Meet Bruce the Bobtail

We have a new, unexpected arrival in our family.  On Monday I received a PM (private message) on an internet forum that I frequent that is full of very helpful people and a wealth of information about reptile keeping with a strong focus on Bearded Dragons.  If you get a chance, check out the Australian Bearded Dragon Forum.  Follow that link or the one here in the links section.  But I digress.

I received a message with a request for help.  It was in relation to a young Shingleback Lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) in the care of someone on the forum who was not in a position to give it the required attention once its original owner had moved overseas and passed it on to him.  He’d had it for about 4 days and it had arrived to him obviously in need of some TLC as it looked under fed and was quite irritable, most likely through a long period of less than ideal care.  He asked if I could take and care for the lizard as he did not feel like he could give it the attention it needed to come back to proper health.

I was very pleased to be asked and also just very pleased to help!  Yesterday, I met Dylan , or Fractal man as he is known on the forum who, with the care of the animal in mind had contacted me.  We spoke briefly about the beautiful looking Shingleback and then I brought him home.  These fantastic creatures are also sometimes called Bobtails amongst other nicknames and are a species of blue-tongued lizard.  Blue-tongues are actually skinks, but are grouped into the lizards.  After a brief discussion amongst the family, he is now affectionately known as Bruce the Bobtail.  You can see him here on the right with his tongue just on the way back into his mouth.  I just missed it!

I am pleased to report that Bruce had a really good drink yesterday.  The moment I put him into what has now become the hospital tank again, he ran straight for the hide and disappeared for several hours.  Late in the day, I pulled out the hide and started dropping water on his head, which, he started taking straight away.  After a few minutes of him licking water off the glass side of the enclosure, I put in the big water dish that you see in the picture and placed his front half in.  Shortly after he began one of several long drinks and then moved off to bask a little under the light\heat source, not before coming over to poke his nose out of the front of the open enclosure to check me out and offer a look as if to say ‘Thanks’.

Today, I put in some chicken mince to go with the veggies that I left in there for him yesterday.  Whilst Bruce did not take any from the food dish, he did take 3 pieces from outside the door of the hide.  Small, but pleasing progress.  I also took Bruce to a wonderful local vet to get a health check and I am exceptionally pleased to report that besides needing some TLC, sustained attention to his eating and putting on weight, Bruce is in good health.  No mites or other parasites or respiratory infection that can be quite common in the species.

So there you have it.  That is the story of how Bruce the Bobtail came to be with us.  I am not sure how long he will be here.  It will hopefully be at least as long as it takes to ensure he is in tip top condition.  The hospital tank is not a suitable long term home for him as it is not big enough.  He is appears to be less than a year old and most likely from this season’s litter.  All going to plan he will regain good health and be ready for something bigger in the coming months.  In between now and then I will have to build something more suitable for him, or find a welcoming home.  Although I am not sure I will be able to give him up at that point!

It saddens me somewhat to think that his original ‘owner’ could lose interest in something so beautiful in such a short time as it would have taken for Bruce, given his age, to go from new and fascinating pet, to discarded and malnourished burden.  Thankfully someone like Dylan had care enough for Bruce to ask for help even if it meant giving up such a wonderful creature so new to him.  For now, Bruce has a home for as long as he needs and has already won the hearts of his new adopted family.

Read All About It!

A while ago I subscribed to Scales & Tails magazine to help with my general knowledge of all things keeping reptiles.  I also wrote them a letter about my experiences with our Beardies.  When my most recent copy of the magazine arrived last week, I was thrilled to see that my letter and the photos that I sent in had been published as the ‘Publishers Pick’!  Below is the letter that I wrote along with a scan of the page that it appeared on in the magazine.  I’ll see if I can get a better scan this week.  But, as you can see, they even published a couple of my pictures as well!

Howdy Scales & Tails,

I thought it might be interesting to share the experiences of someone relatively new to the hobby, who has just lived through their first year of reptile keeping.

