her back leg was shattered because her bones never properly healed. She also has a slight case of MBD because her front feet are curved into her body. She's the most loving, kind, sweetest cuddling reptile I've ever met. It's a shame people are so awful.

Here's our first day with her,
Car ride home (Look at her right leg, twice the size)

We bought her waxworms and crickets the first day, she instantly ate 4 wax worms,

Here she is now,

 

[lilgreeneyes]

Awww Bandit is a pretty beardie and looks like she has quite the personality. She looks very expressive too. It seems like you are taking very good care of her due to that chubby little belly.

That is wonderful that you were able to rescue Bailey. Just looking at her, she seems like she is probably such a little sweetheart. She will have a happy life now.

I really look forward to seeing more pics and updates on Bandit and Bailey.

 

[SpitFyre]

Wonderful of you to rescue her

 

[BeardieMommy85]

Awww what a cutie pie! You took great pictures! I absolutely LOVE the picture of her asleep on the stick! That is hilarious! And the picture where she is doing the bug eye thing(When that first happened to my beardie, I FREAKED OUT) I had no idea beardies do that occasionally especially when their shedding when I first got my beardie, but now that I know as long as their not doing it all the time it's just a freaky thing they do once in awhile that is normal. I still don't like it though! LOL... :lol:

 

[ohmybandit]

Thank you all. Bandit definitely likes to express what she's thinking... haha. I'm going to take better pictures of Bailey tonight because those nice dark shots are from my boyfriend's android... We didn't think she was going to make it that first week because she looked so ill but she's definitely alive and full of energy. Does anyone have any good tricks on how to fatten her up more quickly? Like I mentioned, she's a real finicky eater and won't eat for a day then will munch on something a day later and then the next she'll chow down on things like she's never seen food before but it's definitely frustrating my boyfriend. We've tried baby food (chicken and squash) dandelions, escarole, mustard greens, carrots and kale. She won't touch any live crickets, is iffy on phoenix worms, loved wax worms but didn't want to risk the fatty liver disease, is okay with supers and dubias.

@ BeardieMommy85 thank you! haha She did that eye bulge one day out of no where and it scared me because I've seen her do it during one of her sheds, but she just did it after one and out of the blue. If it wasn't for an article about it on this site I would've had a heart attack.

 

[Hemilover77]

Wow...how adorable. Very good pics. My baby is a Petsmart baby too, wish we knew how old they really were! Looks like from the first pics to the last that she has really grown!

 

[Beardiesforthewin72]

Bandit is rather adorable I'm glad you got bailey when you did what petstore did you get her from?

 

[ohmybandit]

Haha yeah, she was so tiny when I got her I couldn't believe it.
Bandit, first day I had her,

Bandit, Now,

And as promised, here's some pictures of Bailey.

@beardiesforthewin, At Chicago Reptile House.

 

[Beardiesforthewin72]

You know whats funny we have the same tile for the tank and I have that exact same cave.