Oliver and Lola the Rankins Dragons

Hi everyone!

Just a few days ago I got my new little guy, Oliver, to bring me back into the world of dragons! He's a full-blooded Rankins, and is just over seven months old. Absolutely tiny compared to how my beardie was at this age!

I'm surprised at how well Oliver has been settling in. Even though he was shipped and nervous his first day here, he's really calmed down and is such a sweetheart now. Not skittish in any way! I really look forward to the future with him!

I'm also excited to be coming back to this website! Here's a photo of my little man for now, I'll be taking a lot more soon and keep you all updated!

 

[hoopyscoop]

Oh, he is just so cute! can't wait for more pictures! I've never seen a Rankins before in such good images (all of the other ones I've seen on the Internet were super low quality)

I actually used to think my Oliver was a Rankins, but now after seeing one in high quality, I think he was a beardie. :study:

 

[Cenetri]

I'm glad that these pictures are helping everyone out! I also noticed that there weren't many good pictures of rankins on the internet, and so it made it that much harder to be sure I was buying him pure rather than vittikins. I say that when looking for a rankins, ALWAYS request information on where the parents came from/bloodline information, because all too often these dragons are crossbred generations back without notice.

After close inspection I'm beginning to think that Oliver is a hypo! I researched a bit because I noticed that all of his nails are clear and that his coloration is lighter than the average rankins, and low and behold, the hypo morph was introduced back in 2010. Usually rankins have dark black nails just like a beardie, but because of these differences, I'm beginning to think that I just got lucky and picked up a hypo. Thoughts? Is it possible to have a normal morph beardie with clear nails?

 

[Cenetri]

Just a quick little update; excited because Oliver shed for the first time I've had him yesterday! I'm mainly adding this to document his growth and all of my "firsts" of keeping him. It's so fun to watch him grow, I can definitely see his little belly getting a bit more pudge!

And so this post is a bit more entertaining, here's a bit of the sexy leg he was giving me today. Hey, Rankins can look spicy too! :wink:

 

[zandi202]

He's so cute!

 

[hoopyscoop]

Wittle Sweetie Pugdie. :love5: I wuv him.

He is just so cute, I can’t help but want to hug him! :love10:

Will be waiting for more of him. No pressure. :lurk:

 

[Cenetri]

Hey everybody, just thought I'd do a quick update!

Oliver (my little chunky monkey) has gained a WHOPPING 3 grams! When I first got him, he weighed 16 grams and is now 19. Man, is he fat or what? SO much weight gain! Gosh, he sure is tiny... I'm more used to my animals gaining 3 grams a week! :lol:

Anyway, he's since gone into a full-body shed and is currently working on shedding his tail and legs. I give him baths every few days to hydrate him (I still provide a water dish though) and decided to keep my phone handy this time. I'm glad I did! I was able to take a video of Oliver "obsessing" over his reflection in the granite countertop of my bathroom to show you all the true differences in Rankins behavior. You'll notice how hyper-attentive he is to the tiniest of movements in his reflection, which isn't even a very noticeable reflection at that - it's nearly black, giving you a perspective on how attentive he was truly being in seeing it in the first place. If I were to take my bearded and put him on the same countertop he could care less about the shiny surface he was lying on. Sorry for my rambling, but here it is! (And as a side note, he really stops his movements at about 16 seconds after looking up to save you time watching him sit there for a while. He had been observing it for a good two minutes before I took the video and got tired for a bit before going at it again!)

View My Video

And needless to say, even though he's a Rankins, he's still getting used to taking baths... definitely wasn't amused by this one!

 

[zandi202]

Oliver sure is the cutest little guy.

 

[Cenetri]

Oliver had a big adventure yesterday!

I was too busy to post then, but yesterday I decided to take Oliver out for the first time. Needless to say he was interested in every little thing around him, hyper-attentive to all of the sounds and new sensory details. Such a little boy in such a big world! I supervised him as he romped through the grass, and it was funny to watch him bounce through it like a bunny since he couldn't see above it. Overall he had a nice experience, but I had to take him in once the hawks nesting in our trees nearby took flight.

