Sandpaper Princess

[Youkai]

Hi Everyone :mrgreen:

Just snapped some new pics now that Sakura is MUCH bigger and we've redone her viv with slate tiles, a better background, and her new hide.
Hope you enjoy them, comments are always welcome.. :wink:

Just for reference, this is from the first night we got her, Oct 29 2008 (about 6 weeks old)


This was about 2 weeks ago, we were using 6x6 inch slate tiles which I wasn't too fond of....so they had to go!!


This morning, Sakura is waiting for her breakfast "Enough with the camera, FOOD human...NOW!!"


Yeah, I'm still not seeing food....but I'm waiting..


This a full shot of her viv - new 4x4 inch slate, new background, new hide (with stairs to the penthouse patio)


Closeup of the new basking area that she seems to LOVE


When she's done eating, she turns away from me and looks over her shoulder "ok, that's enough....be gone!!"


"Hmmm, should I go up on the patio and digest, or stay here by the pool?"
About as tough a decision as Sakura ever has to make... :lol:

 

[dragonphoenix36]

..Thank you,honey...LOL. I guess you were sick of me nagging you to post pictures of the baby and her new viv, huh?
Look at our baby..she's so awesome! Excellent job, Daddy! :love5:

 

[Ethelia]

Goodness me she has quite the palace.
Be careful, she may turn diva on you.

Lovely to see Sakura looking so healthy ^_^
How are you two going bonding wise?

 

[Youkai]

Goodness me she has quite the palace.
Be careful, she may turn diva on you.

Lovely to see Sakura looking so healthy ^_^
How are you two going bonding wise?

Thanks Holly :mrgreen:

Her viv is still a work in progress.
I want to get some type of log for her to climb/bask on but I haven't found anything that I think she would like. (more to the point, I haven't found anything I like...hahaha)
I'm also starting to see her tail sticking out of her hide at night so I suppose she's getting too big for it. That will have to be overhauled soon too.
Finally happy with the tiles though, so that's a bonus! :lol: ( plus Beth is sick of running all over the place and trying to describe tile shapes, patterns, and colors to me over the phone while I'm at work..)

As for our bonding.... I really don't suppose we are bonding.

I'll try to keep this short, but our history goes like this:
We brought her home and she was terrified. Relocation stress and new humans I figured. From there she started to calm down and accept me for the most part. I followed your advice by placing my hand in the tank and not picking her up, putting a piece of an old worn t-shirt in her viv, feeding her by hand, etc...
That all seemed to work ok, things got better. She was eating out of my hand every day, every feeding. I started picking her up more frequently and holding her and she seemed to be getting used to it. Once I felt she was somewhat comfortable, I started bathing her regularly. She hated that but it didn't seem to cause any problems with me holding her or feeding her.
Then one day I came home from work and she just flat out hated me. I didn't do anything differently, I didn't change anything, she just decided she wanted nothing to do with me anymore. In just a few short hours, while I was at work, everything completely changed.
It has gone steadily downhill from there. At the best of times, she ignores me or just stays away from me. 98% of the time she gapes at me, runs away from me, and wants nothing to do with me.
Sure, I can feed her and she'll eat her crickets and greens, but if my hand goes inside her tank for any reason at all, she runs away.

About two weeks ago, I tried starting from scratch and going through the steps all over again. I got her out of the viv and held her for a few minutes each day, left my hand in the tank near her to let her see I wasn't going to hurt her...all that.
She put up a struggle when I tried to pick her up and hold her, and then each day it got worse and worse. After the third day, she was trying so hard to get away from my hand that I honestly felt she was going to hurt herself. That was the last time I tried to pick her up.
She was terrified of me up until maybe three days ago (Friday the 23rd?) and slowly over this past weekend, she's calmed down a little.

I'm at my wits end. I love her to death and I would never think of getting rid of her, but a good deal of the "sparkle" I had when I got her is gone and I've just resigned myself to the fact that she will probably only ever allow me to look at her and not interact with her. It's a shame really because that is not at all what I had in mind when getting a beardie and certainly not what I expected after reading so many awesome beardie tales here on the forums. :|

 

[akingsley9000]

Hey -

Nice job on the viv!

