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:

 

[diamc]

Imp sure looked like he was enjoying himself on the computer screen. He sure looks all grown up laying on the blanket. Hard to believe.

It's amazing how well hidden those eggs are in Cierra. She sure had quite the gleam in her eye after she laid all those eggs, must feel so much better. Look at the loose skin on her belly.

Nathaniel's body structure is so completely different. He looks good though & muscular.

Good to hear Rocco is eating now.

 

[Goonie]

Neither MoMo nor Digi had any energy after they laid eggs. They'd be sleeping for at least 12 hours afterwards.

 

[sweetiepie9]

That`s what I thought, I can`t figure out how she could run around for 4 hours after and only eat 1 worm. She ate more this am, but still not enough to satisfy me, we`ll see tomorrow am.
I did give her almost 2 mls of mix this am, too.

 

[MufasasMomMakayla]

How's miss Cierra doing today, eating yet? 22 eggs is a lot, will she lay any more? I don't know much about eggs and how many how often, lol.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Last year she laid 27 eggs twice, so probably another clutch, she's not eating much and seems tired, so I'm going to give her some bee pollen mixed in water and some of Imp's mix, which I did yesterday, too. I found less worms in her bowl, so I'm hoping she'll eat more soon.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Well there was some excitement here Friday night to yesterday at 6p. I got home Friday night and couldn't find Nathaniel, Tore the living room apart, still no Nathaniel. I knew he couldn't get out of the living room or onto the balcony, so left it for the morning as I was exhausted.

So yesterday I'm checking everywhere again and decided to pull up the 3 partitions that cover the front of the stereo cabinet and low and behold, saw a bit of a back sticking out from underneath. The little brat had nosed his way under the 3 partitions (and one was a heavy piece of pressboard) and dug himself under the 4" of space under the stereo cabinet, BRAT. So I hauled him out, gave him a talking to (he licked my nose :roll: ) and put him on the ramp to warm up. I've since put some heavy rocks in front of the partitions, so I don't think he'll do it again.

Today I weighed everyone. With all the craziness of Spring Fever, Castiel was down to 540g! So I fed him a bunch of worms today and I'll be feeding him daily until he get through this fever of his.

I fed Gabriel & Nathaniel, too, they're keeping their weights up, so that's good.

Cierra ate alot over the last few days and is up to 424 already, so that's good, even though she didn't eat today. I gave her water with bee pollen and she drank alot. I'm home tomorrow, so I'll make sure she eats then.

The big new is Imp is 201g! I can't believe he's over 200g now, He's still 15" long and he's not eating as much as usual because he's shedding his whole back and one arm. I think the shed on his back is bothering him, or maybe it's because he's not getting enough roaches. Either way, I got a new batch of crickets, so hopefully he'll want to eat them. He's eating small super worms, too, but I think they're too small for him. Will have to pull out the bigger ones, see if he likes those more.

 

[Goonie]

Nathaniel sure was determined to get behind the partitions, huh? But he did say he was sorry by giving you a kiss.

What?! :shock: Imp's over 200 grams?! Holy cow!

 

[sweetiepie9]

I know, right? I couldn't believe my eyes when I weighed Imp this am. And he's shedding his back and an arm, so he's not eating as much as usual. But his hormones are in the right place now. I had Cierra on the bed and Imp on my shoulder and he black bearded and bobbed her :lol: I guess it was bound to happen at some point. Doesn't do it in his tank when he sees her, though, which is just too funny.

Nathaniel is being a very good boy today. I put Cierra back out as she was getting antsy but when he was out for awhile, he just stayed on the ramp.

 

[diamc]

Amazing Imp is over 200 grams now. So, puberty has hit, oh boy! More black beards in your household lol.

Good that Nathaniel behaved himself today. Perhaps he was worried you wouldn't find him and wasn't sure how to get back out. He must have been quite chilly.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Nathaniel was fine until he hide again and again he got behind the partitions in front of the stereo cabinet, brat. At least he was easier to find this time, but I don't think he'll be let out for the day any time soon, at least until I figure out how he gets there and block it. He was a snuggle bug when I found him and slept on me for a couple of hours. He's a sweet boy, but it can be difficult having them hide behind the stereo cabinet because it has access to behind the tanks, if they get back there, I would never be able to get them out.

 

[PogoLover]

BAD NATHANIEL! Lucky is a digger too - he tried to shove himself under my butt, gets his head halfway under and then thinks better of it!!! But we have this one bench thingie that has about a one-inch clearance and he will go squeeze himself under there. There is a piano in his room and I had to put boxes all of the way around it because I can imagine him getting into the innards of the piano. Back when I had rats, one of them escaped and we not could find her anywhere. Then we heard the piano strings . . . she was living in the piano!!!

Lucky's appetite is back. I really think that he just doesn't like to eat the first day or two after he has fully shed. Then back to normal. He's up to 220g.

So, Imp has finalized realized that Cierra is a girl. Hmmm. Lucky almost bobbed today, but not really. He has only half-heartedly done it a couple of times. I wonder if he never will if he never sees another beardie do it. Imp learned from the best! :lol: I still have only seen the full on black beard from him a couple of times too. He doesn't wave either. If I pet his chin and he wants me to stop, he will raise his hand and push mine down - but that doesn't strike me as a submissive behavior. LOL.

