The REAL Slim Shady! (Anniversry Edition!!)

Hey all! I just got my beardie, Slim, a few days ago. My dad called him Slim Shady as a joke and it stuck!

I thought I'd keep a diary-type thing here like many of you seem to do. Every day I get so excited about him, I want to keep some kind of log of his growth. I also want to eventually post a picture of the underside of his tail to get some help sexing him.

Day 1, 11/24/12: Taking him home in a Kritter Keeper. I wanted him to come around on his own, so I put the box he came in in the Keeper and let him come out gradually during the car ride.

He's so adorable, and a little rascal, too! Here are some other pics of him during our first week together:

Cuddling with mommy!

Like the poster child for cuteness.

Sleepy time!

"Check out my sexy curves!"

Loving his new hammock.

The first day he didn't eat much, being new to his environment and all. It took a few days, but by day two or three he was wolfing down crickets like it was his day job. He's still warming up to me, very very slowly, but today I saw lots of progress! I dipped a few mealworms in some baby food (I know mealworms aren't ideal, but the store is out of crickets and I'm waiting on a shipment still) and fed them to him, then actually got him to lick some off my finger! He loves Gerber's organic squash baby food... it's just organic squash and water.

He's still not entirely trusting of me... unless I have food in my hands, of course. But hopefully this thread evolves to include more good news about him coming around. :love5:

 

[Dreamwritten]

Thanks for your input, Ryback! I'll definitely look into it. And I'm sorry to hear about your beardies. :'( I'm glad you made the right decision though.

Here are some more pictures of my handsome little boy. Even the vet said he was "attractive" ! :wink:

We've been having quite the photo shoots lately...

Our new weekend routine when we're home alone... cuddle in the morning sun on the couch!

These are what I can only assume to be his "let me out!" pleas... although he just sits there when I open the doors.

Playtime!

(He hates that Ronald McDonald... it's the only thing I've ever seen him attack other than crickets and worms.)

I'm convinced that he's the master of the sexy leg.

Hope you all had a good weekend!!

 

[ryback]

Thanks finding them a good home as good as ours is going to be tough. Great photos and your guy has attracting colors as well. Sorry he doesn't like his toy kids will be kids lol. Something never tried but cuddling seems fun. Hope you have weekends like this one in the future weekends to come. Take care good bye....

 

[Dreamwritten]

My baby has parasites!!!

So, although the vet said he's healthy in all other respects, Slim's fecal exam came back today and showed moderate levels of both Coccidia and pinworms.

I'm going to pick up the meds tomorrow. Any advice? I wanna cry for the poor baby

 

[Strawburriez]

Those photos are so adorable! He is quite the sexy legger, I must say. ;3 He's also turning out to be a really colorful boy, and big too. Cuddle time is best time! I'm not overly fond of Ronald McDonald myself. x3 Sorry to hear about the coccidia and pinworms- at least it's not too bad yet! I'm sure he'll be just fine, he still looks like a happy baby. c: I need to get Paarty in for a fecal and to get his talons trimmed. . . He's never had one, because the nearest reptile vet is about an hour away, but since he won't let me trim his claws, it seems we're finally going to have to make that trip. I'm sure he'll hate me for it, but oh well. I have never seen any signs of parasites or any sort of disease, but it will be good to check and make sure.

Anyway, I wish you and Mr. Slim lots of warm beardie snuggles. :3

 

[Dreamwritten]

Thank you!! Yeah, I was really betting he had none because he's got such a lovely white belly and never had overly smelly poop. but apparently he's got 'em, so I'm starting him on some meds! I ordered a bottle of Acidophiliz+ overnight shipping in case he has a hard time with them.

 

[Dreamwritten]

Also, this was just too good not to post:

He thinks he's a Skyrim Jaarl!

 

[jezwolf175]

Omg that is waaay too cute.

 

[ohmybandit]

Aw! It's like he's sitting with a mean mug on haha

 

[Dreamwritten]

So here is the information that I shared with Ohsmileb, who is being an awesome help in this Coccidia thing. I figured I'd post it here and create a thread in the Health section to get as much advice as possible.

The doctor gave me 5 doses of 1.5 ML of Albon, one dose per week... does that sound like a typical cycle?

My mom is being a huge help in this. Basically what we did last night (the night before his first Albon dosage, which I gave him this morning) was: disassemble his tank, soak everything that could be soaked in the bathtub with a 1:16 ammonia:water solution for a half hour including the tank itself, rinse everything SUPER thoroughly, and leave all the furnishings out of the tank. We put the tank and the lighting back, and his hammock. We put newspaper down and then paper towel over it to hopefully prevent any feces or urates from seeping through to the tank below, and my mom (who, I swear, is a friggin genius at problem solving) brought home tons of unused disposable cardboard trays, food take-out boxes, etc from her job to use as dishes, climbing stuff, and all that. That way we can literally just throw stuff out and replace it and just repeat the tank-cleaning process hopefully only once or twice per week besides spot cleaning.

As for the stuffies, blanket, etc, I'm soaking the blanket and repticarpet once he's all cured and putting them through a hot rinse/dry cycle in the machine with the stuffies. That'll be a while from now though, so I have all that stuff bagged up along with his wood pieces which will be soaked and baked once he's healthy again.

I'll also be buying that pink disinfectant from Beardedragon.co today, and my Acidophiliz+ came in the mail yesterday. My only concern is that he wouldn't eat this morning so I had to give him the medicine on an empty stomach and leave him food in a bowl. He got some Acidophiliz+ and a big serving of phoenix worms last night, though, so hopefully that prepped his little tummy...

Sigh, this is so unfair. I can't believe the amount of time and money that go into keeping these poor things, but that isn't even my main concern. I'm mostly worried that all these environment changes will stress him and make him more susceptible to the parasites!

