Hello....Is this thing on?? It's been a while. Apologies to anyone that pops by and reads updates on our Dragons. Although judging by the site statistics, I am about the only person that does :-).
Lolly and Booster have been going along very well in the last couple of weeks. I'll update you in their individual reports below.
Lolly
Weight: 62 grams (+19)
Length: 26 cm
Food: Everything put in front of her (medium crickets and veggies)
Toilet: Regular
Behaviour: Lolly is readily accepting food from our hands now. It's just good fun feeding her as a result. She'll grab crickets when they are walking on our hands or when we dangle them in front of her. She has even sat on my lap and eaten them out of my hands. It's great to watch her poke her little tongue out ready to grab the crickets chameleon like. Her tongue is nothing like the length of a chameleon's, but, she uses it in a similar way to secure her food.
A big growth again in the last couple of weeks for Lolly. Just under 20 grams and what looks to me to be about 2 cm in length. I am a bit iffy on the length as it is not an exact science for me. Regardless a 50% increase in weight in 2 weeks is fantastic. It says to me that she is going great guns!
Booster
Weight: 28 grams (+6 grams)
Length: 20 cm
Food: Regularly eating medium crickets and veggies
Toilet: Regular
Behaviour: Booster has been becoming more readily handled in the last few weeks. He is no longer fleeing at my first attempt to pick him up each time. If I miss at first attempt or am a little slow he will still try to get away from time to time, but, overall, he is becoming much better at being handled. I am going to try it more regularly to keep the improvement going.
Very happy with Booster continuing to grow. After the initial period of not growing at all for weeks, he is now growing consistently every weigh in. It is difficult to gauge when he is in the same enclosure as Lolly as she is just getting bigger and bigger and it makes it hard to see his growth at all by comparison. I am very glad that I have been keeping this record now as otherwise, I think I would be very concerned without the empirical evidence to show that he is in fact growing pretty well.
Booster is not eating from my hand yet. I think he might come around before too long. He shies away from my hand when dangling crickets in front of him, but, doesn't flee. He looks a little curious if anything. So I am hopeful that he will be able to be hand fed some time in the near future.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Dragon Diary - 03-06/06/2010
Weighed our Dragons today. Both have put on size in the last two weeks which is great! JT and I have had fun over the last few days feeding the Beardies together. She has become quite comfortable handling crickets and is very keen to try hand feeding Lolly, which, I have managed to do. We just need to work on how she handles the crickets and positions them near Lolly to get her interested enough to take one from her hand. It's a great sign of how comfortable Lolly is with us that she will take food directly from our hands and really makes me feel like she is becoming part of the family. Hopefully we will be able to get to the same level with Booster as well.
Lolly
Weight: 43 grams (+9)
Length: 24 cm
Food: Always eats what's on offer crickets and veggies
Toilet: Very regular
Behaviour: I've started putting Lolly on my chest/shoulder and walking around the house with her a bit. I am hoping to get her used to being out and about and comfortable outside the Den. She is either quite comfortable or just freaked out, because she tends to stay reasonably still and checks everything out. I had her on my shoulder tonight as I was feeding Booster in the Den. She was keen to get involved even though I had already given her a huge amount of crickets and started crawling all over my arm trying to get be a part of it. She was hanging by 3 legs at one stage, head cocked to the side, checking the scene. I put her back up and then she went straight back down, sized up the situation and jumped delicately to the floor.
She was happy enough to be picked up and placed back in the Den shortly after. At least they both got a good feed and a little excitement.
Booster
Weight: 22 grams (+5)
Length: 19 cm
Food: Eating almost every day. Certainly having either crickets or veggies every day.
Toilet: Very regular
Behaviour: I am back to trying to measure the Dragons' full length, hence it looks like Booster at least has gotten shorter! Not the case of course, I wasn't happy with the last technique, so back to how I started. The good thing to report about the whole process is that Booster was much more comfortable being handled and has been for about the last week or so. I wouldn't say that he is totally comfortable, but, certainly more than he has ever been before. The last few times I have gone to pick him up, he has not moved at all, let alone scurry around the Den like he has done previously.
I have also tried Booster on my shoulder a couple of times. He too is quite still, so I am hoping that this will be a good way to get him more familiar with me in general. He is getting better at feed times and takes crickets pretty much every time. Some days more than others. But, his growth in weight this time suggests that he is eating well enough. He is still lagging well behind Lolly and is continuing to lose ground. But, I am happy enough to see him growing! The latest batch of "medium" crickets I bought seem to be a fraction smaller and he has been accepting them more readily. I hope the next batch is roughly the same size.
Lolly
Weight: 43 grams (+9)
Length: 24 cm
Food: Always eats what's on offer crickets and veggies
Toilet: Very regular
Behaviour: I've started putting Lolly on my chest/shoulder and walking around the house with her a bit. I am hoping to get her used to being out and about and comfortable outside the Den. She is either quite comfortable or just freaked out, because she tends to stay reasonably still and checks everything out. I had her on my shoulder tonight as I was feeding Booster in the Den. She was keen to get involved even though I had already given her a huge amount of crickets and started crawling all over my arm trying to get be a part of it. She was hanging by 3 legs at one stage, head cocked to the side, checking the scene. I put her back up and then she went straight back down, sized up the situation and jumped delicately to the floor.