We had our first scare - I gave him a roach that was a little bit too big and he coughed it back up so as not to choke. It's so hard for me to tell which ones are too big. The small ones are just too small, because he will eat a gazillion. The medium seem to get too big really fast. This one was borderline. I decided to just go back to only using the smaller mediums.

I finally have some adult female roaches. I had plenty of adult males and no adult females. I have now segregated 6 adult females and 2 adult males in another bin. I will add more females as my roaches mature, and maybe another male or two, and see what happens. I have about 6 adult males in with about 90 non-adults (in a HUGE rubbermaid storage bin) and they seem to do OK as long as I get the adult females out the minute that they do their last molt. When I had too many adult males with just two adult females, I noticed that a couple of the males wings looked chewed on - that stopped when I moved them back with the non-adults.

Rambling all over your thread. Glad to hear that Imp is staying ahead of Lucky on the growth - to me that means that he is healthy since Lucky has never had any problems and has had proper care his whole life.

 

[sweetiepie9]

You can ramble all over my thread any time you want. I love hearing about Lucky and his adventures. I'm glad he's back to eating. I'm not sure how you figure out the size of the dubia, I think Imp would eat adults if he could get his paws on them, but I keep the size at 1" and he eats those fine. In fact, I'm out but being in Canada can't replenish but I did start a few colonies for friends, so have asked them if they can manage to part with a few 1"ers.

As for the bearding, bobbing, I'm not sure as I've never had just a single male. Sweetie Pie was my first dragon and when she was 2 yrs old, we adopted Lonzo and learned all about bobbing, black bearding and stomping. She was determined to mate with him, if she could have flown out of her tank, she would have :lol: Lonzo passed in Nov/14, and he bobbed to his last day, he was 11 1/2. Sweetie passed Dec/11, she never recovered from Daddy (my husband who passed June/11) disappearing. He was her best bud.

Castiel is starting to gain again, Cierra is showing NO interest in the males, so it's toning them down.

Nathaniel was out yesterday and he still managed to get under the stereo cabinet, but I'm not as annoyed as he just stays there, so easy to find. I did put curtains to block the spot where he was getting in, we'll see today where he ends up. He is very determined when he finds his "spot" to sleep!

 

[sweetiepie9]

So I weighed Imp yesterday and he's up to 257, plus he's now 16" long! He still loves sitting on my shoulder, even though he tends to want to sit on my back, which never works. I haven't had him out much lately, so as I'll be home tomorrow and Thursday, he can get out a bit more.

Yesterday being Mothers day, was busy all day Saturday getting food in the house and picking up crickets at Joanne's. Can't find collards anywhere, Walmart has decided to drop them from their groceries and they aren't sold anywhere else. Joanne and I are checking daily, have 2 bags left, then will be getting them bok choy as they'll sort of eat those, even though they love their collards.

So my sibs, Gail, her hubby Ian, Richard, Dave and I took my folks to the beach. My youngest nephew and his friend Riley came along, too. The rest of the nieces and nephews were off doing other things. We had a blast. I played bocce ball with Ian and the boys for a few hours, took a long walk on the beach (it's hard to walk on sand!) and ended up with about 1/2 cup sand in my shoes. We did this last year and hope to do it next year, too.

So Nathaniel has been hiding underneath the stereo cabinet every time I let him out. When I pulled him out, I accidently pulled his right arm and sprained it. He's been very good and resting his arm and has been staying in his tank for the last few days and it's starting to improve. So I'm grateful for that. As a result I moved all the partitions to block off the small entry to behind the tanks. and left the area open, so if anyone hides, it'll be easy to get them out. Problem solved!

Castiel has gained most of his weight that he lost when he went so crazy over Cierra and she's gained the weight she lost when she laid her eggs. So everyone is feeling better. Gabriel finally shed the old shed on his tummy, coconut oil really works.

I noticed 2 big toes on Castiel's back feet, so covered them with coconut oil, looks like retianed shed but painful for him to touch them. So every day I'm putting coconut oil on the toes, hope to crack that shed soon.

So otherwise, everyone is healthy, eating and pooping, which is good, even Cierra is going better after a massage in a warm bath.

The fires in Ft Mac (northern Alberta) continue to flare, they are having a great deal of difficulty stopping them. As far as I've heard from news reports, everyone has been evacuated. I pray this will get stopped soon so people can get back and start re-building. My bank had given $100,000. to red cross to help their efforts and there are many stores that are starting fund raisers. Praying everyone is ok.

 

[MufasasMomMakayla]

Yay Imp!!!!! I want to see his handsomeness, lol, pics when you get the time? : )
Aww, sounds like you had a great Mothers Day!! Pesty Nathaniel, glad his arm is healing fast.

 

[CooperDragon]

Have you checked garden stores for collard greens? I picked up a few starter plants and put them in my garden last week. Hopefully that will provide a relatively steady source of collards through the season. I brought the plants inside over the winter and they did really well in pots. I was able to keep basil, kale, squash, and peppers going that way.