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]

Speaking of geckos, how's Bunny doing?

Nathaniel is still pouting? What a drama king! :lol:

 

[sweetiepie9]

OMG, Nathaniel is the King of drama Kings :lol:

Bunny's doing ok, she hates this heat wave but I just soaked her well and soaked her tank again. It's 82F where she is & it's almost 10p. I've turned both of the geckos heat lamps off (Bunny's a couple of weeks ago, Rocco's tonight 'cause I forgot it was on) and I've even turned off Rocco's heat pad. This heat wave is supposed to get worse by the end of the week, too. I've got the living room fan on and door open. I turn the fan off at midnight. I've been spending the last few days with cold compresses on my neck, wetting down my hair every 10 min and taking couple showers a day, it's been brutal. Got up to 90F on Saturday. So I make sure Bunny has clean cool water in her bath & spray her morning and night. Same with Rocco, more when I'm home. We desperately need rain, got a few sprinkles yesterday but that was it. At least yesterday I was invited over to Dave and Annika's, they have air conditioning, it was so nice and cool, even outside as they're at a higher altitude that I am.

I don't know what to do to help Bunny, cresties need highest temp about 75F! Oh well, will continue spraying them as I've been doing, hope this darned heat goes away. If I didn't have dragons & their lights I'd have air conditioning, too, but I would never be able to give them up, so heat it is

 

[Goonie]

Why can't you have air conditioning in your apartment? I have central air and it doesn't affect my babies one bit.

 

[beardie parents]

We have central air also, we have no problem keeping their tanks lower than 105, most of the time, except for Squirt's tank as the second heat bulb fixture we have is a silver metal thing that causes the bulb to heat the tank higher than the one we found at Petsmart that doesn't cause Rosie's tank to go to high. We find we need the extra heat, even in the summer with the new heat/uvb bulb.

 

[sweetiepie9]

The electric in our building isn't enough for 6 lights on all day, plus air conditioning. I'm going to look into it further as I'd love to have it in my bedroom. Our building is 30 years old but I have less wattage with the 80W bulbs I'm using now, so maybe that would make a difference. I'll check with my building manager again to have it checked out.

This is such unusual weather, normally I'd not ever need air conditioning. We've had more than 80% less rain in the last 2 months than normal. I've been here for almost 30 years and I've never seen this kind of weather in May/June. We usually have a few weeks of hot in July or August but that's it.

Well, Cierra is down off the chair for sunshine, time to put Nathaniel out.

 

[Goonie]

OH! It's a wattage issue, not temp issue! Gotcha

Yeah, I wouldn't chance it and end up shorting out the entire building. Maybe a smaller window unit just to take out some of the heat would suffice.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I checked into that, too, Gina and no can do. I have 2 fans that go all day and I'm in air conditioning at work all day, plus the skytrain and bus have air conditioning. By the time I get home at night, it's already starting to cool down. So not too bad.

So I had a wonderful day with my babies yesterday, it was Canada Day and we had the day off (like your 4th of July in the USA). Stayed home, played with the munchkins in the am, had a nap, played with Nathaniel after my nap & snuggled with him until 8p. He's still miffed at Castiel, but getting better, even though he expects me to put food in his mouth :roll: I know he'll grow up one day.

I had Cierra and Leo on my shoulders, snuggling, Cierra wanted down, then I remembered that Gabriel was on the living room floor somewhere :shock: That got me out of my comfy chair in a jiffy. Found her wiggling her butt at Gabriel, he hadn't done anything but was sure eyeing the temptress. So she was put back in her tank (little hussy) and Leo got the rest of the snuggle.

I'm a bit worried about Leo, he's hardly moving lately. I thought it might just be the heat as he sleeps alot, too. He's off to the vet on the 20th for an xray, just to make sure his innards are good. His tummy seems to be hard, unlike the rest of them, whose tummies are soft & squishy. So we'll see.

