New Vids

Well actually they are from a while ago.  But I hadn't got around to posting them up here for some reason.  I have put them up on the videos page of this blog and will put them here for now as well.

First one is of Lolly feeding using a fake rock feeder.  It is hollow and splits in two allowing me to put crickets inside.  It also allows me to put calcium and vitamin powders inside and coat the crickets by shaking the rock.  There is a small hole with a plug.  As you can see the crickets do come out into the light of their own accord.  Not the best move they will ever make....

Second one is of me hand feeding Booster.  It's funny, he has always been a very flighty critter to handle and really doesn't enjoy it at all.  However, he is happy enough to be hand fed.  So much so, he has latched hold of my finger a couple of times and left a mark or two in the process.  Both our Dragons have never lashed out to bite us.  Both have only ever nipped once or twice in the action of hand feeding.

If you are interested, there are a couple of other videos on the My Videos Page, including one of a very small Lolly being fed.  Amazing to see how she has grown!

Dragon Diary - 04/09/2010

Another great month with the Dragons.  Both are going really well and have cemented themselves as part of the family.

Lolly


Weight: 180 grams (+55)
Length: 34 cm (+2)
Food: crickets, meal worms, veggies
Toilet: Regular
Behaviour: Lolly likes to "prowl" the edges of the Den trying to climb out.  When we open the doors she props herself up on the ledge where the glass doors run and pokes her head out looking like she will go for a leap at any stage.  I have had to catch her a couple of times, which, is getting harder as her claws are getting longer.

Speaking of painful things, Lolly has mistaken my fingers for food a couple of times during feeding sessions.  This has given me a shock more than anything, but small scratches remain on the tip of the finger she latches on to.  Nothing that doesn't disappear in a day or two.

Lolly has put on some good size again this month.  The base of her tail continues to look nice and broad indicating that she is in good health.  She eats very heartily when veggies are on offer and always eats anything by way of live food put in front of her.  I have yet to see her appetite for crickets satisfied!


Booster


Weight: 93 grams (+40)
Length: 28 cm (+2)
Food: crickets, meal worms, veggies
Toilet: Regular
Behaviour: Fantastic growth for Booster this month.  He has nearly doubled in size and it is starting to show.  We make sure that crickets are on offer to both Dragons until Booster is full.  It is one strategy we are using to try and even up their sizes.  While he did not put on as much weight as Lolly, certainly as a proportion of overall size, he outstripped her for the first time ever.

Another interesting thing about Booster this month is that he has been displaying true dominance behaviours.  His head bobbing is of the pronounced kind that adult Dragons display.  It is great to watch and point out to the kids.  Lolly on the other hand shows classic submissive displays of hand waving.  So there appears to be a genuine pecking order established with Booster as the boss!  I guess that old saying about it not being the size of the dog in the fight, but, rather the size of the fight in the dog is ringing true.

Booster has been growing more confident with us.  He too will poke his head out of the enclosure at feeding time.  It's quite amusing to see two little heads peering down at the crickets, massing well below them.  He will consistently take food from our hands.  Unfortunately this confidence saw him give JT a nip on the finger, similar to what has happened to me with Lolly.  She got a big fright and is now very careful when she feeds the Dragons.  To her credit, she has been straight back into the action with both Lolly and Booster and shows no ill effects from the experience.

Overall a great month!

Dragon Diary - 18/07/2010

Lolly

Weight: 105 grams (+43)

Length: 30 cm

Food: Anything and everything (medium crickets and veggies, including peas)

Toilet:  Regular

Behaviour: Lolly has had an amazing continuation of her growth, now cracking the 100 gram barrier.  That puts here at anything up to 20% of her adult size.  We got a big surprise when we weighed her today.  JT estimated about 40 grams.  I estimated 50.  Amazing to see that more than doubled.  I won't be able to measure her with the ruler any more either.  She cracked the 30 cm mark too.

The best thing to happen this month is that Lolly is now more than just eating from our hands, she now sits in my lap to do so.  It started one night when had her in the feeding tray.  She now knows what is in the other container at feeding time and decided that she couldn't wait.  I didn't know before then, but apparently staying in the container is by choice alone.  I have put carpet on the bottom of it to stop her skidding around like a dog on tiles.  This gave her enough grip to jump up onto the leg of my pants and scamper straight up on to my lap.  Once there, she just sat, waiting dutifully to be fed.  Since then, I haven't bothered putting her in the tray much at all.  She just sits on my lap and gets fed by either JT or me.  Cool hey!

