Not So New Beardie Momma

[littlesavedgirl]

Hello all,
I am a new Beardie Momma and wanted to say hello. My Beadie is only 6 inches long now after 2 weeks and she was even smaller when I got her. Her name is Peneloppe "Penny" for short and she is very alert and active. I feed her crickets, very small crickets and collar greens but I've never seen her eat them, she only walks over them :roll: . I have given her meal worms also and she liked them but some said I shouldn't so I stopped, they said they are to hard to digest. My son wanted to see if she liked bananas so I tried that and she did, but havent given her more since cause wasn't sure if it was ok for her tummy or not. i also have pellet I wet down for her but she does not seem to interested in that.
She poo's everyday and it looks like parakeet poo, not to much either way just normal looking.
I have the UVB light and the heating bulb, no sand though all the pet stores have this calcisand for sale but took the advice of real people rather then my urge for pink in her tank. So anywho...Glad your here to ask questions of and to give me wisdom.

 

[Blind]

Welcome to the forum!

You can go http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html for all the nutrition facts that you need.

Good job on not getting the calcisand

 

[littlesavedgirl]

Well I am so very pleased to write this update on my now 4 and a half month old beardie Penelope. She is doing so well and has just this past week completed her second shed :lol: . From the very beginning I wanted to do whatever she needed me to do, to ensure her health and quality of life. Once I had found out that some folks have trouble incorporating greens into there diets once they became "cricket addicted" , and knowing how absolutely essential they are to her long term health, I continuously offered mustard and collar greens to her everyday. She would just clam up and wanted nothing to do with them (Does Not Like Collar Greens At All), but I persevered. Then I got mustard greens and continued to offer them but to no avail, until that faithful day.. I had a peice of green in between my two fingers and she snatched it up ! I was so excited I yelled out loud and praised her, my husband thought I was nuts. The next day she clamed up again, well then it was just a case of "Just who's running this show? Me or Her? " Well when it comes down to a battle of wills I've been known to be quite stubborn. I decided if she was going to play it that way, then she would not get her crickets until she ate her vegetables, works on kids 8) . Well guess what it worked! She had to at least eat 3 to 4 tiny pieces of greens and only then would she hear me thump on the criket bucket.
She has now for the first time this week, begun to eat greens from a container lid in her tank! So excited to see her getting a balanced diet of both crickets and greens. She now knows the rutine down pat and also , when she poops she turns looks at it then stares at me because I always praise her when she goes (I watch her poop cycle because I don't want to miss impaction). I'm so glad I do watch because at the beginning of last week I noticed a whole day had gone by with out a poop, so I held off on the crickets that day and only gave her greens and then a bath and the next thing I knew it...Out came a long line of poop...Hooray!
So she and I are doing very well and she is getting bigger and bigger and is so smart...kind of like a super small puppy with a really bad case of mange

 

[littlesavedgirl]

:wink:

It has been a wonderful 4 months with my dragon, full of adventure, trial and error :study: . During these past few months I've learned that there is no difference between reptiworms and maggots , my beardie hates collar greens, UVB Reptisun 10.0 makes my little girl eat like a hog :mrgreen: and My little girl was really a little boy :lol: .
My beardie Levi is growing quickly now two sheds in the past month and oh boy...His color has been getting really vivid with every shed. A couple of months back ,I wanted a more colorful dragon but soon to my surprise, a bright orange stripe on his face after a thorough shed . Since then, Levi has Orange legs, arms and face. With a calico tail to boot , he's fixing to shed his back in a few days, it's the only gray part left and I can already see the scales lifting, giving his back a dull appearance. So excited to see him complete his shed!
We've gone from dusted crickets to reptiworms and butters with a few supers and he has been pretty responsive to veggis also. Digestion has been a constant concern but all in all, we've made it through without any major struggles or stoppages . I've just upgraded her viv with a 24 inch UVB Reptisun 10.0 and a 8 inch ZooMed 150 watt dome light with dimmer switch, which is proving to be a real asset. My other light seem to not be putting out consistently, so this dimmer will help a great deal regulating the basking spot.
Also got him reptile rock feeder bowl and water hole ... I'll take pics tomarrow and show her viv now.
This picture was taken yesterday, you can really see the orange on her legs.

Yummy reptiworms, Butters for snack later on.

More pictures to come... Thanks for checkin in with us

 

[Claudiusx]

Ah sorry I missed this in the begining!

Looks like Penelope (is that still his name?) is one healthy big boy!

-Brandon

 

[littlesavedgirl]

Always good to hear good reports from the beardie ellect 8) . When I had gotten my dragon, I knew there was a possibility that she might turn out to be a he, so in the spirit of wisdom, I choose a male name also for back up... Just in case. Low and behold, there came just such a time. The name I choose for the male alternative was "Leviathan" or "Levi" for short. So that is his name now unless those two little vitamin looking things in his tail go away, he will now be known as "Levi"

If I can stop calling him a her and Penny instead of Levi... That is 8)

 

[Mirthy]

Levi's looking great! I love reading your posts

 

[littlesavedgirl]

Levi's looking great! I love reading your posts

Aw thanks Mirthy, I love this whole board, so much wisdom right at your finger tips :study:

 

[littlesavedgirl]

Levi has been eating a lot more lately and I think that's partly because I'm feeding him more variety (Butters and Reptiworms) and more often. Looking back, I can now reflect on his diet and say, maybe I wasn't feeding him enough. I am aware that his appetite is expected to increase as he increases in size but I can't help but wonder if he could have still been hungry when he would window dance around supper time, beyond what I made available. But be that as it may, I have to move forward and enjoy him, none the less.
Any who, Levi just completed another full body shed with great results. I knew his back was getting very dull so the shed was expected but the amount of Orange wasn't. On Monday his appetite was less then days before so I suspected Monday would be the "Big Reveal". He went up on his basking rock as usual but then my little Levi quickly went from Bearded Dragon to Blow Fish :shock: . I watched closely as one breath after another, he inflated himself up to twice his usual size :shock: . I though at first " Oh My Gosh He's Gonna Blow!" But then I remembered his bug eyed bizarre display and thought..."Nah, this must just be another bizarre display for some reason or another :study:" . Then I heard a sound come from his viv that was not one of the "Usual" sounds, like a pop or quiet snap. I quickly went to the viv to see he had a bright orange spot with the shed peeling up around it , it was brilliantly orange compared to his dull gray coat. He had been inflating himself so he could pop himself free from within his own skin! Just fascinating little creatures.
He has now even more orange then ever before and look forward to every new shed! Here is the newest pics from today, hope you can see the orange like I can here, so pretty!

I'm starting to wonder if he should have been called "Tang"