The Adventures of Falkor the Great!

Hi!

Since I've already posted once, I thought I'd come over here and introduce myself and my beardie.

Three weeks ago I had no plans on adopting a bearded dragon. However, a family member told me that she had one that she couldn't keep and asked me if I would take it. I love reptiles, so I did some research and ultimately decided I would.

Upon bringing him to me, however, I discovered that she was underfeeding him and feeding him the wrong thing (she was only giving him a couple of mealworms a day and she'd give him large superworms twice a week, when I cleaned out his tank I found five living superworms in there). I learned that his setup was also wrong (coil UVB and this substrate that had glued on rocks that could easily come loose/be ingested). She was also using a red light for him at night. So I quickly worked to get nearly everything replaced. Now he gets to eat crickets (though I'm transitioning away from those), dubias, and very soon calicworms too. I give him the very occasional small piece of waxworm as a treat, too (I cut them up). I dust once a day. He has a reptisun uvb tube, the correct temps in his basking spot, tile substrate, and fresh veggies every day.

He had a little stress after his two moves (to my house, and then to his new viv), but he's now officially eating around 60 bugs a day! I had to order more dubia. I also bought a colony but they aren't breeding fast enough, haha.

He was only 6" when she gave him to me, not sure if it's because he was very young when she bought him, or because he was underfed, or both. I know he's grown over the past two weeks, though, but I haven't had a chance to measure him again yet. He takes food from my hand, but he won't climb on my hand on his own just yet, and occasionally he'll still puff up at me when I approach, but I can tell he's getting more accustomed to my handling.

My favorite activity is giving him water with a dropper...it took him two tries to learn what that was, and now he opens his mouth every time I offer it to him. It's cute.

Here are a couple of pictures...

Sleeping in his original tank:

On our way to his first bath:

Caught eating veggies for the first time:

Fat tummy after his first big meal:

 

[sweetiepie9]

He feels safe in your hair because it's got the best of your smell, plus he's covered so he figures no-one can see him there. They're so funny when they're young. I'm glad he's ok, though, sweet boy.

Yes it can take alot more of your time to have another beardie, plus double the cost for lights. I have 5 dragons, I just replace 4 of their bulbs (have a solar metre that tells me what UVB is left so I know when to replace them) and that cost me $320 Cdn$ (our dollar is down alot) from $245 US$! But at least they're changed for a year and in Oct I'll change Gabriel's bulb which is almost full UVB after more than a year! Plus vet bills if any of them get sick. But I live alone, my son is married with kids of his own and I love rescuing dragons!

Falcor's colours are beautiful. Reminds me of my Cierra's colours when she's happy. Have never been able to take an accurate pics of them, though, she darkens every time I approach with my camera LOL

It's fun to have a dragon, isn't it? You just love them to pieces

 

[onceblue]

Wow, that's a lot of money on lighting! Though I'm not surprised, it definitely adds up. And yes, Falkor takes a lot of my time already, so every time I think about getting another, I think about how I'd have to double that! Plus get another enclosure built and so on. It's a lot. So I am definitely taking my time on that and just focusing on enjoying Falkor

It is fun having a dragon, though. I love it. They're very rewarding pets, moreso than I would have thought originally. Especially now that Falkor is older, it's so nice to see how he's grown and his personality has developed.

 

[sweetiepie9]

And they do have distinct personalities, it's so much fun to watch them grow :love5:

 

[onceblue]

So I know that this thread is about my reptile baby, but I have three other babies - my dogs. I love all my pets, they're like my kids, so I figured I'd mention something that happened to one of my furry babies.

My shiba inu, Mitsu, was bitten by a snake in our yard on Thursday night. My yard is about one acre with a ton of trees and such, and it is completely fenced in which tends to keep wildlife out, but sometimes we do get the occasional snake, raccoon, etc. in our yard. Shibas tend to have high prey drives, and mine in particular really loves to hunt things down (it's pure instinct for her, as she's never been trained to do such a thing!). I'm 100% positive she must have been harassing the snake — but she doesn't know any better, it's in her genes. I feel lucky that this hasn't happened before now, especially because of all the hiking we do.

