Nathaniel, Cierra, Castiel, Freya, Grrl; RIP GABRIEL

We never expected to get another dragon, but our neighbours next door wanted to give away Cleo, as he was called. We'd babysat him before, he's such a sweetheart. We nicknamed him Velcro because when he snuggles he never wants to go back to his viv, he hangs on as if he's made out of velcro.

So here he is. Today was his first day with us. He ate 13 supers and ate some squash, not bad for the first day he was here. He's only in a 30 gallon tank, which will be ok for now. He's 18" long but weighs only 200g. We figure he's probably 2 yrs old. Our neighbours rescued him last fall, they found him and a female (which they named Puff) on Craig's list. They were in a 30 gallon dirty tank, with sand and a huge log that took up 1/2 the space in the tank. Leo was at the bottom, he was sooooo skinny. He's gained weight, but never got the attention he deserved. I took some pics today, but will take more tomorrow. I think he remembers our place as didn't get stressed as I expected. No stress marks at all. When we let him run around the living room, he noticed our girls and immediate black beard, so his hormones are working!

He had a bath this morning, had a big poop, no smell, so not worried about parasites.

So here are a few pics, he's a yellow & dark gray, light gray colour.

Under the communal power sun in the living room:

Discovering there are girls in those tanks up above, he has a great black beard for such a skinny boy:

On the couch, he's got a pretty diamond pattern on his back:

Hope you enjoy
Deb and my six dragons :shock: :shock: :shock: :love5:

 

[Goonie]

"Impy"!! :laughing6:

That's great that he already gained 3 grams! Before you know it, he'll be a monster.

He'll get used to the roaches soon enough. It's a huge transition from crickets, so give him some time.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I hope so, I'm just glad he loves carnivore care or he'd be starving by now. I've run out of bee pollen & won't get the package I ordered until Sunday, so I think I won't give him anymore & see if he eats them, if he gets hungry enough, hopefully.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Little Imp is enjoying his new tank more and more and now has decided he can fly. When I went to get him out for his bath this am, I discovered his head was shedding, plus his beard. I put him on the counter and was watching him out of the corner of my eye while filling his bath when I noticed he was awfully close to the edge of the counter. He was actually trying to figure if he could jump down :shock: Heart attack city. So I put him on my shoulder instead, where he will stay & got him in his bath quickly so I could not only soak him but put water on his head and beard to help the shed. He's done with both (so quickly, too, I forgot that about little ones, but I did get a pic of some of the beard shed hanging.

And got some good pics of Castiel, Nathaniel and Gabriel being fed roaches. Castiel eats supers out of his dish, I don't put roaches in there anymore because they continually escape by piling one on top of the others (the small ones don't do that) so I feed him out of a tub on their own.

oops, missed it! but what a great picture of that tongue!

Nathaniel has to be fed, I actually have to put the roach in his mouth so he can eat it, little devil. I swear he'd not eat at all if I didn't feed him.

Waiting patiently for the next one

Gabriel is also another one that has to be fed, he gave up eating on his own 2 years ago and, like Nathaniel, would starve if I didn't feed him. I tried putting some roaches in a bowl in his tank once, he let them escape and I found baby roaches until his newspaper a few weeks later. He's my big goof ball :lol:

 

[BlueDragon09]

Aw Gabriel and Nathaniel being goofs huh? Baby Imp is adorable! I swear he is the same size Broly once was at his age. I love his face cute Imp give him a snug for me. I read about Cierra and time for her to wake up. Hah Broly is down catching Z's till he decides it's spring. Hope your baby eats more even though Carnivore Care is good for him.

 

[Tonja]

What a cutie Impulse is! With you as his mommy, he will grow in no time and be a big boy. I love his name also. How exciting for you to have a baby in your crew. I am thrilled for you. All the pictures of your crew are gorgeous, one big happy family

 

[sweetiepie9]

Hi Tonja, how's your eye doing after the surgery, hope it's working well and that the pain it was causing is gone.

It's weird having a baby after 8 years of having just adults. He's so small, but he's also very fiesty. His belly was huge this am, so got him in his bath, rubbed his tummy and he had the biggest poop & felt much better afterwards. I give him a bit of acidophilus every day. And carnivore care with bee pollen, but just in the am, then I'm hoping, when I'm gone to work, he'll eat his bugs (dubia) and I've put bee pollen on his greens to entice him, as he LOVES bee pollen. We;ll see how it goes, I'll be weighing him again next weekend.

Hi Kami, and I agree, time for Cierra to be up. I'm giving her her last week asleep, then that hide is being removed or turned around and blocked up. No more hiding for Cierra, 6 mo is way long enough!

 

[MufasasMomMakayla]

Gabriel and Nathaniel have to be hand fed? Silly guys. Six months?? I'm dreading brumation with my girls, winter will be so boring. Hopefully Imp will start eating, one can't live on pollen alone! Love the pictures of them all.

 

[Goonie]

Impy is too cute! I love it when babies think that they're bigger and tougher than they truly are, and that they can fly :laughing6:

Wouldn't be unhealthy to wake Cierra up if her body's not ready for it? A few years ago, MoMo slept from about mid August until April.

