RIP Sweet Pogo; Welcome Home Happy Go LUCKY

Has anyone used/had problems with the magic mushroom basking ledge? It attaches to the cage with magnets and can be used as a platform for basking.

There is something wrong with my beardie. I have ruled out just about everything, so now I am checking particular cage furniture. Pogo goes back to the vet on Tuesday (and I am surprised I have been able to keep her alive this long). She has serious eating problems and now she has eye problems too. No signs of respiratory infection, though - like no mouth opening, weird breathing, crusties, mucous, etc. (I use a Reptisun 10.0 T8 Tube - not coil, so that should not be the problem.) I actually turned off the UVB today to see if it would help her eyes - it seemed to help at first, but now tonight, they seem worse again. Her temps are right. I have had two reptile vets (and people here) tell me that my husbandry is fine, but I am taking her back to the vet on Tuesday with multiple stool samples to see if maybe parasites just aren't showing up in every poop, but are there. And now the eye problem, which I thought was just shedding at first but seems to be getting worse . . .

 

[onceblue]

I know how you feel about the poop! Falkor pooped on my bed the other day...and it was a well-hydrated poop because he had been eating hornworms...I need to try getting something plastic under him next time!

 

[sweetiepie9]

Improvements LOL

 

[PogoLover]

Pogo wanted to show some explody eye:

And also a pretty shot:

She is 26 grams today, and ate three worms in one sitting (with her mix, of course)!

 

[sweetiepie9]

Will you look at that tummy. So she's getting ready to shed her eyes, love that crazy eye thing...still freaks me out when I see them doing it.

Wow, 26 grams, love your vet for figuring out what was wrong with her. And 3 worms!!!!! That is so exciting

 

[PogoLover]

I know how you feel about the poop! Falkor pooped on my bed the other day...and it was a well-hydrated poop because he had been eating hornworms...I need to try getting something plastic under him next time!

How old was Falkor when you started feeding him hornworms?

 

[sweetiepie9]

Hornworms are wonderful worms, you can get them very small, but I'd wait for Pogo to get a bit bigger, only because they get big fast.

 

[PogoLover]

Hornworms are wonderful worms, you can get them very small, but I'd wait for Pogo to get a bit bigger, only because they get big fast.

Ya - I just need to get her to eat a bug on her own before I try some big green scary looking thing anyway I was just wondering how old they normally are before people start trying some of the bigger worms. Pogo is WAY behind on the growth curve and may never reach normal size - she is at least 16 weeks (I have had her for 10 weeks and she was almost 7" when I got her) - she could be as old as 18/19 weeks (while her size is probably more like 10 weeks or less). If she keeps up with monthly doubling of weight, she could grow to normal size - but she will need to start shedding like a beast to do it - her belly is huge! (We have noticed that she is packing on weight in the tail base, chin area and starting to get pop-eye legs - even my 10-year old son noticed that.)

On the explody eye - she does it A LOT. I think that her eye problems have been related to the fact that she has retained shed on her eyelids. She has shed her eyes since I have had her - but only once, and she often has half mast eyes - to me it looks like there is extra skin on her upper eyelids.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Have you tired a wet qtip to gently pry the shed off her eyelids? Gabriel is the same, he sheds his eyes alot and it always gets stuck. I try to gently get it off when it starts, so I've been successful, but every day I use a wet qtip and am usually successful getting some off. Try that, see how that goes.

She has grown alot since she stopped her meds. It doesn't matter how big she is, she has until she's 2 for full growth anyway. If she's 4-5 mo old, she's behind, but I'll tell you about Cierra and Nathaniel, just to show you how things can change.

I brought Nathaniel home on Dec 7/14. He's been in the same tank with his 2 brothers, a small tank, for a year. When I brought him home, he was 15 1/2" long and 218g. He also had parasites, so got that treated. Now, at last weigh in, he's 18 1/2" long and 480g. He's now brumating, losing weight, but we'll get it packed on again when he wakes up.

His "brother" Cierra (who turned out to be a girl, even though I swore, after losing Puff, not to have any more females in my house) was brought home on May 16/15, she was 15" long and 185g. They were a year old in December, so were very small for their age. She's now 18" long and 420g. She'll always be smaller than the boys but she's doing well. She's also brumating right now.

So you never can tell what will happen in the future. Pogo's already eating phonenix worms, I know not as many as you'd like, but it's an improvement to what she was eating before. So baby steps and we'll see how she is in the spring.

I love that you stay in touch with me with updates. She fascinates me, such a rough start and look at her now :love5: It's beardie slaves like you, that do everything they can for their babies, that make miracles happen

 

[onceblue]

Sorry for the delayed reply!

