Got him! (actually her). The owner was actually a very nice 14 year old boy who had gotten tired of his pet. I think his mother realized that the dragon was getting thin and told him he had to give her up. The beardie was kept in a 10 gallon tank with a water dish. No baths. The boy had had her since he was 5 years old so our "Sonnet" must be 9! She was fed "vegetables and some crickets". The mother told me she would "grow" if I put her in a larger tank. You get the picture. She must have gotten some good care at some point because she doesn't have any really serious mbd issues.
I live in NY and was due to go on vacation in 2 weeks, so I was hoping someone in New Jersey would step up and get her. When I returned another month had passed and no one had gotten her. I took a day off work and made the 7 hour drive. (Yes my family knows I am nuts.) She was ice cold and just a pile of bones sticking up through her scales... only 83 grams. When I got her home I soaked her in Pedialyte water and dripped some on her nose. She was absolutely terrified of the
bath and had no clue about the water on her face. She calmed down when I talked to her and for some inexplicable reason became completely trusting from that point on. She wanted to snuggle immediately after her
bath and sat on my shoulder for 3 hours. When I put her in her cage she wouldn't let go and kept trying to crawl back up my arm. When she finally realized that I was giving her water she drank and drank until I got worried and made her stop. She passed no urates for the first 5 days so she only got fruit and vegetables. It took 2 days to get her to understand that anything other than romaine lettuce was FOOD. Once she did she ate like the starving dragon that she was. Slowly adding dubias, silkworms, hornworms and phoenix worms to her diet.
She is unbelievably affectionate. Had I known what she was like I would have dropped what I was doing and gotten her on the day I saw the posting. We call our two beardies (Sonnet the rescue), "gratitude" and "attitude" (Thistle, my other beardie is a spoiled, fat, brat but we love her anyway).
Sonnet went from 83grams to 197 grams in 1 week! And I was afraid she would just die.