I'm SO SORRY to hear about your brother, My son is the same age, how devastating for you and your family. No wonder you haven't been on here!
I wouldn't worry about weighing Lucky, he's alot more than Imp, who's 440 (at least he was that before he went to sleep last week). He wasn't sure about brumation either, but he quickly got the hang of it. He's been up and down 3x now and I need to get him up again after the grandkids go home on Sunday for
bath and poop, then he can go back to sleep. Nathaniel has been down since mid July, Cierra has been down since beg Aug and Castiel since the end of August. Castiel is now too big for his hide, he can get in there but he ends up being 1/2 in and 1/2 out. I have him covered but he keeps moving forward so his snout sticks out, it's hilarious to watch. Yet he's fast asleep during all this. Gabriel is sharing Cierra's tank because I know she won't wake up until probably Feb.
As for Lucky and brumation, he's going through winter slow down, he really doesn't want to sleep but his body is telling him to slow down. It's all normal behaviour for a 10 mo old, especially because he's larger than most dragons but still has the hormones of a sub-adult. I wouldn't worry about it. He might just crawl in that hide and sleep for a day or two, he might not. Cierra and Nathaniel freaked me out last year they went down so early & this year even earlier. At least I knew that could happen so wasn't surprised. Every dragon I've had over the last 10 years never went down until January, so July surprised me for Nathaniel this year. There are alot of types of brumation and then there's just winter slow down. There's a great article about it above, you should read it, I read it for many winters in a row, especially the first winter, and it helped me get through it.
Thanks for the prayers for Gabriel, they always soothe me. He's on borrowed time with that aneurysm in his belly, but he's hanging in and because I'm home on disability, I can snuggle him every afternoon to put him to sleep. He goes to sleep even earlier than Lucky, normally, and I forgot to change the timers with the change of time last weekend, so have to get to that. He's up at 5a right now instead of 6 and his lights are going off at 3:30 instead of 4:30. Sometimes he makes it to 4:30, sometimes he's sleeping before that. He's gotten very round.
He likes to use Cierra's old cricket keeper, I've always called it the behive :mrgreen:
And the latest of my grandkids, Leo is 3 and Safara is 2. We were making a chocolate cake :lol:
My sister came over and we all made it together. Little cupcakes that they called donuts and a full cake. It sure was alot of fun to work together. I don't see my sister that often, but love it when she can find time to come over. We take the kids to the park if it's not pouring rain and wear them out :lol:
Leo really likes my giant dragons, so he's allowed to hold Gabriel when his sister isn't around. She's very rough with them so when they're here together, the dragons stay in their tanks.
I also got a picture of Imp flaring up his colours in his
bath:
And you can vent to me anytime, about anything.
Boy what you are doing for Lucky is wonderful, that's a 75 gallon tank, he'll have so much room and said you're making it so he can climb up? He'll love that. And then the cat window seat, he'll love that. And yes, you'll love when he's free roam.
I'm still laughing about eating those plastic leaves (I learned my lesson about those and never bothered) and eyeing the guinea pig poop :laughhard: That is just too funny. He is such a character!
Things have changed since Eric moved in with his dog Bella. Being off because of osteoarthritis in my spine (had to wait for an MRI) means I was home to walk Bella. So the walking has helped a bit and I need to start at the gym slowly. Between the ankle surgery last Sept, then bronchitis in May for 5 weeks and now being off since Aug 19 because of severe pain (which isn't as bad now) it's been a rough year for me. Having the kids here EVERY weekend has been rough, too. Soon I'll be making arrng to go out alot over the weekend so Eric can take care of the kids himself, as when I'm there he depends on me too much. It's too small a space and they have to sleep together, I'm in a 1 bedroom and the bedroom is my sanctuary, no kids allowed! He gets so overwhelmed but tough, they're his kids. I'm just so glad he left Tara, best thing he's ever done and we've had alot of good talks since he moved in, but he feels uncomfortable, as a 32 yr old living off his mom...tough beans I say, time for him to grow up a bit more.
And now enough from me! I'm just glad to hear from you.