This Is Balzor

bayoupig5

Sub-Adult Member
This is especially, but not exclusively for @AHBD and @xp29 .

This is my fifth dragon. I have had two females previously that were raised as babies, and two other dragons that were second hand. All have passed. So now it is a good time to have a crazy baby (at least one more time).

Balzor comes from a local breeder in Kelowna, BC, Canada. He was born May 6, 2022. I brought him home on July 1,2022. Weight at the time I brought him home was 17 grams. I did not get a length. However, today at not quite 4 months old he is 94 grams and almost 13 inches, snout to tail end.

I had taken very detailed records of my first dragon's growth and eating habits. My first dragon Emmalee was a good size she was 18 inches long and a top weight 535 grams, but she was not overweight. Balzor is over 30 grams heavier and over 3 inches longer! We will see if he continues to grow this rapidly.

He is a grumpy dragon...he is always threatening to bite, and in fact leaped from one end of his viv to the other to bite me once when I was replacing his veggies. We are working on taming him everyday, and although he still threatens, he has not got a bite off again...yet, LOL. We will get there.

He is eating well, so far, and eats crickets, phoenix and some dubia. I am throwing greens in his threat pose mouth daily to ensure he gets use to eating them. 98% of the time he will eat them, and once he even ate his whole salad bowl...but only once. He is given salad daily, and has tried escarole, collard, kale, squash, apple, radicchio, arugula, raspberry and watermelon. Doing my best to ensure this one eats his veggies appropriately.

The first pic is the fist week home at about 2 months of age, the second, third and fourth pic are from this week at almost 4 months.
 

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xp29

BD.org Addict
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Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
Oh he is stunning. I can see the attitude even in pics, i love it ..... i want a feisty male so bad.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
Well look at Balzor the scaly little fright. :D He looks great and sounds like he has it really good with you but of course has chosen to be a slightly bratty fellow just to keep you on your toes ! Good to turn the bad habit of threatening with open mouth to a positive by jamming a piece of veg in their. :LOL: Of course I know you are gentle. He will probably settle down when he gets older but yeah, he looks pretty confident in himself right now and enjoying being a little bit of a bossy guy.
 

bayoupig5

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Balzor is big!

I had one itty, bitty baby dragon before Balzor. She was my first and her name was Emmalee. I kept an extensive journal on her with daily records for the first two years of her life. She was a decent sized dragon, so the comparison here is amazing.

Drum roll please....

Emmalee at 4 months 10 inches and 58 grams
Balzor at 4 months 14.5 inches and 139 grams

Emmalee ate well, but Balzor eats more. Another difference was that Emmalee was a Petsmart dragon with dry gangrene, pinworms, and two unidentifiable protozoa. Balzor is breeder bought.

If anyone has weight records up to a year, please post here. Would like to see where other dragons stand.
 

xp29

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Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
I took Chomp and Zen to the vet when they were 4 to 5 months old, the vet asked their age and i told her. She said i was mistaken that they were at least a year old. I showed her a pic of Chomp setting on my index finger with room to spare the day i brought her home. She couldn't believe i got that kind of growth rate. I have since learned thats not a good idea, and will not do that again though. You want to feed them enough to to keep them healthy, but not enough to grow at that kind of pace. Consequently Chomp passed at 3 years old, the vet said she had some kind of rupture in her reproductive system. I have wandered if it was brought on by how fast she got to full size. Zen is still with me at nearly 4 years old now he weights in at just under 1000 grams and 24ish inches long.
 

bayoupig5

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
I took Chomp and Zen to the vet when they were 4 to 5 months old, the vet asked their age and i told her. She said i was mistaken that they were at least a year old. I showed her a pic of Chomp setting on my index finger with room to spare the day i brought her home. She couldn't believe i got that kind of growth rate. I have since learned thats not a good idea, and will not do that again though. You want to feed them enough to to keep them healthy, but not enough to grow at that kind of pace. Consequently Chomp passed at 3 years old, the vet said she had some kind of rupture in her reproductive system. I have wandered if it was brought on by how fast she got to full size. Zen is still with me at nearly 4 years old now he weights in at just under 1000 grams and 24ish inches long.
Wow, that is a massive beardie! Biggest I have heard of.
I am not doing anything to excellerate his growth at all. I give him a salad in the morning (which on most days he does not touch), and then feed him at 5:00 and 7:30.
I doubt it was anything you did to cause that rupture on your Chomp. I have had three female beardies and their reproductive process can be terribly hard on them. This is why I opted for a male this time around. I just could not cope with the egg laying stress, calcium depletion, anorexia, etc.
I have heard of longevity issues in large dragons, but I am not sure what can be done to slow the growth rate, apart from restricting their feeding. However, I have not heard that this is something that should even be considered when raising dragons.
Size is generally genetic, Balzor's dad is quite a large dude.
 

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xp29

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Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
Oh wow he is a good looking dragon.
My dragons were fed 3 times daily until they were very near adult. I should have cut ut back to 2 times or even one early on. I have a one year old now, i haven't fed her the way i did the other two, I've been more careful with the protein, she eats green better and isn't growing as fast. Overall she seems better all the way round.
I get what your saying about females, we have a rehab, she suffered from neglect and improper lighting she is VERY small. She has had two clutches in the last 41/2 weeks. It's a struggle to get her weight good. I'm being super diligent with food and supplements but it's taking it out of her. It's hard to watch, she is super loving and cuddly she actively trys to be with us. She is a level of stress i did not know you could have. But we both love her dearly.
 

bayoupig5

Sub-Adult Member
Original Poster
Yeah. my first dragon was a prolific egg layer and it was hard to keep weight, and calcium on her.

Littlefoot, the one I just lost was really bad too. She laid a clutch 3 weeks after brumation in mid February, then continued to lay one every three weeks until the end of June. She was 10 years old! Needless to say, the constant egg laying, calcium and weight loss, likely did nothing to help with her neurological issue that became very apparent by April. But it was so stressful for her to lay those last 3 clutches, she was black and immobile for 3 days. Very difficult to watch. After 2 females, that were very fertile (and not breeders). I just could not take the stress...hence my Balzor.
 

xp29

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Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
I understand perfectly. Ruby is a gorgeous hypo leatherback, she looks like a lil creamsicle. I would love to have hatchlings from her but she is just so small I'm afraid a male would really hurt her. I hope she doesn't lay again for a while, her appetite has recovered this time as well, if she lays again on the same time line I'm going to have a hard time getting her to a safe weight.
 

Rocky2022

Sub-Adult Member
Beardie name(s)
Rocky, Ruby
Welcome to the family Balzor-
And thank you for your dedication to enhancing the lives of beardies! I read this post, was sad, inspired and scared at the same time LOL
As much as I log everything...poop included, I can't believe I am not consistently logging weight. I have pictures and I measure but don't weigh Rocky nearly enough-which is important.
 

Groggyfroggie

Juvie Member
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Beardie name(s)
Draco
Hi Balzor! Aww he’s a cute but feisty one I can see the attitude from the pics 😄 My 4 months old male also grows super fast, he’s now at 15 inches, but I haven’t been weighing him. It’s kind of unbelievable how much they can grow. Being his owner and seeing him everyday I didn’t even notice it until someone else pointed out how much he’s changed.

Here’s when he first got home (1.5 months old) and now (4 months old)!
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xp29

BD.org Addict
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Beardie name(s)
Zen , Ruby ,Snicker Doodles, Sweet Pea, Sinatra
I love when everyone says they on a beardie :) The truth of the matter is that your beardie owns you lmao :cool:
 

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Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

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