Shiro's great adventures

So I would like to introduce my new baby beardie, Shiro (it means white in Japanese) becuase he or she is a white hypo beardie.

Really happy to have him/her and I hope questions and answers on this post will help other people that have a baby beardie.

To kick it off she/he is stunning and very cheeky already! Took dubia from my hand without blinking and jumped onto her hammock and is happily watching her new tank.

So far so good and vet check next week and every six months from there on.

My beautiful girl Tengu will be sadly missed but she taught me a lot and she will always be in my heart and memories, RIP Tengu chan we love you so much.

 

[sweetiepie9]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wonder what Shiro would do if you used the mouse pointer at him?

It's been a good week. Eric and his lady friend have decided he's going to stay with her during the week, his work is 5 min away and won't have to come here but to walk his dog. He's taking food I bought for him to Traci's, too. I hope it works out, means I have my house to myself Monday to Friday! I'm also hoping not living with his mom full-time (which is freaking him out) will help him feel better. I'm going to look into some free counselling for him, too, see if there is such an animal.

I'm going to see if the clinic is open tomorrow, as my ears are still not 100%, I'm still getting dizzy here and there and my throat is off and on sore. Maybe I need stronger ear drops, the ones I have I got over the counter.

Dragons are fine. I have to get Cierra's tank into the living room as Gabriel has been living in there while she was asleep. She could wake up any day. Tomorrow they'll both get long 1/2 hr soaks again. I've learned that dragons do dehydrate if not given soaks at least every 2 weeks, I left them both too long, with the changes, Eric, Bella, Leo and Safara, adds alot to a person's life, plus trying to get back to work.

Gabriel is still going strong, even though his belly is also getting bigger. When he lies on it, it shows how thick it is. He loves Serrepeptase, so I try to get 1 ml into him every day, that seems to give him some energy and I'll let him out to explore the kid's mess, which he loves to do. Then he's home, where he can see Imp and they can black beard and bob at each other.

I need to take all 3 into the vet, Gabriel, Imp and Castiel, for checkups but won't be until at least Feb. I'm feeling stronger, have kept food down for 4 days now, so the spot in my back causing all this mess has been fixed, at least for now. Can't wait to get the MRI results in. Probably won't be until February, the holidays slowed everything down.

Oh Shiro, he pooped on the cat bed? On purpose for sure, he would know that the cat likes that spot. What a brat he is, well welcome to the beginning of teenagehood. Hormones should start coming out any time now and they really do get bratty, find all kinds of things to get into :lol:

 

[SHBailey]

Wow. Don't know how you do it. Makes my life seem really simple and easy by comparison with one husband, one bearded dragon, and one corn snake (and all of us well past the "teenage" phase), no human children, and no major health problems for any of us, at least not at the moment. I suppose I should come back and read some of these posts whenever I get to feeling sorry for myself for some trivial reason or other.

Even though I've never had any kids of my own, I've come to realize that there usually comes a time in the life of a parent and child when it's no longer healthy for them to live together anymore, and it's best for them to get out on their own if at all possible, but sometimes that's painful and doesn't go smoothly for either the parents or their children. I've seen this sort of thing happen in my own family over and over again for several generations now, so I hope yours can work something out that will be best for everyone.

Happy new year to all the beardies and to their human families/slaves

 

[sweetiepie9]

Happy New Year to you, too!

Eric and Traci (his girlfriend) have made up and he's moved in with her. He'll be here after work to walk Bella and here on Friday after work until Sunday afternoon with the kids. So I have my place to myself during the week now, which is wonderful. Now I can spoil my dragons again!

And 5 mo is about the max that either of us (Eric and I) could manage. I told him I don't have alot to leave him when I pass, so to consider the debt to me part of his inheritance and it's no longer a debt. He was flabbergasted when I told him that, but I was serious. I've never supported him as an adult and he's done well with figuring out kids and ex and girlfriend, so good for him I say. Bella will stay with me until such time as they get a bigger place together, but that won't be for awhile, so he still has to walk her when I'm at work.

They both came over yesterday to wish me a Happy New Year and Eric did the weather stripping on my front door, it was still cold this am but 3 degrees higher than yesterday, so that is a big difference. We had a huge snowstorm again on Saturday, it was a white out, so much snow, 5th or 6th snowstorm in 3 weeks! I'll attach a picture.

The kids were in fine form, Leo had a 2 hour tantrum on Saturday night because Eric turned the TV off for bedtime. Then on Sunday, Safara had a tantrum because Eric took Leo for a walk (he was always trying to hurt Safara...brothers!). So we were both glad when he took them home.

