Sarah_GC
New Member
Hi all,
apologies in advance for what will probably be a long post.
I'm looking for some advice for my Inland Beardie, as there are a few problems I have tried to solve myself and haven't had any luck as yet.
I purchased the dragon mid-last year. I bought her from a python breeder,
python breeder being the operative words here...the setup was completely inadequate for a beardie. I'm sure he's an excellent python keeper but even the most newbie lizard keeper could see that this animal's needs were not being met.
I was told *she* was five years old, the python keeper was the second owner.
The tank had a household lightglobe in one end (god only knows why...light to see the
tank maybe?) and a ceramic heater on the other end. So the poor thing couldn't even bask and had no UV. Unless, and I pray this is the case, the seller swapped out the expensive globes before he sold me the setup. (goodbye another $120 when I pop into the pet store the next day holding his stupid household globes in disgust and leave with the proper UV and basking lights). There was nothing to climb on and no substrate.
The dragon has HUGE femoral pores so to my eyes is a male. But it has a female name so I'll just call it she. /more femoral pores in a sec.
So. My first problem is, her diet.
After the first week I began to notice she was the fussiest dragon eater I've ever been in contact with in my life. I tried her on everything we used to feed to dragons at the zoo, then everything my bluetongue likes, then everything the internet suggested, then I went back to the petshop and asked the herp guy there - his suggestion was egg (wont touch it, even though every other lizard I've seen goes nuts for egg), berries (we'll get to that) and withholding insects until she eats vegetables. I tried offering different vegies every day for a week before I got scared that she was just getting too underweight and gave in, and fed her insects. She only hand-feeds (except livefoods), wont touch anything from a bowl and is just too unco for forceps, and wont drink even from a dropper. It just seems like the previous owners only ever fed her crickets and she can't seem to move on from that.
This is a list of food items we have tried:
insects - all - no probs, loves any livefood.
pineapple - always accepts but I know it's not great for her so I only offer occasionally
banana, strawberries, blueberries - same
bok choy - will accept occasionally
stonefruit, grapes - ditto
endive, rocket, kale etc - has accepted before but I just got sick of buying a whole bunch and throwing it away after she ate one or two leaves
butternut pumpkin, zucchini, hibiscus, clover - has accepted before
paw paw, passionfruit, mango, apple, carrot, capsicum, basil, baby spinach, dandelion, sultanas (ok ok, I know, I was just desperate to get some calories into her and my bluey loves to have one as a treat every now and then) - will not accept
I've tried, without success: withholding food
hiding livefoods in a salad so she would eat vegies accidentally!
pureeing fruit and flavouring greens with fruit she likes
doing the same with raw egg
At the moment, each week she eats maybe 20-40 good sized woodies (we sit on the loungeroom floor and play chasies with them when I get home from work), plus whatever bugs she finds in her viv (heaps of tiny woodies in there and always some awful mutant giant qld roaches trying to scavenge her leftovers), and maybe one or two green leaves and two or so chunks of fruit. From what I've observed of dragons before that's just not enough. :?
Its just impossible. I dont want to starve her to try and convince her she likes greens, but I dont have time to sit there in front of her for an hour a day, dangling a piece of bok choy so it looks like livefoods. I don't want to sound lazy, but I just don't know what else I could possibly do. I'm making sure the woodies are dusted and well gutloaded on greens just before she eats them - if she wont eat greens I'll be damned if she doesn't get them somehow! Is it better to have her underweight to try and get the right nutrition, or feed up on the things she will eat before trying to change the diet?
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
OK, next prob.
The dragon had enlarged femoral pores when I got it. Just the scaliness that I see on a lot of mature male dragons. But now every pore seems to be growing excessively, one of the pores has a growth I'd estimate to be close to 1cm long and starting to deviate direction. They are a fairly transparent brown, with the texture and hardness of scales. They dont seem to disturb the dragon's movement, and there doesn't seem to be any pain in the area. I don't think it's natural for them to be so long though? The dragon gets really stressed in baths, but I do bath about once a week...will this help? Do I have to increase bathing time? Or can the growths be cut as you would overgrown nails with animal clippers? I just don't know what would be more stressful to the animal - having the growths removed or living with them. Might try to get pics next time she's awake...she's asleep standing up against the wall right now
crazy beardie.
Again sorry for the long post but like I said I'm at my wits end and all my research so far has not helped yet. But I bet you APSers have some ideas!