She was happy enough to be picked up and placed back in the Den shortly after. At least they both got a good feed and a little excitement.
Booster
Weight: 22 grams (+5)
Length: 19 cm
Food: Eating almost every day. Certainly having either crickets or veggies every day.
Toilet: Very regular
Behaviour: I am back to trying to measure the Dragons' full length, hence it looks like Booster at least has gotten shorter! Not the case of course, I wasn't happy with the last technique, so back to how I started. The good thing to report about the whole process is that Booster was much more comfortable being handled and has been for about the last week or so. I wouldn't say that he is totally comfortable, but, certainly more than he has ever been before. The last few times I have gone to pick him up, he has not moved at all, let alone scurry around the Den like he has done previously.
I have also tried Booster on my shoulder a couple of times. He too is quite still, so I am hoping that this will be a good way to get him more familiar with me in general. He is getting better at feed times and takes crickets pretty much every time. Some days more than others. But, his growth in weight this time suggests that he is eating well enough. He is still lagging well behind Lolly and is continuing to lose ground. But, I am happy enough to see him growing! The latest batch of "medium" crickets I bought seem to be a fraction smaller and he has been accepting them more readily. I hope the next batch is roughly the same size.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Dragon Diary - 28/05 - 02/06/2010
I cleaned out the Den today. My wife complained that it had been a little on the nose. I have been cleaning it out regularly, but, after a while, things will tend to soak into the carpet somewhat, no matter how often I empty everything out. I clean out waste every day, sometimes more than once if I am there to see it. This keeps things as hygenic as possible. The kids and I couldn't really notice any smell, but, I decided that to be fair I had better take action.
I took a quick trip to Bunnings and bought a metre of Marine Carpet. If you check out our Dragon's Den page, you can see the current Marine Carpet. I have bought a slightly different colour just for something different. The plan is to rotate between the two every month or so. The outgoing carpet each time will be given a good wash and hung on the line in the sun for a few days, then stored until the next rotation. This should be enough to keep things nice a clean as well as smelling as sweet as possible.
The reason I have gone for carpet rather than a loose substrate is so that there are no issues with constipation. Dragons are notorious for swallowing their substrate and getting backed up as a result. This can lead to death quite easily. Particularly while they are young, I am going to stick with carpet. It looks very neat and has no downsides from what I can tell.
Lolly
Food: Always eats crickets and enjoys a trip to the salad bar
Toilet: Regular
Behaviour: Lolly has continued to eat and play well. She mixes between eating in the tote tray or the Den depending on her mood. She is also still happy to be handled. She is sometimes a bit more fidgety than others, but hey, we're all entitled to different moods right? She looks healthy and is continuing to grow.
Booster
Food: Regularly eating crickets and veggies
Toilet: Regular
Behaviour: Booster was very calm when I picked him up today when being taken out for the cleaning of the Den. He eats crickets most days and seems to go for the veggies even if he doesn't take crickets. He has been climbing the walls a bit lately, literally. He has been propping himself up on the front of the Den and poking his head up for a look outside. Not sure what that is about. But, it can be a little amusing to watch.
Today when the Dragons were in a tote tray together catching some rays, a magpie came down to check them out through the window. It was quite amazing. Within a minute of me putting them down less than a metre from the window, a magpie came down and sat on the window sill on the outside. He was looking for a meal from what I can tell, but, he was OUT OF LUCK!. I put down the privacy blinds so he couldn't see the Dragons and he flew away. Gave me a lot to think about for any musings I have had about taking the Dragons outside.....
I took a quick trip to Bunnings and bought a metre of Marine Carpet. If you check out our Dragon's Den page, you can see the current Marine Carpet. I have bought a slightly different colour just for something different. The plan is to rotate between the two every month or so. The outgoing carpet each time will be given a good wash and hung on the line in the sun for a few days, then stored until the next rotation. This should be enough to keep things nice a clean as well as smelling as sweet as possible.
The reason I have gone for carpet rather than a loose substrate is so that there are no issues with constipation. Dragons are notorious for swallowing their substrate and getting backed up as a result. This can lead to death quite easily. Particularly while they are young, I am going to stick with carpet. It looks very neat and has no downsides from what I can tell.
Lolly
Food: Always eats crickets and enjoys a trip to the salad bar
Toilet: Regular
Behaviour: Lolly has continued to eat and play well. She mixes between eating in the tote tray or the Den depending on her mood. She is also still happy to be handled. She is sometimes a bit more fidgety than others, but hey, we're all entitled to different moods right? She looks healthy and is continuing to grow.
Booster
Food: Regularly eating crickets and veggies
Toilet: Regular
Behaviour: Booster was very calm when I picked him up today when being taken out for the cleaning of the Den. He eats crickets most days and seems to go for the veggies even if he doesn't take crickets. He has been climbing the walls a bit lately, literally. He has been propping himself up on the front of the Den and poking his head up for a look outside. Not sure what that is about. But, it can be a little amusing to watch.
Today when the Dragons were in a tote tray together catching some rays, a magpie came down to check them out through the window. It was quite amazing. Within a minute of me putting them down less than a metre from the window, a magpie came down and sat on the window sill on the outside. He was looking for a meal from what I can tell, but, he was OUT OF LUCK!. I put down the privacy blinds so he couldn't see the Dragons and he flew away. Gave me a lot to think about for any musings I have had about taking the Dragons outside.....
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