I had an email from my sister last night, called her right away. Well my mom hasn't been feeling very well for awhile (since before the move) and was quite sick for awhile this spring. She finally got herself to her doc, had an xray done & was referred to my lung specialist for a CT scan. She had it on Friday (my sis, love her to bits, took her there and back & stayed with her the whole time); said they found a horseshoe shaped lesion that they're worried about, so she's going to be getting a PET scan (date to be determined) and has a scope into her lung on July 24th. Gail is again taking her back & forth. My dad, meanwhile is having cataracts removed, the first one on the 20th & I happen to have that day off vacation, so I'll spend the day with them both. Gail said it's time to rally all the troups (me and my 2 brothers) to help get Mom around as Dad's getting a bit past driving her around. I'm going to see my brother Richard on Saturday, so will drop in to see the folks. Next Wednesday I have a dental appt, so will drop in again, want to keep my eye on the two of them as much as I can. Worries me, as they think the spot on my mom's lung might be cancer. Guess we'll know more by the end of July. I told my sister, that if she needs me, I can always take a day or part of a day & make up the time on Saturday.

I'm praying that there's nothing wrong with my mom, but I think she's just worn out from taking care of my dad and hasn't been taking care of herself. She also had breast cancer years ago and it tends to come back...hoping not, though...

 

[sweetiepie9]

Cierra is still eating everything I put into her tank, it's all gone by the time I get home at night. I measured her and she's 17 1/2" long, so she's grown 2 1/2" since Feb! I'm so proud of her.

Nathaniel is now wanting me to feed him, so I do when I can, usually just on the weekend. I also fed Castiel a bunch of collard greens as he won't eat them on his own, even though he ate them fine in Louisiana...little brat.

Nathaniel is now 18" long, so he's grown 2 1/2" since Dec. I'm so proud of him for that, too, even if he is the Drama King of all Drama Kings :lol:

Gabriel and Castiel, plus fecal samples are off to the vet on July 7. I had to switch Leo because I might be needed on the 20th, so he goes in on Aug 10 for an xray. His tummy seems awfully hard and he's gaining weight without eating alot of food. So we'll see what's up with him.

Wish I was staying home today, but at least it's Friday.

HAPPY4TH OF JULY TO ALL MY AMERICAN FRIENDS, HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND

 

[Goonie]

I hope the spot on your Mom's lung turns out to be nothing. I'll keep her in my prayers.

Could Leo's hard tummy just be his need to go potty? Could he be slightly dehydrated? Have you given him any of the Pedialyte solution?

The twins are growing like weeds! Holy cow!

 

[brandymulvaine]

I hope your mom gets to feeling better!

 

[sweetiepie9]

Thanks Brandy, I hope so, too.

Gina, Leo poops every day or every 2nd day at the latest. He gets a 1/2 hr bath every 2nd day, even though tomorrow I'm starting daily baths for him and the 3 young ones. Only Gabriel has soft urates, the rest are still hard. So he's not dehydrated and it's not a backlog of poop either. He's getting an xray on Aug 10, so that should tell me more of what's going on with him. He's very lethargic lately (so is Gabriel) but I think it's the constant heat wave we're still going through. No rain for 2 mo so far & 85-90F in the house starting after 10a. Their lights are off at 2:30p, so that seems to be helping and when I'm home they get water in the afternoon, too.

Saw my folks today and they're being affected by the heat, too, even though it was cooler in their place than mine. Even so, they're sleeping more but then, to be expected. I just wish this heat wave would stop and we get some rain. Between the mild weather and the heat wave, water levels are at an all time low, we're already in drought conditions and it's just the beginning of July!

So here are a few pictures. Here are some comparison shots of Cierra, even after 2 fertile clutches she's so much bigger!
This pic was taken after she's first moved in, she's on the "beehive". The next picture is just yesterday.

\

Here she is sitting on her greens dish on the computer (can't remember why the dish was on the computer... :lol: )

She's getting so big!

