Rescue BD acts healthy but has physical abnormalities

[HelpMeTomCruise]

Little background on my little guy. Woman my wife works with said that her kid/husband have a 3 year old bearded dragon that they “don’t play with” and asked if we knew anyone who wanted him. We already have a female we actually found in the woods in our backyard. When the wife went to look at him and take a pic she found him in a 20gal tank with hamster pellets for substrate that smelt horrible. He had a hide that took up most his tank and some yard rocks and branches as well as scattered dead freeze dried crickets. I had my wife ask about his lighting, calcium, feeding etc. He was living in a little kids room with no lights and only ever got petco bear die pellets with the occasional freeze dried cricket. Apparently the woman didn’t like bugs so she wouldn’t get them. I asked where he was getting his calcium if that’s all they feed him and they seriously said “we didn’t think we needed to give him calcium anymore since he’s an adult” I told her at that point to grab him. He just needed to not be in that house anymore.

https://imgur.com/a/39WPunU

I brought him home and he had no energy and was very pale. He also has a deformed hand that they said he has always had. We call it his “Strong Hand” like the butler in scary movie 2. He also has an underbite and a little possible kink in the tip of his tail. The lady we got him from told us her daughter used to throw him when he started squirming while she was holding him!

Fast forward two weeks. He is all over the place! New viv with the right lighting. I actually doubled on the UVB since I am giving him liquid calcium and the poor guy was sun starved. He is learning how to eat bugs and LOVES his greens! He has been getting collards and yellow squash mainly. He drinks during his bath and like to poop on my counters. His “strong hand” has full grip. He doesn’t act like it hinders him in anyway. Past two days he has been going outside and getting some sun and loves it! The wife wants to give it another couple weeks till we take him to the vet since that is when our female has her appointment anyway. He is a totally different dragon that when I brought him home. He’s a little derpy and is 3 years old and just learning to Lizard so it can be funny watching bugs outrun him.

I am just wondering if there is more I can do or something I am not doing maybe. I am an overly paranoid pet parent. Especially since we have a husky, a wolfdog, a wiener dog and our other bearded dragon who are all female. He is the first male pet that we have ever had so I gotta hook a brother up.

 

[Claudiusx]

Hi there,

It sounds like he is doing just fine right? So what are you worried about?
You did a great job rescuing him and rehabilitating him.

Him getting some natural sunlight i'm sure is a huge help!
What are you using for his UVB bulb now?

Is that picture his current setup or the setup he had with the old owners?

-Brandon

 

[HelpMeTomCruise]

I’m using a t8 10.0 inside his new 50 gallon tank. His temps are staying 80-85 on the cool 90-100 basking. I use probe thermometers and a thermal gun. That is his old nasty tank. We kept nothing that was in there except him.

My thing is I just want to make sure I was doing it right. I do a lot of research and even called some local reptile rescues for misc advice. Our female had 0 wrong with her when we found her and my spoils her. Heck she has her own IG account for her. I know his quality of life is way better than before and want it to stay that way. I’d feel like garbage to rescue him only to not be doing something right that was actually hurting him. It’s my first dragon. The wife’s hates me so I just do lighting and clean tanks for her.