Studly Dudley! ♥ *Massive Picture Overload 7/30*

My dad just randomly came home with him! He is cutest thing ever, and has tons of chub! He just dived into his salad!
Hes 2 years old, 15-17 in. long (has pretty good sized nip) and 442 grams... Dyed from red sand, so I cant see his colors.


Will post more details/pics later... I have to babysit!


OMG IM SOOOOOO EXCITEDDDDD!!!

 

[Pyxis]

I just read through this thread and have to say, I LOVE Dudley! He's so cute! Oh, and I can actually give you a little advice on your college plans! I'm in a vet tech program right now. It's a two year deal, and it's really fun! My ultimate goal has always be to be a veterinarian, and going though a vet tech program I can tell you it feels like the only thing the 'real' vets do is the surgery! Lol, I know that's not true, though. Anyway, as soon as I've passed my boards to be a vet tech I'm going to go to vet school and work my way through it as a vet tech - that way, I'll be getting real life experience and making a fairly good amount of money to put myself through school. So that's an option, too, if that's what you want to do.

 

[ShannyBeard]

Jess, I've got to advise you to really look into becoming a vet and not a vet tech. You have the intelligence and I believe you have the drive to do it, judging on what I know of you on this forum. I think looking ahead 20 years, your life will have been more rewarding and challenging with a more professional career path. If I could go back and do 'it' over again I would have gone further in school and become something more. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Jess]

OK guys, sorry I've been MIA for so long! It has been hectic here. Right after Stanley's surgery, my neighbor's house burnt down, and they had tanks of propane and gas in their garage, which exploded towards my house so it was a close call. All of the siding was melted off of my friend's house. Luckily everyone is fine- even their cat- but that's one of the scariest things that's ever happened around here. Then a couple day's later, some drunk creep at Walmart made me take a picture with him to send to his cheating girlfriend (WTF, right?!) which triggered some kind of stress-induced migraine attack in my mom, so she had to have an MRI to make sure she was OK. Last Saturday when I was working at my pet store, someone sneaked into the back kennel area when no one was looking and stole a Persian kitten that had been abandoned there Memorial day weekend. Me and my coworker are the ones who discovered her missing about 15 minutes after she was taken, and we were all very worried since she was very young and still needed her mom. The story was on the news, if any one saw it. The kitten was returned yesterday morning, thankfully!

Oh, and it gets better. There's been a lot of construction going on at my neighbors house, and all of the noise triggered some kind of freak panic attack in my dog. He wouldn't eat this morning, and he started shaking, panting, and became really stiff and completely freaked out if you tried to move him. He has liver problems, so we were really worried that something bad happened and he was in pain/going into shock. So we rushed him to the vet, and it turns out his hips have completely gone to crap, and he has arthritis in back. He probably jumped when he heard a loud noise, and bent his back the wrong way or tor the scar tissue in his hips. When we first found him acting like he was, we thought he might not make it, so I'm glad it was not life threatening. He has never shown any signs of having hip or back problems before, so we were all surprised that it was this bad for him.

So, on top of all that... My last day of school was yesterday, I am graduating this weekend, and my grad party is next weekend. I'm about ready to collapse and die at this point.

Thanks for the encouragement Shannon and Pyxis! I am glad I decided to go the veterinarian route!

Jen... I have been so creeped out by those worms that I haven't even had the courage to look at them in over a week. :silent: So I have two or three of them sitting in a cup in the back of my basement, probably either dead or turned into moths, and I'm not really sure what to do LOL. Maybe someone else will stumble upon them and tell me what happened... :lol:

I do actually have a couple things to share! For my final project for a class, I had to take some pics at the vet clinic I've been observing at. The vet doesn't do many exotics anymore and neither of us had really seen a beardie x-ray, so we x-rayed Dudley to see what he would look like! :mrgreen: When I was taking pics of the clinic, we hid him in all the pics to see if anyone would notice too, LOL.

Imprisoned in a kennel.

Hanging out in his new carrier.

And his X-ray!!

I also stopped in at Petsmart today, and made an awesome discovery... Exo-terra came out with a "low" version of their fron-opening tanks, and they had 24x18x12 tanks on sale for $80! So I am thinking of upgrading the leos to those tanks, since they have more floorspace than a 20 long. Those two tanks will fit perfectly on top of Dudley's 4x2x2! So then the crested gecko will get Stella's 29 gallon Tetra fauna tank, which works perfectly since he will make better use of the height. So then I can upgrade my clawed frog's tank to a 20 gallon long, get a iron double tank stand, and put the frog and crestie on that. Then I can actually get myself a real desk instead of a utility shelf LOL. If I decide to do it this way, my poor debit card will soon encounter a massive beating.

 

[morphmom]

That's on handsome Beardie! No bones about it! (insert rim shot here :lol: ) Good for you Jess. You'll do amazing 8)

 

[ShannyBeard]

Thank goodness you could end that with so much good news. I'm telling you, the start of your post had me scared! I am so glad your neighbors and cat are safe. My best friend had a house fire and they had very little time to get out, and it was really scary. Everything you posted was scary! I don't even know what to say...I'm sorry. You and your family deserve some peace and good fortune.

