Weekend getaway

[sammyjackson]

Hi, I'm planning a weekend getaway for 4 days. The issue is that I dont know what I'm going to do with my Sammy girl, because the breeder or the herp store where I bought her offers overnight care for $5.00 a day but they will never give her the care a give her at home. They use asper shavings and I use tile , and also I dont know how sanitary are their tanks and I dont want to get her sick. I have a timer on the lights and she is 6 months old so she doesn't eat alot off veggies so my question is , Can I leave her in her tank with sufficient live feeders in a worm safe plate for those days ?

 

[Grixxly15]

She should be fine for 4 days. What I would do is feed her a lot the day you leave before and lower her basking temp a few degrees to keep her a little less active. I would not put in live feeders.

 

[sammyjackson]

Not even if I buy a plate where the worms cant climb out ??

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Do you have anyone that could come to your house and feed her? I personally would not leave a beardie home alone for 4 days, especially one that is 6 mos old. That is just my opinion.

Dawn

 

[lovemybeardies]

Could a friend or relative come in and feed her? I taught a good friend of mine to handle the live feeders and she comes twice daily when I'm out of town to look after my beardies. I have a lot of beardies (lots of rescues) of all ages and I do have to go out of town fairly frequently. Hopefully, you can teach a friend or relative you trust to look after your little one when you take your trips.

 

[Ethelia]

I realise your dilemma, I went through a very similar one myself.
Its one trade off versus the other.
One is not much food, the other is 4 days of woodchips.

Personally I wouldnt leave her at home on timers. Ive done this before and I did nothing but panic the entire time that the timers would break and she'd be freezing or baking hot. I ended up coming home a day early just to check, and then vowing never to do it again.

I would go in to the store and ask to see where your lizard will be kept, if they say "oh its only staff back there" you can tell them that you have the right to see where your dragon will be kept to see if it is humane. Keep it nice and poilte ofc!
If you go and see and find out it does have woodchips I would offer an extra $10 or so to remove the woodchips. Dont start and arguement about why they are fools for having them in the first place, just say its "something silly" you insist on.
Its worth a try after all

Holly

 

[lacy_black]

I'm probably weird, I think of my zoo as my kids, if they can't all go i'm not going either. Aka I'm never gone longer then 4 hrs at a time :lol:

 

[Neromom39]

I know I'm relatively new to this site and usually I am afraid to offer up any advice due to still being inexperienced, but we actually did go out of town a couple of months ago and this is the advice I was given. We followed it to the letter and even though I did worry (I do even when I'm at work), when we got back, Nero had burrowed under his blankie and was waiting for us in tact:

1. 2 days before you leave, "power feed" with protein (as much as they will eat until they stop) and of course veggies
2. The day before you leave turn the lights on as normal but DO NOT turn them off at night, leaving them on almost a full day
3. The day you leave, turn off the lights.

I do not recommend leaving food while you are away, as since the lights will be off, there will not be a direct source of heat for digestion. We do have a heat pad on the viv which kept the temps comfortable. And Nero has been to the vet since that weekend and has had no ill effects.

The only side effect is that if he could have called us every bad name in the book, I think he would have. The look on his face when we got home said it all. :?

I hope this has helped. This site has been wonderful for me and I would like to contribute a little.

-Robin

 

[sammyjackson]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I convinced my sister that lives 20 minutes from home to go and check on her at least 2 days.