Booster

Weight: 30 grams (+2 grams)

Length: 23 cm

Food: Always eats medium crickets and veggies (just not as much as Lolly)

Toilet: Regular

Behaviour: Booster has taken food from our hands on a few occasions now.  His growth has not been great this month.  He is eating consistently, however, his interest in food drops off much quicker than Lolly, which, is keeping his growth slow.

Booster also ate some peas when offered.  I just took some frozen peas and left them in the fridge overnight to thaw out.  This will make a good food source in case we run short.  Good thing to know.

Handling of Booster has not improved greatly either.  I have tried a few times and he is generally more accepting of the initial approach, but, is still very flighty when being held.  I have bought a heat pack that I can warm in the microwave and sit on my lap or anywhere really that the dragons can stretch out on.  Lolly is ok with it for a while, but, Booster is pretty much just as flighty.  I don't think I have quite got the temperature right yet either.  So more trial an error to come!

Dragon Diary - 07-21/06/2010

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.

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.

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.....

Dragon Diary - 23-27/05/2010

Things have been progressing well with both Dragons.  Both have been feeding well and look to be putting on a good size from what I can tell.  I think we are getting the hang of things :-).

Lolly


Food: Crickets whenever offered.  Bok choy and carrot are favourites, not so interested in squash
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Lolly has finished shedding her latest batch of skin judging by the collection of discards on covering the floor in recent days.  JT and I have been enjoying looking at the old skin.  She noticed that even the spines that run laterally along the side of her body shed with the rest of her skin.  They look quite fierce, but are actually not sharp at all either after shedding or while they are resident on her body.


Booster


Food: 5-6 medium crickets every time.  Sometimes more eager than others.  Seems to enjoy the same veggies as Lolly
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Booster is still not keen to be picked up, but, is certainly becoming less flighty over time, which is very encouraging.  He seems to be eating well still and had transitioned on to the medium crickets well now.  Tonight I noticed that he was a lot more comfortable with them than when we started.  I was concerned that it was too soon for Booster, but, am not worried now as, he looked fine with them.  It is a little funny as they are pretty big compared to the small ones he is used to.  He has an almost quizzical look on his face at times with his head cocked to the side to get a good eye on them.  It's almost like each time he's making a decision based on hunger versus size of the cricket.

Dragon Diary - 22/05/2010

Weigh in day today.  Both Dragons are looking really good and healthy.  Lolly in particular (of course) is growing out of sight!

I started measuring their size from the base of their tails today.  From what I can see and have read, that is about half their size, so the measurements I put in here will be double the length from the tip of their tails to their base.  Another thing to keep in mind is that the figures are bigger because I didn't get to weigh and measure last week, so we are counting two weeks worth.

Lolly


Weight: 34 grams! (+9)
Length: 25 cm (+4)
Food: 6 medium crickets
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Lolly was enthusiastic about her food as usual.  I am trying to limit her a little to give Booster a chance to catch up.  I am doing this by giving her only as much as Booster gets.  He usually loses interest after a while now we have gone to the larger crickets, so that's how many Lolly gets.  At least she gets that and usually one more as Booster will leave one as he loses interest and Lolly will find it pretty quickly when I put her back in the Den :-).

She was great to handle again today.  I walked around the house a little with her in my hand and on my shirt.  She was quite calm and collected.  She has shed a lot more and has a nice sandy coloured tinge to her on her new skin.


Booster


Weight: 17 grams (+3)
Length: 23 cm
Food: 6 medium crickets
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Booster was hard to catch for his weigh in today, but, once caught he was the most comfortable being handled that I have ever seen him.  So much so, that I let the girls have a pat while I held him and he remained calm throughout.  He didn't even scurry when I picked him out of the weigh in box.  So I was able to return him to the Den settled and he was ready to feed straight away after Lolly's weigh in.