I regards to the bonding trouble you seem to be having...

Have you tired the beardie buritto? If not what you want to do is take her out just after her lights go off so she is semi asleep, wrap her in a small blanket/hand towel and let her just sit with you. Most likely she will go right to sleep. When you are ready you can put her back in her viv, wrapped in towel and all. A few days of this really seems to help the bonding process.

Good luck.

Keep us posted!

 

[Ethelia]

Hi James,

Im sorry you two are still in battle mode.
I told you you had a diva on you're hands.
As upsetting as this may be for you it really does warm my heart. There are so many owners out there who wouldve "got rid of" a fiesty dragon within a month, or just lost interest and just kept her going long enough until they she died from neglect.
Sak has found a loving home with you and your girlfriend, and I really do believe you were meant to find this little girl.

Im still of the oppinion that no dragon is untamable. You know as well as I do that all our dragons have incredibly varied personalities, which is why we love them!
I know it may not be much of a comfort for you but Im sure she will come around eventually.
I have suspicions that her recent mood swing may be her hitting "puberty", by the size of her she looks as though she could be around the 9 month mark? Although this is much more prevalent in males I have read of girls going through the mood swings aswell.
I think you were definatly right to go back to square one with her after that.

Oh I know the move when they squirm SO much you think theyre going to break something? Its really scarey isnt it?
Dex tried this with me for a long while because she knew I would panic and put her down.
In the end I decided to just be brave and go for it with her.
I would bring her out and wrap her into a burrito right away, reasonably tightly, and put her onto my chest so she could see me.
A larger towel will mean the weight on her will be more likely for her to feel safe and enclosed.
For the first four or five times she would claw and do all sorts to get out but I would hold the burrito against my chest and wait until she got bored.
It could take an hour, but when she carmed down I would put her right back into her viv.
Carm dragon = good girl who gets to go back home.
Each time she carms down id keep her out 5 or so minutes longer, and occationally reward her with a waxworm.
Also I started to have a hotwater bottle (not full, just enough in there to have a nice warmth coming out) between me and the burrito about half way into project-taming. Im not sure if it actually helped as we were already making process, but its definatly worth a try.

If you ever need to chat or vent about Sak Im always here (Im sad like that :lol: )

Holly

 

[dragonphoenix36]

Hey -

Nice job on the viv!

I regards to the bonding trouble you seem to be having...

Have you tired the beardie buritto?

Thank you!
Yes, we have...several times and she HATES it. She just fights..but we don't put her back until she stops. James has even tried to burrito her an hour after her lights went out with the shirt he wore to work so she can get his "scent" to understand he's non-threatening. He never gets very far because she hisses at him. She's in an absolute coma, but will come out of it to hiss at him and go back to sleep. It's not funny, but it is..she's such a "diva". But I refuse to give up, and so does James..she'll come around..eventually.

 

[dragonphoenix36]

I told you you had a diva on you're hands.
As upsetting as this may be for you it really does warm my heart. There are so many owners out there who wouldve "got rid of" a fiesty dragon within a month, or just lost interest and just kept her going long enough until they she died from neglect.
Sak has found a loving home with you and your girlfriend, and I really do believe you were meant to find this little girl.

I'm still of the oppinion that no dragon is untamable.

I have suspicions that her recent mood swing may be her hitting "puberty", by the size of her she looks as though she could be around the 9 month mark? Although this is much more prevalent in males I have read of girls going through the mood swings aswell.

