ozric, my first beardie

[ozric]

greetings everyone, i'm a new member and this is my first beardie. i was the owner of an Eastern Collard (due to terrible advice from a pet store employee) named Osiris, but unfortunately i returned him to the store because Eastern Collards do NOT make good pets. he spent all day trying to escape his vivarium, which i had put a lot of time, research, and money into making very nice for him. he would jumps at the top-cover mesh screen until his nose was bloody. anyway, i decided to invest in a beardie because i heard they are hardy, easy to care for, and quite mellow.

ozric is about 3-1/2 weeks old, 4-1/2" long, and i have had him home with me for 4 days now. he seems to be alert and healthy. he didn't eat his first day, and only ate 1 cricket his second day, but he ate 2 on saturday and 4 today (sunday). the crickets were about 3/8" - 1/2" long. i haven't been able to get him to eat any greens or fruit yet. any advice on that? he does drink water from his dish, so i'm not worried about dehydration. i have no idea if he is a he or a she, and i guess it is too early to tell, but he's a "he" to me!

i have calci-sand in the bottom of his vivarium, which i have heard mixed reviews about. to help avoid impaction i take him out of the vivarium for feeding to prevent accidental ingestion of the sand. the sand claims to be 100% digestible, but i have heard some people say to stay away from it. any advice on that? i am considering covering the sand with paper towels until he is much larger. i imagine that when he is over 10" long he should be perfectly safe. i used calci-sand with my Eastern Collard and he was quite small (grew from 8" t0 12" while I owned him) and he had no impaction problems. he ate like a pig and pooped without issues. and when he ate he was very fast and always got sand in his mouth. so, my experience with the stuff has been positive so far.

here are some photos of ozric:

day 1, a bit stressed & nervous from the relocation to my home

day 1, i like his orange coloring

day 4, he seems more confident!

he loves to climb. he has even slept up here, which i cannot comprehend.


enjoy the pics, and thanks for looking! anyone with advice or insight who wants to comment is welcome. i appreciate feedback and welcome new knowledge and information.

thanks,

-matt

 

[pheonixmum]

hi and welcome. im new too.
i dont even have my beardie YET lol but will do soon.

your beardie is soo cute. has lovely colouring and i love the name.

from what ive heard you shouldnt use calci sand at all. when theyre adults the play sand is ok (i think) but i will be using lino to save the risk..
whilst hes a baby you could just use the paper towels without the sand? or lino, slate or tile.

the calci sand does claim to be 100% digestable but if you wet a piece you will notice it clogs up. this will also happen inside the beardie and cause impaction which can be fatal..

im really sorry if ive gave wrong advise i am totally new to beardies myself, im sure someone on here with more knowlege can correct me if im wrong though

 

[pheonixmum]

btw i adore the day 4 pic

 

[ozric]

thanks for the comments pheonix! the only reason i have the sand in the vivarium is because it was already there from my last lizard. getting rid of it all would be a big clean-up so i'm considering covering it for now. so far ozric seems happy though, and like i said i take him out for feedings so he doesn't get sand during meals. he spends most of his time on the logs and vines and off of the sand anyway. but, i'm still pondering what to do.

i'm glad you enjoyed the photos. i think he's just the cutest thing ever and i love to take pictures. i guess these guys grow up pretty fast so i want lots of pictures while he's young because he'll only be tiny for a few months, but he'll be huge for years.

anyway, have you decided what you are going to do yet? i read your posts and saw that you are considering buying a BD, but don't yet know what to do in regards to buying a baby or an adult.

 

[pheonixmum]

a right see. think i missed the bit where you said you take him out for feeding. im sure that lowers the risk alot but im not sure if it take it away totally. someone on here should know though lol

yeh i think ill probably edging more towards an adult coz that was my first choice. but im a sucker for babies lol.. guess i wont know until i go choose one

im worried about health issues and how tame an adult would be tbh but i know a very reputable store only about an hour away from here.
theres a couple closer but theyre not too clued up on reptiles

 

[Aywren]

Welcome to you and Ozric! I really love the day 4 picture too. He looks so alert and curious there! Thanks for sharing these great pictures and keep us update on how it goes!

 

[beardsmith]

What a cute baby! The day 4 pic is great!

 

[ozric]

ok - i have covered the sand in my vivarium with paper towels for now. i have been reading about the "sand is fine vs. sand is evil" debate for hours and it is getting me nowhere. it seems pretty widely accepted that it is bad for babies and juvenile BDs so i'll keep ozric away from the sand until he is older, and i just might eliminate it altogether. which sucks because i have 25 pounds of it in the vivarium and an extra 20 pounds in reserve! it never hurt my Eastern Collard at all, but i don't want to risk anything.

i guess i'll need to increase the size of the vivarium soon anyway. i have him in a 36" x 18" x 17" which seems to be a bit too small for an adult. luckily i have plenty of time to research the best solution. i should have at least 6 months until he is full size.

i also invested in a 600 count container of phoenix worms. i hope they live up to their reputation for me. ozric has only been eating a 3 or 4 small crickets a day. he seems to want more but gets frustrated when they hop away when he goes in for the kill. after a few get away, he gives up. so, i'm hoping the phoenix worms will provide better nutrition and an easier catch for him.

thanks phoenix, aywren, and beardsmith for replying to my post. your communications have helped motivate me to keep on researching and trying to make ozric the happiest and healthiest he can be.

 

[ozric]

Well, it has been a week since i introduced Ozric, so I thought I'd check in and update in case anyone is interested. He has been doing very well so far. He won't eat greens and I put some squash baby-food on his nose a few times a day and he'll lick it off, but won't actively eat it. He does chow down on crickets and phoenix worms though. He'll eat about 20 crickets (ones that are just about as big as are safe to feed him, not tiny pin-heads) and 30+ phoenix worms a day. He seems happy and alert in his vivarium, though he spends most of his time just "hanging out" and not running around much. When I let him out he scampers around a lot though. He has grown about an inch in the past 11 days. He seems healthy and happy, and I hope he stays that way!

Here's a link to a video of him eating phoenix worms http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7HQo0NB0-Y&feature=channel_page

And here are some new photos.

"first you soak me in water, then you trap me in this thing!"

"ok, i forgive you for the whole bath and burrito treatment..."

thanks for looking!

 

[sandyvern]

Very cute!!! Love the 'bath and burrito' thing!! :lol:

I just got my second baby bearded today (which makes for 3 beardies now)....I got my first baby back in July...who I still call "Baby Weasly" even though he is now 15 inches long!!! But just wanted to say that the 'baby thing' was all new to me last time and I had very good luck with the phoenix worms with him. I felt like Weasly had a better time with them than catching crickets...at least while he was very little. And I am really not a bug person so the worms were easier for me to deal with as well And as far as eating greens...they told me he was eating them well and at least for me he hardly ever ate more than a bite or so of them for a long time...it gets frustrating preparing a little salad for him and then watching him eat one bite and that is it ...but now he is much better at it...still prefers crickets or phoenix worms but he really likes squash and eats a pretty good amount of veggies when I give them to him now. I also have my beardies on the calci-sand and have had no problems. I did keep Weasly just on paper towels until he was about 8 or 10 inches long...but put him on the sand and have had no problems. My adult, Harry, has also been on the sand since we have had him and have had no problems. I, too, have read so much about the 'evils of sand' and didn't really come to any concrete conclusions and basically seems to come down to preference.

Anyway...good luck with Ozric....hope all continues going well with him. It is soooo much fun watching them grow from a baby!!! I can't wait to see my new one start growing....I am trying really hard to leave him alone for the moment to adjust to his new house since I just got him this afternoon....which is why I am posting here instead of pestering him/her :mrgreen:
Sandy

 

[pheonixmum]

ozric gets even more stunning with every pic you post
watched your videos too, he sure loves his phoenix worms... oh and you eastern collard lizards are adorable, sorry you had to return them

 

[fresnowitte]

:wave: Hello & Welcome to BD.org!
And........
Congratulations!
Ozric is absolutely stunning in color and so adorable. :love5:
Thanks so much for sharing the pic's and video.

Again Welcome Aboard!

 

[ozric]

phoenixmum - are you the "kitten123" person on YouTube? and if so - are all of those dogs yours?!? As for the Collard lizards, one belonged to me, and one to my friend Caroline. I returned mine, but Caroline has kept hers so far... although she talks about returning him from time to time. Hers is a bit more mellow than mine was, but still not friendly.


sandyvern - i'm glad to hear you post positive comments about Calci-Sand. i admit that i bought it because of the marketing and didn't do much research, but it seemed hard for me to believe that a product that "kills all lizards" would remain on the market. with all of the reading that i've done, it seems to me that some lizards are more prone to impaction than others. it might have to with how they eat and how much they sand they inhale with each bite. i understand the "why take a risk?" philosophy - but i don't understand why some people seem like they are on a "warrior's quest" to get everyone else away from it. i mean - if i know my lizard, and i understand his behavior, and i feel safe, they why should someone else be so passionatly against what i am doing? heck - my collard lizard all all of his crickets from his vivarium (4 - 16 per day for 4+ months) and got sand in his mouth with every bite and he is still healthy and fine. anyway - thanks for posting, it's good to know that i haven't put Ozric in an early grave just by my substrate choice! =)

 

[pheonixmum]

hi matt, yeh thats me and yeh theyre my dogs (well 3 of them are) the 2 littlest pups are my cavaliers puppies so just got the boy looking for a home.
btw--meant to ask, how did you come up with the name ozric? its so unique, i love it

 

[ozric]

"Ozric" comes from the band "Ozric Tentacles" a psychedelic, jazz, space, rock band from the UK (well, until they moved here to the States a few months ago) that has been around since the 80's. they are one of my favorite bands, and i thought the name ozric was just "lizardy" enough for my new guy!

i don't know how you can handle 3 dogs! they are so demanding of attention...