Interestingly, Booster is not much shorter than Lolly.  At least, not as much as I would have thought.  She certainly has some size on him as can be seen in their weigh in figures.  He is half her weight now.  She put on three times the weight he did in the last two weeks.  It makes me wonder if Booster is the girl and Lolly is the boy, as male Bearded Dragons are known to grow faster.  I am not overly concerned at this stage as Booster is still growing and is now taking food well.  As long as they don't get too disparate in size it should be all good.  If they both turn out to be males, then we will also have a problem.  But, we will cross that bridge if and when we come to it as they say.

Dragon Diary - 19-21/05/2010

Things have been consistently going well with the Dragons.  Both are eating well and looking in good health.  Weigh in is tomorrow and I will have more time to put towards them this weekend maybe for a Den clean.

Lolly


Food: Plenty of crickets, carrot and bok choy
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Lolly is cruising.  I will be interested in the weigh in tomorrow as not only has it been two weeks, but, she is looking visibly quite bigger.  Relatively of course as she is still very young.

I started both Beardies on medium sized crickets today.  What a pig Lolly is!  She had 12 crickets in the feeding tray and looked absolutely stuffed to the brim!  Danika and I had a nice quiet hold for a while before putting her back in the Den where shortly after she found one that Booster had lost interest in and scoffed it down as well.  I have never seen her belly so full.  The size of the crickets is the point of interest here.  It is important not to feed Beardies anything bigger than the gap between their eyes.  Lolly looks to be ok.  Booster is borderline but seemed ok eating them as well.  I will be keeping a close eye on it over the next week or so.  I can always go back and get some small ones.

It looks like Lolly is shedding again.  She has a couple of duller spots on her, noticeably on her head.  I also saw here rubbing her head on the branch tonight, which is common when Dragons are trying to loosen their skin while shedding.  She is certainly not as grumpy as Booster when shedding.  Although she did display a nice looking beard as I passed by the Den tonight.  A considerably bigger one than last time I saw it.


Booster


Food: A good number of crickets, carrot and bok choy
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Booster has continued to eat well over the last few days.  Tonight he ate 6 or 7 of the medium sized crickets before losing interest.  It was very pleasing to see him lose interest in that it says that he had eaten his fill.  Previously I had always given him anything up to 13 small crickets and he was always hanging around like he would have eaten more if I had put them in.

Broccoli is a good veggie for Beardies, but, neither Booster or Lolly look to have had a go at it in the salad bar this week.  It looks like their preference in order of what has been given them is carrot, pumpkin, bok choy. dandelion greens then broccoli.  I haven't seen squash in the super markets lately, but, I am keen to try them on it as it is can be given as a staple.

Dragon Diary - 17-18/05/2010

It's been a couple of standard days with the Dragons.  I missed weigh in this week, so will  see how 2 weeks growth has turned out this weekend.

Lolly


Food: 10+ crickets, carrot in the main
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Lolly has been tracking very well. She has been happy to eat all crickets put in front of her.  I have yet to have her refuse a live feed, so I am wondering if I am feeding her enough!  Next time to shop to stock up on crickets, I am thinking that I might see how big medium crickets are and see if that makes a difference.


Booster


Food: 10+ crickets, also carrot in the main
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Booster is also eating everything live that comes his way, so he too may be a good candidate for medium sized crickets, although he is still much smaller than Lolly so I will just wait and see.

A good sign tonight was the when feeding Booster he was not put off his food by me trying to handle him.  He didn't seem to interested in anything more than watching the cricket I had put in for him from on high.  So I went to move him down a bit and he almost just let me do it.  In previous attempts like this, he has then just ignored any food I put in for him.  Tonight however, he was still just as interested as he has been for the last few weeks and ate everything.  This was quite encouraging.

Dragon Diary - 14-16/05/2010

Whoa, missed a few days in there.  Things are getting into a good routine, so it might come to an every other day type journal so as to avoid repetition.

This morning I dropped some bok choy and carrot in on the salad bar and both Beardies came over one after the other pretty much straight away.  I took the opportunity to grab a couple of photos, the best of which are in amongst the report for each Dragon.

I am going to weigh the Dragons today and include the results in an entry tomorrow.

Lolly


Food: 10+ crickets every day like clockwork, veggies
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: I had Lolly out on the low lying window sill again yesterday to give her some sun.  She did something that she has never done before.  She seized the moment and made a dash for freedom as it were.  She bolted straight onto the carpet and out of sight.  My view was obscured somewhat as I had been lying down next to her, so I couldn't see the last vector she took and had little to no idea where she was.  I figured that she would be under one of the couches somewhere so that's where we started.

My wife ably assisting me (from a distance) we found Lolly under the second chair we looked at.  As I lifted it up she went with it, grasping with the claws on her front feet.  She was very amiable when I picked her up.  I think she might have given herself a fright.  There was 80's pop music that JT had put on playing at the time.  I can only assume that Lolly isn't a fan :-).

As you can see from the photo, she was back to normal (not that she was freaked out or anything) today and into her tucker.


Booster


Food: 10+ crickets representing a pleasing trend, veggies
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Booster appears to be getting more comfortable with me being close to the Den.  When I put the veggies in the salad bar and was taking photos of Lolly, Booster came right up to the front of the Den looking like he was missing out on something!  He is also quite happy to sit at the front of the Den when I drop in crickets one by one to make sure he gets enough without them running and hiding.  Mind you, he is pretty good at chasing them down when he is of a mind.

As you can see from his photo from this morning, he was quite happy to make his trip to the salad bar too.  He's still quite a bit smaller than Lolly which might be a bit hard to tell from the photos, but seems to be tracking really well now so in time I hope that he will match her.

Dragon Diary - 12-13/05/2010

Been slack again skipping a day.  So we'll just have to catch up on two.

Lolly


Food: 10+ crickets both days.  Bok Choy
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Lolly is cruising along as usual.  She eats well and is happy to be in our company.

I was told in regards to feeding veggies etc to either cut them up into bite size pieces or leave them big and let the Beardies rip them up.  I generally cut them all up, or rip them up if they are leafy.  The other day I dropped in some dandelion greens just out of the yard and left them at their original size.  I came in that afternoon to see Lolly trying to down about 3 of them in one go.  These leaves were almost as long as she is!  Regardless, she was going to eat them and worked her way down until they were gone.  I was pleased to see that she is still going to the toilet regularly, because the risk you run with large food items is impaction.  Think of it as a blockage in their digestive system.  There are a few things that can cause this, including the size of their food and it can be a fatal condition.  Needless to say I will be ripping up all the leaves I put in the salad bar from now on.


Booster


Food: Nothing (12/05), 10+ crickets (13/05), bok choy
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Booster has been a little bit off in the last couple of as he has been seriously shedding.  For a while there he looked like he was wearing an ill fitting suit.  Today he looked to have got rid of most of the excess skin and was back in fine form with his eating.  He is looking great.  His colour is improved and his skin is not looking nearly as dull.  Good to see him back in form!

Dragon Diary - 10-11/05/2010

Missed posting yesterday so a double diary today!

Lolly


Food: 10+ crickets both days, Dandelion greens
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Great Dragon.  Great pet.  Lolly continues to go from strength to strength.  Fantastic to handle and loads of fun just to watch.

Very interesting was yesterday when I was rounding up Lolly in the Den for a feed, she was not too keen to be caught.  A couple of times in amongst scooting here and there she put on the first display of her beard and gaping combined that I have seen from either one of them.  It was fantastic to see this natural behaviour coming out.  Bearded Dragons don't have much by way of teeth and they certainly don't look to bite when threatened.  In fact, when threatened they exhibit three basic behaviours.  Firstly, they will flatten themselves out  to give the appearance of size.  To add to this display the next thing they will do is display their beard and open their mouth to show the bright yellow colour inside their mouth.  This is again is to give the impression of size and a threatening colour.  The final part of their behaviour when threatened is to turn tail and run.  They are lovers not fighters as the expression goes.

Lolly postured up and pushed out her tiny little beard.  Her mouth gaped slightly to complete her display.  Really enjoyable to watch this early representation of their natural behaviour.


Booster


Food: no crickets (10/05), 10 crickets (11/05), Dandelion greens
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Booster wasn't interested in live food yesterday.  He made up for it today by eating everything put in front of him.  I was disappointed that he didn't eat yesterday, but, am still very happy that he is eating on a regular basis.  It's almost hard to remember him not eating now.  It's only been a week or two, but, the stress levels are pretty much gone.

