Tenants left behind their VERY thin girl... HELP!

[jamiedennis]

SO I got my silkies... I have a few to Golly, and the rest to Jade... 100 worms, 50 big and 50 small - and as of yesterday, they are all gone!

I still have soooo much food left! I gave them almost the whole bottom of the dish covered in food every morning, and they ate almost all of it, every day!

So I think I need to raise the worms in order to get enough to last me long enough to feed my dragons constantly.

Heres a photo of where I found Jade on Dec 31st. when I got up...

She had been awake for all of 10 minutes when I got to her. SO she had to have done this RIGHT AWAY when she got up! She hasnt done this since, but I have no idea how she got there! The lights are all approx 10 inches or more away from her. So I dont get how she can get there!!! ! !!!

I dont want to raise the lights any more as she will then be out of the optimum range of the UVB and that is not acceptable!

Oh well... Any advice on how to raise silkies??? I started a new thread under feeders but so far no luck with answers.

 

[beardie parents]

Lil Squirt and Redrock(rip) aren't the only two beardies that find a way on top of their uvb fixture. Lil Squirt ended up there when we still had a reptisun 10 tube on her and we still can't figure out how she did it. Redrock climbed up the bricks that the fixture was sitting on.

 

[sweetiepie9]

You can buy eggs & instructions from www.mulberryfarms.ca or ask at the sight that you bought the worms. You have to have the eggs at a certain temp for them to hatch and then there's a certain type of container to raise the silkworms on, so their poop goes to the bottom and makes for easy clean up. They're not hard to raise & then you have a steady supply. I do know that a pair that mate, the female will produce over 300 eggs at a time. So check into that, it's not expensive and would be the best way. You have to feed them mulberry chow, so you'll have to buy the ingredients for that, too. Good luck, let me know how that goes!

Jade is obviously feeling much better if she can climb that high! And I don't have any suggestions on how to stop her!

 

[jamiedennis]

So yesterday Jade did a big poop... And in the urate it had red splotches to it.

Im not sure if this is anything to worry about or not - since this is the first time Ive seen them and all.

Attached is a pic - The stool had been sitting for a few hours which is why its all dried out and such. The wife and kids had spent the day shopping and I was working when she "went"

 

[sweetiepie9]

I've seen that type of urate with mine, never really considered it an issue unless it continues, so if her next few have the same thing, you could take a sample to the vet to get it checked (not Jade, just the sample). Otherwise I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[jamiedennis]

Its been a while... but to give an update on things:

- Jade has progressed to eating crix now. Ive kept it to a minimum, approx 10 medium/large... Well today I bought 40 crix for the two dragons, and Jade ate 30 in rapid succession! Then, she stared at me saying "I want more!!!" So I gave her collard greens, to which she dove into... Ive been feeding her the collard greens, silkies when I can get them, horns and crix... So she shouldnt have been THAT hungry! So Im thinking shes in a growth spurt now - so Im gonna buy more crix tomorrow for her and see how she does.

- Golly is in a weird state... hes awake, but doesnt move! He sits on his cold rock (cold side of the viv) and just stares at us... If I put feeders in there he dives on them! If I put greens in, he ignores them. So, Im thinking hes doing his own version of brumating. He did this last year as well so I was expecting it... just sucks though that all he wants is live food.

- Both dragons have done some shedding, Jade has done her both her front legs, and around her right shoulder, up to her back. Her tail has shed as well - not fully but approx 1/2 of it. She hasnt done the lower half of it yet and Im a bit worried about that with her tail having that deep nick in it...

- Both dragons have good colors when I feed them their feeders. They dont brighten up with the greens any more. Just the feeders. Both were really dark today and then while hunting they both went BRIGHT colors - both have lots of orange in their beards. Jade has yellow front colors, and orange under colors in her beard with her head being a yellow color with what looks like a red splash of color near the back spikes, but only on the right side... Golly has solid orange colors on his beard when hes happy like he was today.