So it's all turning out ok, but day at a time. I'm feeling much better, stomach has finally settled and back to work tomorrow for 4 hours, then full time Thurs and Friday (hope I can manage two long days). We'll see how that goes. i have to be full-time by Feb 15, so hopefully by beg Feb, that's my goal.

So this is what it looked like outside my balcony on Saturday, it had been snowing all day by then. This pic is without flash:

with flash:

And Eric and the kids opening their Xmas presents on Sat:

My mom gave them activity books, so they had fun colouring

This is what Gabriel does in the am during the week when the kids aren't here. But they leave stuff around the living room and he loves to roam through it all. Makes him happy

After his morning run around, he's put back in his tank and stands alot to relieve the pressure of his big belly

And Castiel sure looks sleepy when he first woke up from 3 mo of brumation.

Now it's time to get Nathaniel up to have a bath & Cierra, too.

 

[SHBailey]

You have a lovely family (humans and dragons both), and the view from your balcony looks like a Christmas card

 

[sweetiepie9]

It might look like a Christmas card, but it's really hard to walk through. My mom just told me that Vancouver is covered in ice because the city ran out of salt to salt the streets and sidewalks. Said she watched the local news and kids (don't go back to school until tomorrow) were skating in the side streets. So the kids love that there's snow!

 

[SHBailey]

I agree -- snow is beautiful, just as long as I don't have to go out in it. Out the window, sitting in front of the heater with a cup of hot chocolate (and a sleepy beardie to cuddle up with) -- that's the way I like to enjoy snow :wink:

 

[sweetiepie9]

Me, too, SHBailey! But unfortunately, we've had 5 or 6 snowstorms in the last month and have a few feel of snow everywhere. I live 30 miles east of Vancvouer, BC Canada and we haven't had snow for 5 years, so this has been a bit of a shock. Luckily have good boots as I also have my son's dog that I walk 3x a day. Today I have to work at 4-8p, but have alot of running around to do. I'm just hoping our caretaker has salted the entry to our parkade, as it'a steep hill, so I can get out shortly and get my errands done. Do you live in an area with lots of snow?

 

[SHBailey]

Anchorage Alaska, yes. We get lots, but not too bad so far this year. Some years are worse than others.

 

[sweetiepie9]

This is very different for us here. We haven't had any snow for 5 years, or not much. This is trailing along at more than a month now and more to come, from what I've heard.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I hope everything is well with all of you, I managed to get a virus in my ears, had to stay home for 4 days to put drops in but it's now gone. Last weekend I ended up with a swollen throat, also a virus, so drank 3 glasses of hot water, lemon and honey and my doc today said it's all back to normal but because the doc I saw on the weekend at the walk-in clinic told me not to use my puffer as I had no bronchitis or pneumonia, my cough has come back (inflammation of the bronchial tubes) so hopefully I'll be ok using my puffer for 4 days and go back to work next week. My short term benefits run out Feb 15, so I'm working to being back to work full time on Jan 30 or Feb 6 at the latest, so hopefully I don't get any more viruses. And having Eric out of here all week has helped immensely. He comes over after work to walk Bella if I'm at work, which I'll be all next week.

Castiel, Nathaniel and Cierra are all wide awake now, so have 5 to care for again. I haven't been taking them out of their tanks because it's still -3 during the day in full sunshine, so the living room is still too cool on the floor for them. Hopefully it's going to get warmer next week, as it's been since Dec 5, we've had 5 or 6 snowstorms and we still have lots of snow out that that has frozen...can't wait until our rain comes back, it's so darned dry!

Hope to hear from you soon!

 

[Carmalitaaa]

Omg I had no idea beardies went through a bratty stage until this post. Lol

 

[sweetiepie9]

They go through lots of bratty stages, especially when they're older juvies, 5 mo to 10 mo but stome stay bratty their whole lives, like my Imp. He was so cute at 3 mo old, but by 5 mo old he was bearding me already LOL.

I have a large double sink in the kitchen, so I can bathe 2 of my beardies at one time. I had Castiel, my 2 yr old in one sink and Imp in the other. I turned my back for a second to do something and when I looked back, Imp was on top of Castiel, talk about a heart attack, but Castiel just sat there and Imp looked pleased as punch. Check out the size difference!

I can't find the picture of him bearding me. Imp was annoyed because I'd let him on my bed to run around but he jumped off the bed and I'd picked him up. To show me his displeasure he pushed out his beard as far as it would go & tried to bite me, the brat. So he must have been around 5 mo old at the time and hasn't stopped bearding since. He was a year old in Oct!