Whilst he doesn't appear to be ready for regular handling, he is becoming more familiar with me at feeding time which is great.  I hope that with time he will ready to be handled by all of us.  Time will tell.

Dragon Diary - 09/05/2010

Mothers' Day today so we were all out and about without a lot of time to spend with the Beardies.  Just enough time to gather some Dandelion greens and go through the cricket feeding with a bit of a hold as well.

Lolly


Food: 10+ crickets
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Lolly was happy enough to feed and be held today.  Our visitors were complimentary of both Lolly and Booster and how healthy they looked and how much they had grown.

Danika and I had a brief hold of Lolly after her feeding.  We didn't have a chance to sit her in the sun today as we were out for Mothers' Day.


Booster


Food: 10+ crickets
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Booster didn't need too much encouragement to come and eat his share of the crickets again today.  I finally feel like we have found a winning formula to have him eat all the time.  Neither Dragon went to the salad bar today so we'll see how it goes tomorrow.


Crickets


 I didn't get a chance to clean out the breeding tub this weekend, I will try to do it tomorrow.  I have bought some oranges to provide both food and hydration for the crickets as I was seeing mould appearing in the brood tub.

Dragon Diary - 08/05/2010

Weigh in day again today.  I'm very happy with the growth of both Dragons this week.  I took the opportunity of having both Beardies out of their den to given it a complete clean out.  I took everything out and gave it all a good going over.  Not a single cricket running around.  Although I didn't expect any as the feeding has been going so well.

After their weigh in, I put both Dragons in one of the feeding trays and put it half in direct sunlight for them to get a bit of natural light for a change.  They both seemed to really enjoy it.  I will have to do it more often.  Booster even seemed to be quite calm in there, which is not often then case where he is concerned.

Lolly


Weight: 25 grams (+4)
Length: 21 cm (+2)
Food: 10 bought crickets, 1 wild cricket, daisy greens
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: We had a great time with Lolly today.  After the feeding, we took her out to hold her, and took the opportunity to put her on the window sill at the bottom of the main window in our living room.  It is a very big window and the sill sits only a few inches above the floor.  There should could lap up the rays of the afternoon sun.  I think she quite enjoyed it.  She didn't move away from the spot for the 10-15 minutes that we sat with her.  She moved on the spot a bit watching us all as we interacted, but, stayed put on the whole.  I am thinking that a nice little bean cushion or something there would be perfect for her.

One other fantastic moment with Lolly today was with a cricket I caught in the back yard.  It was a little bigger than the ones we normally give the Dragons and a different species.  This one could jump amazing distances.  It took me a dozen or more goes to catch it.  Not the same for our Lolly.  I put it into the Den to see how the Beardies would go with a prey slightly more difficult to catch.

When I put it in at first, neither of them took much notice.  From what I understand, movement of such critters is what stimulates the natural predatory instincts.  This is certainly true for Lolly in particular.  So I gave the little cricket a bit of a touch and he jumped half way across the Den!  That caught the eye of the Beardies.

I touched the cricket again and he jumped clear across the Den onto the plan nearest where Lolly and Booster were chillaxing after their main meals.  Both sets of eyes were immediately fixed on this new visitor.  Lolly's tail started to twitch.  She was flicking it in a manner that almost looked like she was saying to Booster..."Hey, check that guy out..." as it hit her Den mate.  Lolly could wait no more, she made her way quickly over until she was right beneath the cricket.  JT and I watched intently as she moved into a position contorting her body in such a way as to maximise her jump at the prey.  What was fascinating to see was her tongue extend out of her mouth almost chameleon like (if much shorter of course) as she snaffled up that cricket at the first attempt as she jumped up off the branch and dropped gracefully to the floor of the Den and quietly chewed on her supper.

JT an I looked at each other with a mixture of amazement, awe and glee to have witnessed such a fantastic display.


Booster


Weight: 14 grams (+3)
Length: TBA
Food: 13 crickets, daisy greens
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Booster was relatively quiet after the weigh in while in the feeding tray when I let them have some time in the sun.  He was even less jumpy than usual when Danika came close in her 2 year old exuberant way.  Calmer still when I lifted the tray up to my eye line prior to returning them to the Den.  I was able to have a great close up look at the two Dragons side by side.  Seeing the differences in everything from the size of their heads, colouration and patterns.  It looks like Booster may be getting ready to shed from the main part of his torso.  His legs, tail and head have the distinct look of having been shed recently with some colour coming through.  Also, his back has a dullness about it that suggests that it wont be long now.

A great sign today was at feeding time.  I let both Beardies have some time after weigh in to settle themselves before approaching them again to feed.  After getting Lolly out into her tray of crickets, I moved in with the second tray to start feeding Booster.  Normally he waits up on his perch until he sees a cricket on the ground. Checks it out to make sure it is food, then scampers down.  Today he saw the tray, came straight on down before I had even got half way in!  I have been thrilled with the improvement in his eating this week.  It has been reflected in his weight gain, which was as much again as he has put on in the entire time we have had him.  Go Booster!


Crickets

Dragon Diary - 06-07/05/2010

Missed yesterday's report, but, it was very similar to today, so here goes.

Lolly


Food: 10+ crickets both days, bok choy (Thu), carrot (Fri)
Toilet: Yes (both)
Behaviour: Very open to handling as usual and ate in her feeding tub both nights.  Tonight she came with me into the study and had a look around the desk tasting everything to check it all out.  She is very calm and easy going when being handled.


Booster


Food: 10+ crickets both days, bok choy (Thu), carrot (Fri)
Toilet: Yes (both)
Behaviour: Booster happily accepted crickets both Thursday and Friday.  I think he is starting to show signs of putting on some size.  I am looking forward to the weigh in tomorrow.  When I feed him now, I let one cricket out to draw him down from whatever perch he is on.  From there he waits right at the front of the den as I drop crickets in one or two at a time.  I hope that this activity is getting him more used to me being around and will eventually lead to him being happy to be handled.


Crickets


I'm going to take out the second laying dish tomorrow.  No sign of babies yet.

Dragon Diary - 05/05/2010

Lolly


Food: 10+ crickets, bok choy
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Lolly was her usual happy self.  She had her crickets and sat with us on the couch watching telly, switching between JT and me for company for a good while.  One interesting moment was when she decided to jump off the back of the couch.  A fair height without being scary.  I went around the back and picked her up apparently unscathed.  She didn't seem flighty or anything, just wanting to have a look around.


Booster


Food: 10+ crickets, bok choy
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Booster happily ate up his crickets in the den again today after having a day off.  He seems to be happy to take them inside the den more and more now which is very reassuring.  Still seems freaked out about being handled.  But, I guess patience is the key there.


Crickets


Misted the breeding dishes with water to keep them damp.  There seemed to be a bit of mould on some of the toilet rolls that I had put in and the combination of the wet cotton buds and heat pad do seem to be making it a bit humid in there.  I am thinking that I might have to go to oranges for a fluid\food source for them instead.

Dragon Diary - 04/05/2010

Pretty standard day today.  Fed the Beardies had a hold with the kids and checked on the crickets :-).

What I did forget to mention on Sunday was that JT and I went to the zoo.  I took some photos of what is probably my favourite type of reptile, the Chameleon. Unfortunately for the amateur enthusiast and probably fortunately for the Australian environment at least, you have to be a zoo to import exotic species of reptiles.  Even then there are some pretty tight restrictions in some states from what I am lead to believe.  So for me, it was really nice just to see one in the flesh.

Here are a couple of pics of a Veiled Chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus), that I took while we were there.  He was shedding, so I think his colours were somewhat diminished as a result.  The flash on my camera didn't do much justice through the glass to him either.  But, it was very enjoyable to see him.  He was quite active in the enclosure, walking one end to the other and top to bottom while we were there.  Very interesting.


Lolly


Food: About a dozen crickets, bok choy
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Lolly ate in the feeding tray again tonight.  She was happy to eat with the kids in and around  in the room.  They both lined up for a cuddle afterwards and Lolly was more than happy to oblidge.  She is still shedding.  Most of her tail seems finished.  Her right forelimb was getting done today.  Looked a bit funny.  Like she had two hands on that side.