She came inside and went straight to her crate, which is completely unlike her. I noticed that she had a mark on her snout and that she was starting to swell up but I couldn't tell 100% that it was a snake bite at the time. I gave her benadryl (which I keep on hand for emergencies like this) and decided to watch her for the next hour to see if she needed to go to the vet. Well, the swelling got worse and she started crying out because she was in pain, so off to the vet we went.

Here she is at the vet. That's not even the worst of the swelling, either. When we picked her up from the emergency vet to take her to our regular vet, she had swelled so much her harness wouldn't fit her anymore.

Blood work confirmed it was a venomous snake and that she was having a systemic reaction. While we were there, we discovered that she had blood in her stool. They kept her overnight and we opted to give her antivenom (so. incredibly. expensive. but worth it of course), which the vet said he was glad we did because whatever bit her really did a number on her and she had a tough night. In the morning, we brought her to our regular vet and she was monitored and kept on fluids for another 12 hours. I called into work Friday so I could transfer her and also pick her up/monitor her as soon as she was ready to come home.

When we brought her home, she still had some trouble eating and we made sure she rested, but by Saturday night she was already back to running around and acting like herself again. I'd say she was 100% back to normal, both in personality and as far as swelling goes, by Sunday evening.

So, that was a scary and expensive experience! But I'm so glad she's back to normal now. I'm hoping that this has taught her not to bother snakes — she's a very smart dog (too smart) and she learned from one attempted bite of a toad to never mess with them, so I'm hoping she'll learn from this situation too. I have no idea where the snake is — I hope it isn't still in my yard. I walked everywhere looking for it, but it's possible it's under my shed if it's still back there.

Also, since this is technically Falkor's thread, here are some pics from this weekend.

Falkor chilling in his fleece:

Falkor on my shoulder - gosh he's so big!!

I had a few butterworms and a couple of hornworms that I was going to hand feed as treats and Falkor saw the hornworms (his absolute favorite) and immediately jumped into the bowl before I could do anything about it. So much for hand feeding!

I also set up a basking spot next to my computer so Falkor and I can hang out more:

He likes it a little too much — he's totally uninterested in hanging out on my shoulder when there's heat to be had, haha.

My goal this week is to take him on a couple of short walks around the neighborhood — I want to work on getting him accustomed to new sights and sounds so that he isn't nervous when in new situations. The weather has been rainy, though, so I'm not sure when we'll get to go.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I'm so glad you got Mishu to the vet and got the antivenom for her. Glad to hear she's back to normal and you can only hope that the bite has put her off hunting snakes.

Falcor looks great, really like the lamp by your computer. He sure has grown, too!

 

[onceblue]

Thank you, I am too! I am really surprised at how quickly she bounced back — we didn't give her any pain meds yesterday and she was in perfectly great spirits. I really think the antivenom is what helped her bounce back so quickly.

I can't believe how rapidly Falkor is growing, he had a big growth spurt over the past couple of weeks. He now is just about 14" long and he weighs 146 grams.

Also, he LOVES dandelion greens!!! He didn't eat them at first but I tried the trick of sprinkling some bee pollen powder on them. He ate them up the day I did that and I guess realized he liked them so much, because now he'll eat most of the dandelion greens I leave out for him even without the bee pollen powder. I'm so glad there's a green he likes now.

I am going to keep a list of foods for my own reference:

He officially loves:
Dandelion greens
Red bell pepper (I only give him small pieces for color occasionally)
Carrots (same as above)
Cilantro (I only give a little occasionally)
Blueberry (very rare treat)
Bee Pollen Powder

He'll eat occasionally:
Asparagus (the first day I gave this to him he ate all of it but hasn't shown as much interest lately)
Yellow Neck Squash (hasn't eaten any in a while for some reason)
Mustard/Turnip/Collard Greens (I've only seen him eat them a few times but I still give it - maybe he'll learn to like them like the dandelion greens)

He won't eat (yet):
Butternut Squash
Spaghetti Squash
Acorn Squash
Green Bell Pepper
Raspberries (but I am going to try again because he likes red-colored things)

I have tried but I'm not sure about:
Endive
Escarole

His absolute favorite thing to eat is hornworms though, more than waxworms, more than butterworms, more than anything. I can't believe how crazy he goes for them. He also bites anything that is similarly colored to a hornworm, like a blanket I had him on yesterday that had some aqua-colored squiggly lines. He tried to eat it and was VERY energized about it. And then disappointed when it tasted like blanket.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I'm glad he likes hornworms, they're good for him, have calcium and lots of water. So they hydrate them as well.