 

[Dreamwritten]

What I've been doing to make sure he gets ALL of his medication (and stay hydrated) is give him the syringe, fill it with a bit of water to catch whatever medication is left and give him that. Is that okay/advisable?

 

[ryback]

What I've been doing to make sure he gets ALL of his medication (and stay hydrated) is give him the syringe, fill it with a bit of water to catch whatever medication is left and give him that. Is that okay/advisable?

That actually seems like a good idea. I used Albon before and another can't spell it sorry. Just make sure he eats something before meds given. If not syringe feeding some baby food squash and can mix with the stage 1 turkey/chicken food if you can find it. Albon is a bacteria killer good and bad bacteria gets wiped out so acidophiliz is great after meds are done taken. Everything your doing is great for the cure. With Albon parasites sometimes are overwhelming even the pinworms. May take another treatment with more of the meds being closer together. I hope your next fecal float is clear but is a pain in the butt. Only had one beardie with no parasites but is my newest one. You learn from mistakes reason I don't feed crickets I don't trust them and rinse greens even after they say they been. I can go on and on with preventing parasites. With everything your doing kinda get used to it unless you can get your beardie to poop in his bath. I don't recommend repticarpet washed it a bunch of times and has same odor. That and there nails get stuck seen it happen with the pulling of the carpet. I enjoy the shelf liner non adhesive has helped me out so much with time. I will come back and see if am any help to ya. My two little ones are going nuts right now. Need my attention or sometime don't think they like being alone.

 

[Dreamwritten]

Slim's been a bit lethargic and not very hungry. I hate what the Albon and Panacur are doing to him. I'm cleaning his tank and replacing his disposable cardboard furniture / paper towel and newspaper bedding daily, and spot cleaning where necessary. I'm going to do the thorough ammonia tank cleaning twice per week.

Until he gets better, I figured it'd be the best for him to spend some time out of his tank so he's not in an enclosed environment, so I set up a cute basking spot just outside his tank for when I'm on my laptop or playing video games:

I'm super paranoid about those command hooks failing and him getting hurt from the basking lamp, but I've wiggled them a few times and they seem content where they are. Im just scooting him out of the lamp's direct path just in case.

I figured I'd steal the UVB thing from Ohsmileb... I saw a little spot like this in Bandit's thread! This will be good for him anyway... since I have a reflector hood I usually keep it outside his tank, over the mesh, but I don't know if he's getting enough UVB that way. He was never lethargic before the meds so I know it isn't a D3 deficiency. Either way, this will ensure he gets at least some time with full-on UVB per day...

Also, ignore the wrinkles. I've been keeping him hydrated but he seems to be losing a bit of weight from his decreased appetite...

 

[ohmybandit]

How are you two doing? How's the coccidia problem going? Hope you're not stressing out too! That set up you "stole" ( ) is a good way to train your dragon not to run away. Bandit only stays in that area when she's out. I can leave the room for about 15 min, come back and she'll still be there It's nice, she never lets me get too far away too. She heard me talking in the kitchen to my mom and my boyfriend was watching her and she took off after me and ran to my feet


Also, I looked at your thread a page back about phoenix worms.... Don't dust phoenix worms but if you're feeding crickets make sure you're still dusting them. Dusting the phoenix worms will overdose your beardie on calcium.

Spoken by the phoenixworm man himself, http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=178497&p=1437368#p1437368

 

[Dreamwritten]

Hey B, thanks so much for checking up on us!

I've been doing twice-per-week thorough ammonia cleanings, swapping out all of his disposable paper/cardboard "furniture" and bedding daily, and I just got the professional pink disinfectant from bd.co that I can use to spot clean whenever he poos in the tank. So I'm golden in terms of keeping the viv clean. My biggest stress factor is his appetite...

Whereas Bandit ate like there was no tomorrow, Slim is barely interested in food. When he does eat, he's oddly enough more interested in freeze-dried crickets than live phoenix worms. He won't eat his veggies, not even baby food.

Today was a good example. He ate maybe 8-10 freeze-dried crix this morning and refused his veggies and PWs... I gave him the acidophiluz after (which he FREAKED out over, he's really starting to hate syringes... he flew off the countertop and onto the tile floor, which made me scream cause I was worried about him hurting himself, which stressed him more in the process). Then he burrowed under his blanket and slept most of the day as if he were brumating. I just got him to eat about 2 or 3 freeze dried crix now, alongside 2 or 3 phoenix worms, but he won't eat any more. He's also yet to poop since the day before yesterday, but I guess there isn't much to pass if he's barely eating.

I've been bathing him daily to every other day to keep him clean and hydrated... I even got him the bd.co baby fresh soap to keep him squeaky clean and smelling nice.

I'm just stressed because he's very obviously losing weight. He was 141g when the vet weighed him a little over a week ago and I wouldn't be surprised if he were much lighter now. I don't know what to do. I would get him the critical care but I doubt he'll eat any standing food... he won't even eat live, wriggling worms out of his bowl; he waits until I come to hand feed him and even then only eats a few things here and there after a lot of enticing...

I tried force-feeding him some baby food the other day but he hated me for it, and I think I read somewhere that you shouldn't force feed them when they're brumating, so even though he isn't (he's only about 5-6 months) I figured I should stick to those rules since he's acting as if he is. I've been forcing the acidophiluz daily, though, and more than the recommended 3 drops as you said.

So yeah, that's about it I noticed he's super energetic when I let him out of his tank, though, and I figured my best bet to keep the tank (and him) clean is to keep him out of it as much as possible, so I'm keeping him in his "outside" basking spot with me whenever I play video games.

 

[BlueDragon09]

I like the cute basking area you made.
Mine gets a vet check up tomorrow.
I just decided to check up on you and your baby.