[Jess]

Are you ready for an extreme amount of beardie tongue cuteness?? :heart:


Well, here it is!

Haha, I just thought that was adorable! Definitely one of my all time favorite pics!
Here are a few more cute ones too:

Trying to break into my hermit crab cage so he can eat them... He does this every time he has floor time! He likes to climb to the top of the NIC grid behind him so he can plan a surprise aerial attack on them too.

Chillin' on my foot.

This is how he fell asleep one night LOL. But I accidentally woke him up when I turned on the light to take this pic.

And here is his viv again... I added the plant I was talking about before, and I gave him a larger water dish. My humidity is now an entire 20%! Haha

And he is starting to get some dull patches, which means he will FINALLY shed soon! It is a little hard to see in this pic, but it is more obvious IRL. I'm so excited to see what he will look like with out those nasty sand stains!

 

[Mousey]

awesome pics.

 

[Jess]

Thankies!

 

[Nibbler]

awww look at mr cuteness ^_^ so ober cute

 

[Jess]

Hehe thanks!

 

[Purple-Hops]

He is a very handsome lil fella. . Third picture in, can you say Dramatic Lizard!! lol

 

[Jess]

LOL! All my pets are quite the little drama queens & kings, haha!


And guess what? After 9 months of having him, Dudley is FINALLY shedding now!! He shed the bottom of one of his back feet today, and the color difference is ridiculous. I'll have to post a pic, it's insane how stained he is from that nasty sand.

 

[Purple-Hops]

Aren't they supposed to stay in sand? How come he was stained?

 

[Jess]

Nope, sand can actually kill them in more ways than I can count on one hand. It's another way petstores make money- They make people think that desert lizard = sand, but in reality most wild beardies don't even live in sand.
Remeber my first beardie, Wink? His eye had an abscess/infection most likely because someone kept him on sand and it got in his eye. At the same vet clinic I got him at, they had to do surgery on a beardie that ate so much sand that he got a blockage/impaction and would have died without the operation. He is their clinic pet now!


And if you keep them on sand that is dyed a color, the dye starts to come off on them. So you see a lot of beardies with orange, purple, and blue feet and tummies.

 

[Mygala]

Jess, I can't tell from the pics, ...what kind of substrate are you using?

(Nice pics BTW!)

Bob

 

[Jess]

Thanks!


It's non-adhesive shelf liner. Seriously the best stuff ever!

 

[Mygala]

I always used rabbit pellets. I liked the smell, they were edible if the dragons ingested them and it worked like "clumping" kitty litter with the poop (...and it was cheap if you bought the 40 pound bags). Heck, even the crickets would eat it and gut load themselves for the dragons.


But then I had 5 dragons in a 4' by 4' enclosure. There was a lot of space to cover with substrate and lots of poop to scoop!


Bob

 

[Jess]

Yeah, IMO it is easier to use this with just one beardie and a small enclosure though. Dudley isn't too messy, so it is easy to just wipe off whenever he goes to the bathroom.


I always fed rabbit food to my crickets though- cheap and plentiful gut load!

 

[Fishy]

aww lol

 

[Purple-Hops]

Wow, I did not know that!!! I really wish people would do their proper research before getting an animal like that. Sheesh. Poor little things.

 

[Jess]

Yeah, most people don't realize it until it's too late, unfortunately. People at pet stores are all like "Use calcium sand! It's SO good for your lizard! It even has a lizard on the package so it must be safe for them!" and then the new owners wonder why their lizard is sick/dead a few weeks later. *sigh*

 

[Purple-Hops]

Yes, I know the pet stores here (large chain ones like Pets Unlimited and PetSmart) don't hire people with a vast knowledge of animal care. The reason is so they can sell things on an uninformed guess. My friend was denied a job at Petcetera because she "loved" animals. Now, granted, she did not have the smarts and got mad that the owner wouldn't let her snuggle a bunny but still. She had good intentions. I cannot remember if I applied for the job at Pet City (a smaller locally owned store) or not but either way I was never called back.