Also, he's just gone through a full body shed. The first of many, I'm still so excited to have this little guy!

I was also thinking about getting him a "buddy" in the future... a "girl buddy" if you know what I mean. Maybe one day I'll be posting pictures of little baby Ollies? Who knows... think it's a good idea? :wink:

 

[zandi202]

He's such a cutie and I love his colors/patterns.

Are rankin babies even smaller when born than regular beardies? If so, that's adorable!

 

[Cenetri]

(Sorry for not posting in such a long time! Midterms are right around the corner and I've been loaded with work!)

To answer your question after this long time, Zandi, yes, baby rankins are tiny little snuggle cakes when they first hatch and are smaller than a beardie would be. Gosh, I can just imagine having little quarter-sized babies running around... so adorable! :love5:

Oliver is one tubby little boy! He's coming in at the high end of 21 grams now and prefers to spend his day lounging just underneath his basking log where he still gets light but doesn't have to jump up and down to get to his food. :lol: Speaking of food, I had ordered 500+ black soldier fly larvae for him a few weeks back since he really enjoyed his phoenix worms when I first got him, but for some odd reason he isn't interested in them! Now I'm stuck raising these larvae until they most likely become flies while Oliver's choosing to munch away on the less beneficial mealworms. I mean, I do gut-load my worms but I bought the larvae to keep him nice and healthy! I always seem to get the pickiest eaters, my beardie wouldn't even touch anything green or leafy. :roll: Anybody else have a problem like this and know how to get their beardies re-interested in their feeders? I've tried quite a few tactics and thus far he isn't interested.

Sorry, but no new photos tonight! I'll try to take some in the next day or two once my midterms quit bothering me with this workload...

 

[KarenInCA]

He's such an alert little guy.
I had no idea there were differences, I thought a dragon was a dragon..but after reading up on the three, BDs look to be more like the bull-dog of the dragon world.
Just curious, were they all at one time, BDs that were bread for specific qualities, to form different kinds (I guess the way dog breeders have done to create breeds of dogs), or are they actually 3 different types of lizards from the wild?

 

[Cenetri]

Rankins dragons and beardies are two different subspecies that occur naturally in the wild - while there may have been only one main species millions of years ago, there are currently eight known Pogona subspecies (the most well known, beardies, being Pogona vitticeps). They all look so similar because they do in some respect have the same ancestry, but humans didn't breed them to be that way; they had already naturally diverged into subspecies many years ago based on their locations in Australia and the adaptations required to survive there.

As for the third dragon you're talking about, I assume you're talking about the vittikins - these dragons ARE human bred, as they are simply any concentrated mixture of a bearded dragon, Pogona vitticeps, and the Rankins, Pogona henrylawsoni. They aren't their own breed like a dog or a cat would have, but you could say that they are a bit of a "mutt" for lack of a better term. That's why I've mentioned looking for pure Rankins - pure would mean their bloodlines haven't met with a bearded dragon's whatsoever in the generations that they've been brought to and bred in the US. And while they are all dragons, they are all considered different; "bearded dragon" is a very general term to help describe the Pogona family but it doesn't define it, and typically when that name is used, they are referring to vitticeps.

 

[KarenInCA]

Thanks for the great explanation!

 

[Cenetri]

Always happy to give information!

And the term I was looking for earlier was hybrid! No clue why that slipped my mind... instead of mutt they are technically hybrids due to the crossing of two completely different subspecies. Dogs are considered mutts because they are simply variations to unique "breeds" of the same species, Canis lupis familiaris. Hybridizing, however, is the crossing of two separate species/subspecies, which is what a vittikins is.

 

[Cenetri]

Just thought I'd give a quick update.

I'm not exactly sure what to think of Oli's behavior lately - for the past week or two, he's been sleeping all of the time and not interested in any of his food. Is this possibly brumation? Not too long before this behavior started our weather had an odd spike and became cold and rainy, so the light filtering into my bedroom has been much less frequent and it becomes pretty dark. Do you think he's going into a semi-brumation? Or should I show concern for this? He was active and eating before, but now he's just slow and wants to rest.