when is too young to separate siblings M & F ?

[kingofnobbys]

Update:
Both 90 days old now (if what I was told by the breeder is right).

Toothless is now 54.6g , gained only 3.5g this week, been off his silkworms most the week as was coming up to a shed. He was up midnight raiding last night at 1am (I was up watching a movie on the *****box and heard him running about and banging away (slamming crickets that had come out and ate all the medium silkworms left in the tub in mulberry leafs in his feeding bowl), I guess his appetite was back - with a vengeance.

Peppa is now 70.2g , gained 9.6g this week. She's becoming very much the smooger , she loves a nice nurse and petting and is very happy being handled by my wife now.

Both are now 5x bigger than when we brought them home....Peppa is 5.05x bigger, Toothless is 4.96x bigger.

Both tracking each others growth on a normalised growth curve very closely.

Big breakthrough in the trust stakes for Toothless tonight, he let my wife pick him up and nurse him in her open hand without needing to restrain him by keeping hold of his tail and seemed to enjoy the petting for over 10 minutes... my wife was very pleased ..... big smiles all round. I think Toothless wanted some attention as he was standing up on his hind legs in the back end of his tub and looking at her while she was doing things in the kitchen and scratching with a front claws to get her attention. He settled immediately after his nurse and patting session.

 

[CooperDragon]

That's great news about Toothless being handled easily. Their growth chart is also nice and steady. Sounds like you're doing a wonderful job with them and they're coming around nicely =)

 

[kingofnobbys]

Weekly growth update:

Toothless
66.6g
gain = 12g
now 6.1x bigger than at 5 weeks old. growing very nicely.

Ran out of med sized silkworm (to 2.5" long) middle of last week so been back onto 2 cricket feeds per day since Wednesday. Polishing off 25x 1/3 sized (medium) crickets per day, only leaving (or loosing) 1 or 2 per day now. Seems to like puk choi , disappeared most his salad and had cut up puk choi greens rather than buk choi as usual.


Peppa
82.8g
gain 12.6g
now 6.0x bigger than at 5 weeks old

Same ration of crickets, but she left most her salad from yesterday, guess she is not so keen on puk choi as she is on buk choi.

Both growing very well. Most pleased.

Both got a treat today, a mealworm each with their crickets, it didn't last long !!!

Time to up the ration of 1/3 crickets each to 30 per day + greens / salad and introduce a blend of softened RepCal juvenile pellets and vetafarm lizard pellets to the mix and to add another couple green veg (peas and green beans maybe).

 

[kingofnobbys]

5 small silkworms each handfed to Peppa and to Toothless with their morning insect feed.... disappeared the little silkworms very fast....

size

Perfect size for Peppa and Toothless now.

Didn't need to encourage either to eat them, simply placed one on my shirt where they could see it and it was snapped up almost immediately.... my wife enjoyed hand feeding a couple of silkworms to each and was impressed at how daintily both Peppa and Toothless took the silkworms off her finger, think she was scared they'd bite her by accident. HUGE grin on her dial ....

 

[kingofnobbys]

8 more small silkworms each with their salad/greens and 10 medium crickets this evening.

The silkworms didn't seem to last long once they discovered them in their fooddish (on the bits of mulberry leaf).

 

[CooperDragon]

Those silkworms look nice. Do you have any difficulty getting mulberry leaves? It seems more common over here to get the chow mix and cook it up as needed.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Those silkworms look nice. Do you have any difficulty getting mulberry leaves? It seems more common over here to get the chow mix and cook it up as needed.

I can only find a couple small very scrawny poorly leaved mulberry trees in my neighbourhood , with branches hanging over fences over the footpath, not game to take leaves off these as I'm unsure if it would be regarded as stealing and I don't know the people who live where these trees are. The other issue is I don't know if they have treated their trees with insecticides or anything that might be toxic to the silkworms or my lizards. So best to leave them alone if in doubt.

When I was kid , mulberry trees were very common in backyards and on farms and in public parks. Loved the mulberries straight of the tree (we'd harvest them from a neighbour's big ancient old tree - was a big tree - would easily cover my entire front yard). Mom would also make mulberry tarts, cakes, pies and jams. Was common to bring home 2 or 3 big plastic buckets full of ripe mulberrys. Thems were the days.
Not so common now, but more and more people are getting into growing their own berries, herbs, veg, salad greens and fruit in their backyards (where they have a backyard that is) some people have 2 or 3 different types of mulberry tree in their mini-orchard/fruit/berry garden.

I've got a 1 year old white mulberry sapling and 1 year old black hicks mulberry cutting , both in pots , but not got many leaves on them and it'll be a LONG time before they are big enough to get many berries off or many leaves off .... I might not live that long.

So - I have silkworm chow as a standby and I've been buying leaves in bulk from a lady who also raises silkworms as a cottage industry (I bought my 1st 2 batches of silkworms for this year off her), and she tells me she knows of a public park in Penrith (?) where there is a grove of very large ancient mulberry trees , she harvests the leaves from these - no one objects as they are public council property and she charges me $5 per big freezer bag full of leaves. The postage is more than the price of the leaves when I buy a batch of 3 bags of leaves. Still works out better than cooking up chow.

I like the leaves more than chow , less wastage , and they are good greens for the beardies and bluetongues too if they happen to get a bit of leaf when they gobble down on a worm.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Both shedding today , Toothless on the tail, Peppa on the hind legs/feet/toes.

Both a bit grumpy and Toothless left his silkworms but ate all the crickets and salad.
Peppa prefers the silkworms , none left , but found 4 crickets hiding this morning.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Weekly update :
Both in shed the last few days.

Toothless has gained 16g this week , now 82.6g and 7.5x bigger than his starting weight at 5wks old.

Peppa has gained 17.6g this week, now cracked 100g at 100.4g ya !!! go Peppa !!! , and now 7.2x bigger than she was at 5wks old.

Toothless is growing just a little faster than Peppa on the normalized growth chart.

Been giving 25x 1/3 size crickets each +/- 2 each day + 6 medium silkworms (2") each + salad (grated carrot + chopped puk or buk choi) per day split between 2 meals. Neither are leaving more than 2 or 3 crickets (only because they were hiding) .

==> time to up the cricket ration to 30x 1/3 size crickets each per day and up the silkworm ration to 8 medium silkworms per day each. Next bulk order will be upped from 2x small tubes (2x 200x) of 1/3 size crickets to 1x medium tube (800x) of 1/3 sized crickets.

size of my hatched silkworms now.

Wont be long and Peppa and Toothless will be big enough to handle 2/3 sized crickets and large (3") silkworms.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Some candid shots of the spikey kiddies ...

Peppa on dad's tummy

Peppa "Yum ! silkworms and a side salad .... eh .... what's that flashy thing up there ?"

Toothless " I'm so full ...."

 

[CooperDragon]

They're looking really great. Growing up so quickly!

 

[kingofnobbys]

They're looking really great. Growing up so quickly!

Too fast ....

Our 5 year old grandson will really notice the difference in them next weekend when he comes here a for weekend sleep-over with granny and pop. Not seen him since Xmas and he's been pestering his mother and step dad to bring him to visit pop and the lizards.

We spoil him rotten when he's here too, and he gets all sorts of treats.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Today, another couple of breakthroughs

Toothless decided he's quite happy to be nursed by mom and Peppa discovered a new spot with a great view.

Toothless chilling on mom for the 1st time

Peppa's turn

Peppa's new spot, thinks it's the bee's knees

 

[anastasia6988]

Aww, so cute seeing seeing their progress. They sure do grow fast don't they!?

 

[kingofnobbys]

Toothless has been a real grump the last few days, he Is shedding again, and has decided he no longer wants silkworms , point blank refused to eat them when I'm hand feeding him, was even more grumpy this morning as I ran out of crickets last night ( this rarely happens ) and he was forced to eat silkworms or some mealworm beetles or just have some greens and salad.
After much cajoling I managed to get one medium silkworm into him straight after giving him my very last surviving medium cricket, he was getting frustrated and angry with me , and I was getting frustrated so into his tub he went with some more beetles and some Exo-Terra soft adult beardie pellets mixed with is grated carrot and cut up buk choi, he hit that salad immediately, not sure if he ate any pellets (only have these as an emergency food).

Wound up sending my wife up to the mega-mall at Charlestown with instructions to buy 2 or 3 tubs of crickets to tie us over in case the bulk order of 1/3 and 2/3 size crickets is a no show today (was a no show ... but only occasionally gets here as early a Wednesday, usually arrives Thursday , and sometimes it's not here til Friday).
I had to stay at home in case the order arrived , JIC , plus I've other deliveries (dressings etc) expected to come soon too.

Toothless couldn't get at the crickets (15 mediums) quick enough, were all gone in no time, Peppa , took a while to notice her's (only 10 since she'd had a big feed of silkworms) but she also enjoyed them.
And if I'm lucky he'll eat one or two silkworms overnight MAYBE. But least he leaves no crickets and virtually licks the food dish clean of salad.

Wasn't such a grump in the wee small hours this morning when he suddenly woke up and was looking at me and scratching away at the corner of his tub wanting out for snuggles from dad though, loved his snuggling on my chest under my cupped hand ,and refused several attempts to go back to bed , so I could go to bed too (at 3am).... just as well I'm retired.

Peppa on the other hand loved her silkworms and polished off 4 medium silkworms as soon I offered them. She loves them.


Bit disappointed that the crickets had absolutely no food or carrot in their tubs, fortunately I only found one dead cricket. (Supposed to have been delivered this morning by Piscus .... mmm .... typical pet shop .... they'll tell you anything to get a sale ... more likely they have been sitting on a shelf since their last delivery last week sometime).