My Beardie Story...

Julirs

New Member
I rescued Gus last fall. He is the largest male Bearded Dragon I have ever seen. He is a year-ish old and had been raised in a 20 gallon tank with no UVB. Supplementation must have saved him and he is remarkably in good shape. Right after I got him home the temps here in FL dropped leaving me with 2 brumating Beardies. I had never been through this before and with a crew of persistently "starving" begging chams it worried me. Well-my female woke up 2 weeks ago, started eating and basking, and Gus woke up head-bobbing for my female (who he can't even see) but he never started eating. He may have munched on some greens but every insect I put in there remained in there. Last night I moved him to get the annoying crickets out of his palace, and I brushed his mouth accross the water dish. He licked his lips. I then got a straw and dripped water on his mouth, and he licked his lips some more. His tank is on the floor and the position I had to be in to give him water was awkward, so I got him, a towel, a cup of water, and the straw and continued to drip water over his mouth so the excess dripped into the cup. I then put the cup up to his mouth and he started drinking out of the cup. So here I am, sitting on the floor with this Giant Bearded Dragon on my lap who is sipping water out of a cup with my Great Dane laying next to me. My Husband walks in and just rolls his eyes and mumbles that I am spoiling the lizard and also something about me being crazy. I then decide to grab the crickets out of his cage and Gus decides hand feeding is the way to eat. I sat there and fed him about 8 large crickets! So-the Panthers that are closest to me are on a table that is over the beardie cages, and they come down to the bottom and stare since they see the crickets, and the Geckos who beg like nothing you have ever seen, seriously they look like little dogs perched on a log at the door of the Exoterra, are staring at me and begging.

THESE are the moments that make it all worthwhile. These moments make all of the work, heartbreak, and chaos worthwhile. :)
 
Typical bearded dragon... We had a customer who has made a whole outfits for her dragon because it won’t eat unless it has an article of clothing on be it a hat, or shirt... Its crazy to think, however she took her dragon to a show and placed hornworm on our table and nothing. She put a hat and shirt on the dragon, then the worm was set down and BAM, worm guts everywhere. I would not have believed it lest I had seen it myself. Darn spoiled dragons.

Your dragon needs his own custom mug. :D
 
LOL great stories you two! I can't say mine does much than eat and poop.. unless you count laying there being fat as a "trick".. But I can do that too! :p
 
That's cute, Juli. And agreed! I have no time to speak of EVER but I always tell people that I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it and them.

My beardies prefer to be hand fed as well. I leave it in there all day but they won't eat it unless I hand it to them. Oy.
 
Juli thanks for sharing that, it shows your dedication and love for your babies. I can relate to the hubby thing, they just don't understand. :)
 
I cut my Reptile eye teeth on Beardies and have rescued many (we had a high of 18 at one point).

Not to take away from the cute moments, one other option for water for the Beardies is to soak them. Put them in a tub of warm water - no deeper than would cover their back when they are laying down. We usually leave them in for 5-15 minutes: they will often let you know when they are done. Even if they don't drink (they probably will), they absorb the water through their skin.

Remember that these guys are desert dwellers and often go for many days without water. We actually do not leave any water in any of our Beardies enclosures - rather we take them out once or twice a week for soakings.

I wonder if you have a German Giant? We had one once and he was about 50% heavier than our largest male. He was a big boy! Here is a picture of him (he has since deceased):

PDRM0959.JPG
 
All of my beardies swim! I have videos of them swimming-they are so funny! I am pretty sure Gus had not swam in his entire life before coming to my house. The look on his face when I first placed him in the tub was priceless! :)
 
Juli, I have 2 beardies coming next week. I hope I don't get ones that are so spoiled that I have to handfed them everyday, and I don't think I will be dressing them either. Yours sound great though!
 
When properly trained (which means basically handling them a lot from a young age), Beardies are quite personable. I have a couple of males that I can take with me when I go run errands and they stay perched right on my shoulder. I've had them out for up to 3-4 hours at a time and sometimes they just fall asleep on my shoulder.

I love being able to share them and use them for education (I have actually helped many people overcome their fear of lizards by this). I am always very careful to respect people's boundaries - if they are not comfortable, I remove myself from the situation.

Surprisingly, it seems to only be the males that like to do this: the females are usually too antsy or grouchy.

Also, I have had success with getting rescued Beardies to enjoy being handled (when they previously weren't).
 
hey juli! I love your story and chad's is true. The hats and outfits that that customer makes is so adorable, haha. Also I got this email from another customer of ours today and thought it went perfect with your story. She emails me updates from time to time and tells me stuff she does with her dragon...its cute to me how much they love it and i love seeing my dragons go to good homes....such as your female from me! :) Enjoy!

"Hi Darci, I adopted Lizzie Marie from you on September 19, 2009 in Tucson, Arizona and I love her so much! I still paint her nails and take lots of pictures of her to create into scrapbook pages. Lizzie is 8-months old and 15 inches long. Since I am a single-mother to two young boys, I recently created a will and last testament and it included Lizzie (God forbid that I die too young!) Attached are pictures of Lizzie Marie with Elmo, Lizzie with two books during Love of Reading Week at school and Lizzie sitting on my scrapbooking supplies. Thank you so much for allowing me to adopt my beautiful beardie!"
 
Juli it sounds like you have a great dragon. I am trying hard to cut down all my reptiles, well except my chameleons.:) i am down to only 4 dragons. That is it except for my 2 dogs. I lost my beloved Snow this year, I had that dragon for 12 years and I have no idea how many eggs she laid. From one breeding she laid 5 fertile clutches. My sister who has had dragons forever said that was not possible - someone forgot to tell Snow. Dragons are like puppies, they love to be played with and loved. I will miss that if I ever get down to just chameleons.:(
 
I lost my beloved Snow this year, I had that dragon for 12 years and I have no idea how many eggs she laid.
It is impressive that she lasted that long considering she had so many clutches. Usually the Moms who produce a lot have shorter lives.
 
Congrats on the beardie! Glad he's in good shape:)

My guy Sydney is a little over a year old and is a trip! He will not eat anything unless I hand fed him. He does drink from his bowl. He loves the garden mister! When I put it to a stream, he'll drink from it.
 
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