Thanks guys! Sarah
apologies in advance for what will probably be a long post.
I'm looking for some advice for my Inland Beardie, as there are a few problems I have tried to solve myself and haven't had any luck as yet.
I purchased the dragon mid-last year. I bought her from a python breeder,
python breeder being the operative words here...the setup was completely inadequate for a beardie. I'm sure he's an excellent python keeper but even the most newbie lizard keeper could see that this animal's needs were not being met.
I was told *she* was five years old, the python keeper was the second owner.
The tank had a household lightglobe in one end (god only knows why...light to see the
tank maybe?) and a ceramic heater on the other end. So the poor thing couldn't even bask and had no UV. Unless, and I pray this is the case, the seller swapped out the expensive globes before he sold me the setup. (goodbye another $120 when I pop into the pet store the next day holding his stupid household globes in disgust and leave with the proper UV and basking lights). There was nothing to climb on and no substrate.
The dragon has HUGE femoral pores so to my eyes is a male. But it has a female name so I'll just call it she. /more femoral pores in a sec.
So. My first problem is, her diet.
After the first week I began to notice she was the fussiest dragon eater I've ever been in contact with in my life. I tried her on everything we used to feed to dragons at the zoo, then everything my bluetongue likes, then everything the internet suggested, then I went back to the petshop and asked the herp guy there - his suggestion was egg (wont touch it, even though every other lizard I've seen goes nuts for egg), berries (we'll get to that) and withholding insects until she eats vegetables. I tried offering different vegies every day for a week before I got scared that she was just getting too underweight and gave in, and fed her insects. She only hand-feeds (except livefoods), wont touch anything from a bowl and is just too unco for forceps, and wont drink even from a dropper. It just seems like the previous owners only ever fed her crickets and she can't seem to move on from that.
This is a list of food items we have tried:
insects - all - no probs, loves any livefood.
pineapple - always accepts but I know it's not great for her so I only offer occasionally
banana, strawberries, blueberries - same
bok choy - will accept occasionally
stonefruit, grapes - ditto
endive, rocket, kale etc - has accepted before but I just got sick of buying a whole bunch and throwing it away after she ate one or two leaves
butternut pumpkin, zucchini, hibiscus, clover - has accepted before
paw paw, passionfruit, mango, apple, carrot, capsicum, basil, baby spinach, dandelion, sultanas (ok ok, I know, I was just desperate to get some calories into her and my bluey loves to have one as a treat every now and then) - will not accept
I've tried, without success: withholding food
hiding livefoods in a salad so she would eat vegies accidentally!
pureeing fruit and flavouring greens with fruit she likes
doing the same with raw egg
At the moment, each week she eats maybe 20-40 good sized woodies (we sit on the loungeroom floor and play chasies with them when I get home from work), plus whatever bugs she finds in her viv (heaps of tiny woodies in there and always some awful mutant giant qld roaches trying to scavenge her leftovers), and maybe one or two green leaves and two or so chunks of fruit. From what I've observed of dragons before that's just not enough. :?
Its just impossible. I dont want to starve her to try and convince her she likes greens, but I dont have time to sit there in front of her for an hour a day, dangling a piece of bok choy so it looks like livefoods. I don't want to sound lazy, but I just don't know what else I could possibly do. I'm making sure the woodies are dusted and well gutloaded on greens just before she eats them - if she wont eat greens I'll be damned if she doesn't get them somehow! Is it better to have her underweight to try and get the right nutrition, or feed up on the things she will eat before trying to change the diet?
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
OK, next prob.
The dragon had enlarged femoral pores when I got it. Just the scaliness that I see on a lot of mature male dragons. But now every pore seems to be growing excessively, one of the pores has a growth I'd estimate to be close to 1cm long and starting to deviate direction. They are a fairly transparent brown, with the texture and hardness of scales. They dont seem to disturb the dragon's movement, and there doesn't seem to be any pain in the area. I don't think it's natural for them to be so long though? The dragon gets really stressed in baths, but I do bath about once a week...will this help? Do I have to increase bathing time? Or can the growths be cut as you would overgrown nails with animal clippers? I just don't know what would be more stressful to the animal - having the growths removed or living with them. Might try to get pics next time she's awake...she's asleep standing up against the wall right now
crazy beardie. Again sorry for the long post but like I said I'm at my wits end and all my research so far has not helped yet. But I bet you APSers have some ideas!
Thanks guys! Sarah