- Jades head bumps (Ive been told they are used to protect their brains...) which were concaved when I got her, they are now raised up, or flat depending on how much hydration she has when I look at her. Most days they are raised but then some random days they are flat... Not sure if shes doing it, or if they are fluctuating for some reason.


Well... Thats it for now, I have some new, good images of Jade feeding on her salad mix - Collard greens and bee pollen - that I will post tomorrow when I have a few minutes.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Oh my, is Jade ever doing well, that is such good news. So pics please to show us her wonderful colours, when you can. It's so good to hear that she's eating normally & growing, good for her! And shedding, that's good news. As for her tail, try using a soft toothbrush in her bath, just stroking softly to see if you can loosen the shed. If not try cocoa butter (it has to be pure), rub it on & it will help loosed the retained shed, then you can use the toothbrush in the bath to get it off. It's important to make sure that shed comes off or it could strangle that part of the tail and kill it. It happened to Lonzo, started tail rot & had to have about 2" of his tail amputated, so keep on top of that. It's the most usual place for retained shed. And I'm so glad to hear that her fat pads are increasing on her head, that's good news, too.

Golly sounds like my boys, just hanging around, eating the live food, not to good on the veggies/greens. I have to hand feed mine, as they won't eat greens otherwise and alot of the time I have to sort of force feed them, I put a piece of veggie (butternut squash) or collard green (they won't eat anything else) along the inside of their lip on the side until they open their mouth & pop it in. It's a pain, but as long as they're awake I'll do that, otherwise they don't get any nutrition during the winter. At least you were expecting it from him, it's not unusual for beardies who don't actually brumate, we call it semi-brumation.

So glad they're both doing well, though and Jade is doing fantastically. She is a lucky girl that you found her!

 

[jamiedennis]

As promised, heres a bunch of images of Jade... Shes ate 60 crix in the past two days! I went and bought 40 last night, and 50 today... Jade ate 30 last night, and then 30 again today! She ate salad afterwards last night as well. Today she didnt eat salad. Golly had 10 crix last night, and then 20 today. I made a second trip to Petsmart today and bought 100 crix in hopes they will last me a day or two! Im hoping to get 3 feedings out of this batch. Im glad the crix are cheap though! hahaha She seems to have improved enough to handle them with out issues.


Jade eating her salad... with granulated bee pollen.

You can sort of see her colors in these two photos...

First time Ive seen her beard out...

Jade enjoying her bath, Her beard spikes were reddish/orange, and then lower down was an orange/tan color.

If you zoom in on this image you can see the color pattern on her beard... I think its really cool!

Love when Dragons pose like this...

Shhh... If I hide well enough, she wont know Im here...

This shows her beard and throat colors well...

CRAP!!! She found me!!!

The amazing Spider-Dragon!!! Doing battle with the villainous Cricket... She climbed the walls to get this one!

 

[jamiedennis]

Oh my, is Jade ever doing well, that is such good news. So pics please to show us her wonderful colours, when you can. It's so good to hear that she's eating normally & growing, good for her! And shedding, that's good news. As for her tail, try using a soft toothbrush in her bath, just stroking softly to see if you can loosen the shed. If not try cocoa butter (it has to be pure), rub it on & it will help loosed the retained shed, then you can use the toothbrush in the bath to get it off. It's important to make sure that shed comes off or it could strangle that part of the tail and kill it. It happened to Lonzo, started tail rot & had to have about 2" of his tail amputated, so keep on top of that. It's the most usual place for retained shed. And I'm so glad to hear that her fat pads are increasing on her head, that's good news, too.

Golly sounds like my boys, just hanging around, eating the live food, not to good on the veggies/greens. I have to hand feed mine, as they won't eat greens otherwise and alot of the time I have to sort of force feed them, I put a piece of veggie (butternut squash) or collard green (they won't eat anything else) along the inside of their lip on the side until they open their mouth & pop it in. It's a pain, but as long as they're awake I'll do that, otherwise they don't get any nutrition during the winter. At least you were expecting it from him, it's not unusual for beardies who don't actually brumate, we call it semi-brumation.