That list is wonderful. Did you check out the Nutrition list on www.beautifuldragons.com? Everything on your list in in the list plus at the end there are edible plants and flowers. There is also a store on there, all proceeds go to the rescue the owner operates, I think they just opened a 2nd one. They're in Oregon, I think. Good reading on that site.

He sounds so funny, trying to eat the "hornworms" on the blanket. I'm still laughing at the expression on his face when he spits the blanket out because it tastes like blanket not hornworms :lol:

Dragpn personalities just crack me up :mrgreen:

I'm glad you dog is doing so well, I think it was the anti-venom, too.

 

[onceblue]

That's the list I use! I didn't realize they had a store, though, that's great. I've been in the process of putting together an emergency kit for Falkor just in case something ever happens, like activated charcoal and such, so this is a good resource.

It was hilarious! I wish I got it on video. I'm sure I'll get another chance to catch something like that in the future, he really likes to go after anything hornworm-colored.

I took him on his first walk around my neighborhood yesterday. He did great! Stayed on me the whole time (but he was harnessed, of course, just in case) until the last five minutes...then he decided he wanted to get down to explore. So we went home since he was antsy. I'm glad he did well with all the sights and sounds though.

Falkor is REALLY careful about climbing down things, it's really interesting to me because so many beardies will just jump down from things even if high up. I'm always very careful regardless, but even climbing down from my bed to the floor, which isn't that high, he makes sure he is careful and sort of slides down the wood instead of flinging himself.

 

[sweetiepie9]

He is such a beautiful boy, I love when you post pics of him!

I'm glad he enjoyed the neighbourhood walk and that he's careful getting down from places

 

[onceblue]

Thank you! I'm glad you like the pictures. I take so many. I think my facebook friends are tired of them lol.

I'm so glad he's doing well with being out and about! I'd love to start taking him places, but I'm taking it slow, one step at a time, to get him acclimated.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I know about pictures, they're my most prized possession!

And going slow with him, introducing new things so he can acclimate & not panic, is a great idea!

 

[PogoLover]

Joining in here . . . I went looking to see if you had a Falkor thread - this is what I found - is this the main one? He is so big. Yes - now I have that bed-poop story in perspective. ::shudders:: :lol: I can't wait until Pogo eats real food on her own so I can have a list!

 

[onceblue]

Hello! This is Falkor's main thread - thank you for checking it out!

He IS big lol and his poops are huge for his size (at least, that's the way it seems to me when I have to clean them up!) so I was not all that happy about the poop on the bed. BUT usually he poops in the same spot in his tank where I have some paper towel, so it's usually pretty easy to clean — and so I can't complain too much.

Pogo will get there! Every time I read an update she's progressing more and more. And she has all of us cheering her on!

You know, I was actually thinking about her the other day — have you tried sprinkling a little bee pollen powder on her bugs? I've read that it is recommended to get beardies to eat their veggies so I tried it and ever since sprinkling a little on Falkor's salads, he eats almost all his veggies now, even when there's no bee pollen powder on it. Maybe you can give it a try with Pogo and see if it gets her to eat her bugs?

 

[onceblue]

Oh — I meant to post about this but I forgot. I went to a reptile expo this weekend and met a silkie in person for the first time. I've always thought that silkies look like they'd be weird (i.e. creepy) to pet but she was VERY soft and also incredibly docile, even though I was holding her in a strange place with a lot of commotion going on.

She was so sweet! The guy told me he'd give me a "good deal" on her if I wanted to take her home because he doesn't want to breed/raise silkies anymore (she was his last one), but of course I turned him down. It was tempting! But I'm definitely not ready for another baby right now, especially a silkie that takes a little more effort to raise than a normal. That, and I'm going on vacation in a couple of weeks and I definitely don't want to surprise my pet sitter with ANOTHER pet, haha.

She was so precious, though.

 

[sweetiepie9]

Silkies are beautiful but lot of work because their skin dries out so quickly. I prefer my dragons with scales myself. :mrgreen: