So after celebrating a complete year of owning Worf, I thought that I deserved to know this, thing about him.
He's never drank anything, and won't eat anything but green beans. And apparently he should be on death's door.
Not when he was with the Science teacher in a 40 gallon with just a heat lamp, two big rocks and newspaper substrate, being fed only Red Hibiscuses, Green beans, lettuce and crickets. Never drank out of the water bowl when I put him in a 250 gallon aquarium (tall 150 length and width wise) with sand and reptile carpet substrate, a natural log staircase for him it crawl up to the higher platform on, a large wood tunnel that he could ample-y stay in and on top of( when he first did this there I was utterly terrified that he would jump off and kill himself. It never crossed our mind for him to get ontop of it.) and having whatever I could grab to try to get him to eat SOMETHING other than Green beans.
He still eats nothing but Green beans. And by "Nothing", I mean I've tried sticking it in bowls, didn't even look at it, Spoons, strings, throwing it wildly across the terrarium, everything. I've tried Collard Greens, Mustard Greens, Spinach, Baby Spinach, Starfruit, Squash, Red Bell Peppers, Green Bell Peppers, Yellow Bell Peppers and Orange Bell peppers, Apples, Grapes, Celery, Pumpkin, Blueberries, Mango and Stuff from a little starter box I got out of pure frustration. He touched nothing that came out of it by the way, not the squished up fruits or the pellet things. I resorted one night to individually taking his cut up Green Bean pieces, popping out the seed in the middle and stuffing the wet down pellets mixed with calcium powder inside and dangling those on strings. He actually ate a couple but then stopped and never tried again.
He's also never drank anything. Liquid has never entered his mouth unless it was by force. The science teacher said the only time she's filled up his bowls is when the water evaporated. He doesn't lick water off of his nose either when sprayed. We soak him about once every 2 weeks, is that the reason he's not dead yet?
From what I've read on here and at almost every bearded dragon site I can find, he should have Metabolic bone disease from going the first however old he was when I got him without a UVB light and only eating crickets dusted with Calcium powder. He still won't eat anything but crickets with calcium powder, by the way. He should be impacted from being on sand, malnourished, skinny, inactive with dull sunken in eyes and lose hanging skin. But he's brightly colored, his eyes are a nice orange-ish and black color, his skin is tight where it should be and lose where is should be, he's shed out fine (Last year) he's active, has the fat deposits on the top of his legs and his tail is full. No funky lumps or bumps or weird colored patches.
He's my first reptile, so when I found out that I could get him I looked up everything about them so I wouldn't kill him. I got everything we'd need, bought the foodstuff that it all said we needed and got it all ready, them got a lizard that's been denying all of my attempts to make his the lizards like you say he needs to be. I just want to see if there's anything i'm doing wrong, am I killing him really slowly, is he just an odd bird, what I can do to make him healthier in the long run, stuff like that. I should have posted earlier, but basically I was to scared to make an account because I was doing everything "wrong". I'm listing all his info at the bottom to see if maybe I can just have some sort of answer and be cleared that I'm not being a horrible abusive owner and that I'm hurting him.
Tank: 150 Gallon (We moved him from the 250 gallon because it was so awkward to get him out of there, it required a lot of fishing and groping from the highest point in the tank to get him out because it was a fish tank.) He's got a coconut fiber and bark(?) background which he has daringly demonstrated that he can and will scale. Another heart attack coming in and seeing your Bearded dragon sitting on the wall, chillin'
He's got a piece of driftwood for ground sitting, and a log the comes out of the wall. No idea if it's real or fake, but I don't think it'll ever come off the wall. a sorta pyramid shaped thing of concrete blocks to sit and bask on.
Lighting: I don't have the exact voltage information for them because I've had them for so long, sorry. But the current heat lamp is one we got from Walmart with a black holder/housing thing. We got the walmart bulb as a replacement for when I shattered his original Reptisun but this gets SO much hotter and we needed that for the deep tank. The reptisun hardly did anything. A compact uvb bulb, which I've now found out are bad so i've trying to save to get a bar.
Substrate: Tile now, was calcium sand
Diet: Green beans. Sometimes he'll eat a couple of peeled apple chunks, but this is all we've been able to get him to eat more than once. He's been fasted(?) with just the other foods I've tried above but never touched them. Longest he went ( I went before feeling bad) was 4 days with Collard greens, strawberries, Green Beans and Bell pepper. Wouldn't touch the beans with other stuff.
Baths: Once every two weeks or once every week, it's inconsistent because I'm not 100% health and the We is my dad who works 7-6 Monday-friday.
We don't have the temperatures, which I know is bad but I haven't been able to find anything that I can use to get the temperatures of where he basks that would be do able. He does seem pretty comfortable with whatever it's at because he'll bask up on the rocks and has never shown any discomfort or overheating.
All lights are turned off at night. It's Florida so we don't use the air and it gets to about 74-78 at night.
I'll try to get pictures of him, I need to get my dad's phone from him and send them here first. I think I should point out, just for the whole I can't run out that night and buy everything because I'm under 18 without a driver's license and going to the pet store is hard to schedule with everyone else. If it is urgent enough though I could probably get it in a day or two, I have a little emergency fund for stuff like that. ( Only $100, But better than nothing)
Okay, giant wall-o-text is now over. What'd I miss? Super cake points to all who read my book!