So glad they're both doing well, though and Jade is doing fantastically. She is a lucky girl that you found her!

I have an old tooth brush that I use on the dragons to scrub any fecal mess, shedding skin, dried food, etc. off of them. I have to remind the house hold NOT to use that tooth brush all the time though!!! hahahaha

I will keep that in mind - I got most of it off today while she was in the bath, so Im happy with that!

Ive done the same with Golly!!! If I dangle the veggies in front of him, he will eat them - otherwise its live food or nothing... sooo frustrating!!! Ya, I was ready for it, but it still sucks to have all this food in front of him literally inches from his mouth and he wont bother with it!!! grrr

That sucks about Lonzo! I hate seeing beardies with missing fingers, parts of tails, etc. It makes me terribly sad!!! I know Jade has issues with her toes since two or three of them have grown sideways - but otherwise everything with her seems to be going fine! I cant wait for the warm weather to return so I can bring the dragons to the vet and get them checked out. I dont really need to do Golly, since I just did him last year - but Im going to any ways just to make sure hes still healthy and if Jade has anything, she hasnt given it to Golly. I dont let them mingle yet, and I always clean up between baths, like I dry off the tub and rinse it out so any mess Jade or Golly did in the bath is washed away prior to the other dragon going in the tub.

 

[sweetiepie9]

She looks wonderful, can't believe she's the same dragon you brought home! I'm sure she'll have a healthy vet visit and so will Golly.

That's what I do too, clean out the sinks between baths. As for Lonzo, I couldn't believe his previous owner didn't think there was anything wrong with his tail, as it turned into tail rot. I watched it carefully when I got home & when I saw it move up got him straight to the vet & she took another 2" off, so he lost just over 5" total on his tail. Poor boy, he'd be 20" long without that missing.

So keep up the good work. Did you eventually get silkworm eggs? Or stay with crix. You should ask your local petshop about getting more crix at a time, anything we bought over 500 we got a good discount on, so ask about that. Otherwise you're going to be going to the petshop more often than you'd like!

 

[Esther19]

She looks wonderful! What a lucky girl she is!

 

[jamiedennis]

She looks wonderful! What a lucky girl she is!

Thanks for the support. it means a lot.

 

[jamiedennis]

Sooo, Jades tail tip wags like a dogs!?

She was tail end up on her log, with her head on the tiles (looked weird!!!) and she was waging her tail tip. Like I mean waging it like you would expect to see from a dog, or cat. I tried to get a video of it, but she stopped it once she knew I had my phone out.

Im wondering, how normal is this trait, and if its not - what, if anything does it mean??? Kind of freaked me out and then put me in awe and then got me curious... cause the nick is down to the bone on one side, and the other side has a small amount of 'meat' so Im not sure if shes waging it to test its function, or if shes trying to break it off, or if she knows it works fine and was waging it because she could...

Either way, Im glad Ive held off on having it amputated if it still works - that would have broken my heart to have a portion of her removed needlessly...

 

[tf2185]

Our second dragon Tiny is missing about six inches of his tail so all he has is a nub and he ALWAYS wags it, especially when he's excited about something. I don't know how common it is and it used to bother me because I thought maybe something was wrong but his nub doesn't bother him at all. My boyfriend swears he thinks he's a dog or something cause there's been several times we walked in the room and as soon as he saw us he would start wagging his tail. Our vet just told us he has more control over his tail and that's why he seems to be wagging and none of ours that have full tails do anything even similar to that. I don't know how true it is though.

 

[sweetiepie9]

This is why dragons are known as scaley puppies, because of their tails wagging (which mine do all the time, especially if they're excited about something) and their stance. So it's completely normal, so enjoy the show!