Wadewin the Resilient

I'm pretty sure the people around me are about ready to choke me so that I shut up about my beardie, so keeping a Beardie Tales "diary" seems prudent to getting my ramble on without driving my friends and colleagues to homicide. If I'm doing anything wrong, please feel free to correct me! I just want my little boy to be happy and healthy.

Name: Wadewin, aka Wade
Namesake: Wade Winston Wilson
Date of birth: 17 May 2015
Adopted: 15 November 2015

Lighting: 18" Reptisun 10.0 UVB + ZooMed 150 watt basking bulb
Enclosure: 36" wide x 17" tall x 18.5" deep with two slate tiles, a shallow water dish, a food dish, a couple of rocks for climbing on/over, a crocodile skull for more climbing fun, and colourful backdrops on three sides. I'm waiting to get wood for climbing on until I next visit my parents, as they've got various selections waiting for me, so it seemed better to bake and use those rather than dropping like $50 buying them online and not being able to pick the shapes.
Temperature: 98º-105ºF on the basking side, 80º-90ºF on the cool side using both a wall thermometer (it came on the tank) and sporadic checks with an infrared gun. The lights are on from about 7am until 6:30 or 7pm, at which point I take him out to hang out and socialize and clean his cage, and then I turn the lights on again when I put him back for another hour or two.
Feed: 5-15 dubia roaches daily or every other day, crickets daily; salad of mustard greens and collard greens daily; a little bit of sporadic fruit (oranges, apples, strawberries) or kale every other day
Supplements: Rep-Cal Herptivite Multivitamin with Vitamin D3 + Zoo Med Calcium with Vitamin D3 - mixed with his salad or crickets
Loves: Cuddling, digging, roaches.
Hates: Being woken up, being put back in his tank, being in the bath for more than two minutes, and apparently, fresh salad. :\

Personality:
- Like mother like son: he hates being woken up early, he hates hydrating, he loves to snuggle my neck, and proteins are his favourite thing.
- I haven't seen him go black beard or hiss yet, but every morning when I turn on his lights, he comes out of his hideyhole, lifts his head, and goes a little grey at me, the sulky thing. Every night when I put him back in his tank after cuddling and hanging out, he goes grey at me again before eating dinner and slinking off to his corner to sleep.

I wonder if anyone keeps multiple enclosures for their beardie in different locations? One of the big appeals of Wade for me was that he liked to stay clinging to people as they wandered about their business day to day, and I definitely wanted one that was well-socialized. He came from a breeder who has kids and other pets, so he's very used to being out and about in bustling activity. Unfortunately, I'm at work eleven hours a day and go away for a weekend or two every month, and when I get home he immediately clambers up my arm and clings to my neck, so I'm worried about him getting bored or lonely. I was thinking of keeping a second tank for him at work (it's been approved by my employer already; I lucked out with a nice, wide cubicle in the very back of the office and nobody to share it with) and a third at my parents' house when I have to go help them; I wouldn't bring him with me to work every day, as I don't want to overtax him, but I was thinking two or three times a week? Does this seem okay, given how sociable he is, or still too much? The breeder thought it would be fine so long as he stays warm, given his particular temperament, but I just wanted to get a second/third/fourth/etc opinion before putting the money and energy into all of that...

 

[Esther19]

I took my Cissy to school with me every day. She liked it. I just couldn't run multiple errands on the way home; just 1 quick stop because I didn't want to leave her in the car with the extremes in weather that we have. Her coloring was remarkably similar to Wadewin's.

 

[TeddyLC]

Ah, good to know! I've seen people walk around with their beardies here before, but of course just because you see someone do it doesn't mean it's good for them, so I thought I'd best check.

 

[Esther19]

I had a duplicate set-up for Cis at school, so she was warm under her lights except during the drive and while being held. Folks do take them out around when the weather is warm enough.

 

[TeddyLC]

Yeah, I was worried about how cold it can get here, but the breeder said that if I kept him bundled up in a small animal carrier for the duration of the commute with some heated blankets, he'd be fine until I reached the office and could put him into his tank properly. I think he's been really lonely being home by himself all day after he used to be in a tank with his sisters at the breeder's, where they'd all hang out together - he's been really sluggish when I get home, although he perks up when I take him out of his tank and then doesn't want to go back into it. I can't wait until next summer, when I can take him out for long walks in the sun!

Some new photos of my little scalebaby:

Such a pretty face!

Dinnertime!

He wouldn't go to bed in his hide last night. He just flopped out with his face pushed against the front corner of the tank, one eye watching me. So I took him out to take a nap on me for an hour or so. After a few minutes of hanging out on my shoulder, he crawled into my hood, stuck his face in my hair again, and slept there.

 

[TeddyLC]

Sometimes, when Wade goes for a roach, he drops them. Worse, he never chases them. I discovered exactly how much he's been doing that when I cleaned out his tank this weekend top to bottom and lifted a slate tile to discover like forty roaches living underneath it.

That was an unfortunate discovery. I almost dropped the tile.

After catching them all and putting them in my new roach enclosure (made out of one of those 1lb AromaSeal Folger's containers, since I'm only storing them, not breeding them), I knew I had to come up with a new method to get Wade to eat, and eat more accurately. He won't eat when he's climbing around on me, I think because he's too intent on exploring (or sleeping), so I started offering him roaches one by one on a small spoon, flipped over on their backs so they can't immediately escape. I expected to need to coax him to eat like this slowly over time, but nope - he seems to like this method quite a lot, eating between 7 - 11 roaches of various sizes, per feeding, once or twice a day. Some days, he just won't eat before I leave for work, so I'll feed him some roaches when I get home, then offer him a second dinner an hour before bedtime so he has time to bask and digest a bit. I always try to feed him bigger roaches first so that if he decides he's bored of eating, he's had more protein than he would have gotten with just some of the small ones. I think he also just doesn't notice the little ones a lot of the time, as sometimes I'll put several little roach offerings away, offer him a medium-sized one, and he'll eat that. That's fine, though; it gives the little ones more time to eat and grow.

He's been more sedentary in his tank lately, mostly just staying in his hide between short basks rather than walking around. On the other hand, he's been more active while climbing around on me, and now that I've had him for two weeks, I've started letting him walk around my apartment. I always monitor him when he does, and two-thirds of the time he just goes for somewhere new to burrow (the other third of the time, he goes for the glass door to the back). So I feel like maybe he's just incredibly bored in his tank?

 

[TeddyLC]

Wade has started his first shed since I got him! It began with a band at the base of his tail, spread to the left side of his mouth, then moved onto the right side and a little bit at the back of his neck.

I gave him an extra thorough bath last night, and while he still fought it in the beginning, once I had the warm water coming down right on his neck where the shed is just beginning, he calmed down. I'm hoping this helps him come around to bathtime being a good thing...

He refused to eat hardly anything the first day of his shed, but he ate properly yesterday and was a pig this morning. My only regret with him is that I didn't start a colony months before getting him. :shock: I can't wait for him to be on fewer proteins and more salad. So far, I've spent in the last three weeks on his food:

~$3 for collard greens
~$3 for mustard greens
~$10 for 100 small roaches via Amazon
~$30 for 150 medium roaches via the petshop north of me
~$7 for 50 small/medium roaches via the petshop south of me
= $53 on food alone for three weeks of food. I don't think I would have spent $53 worth of food on me if I hadn't gone to the pub with a friend!

He was very active last night. I had him running around on my floor for a while after giving him a bath and letting him bask for a while, and he always tries to burrow into all the corners, the tighter the better. I've been thinking of buying a supply of superworms to supplement his roaches just for a change in flavour, but I'm worried that he'll get addicted to the superworms and not want the roaches as much, given how he wasn't eating very well when I first got him. He climbs on me less now that I've got him running around in my room, though. :lol: But he flails less when I pick him up, so that's good. I've discovered that he doesn't give a rip what the rest of his body is doing so long as his arms have something to hold onto, which has led to a few hilarious moments of him being lazy about his hind legs. If I didn't see him running around just fine every night, I'd wonder if something were wrong with them with how he doesn't care what they're doing or how they're flopped.

 

[CooperDragon]

I'm glad to hear he's eating so well now! The feeding costs will go down eventually. It hurts for 6 months or so but then isn't too bad at all. You can get veges that you eat too and make smoothies and salads. The rest can go to bugs. You can still start a colony of roaches in a 20g tank if you want. He'll probably keep up with them for the most part. I'd just set aside a handful from one of your orders and let them do their thing. I found that letting the roaches climb around on a screen top made for a fun way to offer them as food. It's fairly interactive, like a real game of ant crusher. Worth a try anyway. It's good that he's getting time to roam the house and explore. My guys always loved that too. It was fun to watch them learn how to negotiate the stairs. They loved looking out the window too. Providing time to interact outside the tank is a good idea and (in my opinion) will be beneficial for Wade.

 

[TeddyLC]

Yeah, I knew when I got him that he'd be right at the age where his dietary needs would be the most expensive, but $50 for three weeks still blew me away! I do eat mustard greens and collard greens, and my guinea pig shares the mustard greens, but we're more of an onion/kale/chives/spicy-peppers household, and I'm of the understanding that onions, chives and hot peppers are bad for beardies and kale should be given in moderation.

I'm glad he's eating well now, too! His stool is still a little watery, and he only defecates about once a week, but otherwise he seems to be hardy and growing well. Roaches on a screen sounds like a fun exercise! I showed Wade a video of himself on my phone yesterday, and he tried to lick the screen - lol. We'll see if he un-lazies a little about chasing prey on a screen, given that he's too lazy to chase them in his tank. If he'll be eating a lot of roaches for a good 6mo or more, I may start a small colony, yeah - I just found a semi-local roach breeder who is selling off part of their colony, including both male and female adults, so I was thinking of hopping on that train and getting just a couple of females and one male to tide us over until the larger of the too-big-to-currently-eat roaches reach maturity. Is there any downside for them to keep eating a lot of proteins as adults? Or do they just usually choose not to?

I look forward to him getting a little bigger so I stop worrying that he's going to wind up under furniture where I can't get to him. =\ I've got a sectional couch that is ridiculously heavy to move, and he's already an avid burrower and digger. I take him out of his tank every day, and I've been trying to let him roam freely for at least a little bit every other night or so. My windowsills are currently covered in potted plants and the weather has been miserable so the glass is freezing cold, but come spring, I'll be tidying it all up so he can sit up there and look out more.

 

[CooperDragon]

They naturally eat less as they get older and their diet is *supposed* to lean vegetarian as adults based on reading I've done and speaking with vets. I think this has to do with them not needing the extra protein to grow and offering excess bugs can make them put on an unhealthy amount of weight. Bugs can still be around 20% of the diet though so I'd feed bugs every 2-3 days as an adult using the all he wants in 10 minutes rule. That should be enough to keep a small colony in check at least for a while. My colony has gone pretty much untouched for over a year now and while it's grown quite a bit, it still fits in a 20g long tank without a problem.

 

[TeddyLC]

Great - thank you so much!

 

[TeddyLC]

Well, I just got back from a two-week trip out of town to find that Wade was being a butt and not eating again. I also got back to find that my petsitter forgot to feed the roaches anything, so about 40 of them died... that one was a really nasty shock. Even nastier, due to not eating, Wade noticeably lost weight. He's also shedding like crazy right now - about half of his back was hanging off of him when I picked him up - so I attributed his lack of appetite to that at first.

I did some experimenting yesterday, however, and found that the root of the problem is not actually the shedding. Wade has plenty of appetite for salad or roaches - but he is rejecting anything that is dusted with his supplements. As soon as he... sees? smells?... detects that powder, he completely loses interest in all food and turns his head away. But no powder? BAM, he's snatching up that bug like he's starving. Which he probably was after refusing to eat for several days. I've been able to tentatively get him to eat two or three roaches with the supplements at the start of dinner, but then he won't touch them after that unless they're completely powder-free...

His stool also continues to be quite wet, but from what I gather while scouring through photos of beardie stool, it's still the good kind of wet. Aside from the one diarrhea scare, his stool maintains shape and the urate isn't too big or hard; there's just a lot of fluid released with it.