This is him now, he still loves his Ella the Elephant and sits on her all day, she's on her side beside his basking platform:

I have 5 beardies, Gabriel 6; Cierra and Nathaniel 3; Castiel 2; and Imp 1 and a bit. They all have their moments, especially the boys. Nathaniel runs away from his poop if he poops in his tank:

Imp gets fired up in colour when he's warm:

Imp was on the ramp and tired of what was on TV

Castiel likes to run around in his tank and trash his furniture, now that he's recovered from 3 mo of brumation.
Cierra just woke up from brumation (she was asleep for 6 mo) and is still not very active
Nathaniel also woke up after 6 mo, so he's still not very active either.
Gabriel has an aneurysm in his belly, which is getting bigger by the day, but he still is with me, so I'm pleased. There's nothing can be done to remove it either, poor sweetie.

 

[SHBailey]

Glad to hear that you and your family (both humans and beardies) are still hanging in there. Hopefully you can stay away from any more of those nasty viruses.

I've had bronchitis a few times and it's no fun. It was chronic when I was a little kid and I'd get it just about every time I got a cold. At least the medications they have for it nowadays are way more effective than what they had back then around 50-odd years ago. (Yes I'm that old.) And I hear rumors that you've got better health care in Canada than we've got here in the USA, especially with the latest well intentioned effort to fix things ("Obamacare"), along with campaign promises by the latest president-elect to scrap the whole thing and start over from scratch because he apparently thinks he can come up with something better... oops, better not get me started... :roll:

Not much snow here, but it's been cold. January is usually our coldest month, so no surprises. It often gets "warmer" (relatively speaking) here when it snows because the cloud blanket keeps us a little warmer at night.

BTW, someone on this website did some research and posted a link to a webpage about an external thermostat, because I was talking about the way I have to keep adjusting the settings on our heater when it gets colder outside, and I never got around to thanking him(?), whoever it was. (Sorry I don't remember now.) So if you're reading this, whoever you are, I did appreciate the effort to help, even though it was determined when we had it installed that trying to use a different thermostat than the one it came with wouldn't work with our set up -- long story, but thanks for trying to help anyway.

Don't know how you manage with 5 beardies and everything else you're dealing with -- We're maxed out with just Puff the "magic" (bearded) dragon (and his little entourage of crickets and roaches) and Squirmles the carnivorous couch potato corn snake, who is due to go hormonal and hyperactive in another month or so. I don't know what to expect from Puff this year -- his biological clock seems be off by several months so I don't know where it's been reset to at this point, especially since I just got him a new T5 HO tube (more UVB through the screen). No bratty attempts to either intimidate me or impress me with the big black beard so far this year, at least not yet... :?

Your photos are adorable, especially the piggyback bath

 

[Carmalitaaa]

Well I'm sure it goes without saying, but becareful and very attentive when you have two beardies of different sizes out together. It only takes a second for you to turn you back and then CHOMP! Down one lizard. I had a really good friend dragon sit for me while I was backpacking and her senior ate my baby in a matter of a second.
I found out two weeks later and was devistated. That was the one important thing I told her. So sad... she's never forgiven herself for it, but I have.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Castiel just sat there and it was only a second, just to take the pic and get Imp out. He never did that again, either and he's over a year old now, almost a full adult. So because of his weight, he can't get out of the long sinks I have (they're 9" deep). And yes, I'm aware but I've been lucky. I had a friend who's cat went through the mesh top and killed her baby, that made me very sad.

I'm sorry your friend had your baby out at the same time as her older beardie, shouldn't have happened. So devastating when you lose a dragon.

SHBailey, I manage fine with the dragons because I don't go to work until 10:45 a, so when I'm working, which will be next week, I'm up at 7a, walk the dog, then get at least 3 dragons bathed and fed, the other 2 the next day. I've been managing 5 rescued dragons for 10 years, so I have it down to a science.

And for the temp, you should get an Accurite temp guage with probe, they are the most accurate for temps or get a temp gun like I have, it works incredibly well. As for the air temps in the tanks, if your temps on the basking platform (which is what you need to know) is accurate, the air temps will follow suit.

And it's best if you can get your UVB tube inside the tank. I don't use tank tops because I use mercury vapour lights on lampstand and they're inside the tanks. I only used a tank top with Imp when he was a juvie and tried to jump out, then I realized that his tank is 1" lower than the others, so I've switched him with Cierra, my female, because she's never tried to jump out of her tank, ever. So that has worked fine. I'm 61 by the way and get bronchial asthma after a cold or flu, so use a puffer and get my lungs working better that way. Being an ex-smoker didn't help, smoked for 36 years and quit 15 years ago this April, cold turkey, so lungs are doing better now.