Edit: Already had something missed, he's 14 inches long if that tells you anything about his age.
He's never drank anything, and won't eat anything but green beans. And apparently he should be on death's door.
Not when he was with the Science teacher in a 40 gallon with just a heat lamp, two big rocks and newspaper substrate, being fed only Red Hibiscuses, Green beans, lettuce and crickets. Never drank out of the water bowl when I put him in a 250 gallon aquarium (tall 150 length and width wise) with sand and reptile carpet substrate, a natural log staircase for him it crawl up to the higher platform on, a large wood tunnel that he could ample-y stay in and on top of( when he first did this there I was utterly terrified that he would jump off and kill himself. It never crossed our mind for him to get ontop of it.) and having whatever I could grab to try to get him to eat SOMETHING other than Green beans.
He still eats nothing but Green beans. And by "Nothing", I mean I've tried sticking it in bowls, didn't even look at it, Spoons, strings, throwing it wildly across the terrarium, everything. I've tried Collard Greens, Mustard Greens, Spinach, Baby Spinach, Starfruit, Squash, Red Bell Peppers, Green Bell Peppers, Yellow Bell Peppers and Orange Bell peppers, Apples, Grapes, Celery, Pumpkin, Blueberries, Mango and Stuff from a little starter box I got out of pure frustration. He touched nothing that came out of it by the way, not the squished up fruits or the pellet things. I resorted one night to individually taking his cut up Green Bean pieces, popping out the seed in the middle and stuffing the wet down pellets mixed with calcium powder inside and dangling those on strings. He actually ate a couple but then stopped and never tried again.
He's also never drank anything. Liquid has never entered his mouth unless it was by force. The science teacher said the only time she's filled up his bowls is when the water evaporated. He doesn't lick water off of his nose either when sprayed. We soak him about once every 2 weeks, is that the reason he's not dead yet?
From what I've read on here and at almost every bearded dragon site I can find, he should have Metabolic bone disease from going the first however old he was when I got him without a UVB light and only eating crickets dusted with Calcium powder. He still won't eat anything but crickets with calcium powder, by the way. He should be impacted from being on sand, malnourished, skinny, inactive with dull sunken in eyes and lose hanging skin. But he's brightly colored, his eyes are a nice orange-ish and black color, his skin is tight where it should be and lose where is should be, he's shed out fine (Last year) he's active, has the fat deposits on the top of his legs and his tail is full. No funky lumps or bumps or weird colored patches.
He's my first reptile, so when I found out that I could get him I looked up everything about them so I wouldn't kill him. I got everything we'd need, bought the foodstuff that it all said we needed and got it all ready, them got a lizard that's been denying all of my attempts to make his the lizards like you say he needs to be. I just want to see if there's anything i'm doing wrong, am I killing him really slowly, is he just an odd bird, what I can do to make him healthier in the long run, stuff like that. I should have posted earlier, but basically I was to scared to make an account because I was doing everything "wrong". I'm listing all his info at the bottom to see if maybe I can just have some sort of answer and be cleared that I'm not being a horrible abusive owner and that I'm hurting him.
Tank: 150 Gallon (We moved him from the 250 gallon because it was so awkward to get him out of there, it required a lot of fishing and groping from the highest point in the tank to get him out because it was a fish tank.) He's got a coconut fiber and bark(?) background which he has daringly demonstrated that he can and will scale. Another heart attack coming in and seeing your Bearded dragon sitting on the wall, chillin'
He's got a piece of driftwood for ground sitting, and a log the comes out of the wall. No idea if it's real or fake, but I don't think it'll ever come off the wall. a sorta pyramid shaped thing of concrete blocks to sit and bask on.
Lighting: I don't have the exact voltage information for them because I've had them for so long, sorry. But the current heat lamp is one we got from Walmart with a black holder/housing thing. We got the walmart bulb as a replacement for when I shattered his original Reptisun but this gets SO much hotter and we needed that for the deep tank. The reptisun hardly did anything. A compact uvb bulb, which I've now found out are bad so i've trying to save to get a bar.
Substrate: Tile now, was calcium sand
Diet: Green beans. Sometimes he'll eat a couple of peeled apple chunks, but this is all we've been able to get him to eat more than once. He's been fasted(?) with just the other foods I've tried above but never touched them. Longest he went ( I went before feeling bad) was 4 days with Collard greens, strawberries, Green Beans and Bell pepper. Wouldn't touch the beans with other stuff.
Baths: Once every two weeks or once every week, it's inconsistent because I'm not 100% health and the We is my dad who works 7-6 Monday-friday.
We don't have the temperatures, which I know is bad but I haven't been able to find anything that I can use to get the temperatures of where he basks that would be do able. He does seem pretty comfortable with whatever it's at because he'll bask up on the rocks and has never shown any discomfort or overheating.
All lights are turned off at night. It's Florida so we don't use the air and it gets to about 74-78 at night.
I'll try to get pictures of him, I need to get my dad's phone from him and send them here first. I think I should point out, just for the whole I can't run out that night and buy everything because I'm under 18 without a driver's license and going to the pet store is hard to schedule with everyone else. If it is urgent enough though I could probably get it in a day or two, I have a little emergency fund for stuff like that. ( Only $100, But better than nothing
)Okay, giant wall-o-text is now over. What'd I miss? Super cake points to all who read my book!
Edit: Already had something missed, he's 14 inches long if that tells you anything about his age.