I gave him a nice, warm bath the night I got back. He still hates baths, but he likes how water feels when it's running right over where he's shedding. He lost several chunks of loose skin that night after drying off under his heat lamp, so now I have a neat collection of sheets of scales starting. There's still one big patch left, but he otherwise already looks much better. My poor baby...

In my latest batch of medium roaches, one enormous roach accidentally got included. That's... cool, I guess? Actually, one or two of my previously-medium roaches have also far exceeded what's safe for Wade to eat, so I guess it looks like I may wind up with a few breeders after all, if their sexes are appropriate. O_O; Guess I'm gonna have to start looking into a separate enclosure once the overly large nymph matures enough to be sexed...

 

[TeddyLC]

Wade's back to a nice body weight now. I keep forgetting to actually weigh him, now that I have a scale, but no matter - he feels nice and solid and sturdy again, and he no longer has all those side wrinkles he developed when he lost so much weight from refusing to eat. He's also eating roaches dusted with supplements again, just so long as it's not too much of the supplements.

I got him wax worms this week as a treat to see how he liked them. The answer is "meh." He definitely doesn't like them cold, but once they warm up he'll give a few a chomp before getting bored. He likes them more than he liked crickets, but overall, he doesn't go for them with the gusto that I've seen other dragons exhibit. He really just seems to favour his roaches and his salads. Okay. That works just fine for me.

I've been experimenting with different ways to feed him. I can't just dump them in the smooth porcelain bowl and let him at them, because he's actually too lazy to chase after them - he'll just stare until they start escaping, eat a couple, and then stare some more, like he's overwhelmed. For a while I was spoon-feeding him roaches one at a time, but they he started missing and dropping them too often, and they'd get away. I don't want to encourage him being a lazy eater, though, so I started just taking out one of the egg cartons and holding it up, and that seems to be working great. He gets attracted to the way they all scurry around and will lunge for them, so it's like he's got an illusion of hunting for his prey.

I've decided to try and start a roach colony after all, even if I'm a bit late in the game. I'd previously decided not to based on his age (and my boyfriend really hating roaches), but holy god, Wade's appetite for roaches just picks up. He can easily eat 15+ roaches in one meal twice a day lately (now that he's done shedding), and given that 50 roaches cost $10 and the pet shop takes almost an hour to get to, heck noooo--! Dang. Wow. So I got another container, soldered some ventilation holes all over the top, and transferred my immediate supply of 200 medium-sized roaches to there, reserving the smaller container for the four females and two males I picked up this weekend along with a few of the larger nymphs that will probably be breeding age in a month or two, based on their sizes, and some nymphs that won't be mature for a few months but are to large for Wade to eat anyway. I've got some items on my shopping list for this week to blend into chow - oatmeal, dog food, and fish flakes to blend with the plain Cheerios and alfalfa pellets I always keep around, to be supplemented by their usual fresh greens every other day and periodic orange or apple slices. I forgot to pick up a heating pad, though. =\ So right now their temp is staying at around 75º, which I know is low. But I actually don't want to encourage my current batch of nymphs to grow quickly, given that they're already right about the max size that Wade should be eating if I follow the "space between his eyes" rule...

 

[CooperDragon]

I hope your colony thrives. 75 isn't bad. My colony is in the basement at around 65 at the moment (80s in their housing over the heat pad). They grow quickly but not THAT quickly. My colony is doing well but even after about a year and a half of not being messed with they are still in a 20g long tank. They do well on just veg scraps. They go bananas for slices of squash, oranges, and carrot. They'll pick away at celery and even an onion too. They aren't very picky.

 

[TeddyLC]

Thank you! I hope so, too! Everything I've been reading has been saying that they breed best at around 90º especially when they're first starting to establish, so I did worry that it might be a bit chilly for them to get going... Currently I just feed them veggie scraps and plain Cheerios with water crystals, but I want to make sure that the adults, at least, have ample food to start off with, just in case. Mostly I keep kale, collard greens, and mustard greens, and sporadic oranges, apples, and bananas depending on what's on sale at the store. They don't tend to like the mustard greens very much - I always have to throw most of the leaves out - although they eat the rest just fine.