That xray is so cool. He looks perfect. He looks like a toothpick decoration, kind of. LOL. Just so delicate. :shock: Thanks for posting. So neat to look at them and see what's under all those spikes!!

 

[NeosMom]

Wow Jess! That is one heck of a couple weeks. I'm just glad to hear everything worked out okay. Love, love, love the pictures of Dudley. And you will make a fabulous vet.

 

[Esther19]

Congratulations on your graduation, dear. I know you've worked very hard, and I'm sure your parents are so proud. You will make a fabulous vet, like Neosmom said. Best Wishes! Esther

 

[JenFid]

Whoa, you definitely had an interesting couple weeks! I saw that pic you posted of your neighbors house, glad everyone was ok :shock: And your mom and dog too! And glad the kitten got returned! I would have liked to see the lady when the police stopped by her house...

That is a really neat pic of Dud's skele! I got to see the one they took of Daeds last week too, it's so weird how their entire torso is basically just ribs!

Those exoterra tanks sound awesome...I always liked their front opening ones but hated that they were tall instead of long I might have to check those out...although 2 feet long isn't the greatest, damn >.<

I know what you mean about the worms, lol! My guess is at this point they are probably shriveled up and crispy. I've never seen one live long enough to start pupating. All I know is if I left some in the basement and Nate stumbled across them weeks later I would probably be in big trouble :lol: Speaking of those, you should check out the vid I posted of Scully trying to attack one

Congrats on graduating! I wish I was still a teenager...one of the worst things about "growing up" is you don't get the summer off anymore Have fun at your grad party!!

 

[Jess]

Thanks! I thought the x-ray was the coolest thing ever... I wouldn't have guessed that they had so many ribs! It got cut off of that x-ray, but another one showed Dudley's tail nip, and it was bit off at the joint. So whoever ate his tail was very precise LOL.

Shannon, I sure hope something good happens soon! It seems like it's just one emergency after another, especially with animals. I've already had more emergency vet visits than usual this year, and I still need to get checkups and stuff for some of my pets too. Urrggghhh.

Jen, they make the Exo Terra ones that are the size of 40 breeders! I don't remember if those were on sale or not though? I'm buying the 24" ones on Saturday if I can't get them through my store!

I've basically sold my soul to work, so I don't get the summer off anyways! My days consist of taking care of animal at work, taking care of my own pets, eating, sleeping, and Netflix. I have no life. And you're invited BTW, I just haven't gotten around to making a FB event yet!

 

[jewl495]

You poor dear, you and your family really have had a go of it the last couple weeks! I'm glad that good things are on the horizon, starting off with your graduation, Congrats! Hopefully you and your family will have some peace. Good luck on your path to Veterinary school, I also think you've made a good choice! Keep in mind that time will go by no matter what, so in eight years you can be a Vet or doing something completely different, either way those eight years will pass by....As long as your healthy and happy with your choices thats all that matters!

Dudely looks so handsome btw and his X-rays are pretty neat. Its been a few yrs since I've seen a beardie X-ray . I want to have one done of Kratos at his next checkup so I can establish a baseline with him.

 

[tazznzeppelin]

I'm so sorry to hear that you've had such a horrible time these past few weeks. Sounds like it's looking up for you and everyone else though. Dud's x-ray is really cool! I studied it for a while, he looks so perfect in it. Definitely no mbd going on with him. Congratulations on graduating, that's a huge milestone. I'm sure you will make a wonderful vet.
Amy

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Duds x rays are really cool! He looks so perfect! I love the picture of Dudley in the kennel, he's just like "Jess get me out of here!"

I've been looking at pictures of your viv and I love it so much. I'm going to redesign Fiz's viv and make some DIY rocks and I'm thinking that I'm going to use your viv for ideas! I hope you don't mind! I was also wondering if you used a colored grout on your rocks or if you painted it yourself?

 

[Jess]

Thanks! I graduated last weekend and I'm trying to organize my party right now, so things have been stressful, but in a good way I guess? Haha. I also got promoted to supervisor at work! :mrgreen:

And you those Exo Terra tanks I mentioned before? I had a 15% off coupon for Petsmart too, so I ended up getting them for $68 each. Epic win, I say. So, moving all my tanks around is next week's lovely project.

I'm not sure what is up with Dudley lately, but all he wants to do is sleep. He is alert and normal when I take him out, still eats his roaches (Not so fond of veggies right now), doesn't have stress marks, and isn't losing weight so he doesn't seem like he is sick, but I'm still a little worried. I need to change his UVB, so maybe that will perk him up a little.

PumpkinJelly, feel free to! There was one person who made an exact replica basically of my DIY rocks LOL. I use textured spray paint, so I can make it different shades and stuff. Plus the textured paint makes it much more grippy for them.

 

[Draake]

Hey, Jess, where did you get that 4x2x2? My 8 month beardie is growing so fast that I think I should just upgrade to the biggest. Also, how much did it cost? I hope im not being rude :lol:

BTW Dudley is officially my favorite dragon on the site!!!!!

 

[jewl495]

How is Dudley doing? Has he been having anymore issues with sleepiness? I know you posted a while back about him sleeping more than usual. Hope all is well for you and your crew.