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.