Falkor was around 7-8 inches when I started him on hornworms. They DO get big very fast, that's absolutely true, but you have more leeway with feeding the big ones because they are soft-bodied so they don't carry the same risk of impaction like hard-bodied feeders. BUT you still don't want to feed them too big because choking could still be a risk.

That said, it may not be a bad idea to try some with Pogo soon. My beardie goes CRAZY for them, he loves the color and if he sees one from across the room, he'll come running. I keep meaning to get a video of it, he's so enthusiastic. They could potentially catch Pogo's interest, too — but of course, all beardies are different so it's hard to say for sure. But if you do try them, you will probably end up with some very large ones before you can go through them all at least until she's a little bigger.

 

[PogoLover]

Sorry for the delayed reply!

Falkor was around 7-8 inches when I started him on hornworms. They DO get big very fast, that's absolutely true, but you have more leeway with feeding the big ones because they are soft-bodied so they don't carry the same risk of impaction like hard-bodied feeders. BUT you still don't want to feed them too big because choking could still be a risk.

That said, it may not be a bad idea to try some with Pogo soon. My beardie goes CRAZY for them, he loves the color and if he sees one from across the room, he'll come running. I keep meaning to get a video of it, he's so enthusiastic. They could potentially catch Pogo's interest, too — but of course, all beardies are different so it's hard to say for sure. But if you do try them, you will probably end up with some very large ones before you can go through them all at least until she's a little bigger.

I have dubia that are almost big enough to reproduce (they were tiny when I got them). I am used to keeping bugs at this point since Pogo doesn't eat many. I don't think she has ever eaten a dubia but I have been keeping them for almost two months. I will probably wait on the hornworms for a while, but I will definitely try them eventually.

 

[sweetiepie9]

You could just get 1 small one (they are expensive and not all pet shops sell them) just to see how she reacts.

As for dubia, once they reproduce, she might just like them. Only the mature males and females are hard bodied, the rest are all soft bodied. I have a 20 gallon and a 10 gallon tanks full, so the 3 that eat them have a continuous supply. I love them, self-perpetuating once they start producing. Glad you have them, too.

 

[PogoLover]

Yes - I will have to ask for advice on keeping a colony if mine get old enough to reproduce.

Did something to my back, so I am laid up for a while. I can still get around - it just hurts really badly (and Pogo is downstairs and my bed is upstairs).

I think Pogo actually tried to start brumation. I read that they actually can start doing that well before adulthood. She just started sleeping (flat out on her face rather than propped up on her legs) all day long on Monday. She also was not as interested in eating and was sluggish and grumpy when I took her out of the cage. It had recently gotten MUCH colder outside here, so I think that was it. I got a space heater to keep the temp in her room up and today she is much more awake again and ate a ton at her one feeding. Hopefully, I will feel better tomorrow and more able to get up and down the stairs repeatedly to do multiple feedings. Her phoenix worms are still in there, so she can eat at any time if she is hungry. I feed the worms dragon food (and other stuff that Pogo could eat), so they can live in a bowl in her tank for a long time. I have one that has been in that bowl for a month - it's starting to look like it might turn into a fly.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I'm sorry to hear about your back, I feel for you, I'm off to the chiro tomorrow on my own, saw my surgeon yesterday and was told, as long as I'm not taking painkillers during the day, I can drive. So this should be interesting. Nothing like being on crutches to put your back out, but your back sounds so much worse than mine.

Maybe Pogo will decide that hungry is hungry and that worms aren't so bad after all. You need to rest your back, so take care of yourself.

And she was affected by winter slow down, which is the change in barometric pressure. Dragons 9 months old and up, that are almost adult sized, are the ones that will actually sleep, which is what brumation is. Nathaniel & Cierra, my brother and sister dragons, will be 2 years old in December. They are both sound asleep, Nathaniel since mid August, Cierra for the last 2 weeks and about a month on & off before that. To me that is young to be fully brumating. Gabriel, my almost 5 year old, has only slept for 2 weeks in all the time I've had him (since April/12)! Leo, my 8 year old, sleeps every afternoon. Castiel, my 13 mo old that is larger than most adults, was in his hide today, peeking out, but I think it's because I've been gone since Sunday afternoon & was delayed getting home from my sister's until today. There was a bad accident on the highway between our houses & both sides were closed yesterday afternoon, so had to go back to her place for the night as she had a 4 hr meeting last night. So only got home this afternoon and Castiel was for sure mad at me LOL. Gabriel had a full black beard & was very dark until I picked him up & snuggled him, within 2 minutes he was his bright colours again. They do get mad at as when we don't follow their agenda :lol:

So take care of yourself and hopefully our back gets better soon!

 

[PogoLover]

Pogo weighed in at 30 grams today, and she also grew - she is now 8.25 inches.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Wow, she's catching up! How's your back?