Interestingly, while she was sitting on my lap, she noticed a few crickets that I had left in the feeding tray on the coffee table and made her way quietly over to the table to try her luck.  She also hopped down to the floor to have a little look around.  I won't be letting her out and about on her own while she is this small as I don't want her crawling somewhere that it will be difficult to retrieve her from.  However, a very pleasing thing was that she was not fussed when I went to retrieve her on a couple of occasions.  She wasn't stressed and did not try to run away.  It augers well for the future when she is bigger and has run of the house....(haha, like Louise (my wife) will let that happen :-) ).


Booster


Food: 1 cricket, bok choy
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Booster wasn't too fussed with crickets tonight.  He watched as the starter one I put in to get him onto the floor for more got around for a bit, but, made no great effort to chase it down.  He was sitting in the very far end of the den where it is coolest, just chilaxing.  I think he might have just been full from yesterday and some bok choy today.  We'll see how he goes tomorrow.


Crickets


Nothing exciting to report here.  They are still chirping and waiting their move into the garage this weekend.  Nothing has hatched yet.  Although I don't really expect too much at this stage and nothing at all for at least a couple of weeks.

Dragon Diary - 03/05/2010

Lolly


Food: About 13 crickets, bok choy
Toilet: Not sure
Behaviour: Lolly is shedding the skin on her tail at the moment.  The rest of her has a sandy yellow tinge happening.  Certainly nothing like images of bright yellow Central Beardies that I have seen around the web, but, quite a natural colour.  I'm not sure how common bright orange and/or yellow Centrals are in the wild, but, I must admit to finding the ones I have seen that are captive bred to accentuate these colours sometimes a little over the top.  Probably just my taste though.

Lolly ate in her feeding tray today.  The last few days I haven't been confident that she would eat in there any more.  So basically I was just putting in a few crickets to keep her at least somewhat occupied while I fed Booster in the den.  Today, she just happily ate in the tub, which was great.  She then had a good time on the couch with JT, Danika and me.  She seemed quite happy to sit, perched on the top corner of the cushion and check us all out as we chatted.  She only got the slightest bit nervous when Danika made some sudden movements and loud noises.  She is only two so I think we can forgive her for being a little exuberant at times :-).


Booster


Food: 12 crickets, bok choy
Toilet: I think so
Behaviour: Booster is now fairly jumping clear across the den as soon as I drop a cricket or two in with him.  This is a most welcome change to the attitude to food in the past few weeks.  This last week of eating well has really settled my nerves when it comes to his ongoing health prospects.  It's a big relief.  Having said that, I would like to see him put on some more size.  But, I imagine that Lolly will always be just that little bigger for the next little while.  At least they are now eating similar amounts.


Crickets


I took out the first laying dish today and put it in its own container to await any hatching that might happen.  Unfortunately the breeding tub is starting to get a distinct odour to it.  Whilst it is not "get me out of the room before I puke" bad, it is just off putting enough to make me want to put it out in the garage.  So my project for this week is going to be the successful transplant of the brood stock out in to the garage.  I have some shelving out there that will do the trick nicely.  I will just have to do some clearing up.  Well overdue regardless, so this is a good motivation to do it!

Dragon Diary - 02/05/2010

Lolly


Food: 3 slaters, 10+ crickets
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: Lolly ate a couple of crickets and a slater in the feeding tray while I fed Booster.  As soon as I put her back in the den she ate everything I threw at her as usual.  JT was thrilled to be catching slaters in the back yard to see them gobbled up by Lolly.  It's great to have her involved.

I think Lolly might have finished shedding for now.  She seems happy enough and is still being very good about being handled.  I hope to be able to work out a good way to have her and Booster in the back yard when they are bigger so we can all be out there together.


Booster


Food: 10+ crickets, bok choy
Toilet: Yes
Behaviour: I noticed that Booster has been shedding a bit too.  I'm taking this as an encouraging sign pointing towards improved growth.  He certainly ate the best I have seen him, probably since the day of his arrival.  This makes several days in a row where he has just eaten what has been put in front of him.  It is very encouraging for his longer term health prospects.  Next to work on his handling!


Crickets


When checking on the crickets today, a couple of times I saw what I thought was laying activities in the dish designed for just that purpose.  So tomorrow afternoon, I will be retrieving the first dish and replacing it with a new one.  Time will tell how successful we have been!