Shipping help

[WarDaddy]

Wow, you have your hands full, I hope the doggie gets better.

Thanks for all your advice, I am reading everything that I can find that seems to pertain to my situation, and then all I can find about what I can expect once he is running on all cylinders.

I have a timer, he is going from about 5:30 to 8:00 in the light. That gives him time to warm up before I feed him and run off to work in the morning, and lots of time to digest after his evening feeding. Once things settle down, he will be 6:00 - 8:00. He is in a busy walk way right now, but that will change. there is not too much light in the area of the house he is in after 8:00, so that should be good, and it is DARK after 9:00.

Night temps are never lower than 68, my wife will not let me set the heat for less

My wife is picking up our youngest from Pre-K right now, so the 2nd feeding of today should be soon. I think our son is going to do it with help of Mom I may try some crickets Thursday and see how he reacts, but I want to be sure we have a few good days of feeding in him before we go there.

I would love to see a diagram of all the body parts of a dragon. I had to search and search to find the Vent, that is supposed to be int he water. I thought it was some small opening in the neck area... boy I was searching the wrong wrong end of the Dragon. It would be nice so I can use the proper terminology when trying to talk about what I am seeing. Like the pouch that seemed to fill when he is eating the baby food, under the "ear" hole thingy.

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[diamc]

Hi, I was just reading through your thread. I noticed that you're using a 10.0 fluorescent UVB, could you look on the side of the bulb and see if it is the Repti-Sun or Repti-Glo? Also, are you using a colored or white basking light? Is the UVB alongside the basking bulb?

Also note that you're using a saucer to bathe him in and I think if you used a transparent plastic bowl and put a washcloth in the bottom, it would make him feel more secure. You could also had more water to cover his front legs & that way the water could thoroughly enter the vent area to help with hydration. A 15 to 20 min bath helps hydrate them thoroughly.

Have you tried handfeeing crickets to see if he will take them that way? How is his activity level?

 

[WarDaddy]

The bulb is a reptisun, it is a t-8 Florescent tube.

This afternoon he is not so willing to eat. There was a poop in the cage, and he pooped when I gave him a bath, as soon as he hit the water. I used the towel method, he tried to run out, but settled down.

I have him back basking, and will try a little food again in later this evening.

 

[renich]

good point. it's always great to have several pairs ofeyes. i've been a bit surprised more folks have not posted...

t-8 is the size of the tube, not the kind of bulb. you mentioned 10.0 awhile ago. do you still have the box so that you can verify that?

 

[WarDaddy]

Sorry,
It is a 18in t-8 Reptisun 10.0

 

[renich]

oh, and i know what you mean...when my husband and i bought bernie and started reading more about these guys, we were so overwhelmed. we are both technology people, so we rely on the internet for reference. there is so much literature out there and it is contradictive too. that's why we started our site - as notes for ourselves to keep us straight.

 

[WarDaddy]

grrr, I keep reading back through your guys questions, I should learn to answer them all at once.

The basking light is a white light. I guess it is picture time....let me see If I can get you some images

 

[renich]

images are always helpful. i should have asked for some.

 

[WarDaddy]

here is Rocket, lounging on the side of his basking rock, having just backed down (click on image for larger image)

Here is the full cage, not much to see right now. He basks on the right. Sorry it is dirty, need new paper towels. I made the rocks, that was fun.

the UV bulb

and finally the lighting on top... basic setup for now.

 

[WarDaddy]

Today's update...

He is still just laying around, not showing much interest in anything moving in his cage. I too a cricket and removed the large jumping legs. It moves around, but gets no where fast. Rocket did not even bat an eyelash at it.

At the morning feeding he wanted nothing to do with food.

At Lunch he ate about .33 CC of baby food. That was nice to see, but it sure does not seem like much food. I then gave him a 10 minute bath, and back to basking.

The pics above show that he has moved off the basking spot down to floor of the tank. HE will likely stay in that spot or within a few inches of it until I pick him up to feed him dinner.

The Basking spot is 103, where he is now is 84.

It is very difficult to open his mouth, so I am still going with the wait for him to lick the food off his lips method of baby food feeding.

 

[WarDaddy]

I am getting a little more aggressive with feeding. I am starting to get worried, as he is not eating much. I have discovered a technique to open him mouth with one had pretty easy, and then he leaves it open for a couple seconds, making is real easy to place a phoenix worm in the mouth. once the worm is in the mouth, he does a good job of swallowing it. I have given him 3 this way.

I will leave him alone the rest of tonight and try baby food and worms again tomorrow.

SIGH...

 

[renich]

you are doing everything you can. btw...the reptisun 10.0 is said to be the best on the market. reason being the range of uvb is the furthest on the market.

is rocket active during the day?

nice poo stained towels! it appears he is going regularly?

 

[WarDaddy]

yep, making poop, that is good. Energy is off, and he looks pretty clumsy when he walks. time will tell.

I am going camping in 1 week for 4 days. The question will be, take him, or leave him, but the kids that will watch him, will not be able to keep up this level of care

 

[diamc]

Hi, thanks for posting the pictures. What a cute little guy he is, has nice coloring. That's good that it's the Repti-Sun 10.0 fluorescent that you're using. What size tank is he in, hard to tell & he does look quite small in there. Because, if it's a 40 gallon or bigger, I'm thinking that sectioning part of it off might help him to adjust better.

That's good that he ate some babyfood, hopefully the amount will increase daily. What size crickets are you feeding him, make sure they're no larger than the space between his eyes.

Are you using calcium & vitamins? If so, what brand & how often? Does he go up into the basking area on his own at all?

 

[WarDaddy]

Thursday morning update...

Still pretty lethargic this morning, he does not fight my man handling him too much, I would love to see more fight.

Warmed him up, and force fed him 2 crickets about the size of space between his eyes, coated with Repti-Vite.

He does a good job of swallowing the crickets once they are in his mouth, so that is encouraging.

Little guy is in a standard 20 gallon aquarium. Even that is too big, he has no interest in trying to hunt right now. I am hoping that a few days of crickets and phoenix worms will get him going.

Should I be mixing in baby food and the Repta-Aid with the phoenix worms and crickets? I want to be sure he is getting all the calories he needs to make a recovery.

What a saga this has become.