 

[Tonja]

hay surgery as you know on the 14th and had no pain whatsoever. had my one week check and so far all is well. I go back the 18th for my final check and am still on the steroid eye drops for two more weeks. I am being tapered off of them so that's good. I can see pretty clearly out of it so I am very pleased. thanks for askimg

 

[sweetiepie9]

Gina, I'm not sure if I should wake her up, but will get her up for her bath as usual, let her watch some TV while she's drying up (and driving Nathaniel (hey, she's your sister LOL) and Castiel wild. She doesn't even notice them, so I'll let her sleep if that's what she wants, I guess. She's losing weight, but nothing to be concerned with as she still looks beautiful.

He gives me fits of laughter when he keeps edging towards that counter edge when he's waiting for his bath. Luckily there are other things he can jump on, but he just keeps eyeing that counter edge :lol: Luckily I have a good eye and quick reflexes because he's not going to jump off it on my watch :lol:

Tonja, I am so glad it went so well for you. Are you going to need glasses? My dad had the surgery and one eye stayed so dominant he saw double, so he did have to have glasses, he was so disappointed.

Makayla, every dragon sleeps differently in the winter and some don't sleep at all, just go to bed really early every day. Gabriel will fall asleep when sitting up, with one eye open, it's as if he just can't make up his mind. He's slept for a total of 2 weeks and he's 5 years old. It's as if he just can't miss anything and I know he's asleep by 1p every day and snoozes the rest of the day away. Leo used to sleep for 2 months exactly. Didi was a popcorner, up for a week, down for a few days, up for a day, down for a week, he was like this ALL winter. So they're all so very different and they're different every winter, too. So rhyme or reason, either. You'll have to see when they get much older and bigger how they react to winter.

 

[sweetiepie9]

So I had to take Imp to the vet yesterday, on Tuesday afternoon he started trembling, it was hardly noticeable, but then he started have seizures, I immediately called the vet but couldn't get in until yesterday. Seems because of not much UVB, probably not alot of calcium because he probably didn't get enough crickets and lack of D3, that's what caused the seizures. My vet gave him a calcium w/D3 and vit shot. I also had brought a fecal and he has worm eggs, so he's on panacur, but diluted because he's so small. He was down to 58g. So I bought carnivore care and critical care, put a pinch of both with butternut squash and bee pollen and that's what he's eating for now, maybe try him on some crickets next week. He drank down 1 1/2 m of electrolytes as putting him in the bath just brings on seizures, at least for now. Then he had calcium early this morning and now, ate 2 mls of the mix early this morning and just ate another 2 mls now. I'm going to get powder calcium with D3 to put in his mix and when I'm not working feed him twice a day, if not 3x a day, but will only be able to feed him once Mon-Wed-Fri next week as I leave at 10:30a when working full days. I'm hoping he'll be eating crickets or dubia or small super worms by the time I'm full time (March 14), I also bought some wax worms that I put in the fridge, that way they last for a month, so have until end Feb to feed them to him. At least a few to help him gain some weight.

I also had to change his tank a bit, took out the basking platform, laid down the log on it's side, so he does have a small part that sticks up that he can lean on, also lay on & his light is right above that part of the tank. He seems to feel more comfortable with his tank this way. If he wants to jump, he still has the flower pot (upside down) and the hide to jump up on.

So please pray for my little Imp, I'm doing all I can for him and I'm hoping it will all work. The food I gave him earlier this week, he vomited up, so far so good with this different mix.

I'm going to look for a stuffie that he can have for the corner of the tank just above where he's basking, instead of that big piece of ironwood. I think he'd like a stuffie better, so will be on the lookout for one for him. A good quality one, too.

The rest of my crew are doing well, Cierra is still sleeping, she'll be up on Sunday for her bath, but that's it. I'll just let her sleep until she doesn't want to anymore.

Gabriel still can't decide if he wants to stay up or go to sleep, silly boy.
Castiel isn't eating as much and goes to sleep at 1p, but he's still active in the morning, same as Gabriel, who comes out first.
Nathaniel is still my wild cowboy. Twice this week I've forgotten to put him to bed, so he puts himself to bed somewhere in the living room when he's sleepy and I find him when I get home :lol: He doesn't seem to mind :mrgreen:

 

[Goonie]

I am so glad that Imp is doing better. Thank goodness you were able to get a vet appointment for Thursday; talk about perfect timing.

I hope that Imp's body will start to absorb the extra calcium w/D3 supplement, and start setting his system on the right path.

 

[CooperDragon]

Aw, poor Imp! He's in great hands with you. I'm sure you'll be able to nurse him back to health and provide him with the nutrients he needs. How far is he getting from his UVB light?

 

[MufasasMomMakayla]

Praying, poor little Imp!! I hope he will eat more and the meds and new setup will help.

 

[diamc]

I sent you a FB chat message Deb to see how Imp did after his morning feeding. You'll get him all straightened out very soon.