Oh yes, Miss Holly..we have such a diva, but we have no one to blame but ourselves as we created this monster..LOL.
Nope..not happening. Once we take in an animal it becomes part of the family, and we don't give up on family. I'm fiesty, Sakura's fiesty, James likes fiesty..trust me.. :lol:
I believe that, too. James was is such a deep depression and mourning over Boots, I never thought he'd recover from it, but when I saw his face when he got to see Sakura for the first time, I knew it was meant to be, I knew he needed her as much as she needed him. And now it seriously breaks my heart into pieces when he says "she HATES me...she absolutely HATES me".
I believe with time and patience any dragon can be tamed. It's just hard because we so want to share our lives with her, and she wants ZERO to do with us.
That's so funny, Holly, because I was going to ask you the same thing..LOL. Can beardies get some form of dragon PMS?..If so, girlfriend waayyy needs a midol..LOL. Did you see her pics?..She ALWAYS has some form of "cranky marks"..ALWAYS..unless she's eating or sleeping..she's cranky..LOL. I swear Sakura is male, but James refuses to believe it..LOL..
Believe it or not..she's I would say between four and a half to five months old. We're not really sure because Charlie (the man we bought her from) said she was six months..so we posted pics of her here and people said anywhere from six weeks to 2 months tops. We're going to take her to the Vet in July or August..when it's warm and well before any chance of brumation to make sure she's healthy before she brumates..if she does at all. Hopefully that will give us some insight on how old she is and if indeed she is a she and not a he, and what the heck is going on with her..LOL.
Thank you for your time and advice and listening to us whine..lol it helps to know people who've been through this and understand what it's like.

 

[akingsley9000]

ok - so what if you put her in a small room with you and/or James like a bathroom.

Make sure it is beardie proof.

Sit on the floor and let her just run around for a bit.

That way she gets to get rid of some of her excess energy and she is spending time with you.

Every once in a while hand feed her something --

Hopefully she will come to realize that you can not going to hurt her.

 

[Youkai]

ok - so what if you put her in a small room with you and/or James like a bathroom.

Make sure it is beardie proof.

Sit on the floor and let her just run around for a bit.

That way she gets to get rid of some of her excess energy and she is spending time with you.

Every once in a while hand feed her something --

Hopefully she will come to realize that you can not going to hurt her.

I was talking about that very thing last night with Beth. I think the only room I could do that in would be the bathroom at the moment but the floor is tile and gets absolutely frigid cold.
Still trying to think of a way to warm up the room and give this idea a shot. Plus, I have PW's on the way, and those were the original feeder that I used to get Sakura to trust crawling into my hands and up my arms (back before "the change"). I think they would help a great deal in getting her to come to me if she was roaming around the bathroom with me. If I hold out a few of those, she just might choose to run over to grab them.

Thanks again for listening to us whine and all the advice!!

 

[Ethelia]

Bathroom isnt ideal with those cold tiles.
We use our study and just block off all the wiring and crawl holes with pillows and cushions.
If you are going to use your bathroom Id either put the hot water taps on for a little while or wait until after someone has had a bath so the room temp has come up a little.
The humidity will be a little off but an hour wont hurt her.
Pop a towel on the floor and either get a hot water bottle or a sock filled with rice and pop that in the mic for a minute and leave that close to you.
If she gets cold she'll head towards the heat, and you'll be there waiting ^_^

Holly

 

[akingsley9000]

i would just lie some towels down on the floor provided it just the floor thats frigid and not the whole room.

Also - for more yummys you may want to try hornworms if you haven't already. neither of mine can resist them even at their grumpiest. Just don't get to close when her bites them or you will get squirted (is that a word?) on... :roll:

 

[Ethelia]

Haha!
Im never quick enough. I always end up covered in worm juice.
Lovely :shock:

 

[akingsley9000]

My boyfriends 4 year old step brother came to visit us over the summer and thought it was so cool when they bit down and sent juices flying everywhere :lol: Lucky neither of mine need to be hand/force fee any more so i am able to avoid being slimed :mrgreen:

 

[dragonphoenix36]

Yes, it's just the floor in the bathroom that's cold. We were trying to figure out a room we could do this in last night, and the bathroom is the only place she couldn't hide on us,but I agree with you Holly, it's too cold in there. His room would be okay..we'd just have to block off a few areas..and it's alot warmer than the bathroom. Hornworms..okay..never tried those. At this point..I don't even care about getting squirted with worm juice..I just want her to like us..I'd even take tolerate us at this point..LOL..