Castiel is really getting into sitting on the ramp, those sexy legs are so cute

And he's really enjoying his new basking spot, too, more sexy legs

He's got a blue tinge underneath his tail, I've never seen anything like it before. The picture doesn't do it justice, it's completely pale blue the whole length

Nathaniel is still a pro at getting out of his bath, even though he's so much bigger now

And he was snuggling with me when he decided to visit Cierra's lay box. Then he disappeared & I finally found him underneath my lazy boy...what a good hider he is!

Even Gabriel is getting into being a sun dragon, as long as I put him outside early in the morning, he'll stay out for a big 15 min :shock: Leo's the same, I hear a thump & he's off the chair.

Cierra, Nathaniel and Castiel will both stay out there for 1/2 hr to an hour each, but in the morning b4 work, it's 1/2 hr at the most unless I wake up really early.
Here's Cierra:

Leo is just sleepy most of the time, but he's better after his bath and his greens, not long afterwards this is what he looks like:

I took a pic of Gabriel in his tank, he wasn't very impressed, he loves giving me the stink eye :lol:

Nathaniel just can't get enough of his log, he's always hugging it

And he likes to sit beside it, too, this is where he sleeps every night. Sometimes he digs underneath the newspaper to cover himself up

Cierra's getting more colour on her beard, it's really pretty.

 

[beardie parents]

Cierra's beard is getting pretty. It reminds me of when Rosie was younger (seems like just yesterday) and her beard started turning red. It started out in part of it then slowly grew to the rest of it, except for the edge of her mouth, that's still a white strip at the edge of her lip. She's 7 now and seems to be slowing down. She eats a lot when she's hungry but she was brumating for a couple of days this last spring, even a few She roamed a lot yesterday after we got back from the local parade (small one) and the $th festival celebration. They both got a lot of attention. The Palominas fire department had a smoke house which is a way to train the children how to react in the event of a fire in their home (of course all hope and pray it doesn't happen) and other games for the children. It's always a hit and is usually over by noon. We always take our girls with us to the parade and they get attention from the kids. Some are eager to pet them but there's always one who seems a bit afraid of them. One little girl was told to pet Rosie by her older sibling and so she did, one quick pet, and then said "there I petted it". :lol:

 

[Goonie]

All of the kids look great. I can't believe how much Cierra had grown.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I know, she's become really big and she's shedding, too, so a bit grumpy. She's up to 401g, too, which is great. Glad you enjoyed the pics, Lori and Gina.

So the mystery continues, living on mostly greens, with only 6 med sized roaches a week, Gabriel is up to 561g and Leo is up to 573. Gabriel, 2 weeks ago was 554, so not a big gain, but Leo was 552, so a big gain and a complete mystery...have no ideas how they can both gain so much weight on so little food!

Castiel is up to 466 from 459, not bad for a 10 mo old

Nathaniel us up to 470 from 458, so he's eating again

So Castiel is out today, running around the living room (it's already too hot for sun bathing) and he keeps attacking the 20 gallon roach bin and bobbing at it :lol: It's hilarious, he runs and & then runs back & does the same thing, he's done this 3 times already, but he's already eaten all his bugs this am. They can be so crazy sometimes!

I'm giving everyone daily baths (except Gabriel, he's ok with baths every 2 days), electrolytes and acidophlius. Leo's getting B complex to see if that gives him more energy. I'm hoping the supplements and baths (and water in the afternoons when I'm home) will help with the urates. Castiel was so plugged up, it was awful, but I finally got him to poop in his bath yesterday, took 15 min of massaging to get it to work, his urate was huge and chalky!

So I'm off to get crickets for Bunny. Rocco has decided that he likes small supers now...so I bought 250 small supers but they're way too small for him yet :mrgreen: Figures.

 

[BlueDragon09]

Aw the babies! I hope your mom is ok.

I love the pictures Deb,specially Leo. I hope hes ok too.
Gabriel looks like a freaking dinosaur, hun. I just love it!
Castiel does sexy leg well, Broly always does sexy leg no matter where he is. Hooray for the growing twins!