Slayer, the chosen one!

After an agonizing two days of waiting, Slayer finally ate his first meal in his new home. I've been trying to feed him crickets, those red/green/yellow mini-puff balls, some greens, and Nature Zone bearded dragon bites, but nothing! Finally, I considered giving him the smallest of dubias I could find in my colony, and he ate three of them! Three doesn't sound a lot, but he still ate! I'm so relieved and happy about that. I tried to give him a cricket afterwards, but he ignored it. Maybe he was full? He has pooped twice since coming home, so I take that as a good sign too.

 

[bumblebee]

That's great news! During the first week or so, they usually don't eat as well, but after that, they can become quite the little pigs

 

[uberglasses]

Thanks! He ate even more today and is a lot more active, so I can already foresee the pig in him, haha.

 

[uberglasses]

Some updates:

Yesterday, I swore Slayer grew overnight. I noticed signs of shedding, so I think I'm correct. I haven't measured her yet... funny thing is that I'm referring to my beardie as a girl now! Maybe it has to do with the name change.

But yeah, she's a lot bigger, eating more and more daily and has increased her activity. She just seems more alert and happy! I've noticed her favorite sleeping spot is on the cool side of the tank above the tall log hide (she never goes in it) and on the plants. It's like she's hanging out on the trees.

I also noticed a hand wave at me. It was really slow, but cute. Here's a picture from two days ago of her chilling on me:

 

[uberglasses]

It's been about a week and half since Slayer came into my home. I decided to move her into her permanent home, the 50 gallon tank I bought beforehand (my leopard gecko is also happy to return to her old home). At first I was worried she wasn't going to take it well, but she seems to like it better with all the space and climbing pieces I have set up. She's been eating more daily, although not the 20-40 crickets/dubias a day I'm expecting, but more than her usual 3-4 a day. But the good thing is that she ate a lot of mustard greens for the first time today, even right out of my hand! It was amazing to see her happily wolf a bunch of pieces down. I've been worried for the last week or so about her not eating much, but hey, if she's eating a lot of greens then I'll be happy.

I also noticed she loves watching me go on the computer and play random computer games. She'll jump off my shoulder, onto the keyboard and run straight up to the screen. There's something about me restarting the games that gets her excited too! I thought I was making it up in my head, but after the fifth time seeing her jump up and down as I restarted, it had to be something!

Here's a cute picture I took earlier in the week:

 

[uberglasses]

It's been awhile so I thought I'd update y'all on Slayer! As of yesterday, she's 10 inches long and 57 grams. Man oh man, she's growing quickly! At the same time, I think my dubia colony is growing crazily too, so I gotta do something about it before it becomes too much for me. You'd think with four leopard geckos and a beardie, it'd be under control, right? Nope.

Slayer no longer tries to run away from me when I stick my hand in the tank. Sure, there's a brief moment of tensing up and hesitation, but I can pick her up easily now. She gets her exercise out of the enclosure by this corner that I've blocked off for her. It also serves as some bonding time between us. She's become quite adventurous and likes to climb on my head now! Baths are no longer much of an issue as she can stay in there for awhile without splashing.

It was a wait for me, but patience paid off! No more relocation stress and now it's just all fun

 

[zandi202]

Slayer is adorable. Bonding always takes a bit, but is well worth it She's such a pretty girl.

 

[uberglasses]

Thank you so much!

So Slayer's been pooping on me/the carpet when I let her out. I've been trying to wait for her to poop in her enclosure and then give her a bath, but after thirty minutes or so, she goes again. It's been happening three days straight now and I usually put her back in the tank afterwards to clean up. However, I don't want her to get used to that and think that if she poops, she gets to go back to the tank. So today I didn't wait for her to poop in the tank and took her straight to the bath. She didn't poop there, but lo and behold, she pooped on me fifteen minutes afterwards. I cleaned her up, the mess and put her back on me! Let's hope she doesn't try to poop.

 

[uberglasses]

Slayer's nearing 12 inches and almost 100 grams. Wow! I cannot believe she's grown that much since I got her in March. She's warmed up to me so much, but is such an explorer. I have a cave for her to bask on top of and then sleep inside. Nowadays, she just knows to go in it roughly an hour or so before her lights go out. It's so cute that I don't have to urge her to go into it anymore, she just knows. Here are two pictures, one of her riding on my shoulder and bath time: