So Now We Know

JT had her 8th birthday part on the weekend.  Also her 8th birthday as it turns out.  We invited the usual collection of excited pre-teen girls that make up her friendship cohort over to celebrate.  What made the party even more special than the mere fact that JT was turning 8, was that we booked Pete from Reptiles Inc to do his fantastic educational show on his reptiles.

Needless to say we had a small collection of afore mentioned girls totally engrossed for the best part of an hour. The transfixed expressions broken only by wild fits of laughter and periodic squeals of delight.  Pete puts on a fantastic show.  Full of very useful information about our native reptiles and amphibians, all cunningly disguised with a mixture of good humour and great entertainment.  I can whole heartedly recommend him if you are in the Canberra region and you have a party coming up.  I believe he also visits schools in a similar manner.  In the show he put on for us, he presented everything from a green tree frog to a fresh water crocodile! There was loads in between and I for one learned a ton of new things about critters that I thought I was relatively well informed about.

Pete was also kind enough to take a look at our Dragons for me to determine their sex.....*insert drumroll*........ It turns out that we were right all along!  Booster is a boy and Lolly is a girl.  Pete was very complimentary of Lolly's colour and the condition of both Dragons.  Booster has had trouble with shedding skin on his tail and has a couple of points where it has constricted.  This is not uncommon and can lead to the part of his tail after the constriction to fall off.  This is in no way life threatening, merely aesthetically undesirable.  While he was here, Pete kindly removed the offending skin (which I had been too gentle with).  It proceeded to bleed a little which he said was a good sign as it meant there was still blood flow to the area.  It does mean that every time Booster sheds from now on, I will have to manually remove that portion of skin.  But over time I think I can learn to be proficient at it.

I'll finish today with a short video.  JT's little sister Danika loves to interact with the Dragons.  She has started getting involved with feeding time.  Keeping in mind, she is still only 2 years old, take a look at this video of her feeding Lolly a live cricket.

I weighed both Dragons the other day ready to post up the details, but, I will take another go at it as it was a week or so ago now.  Best to be accurate as at the time of posting.  Suffice to say, they are both doing very well :-).

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!

JT's August Update

You should have seen the big bit of skin that Lolly lost.  It was so big!

Dad and I have been seeing Booster head bobbing.  That means that he is saying "I'm the boss around here!"  I think that is so cool.

My sister Danika is having fun with Lolly and Booster.  She feeds them with meal worms.

I also like helping Dad when he has to clean out the Den.  One time let me have Lolly and Booster in my room with me while he did it.

Dragon Diary - 01/08/2010

 As you can see, JT and I had the dragons out for their weigh in over the weekend.  It was a good opportunity to clean out the den as well.  I tried to grab a couple of photos to demonstrate the size difference between to two of them, but, of course, they didn't want to pose for us.

We set up one of the trays with a small desk lamp to keep them comfortable while I busied myself with a touch of a spring clean.  JT stood watch and made sure they were comfortable.

JT's cousins, uncle and aunt and her grandparents came over that night for dinner.  The Dragons were great hosts.  Lolly came out and was happy for everyone to have a cuddle and more than happy to eat food offered by anyone (little guts that she is).  All the kids had a hold and a feed and seemed genuinely thrilled at the opportunity for a close encounter.  Booster stayed in the den.  Whilst he has been improving with contact generally, I didn't want to overwhelm him with so many people at one time.

Lolly
Weight: 125 grams (+25)
Length: 32 cm (approx.)
Food: Meal worms, strawberry, crickets, bok choy, etc
Toilet: Regular
Behaviour: Lolly has been continuing on her merry way.  She eats anything and everything.  We started feeding her some meal worms in the last week or so as a treat.  She ate them straight up.  We also tried strawberries and she ate them as well.  Her favourite is still Bok Choy.  In the photo to the right, she is the one underneath, looking to the bottom.  It's hard to tell from this image, but, she is literally over twice Booster's weight.

She continues to be very comfortable being held.  More recently she has been coming to the front of the den when it looks anything like food might be served.  She would climb out if she could I am sure.  I might have to look at rigging up a way in and out for her.  As much as that might concern the matriarch of the family.


Booster
Weight: 53 grams (+23)
Length: 26 cm
Food: Meal worms, strawberry, crickets, bok choy, etc
Toilet: Regular
Behaviour: Booster has had an incredible weight gain in the last two weeks.  He has been very keen on his food and this has obviously been reflected in his growth.  He's put on nearly half his weight in two weeks!  He is now regularly taking food from our hands when we offer him crickets or meal worms inside the den.  I have been very happy with Booster's eagerness for food and general well being.  Who knows, one day he might even catch up with Lolly.