Baby Boom - Issue #1

On Saturday I decided that Booster was well enough to return to the Dragon's Den. His wounds appeared to be as good as they were going to get and his limp appeared to be all but gone. Besides, I was sick of his moping.

Lolly seemed to accept him back well enough and he seemed happier straight away. So much so that on Sunday afternoon I witnessed them in the act as it were. That's right, they were mating. From what I have read, they displayed classic form.

So, where to from here? I have been burying my nose in whatever online material I can find. A. Lot of it seems pretty consistent. I. Also paid a visit to Peter at Reptiles Inc. this afternoon and he gave me some solid advice. Some of it in contraSt to what I had already read, but, for the most part, it reinforced the direction that I was heading in.

The first thing I have to do is provide the mother to be with somewhere to lay any eggs that she might be carrying. So tomorrow I will be chasing down a kitty litter tray and some sand pit sand.

For now, enjoy the picture of the happy couple who are hopefully currently expecting. More information in the experience and breeding Beared Dragons in general to follow.

Drama Drama Drama

Guilty as charged your honour.  Before you stands the accused who wilfully attacked her denmate leaving him battered and bruised.

That's right....unfortunately Lolly attacked Booster the other day.  She has given him a nasty bite or two on his tail.  He's also limping around on his right fore limb.

He looks like he might lose the end of his tail.  This is more an aesthetic thing, but it does look a little nasty at the moment.  I am mostly concerned about his leg.  He is limping badly.  There is no broken skin or anything, so I am hoping that it is just a bad sprain rather than a break.  It doesn't appear to be on funny angles or anything and he does try to use it.  He just limps and can't take too much weight on it.

I spent a lot of time at Reptiles Inc this week.  I bought a new, smaller enclosure to keep Booster in while he is recovering.  Originally I had him in a large plastic container with heating and substrate set up so he would be comfortable.  I wasn't happy with that longer term as I think he could be separate from Lolly for a while.  So I went and bought a set up that while it is smaller, will be fine for him for a month or two.  Additionally the setup will do fine for in a little over a year when I am able to start keeping other critters.  I hope to get a species of children's python.  There are a few different types, so I will decide which one closer to the time.  I also have to have lost 25 kg by then as the python/s will be my reward.

For now, Lolly, as beautiful as she is, as you can see from the photo above, is in the bad books.  I am wondering if it all has to do with the mating season.  Booster has been displaying all the dominance signs to this point.  The attack from Lolly was completely out of character.  I'll just have to let Booster heal up and see how we go introducing him back into the Dragon's Den!

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!