We live in the ACT and have very limited options when it comes to entering into the hobby of reptile keeping.  This time last year we brought home our first reptiles, a pair of Bearded Dragons, one of only 4 species available to first time keepers in Canberra.  They were not our first species of choice, but, we have since been converted to fantastic nature and personalities of Beardies.

Without knowing for sure, we were fortunate enough to acquire a male and female, which was confirmed during this year's breeding season.  Our young pair produced 24 beautiful eggs that we chose to incubate at home as a family project.  23 of these porcelain like gems hatched for us a couple of months later, and I was able to capture a few photos that I thought were worth sharing.

The experience of keeping, breeding and generally enjoying our Dragons has been something irreplaceable.  My kids have seen, touched and experienced first hand, what they would have otherwise had to view on a screen or still images on a page.  I am someone that enjoys sharing with people when I am on to a good thing and this has been no exception.  I am happy to say that I have started opening the eyes of my friends and colleagues to world of keeping reptiles and along with dispelling some myths, a few have even begun on the journey themselves.

Thank you for the opportunity to continue to share my enthusiasm.

 

Cool huh!

First feeding witnessed

I fed Lacey today as it has been a week since her last feed.  She has yet to poop, so I am curious about that as I thought it was a kind of weekly thing.  1 weekly feed equals 1 weekly poop.  I’ll do some more research and ask some more knowledgeable folk than myself.

I was absolutely thrilled today with how the feeding went.  Last week I didn’t get to see anything as Lacey didn’t strike at her food.  Instead she snuck in the consumption of her meal while I was out of the room, after I had left it in her enclosure for her.  Today on the other hand, not only did she strike and consume two pinky mice, I was able to catch the consumption of the first one on my phone.  The footage is below.  It runs for about 5 minutes and depicts the whole process after she has secured the mouse in the correct position.  The images appear a little ‘foggy’ as they are taken from outside her enclosure.

It is not particularly graphic or anything, but, if you are squeamish at the thought of watching a snake consume a whole baby mouse (frozen to being with, not live) then avoid watching.  Personally, I found it fascinating to watch live something that I had previously only seen on a screen.

I am going to show the footage to again some people more knowledgeable than myself, with a view to understanding if I am feeding Lacey the right sized food.  While it looks like she has to stretch quite a bit to consume her meal her, she actually ate another one about 10 minutes after this.  The second one was consumed much faster than this one.  I just want some reassurance that I am giving her the right amount and size of food.

What an awesome day!

Lacey eating a pinky mouse

It’s feeding time!

Today I had my first go at feeding Lacey.  I have been concerned about it as baby pythons have some renown as being easily turned off their food by stress.  If that is the case you can end up having to force feed them.  That is not something that I have liked thinking about.  So I have taken a somewhat cautious approach since Lacey came home.

I have left Lacey alone in her enclosure, doing nothing more than look at her since she came home on Saturday.   The hope was that she would take food when offered at roughly a week since the last feed she took based on the record I was provided.  Today was 6 days since that date and I could wait no longer!  I offered her two pinkie mice using tweezers.  I was very encouraged that she was very interested in the food and poised in a striking pose, testing the scent of the mice when held and jiggled in front of her.  Unfortunately she did not strike.

The good news is however, that she did eat both mice!  I left them in the enclosure and she took and consumed them in her own time.  The bad bit about it is that I didn’t get to witness either event.  The first one I was in the kitchen preparing my lunch.  The second one was after I had gone back to work after lunch.  Shattered.  Plenty of time to see it in the future.  But, I am desperate to see it happen first hand.

Tonight when I got home I was very pleased to see the second bulge in her tummy indicating that she had in fact eaten the second mouse offered.  She was beautifully curled up at the warm end of the enclosure grabbing some toasty temperatures to help with digestion of her meal.  I took the opportunity to handle her for the first time since I transferred her into the enclosure on Saturday.  The plan is to handle her for short periods initially and build up over time so as to avoid stress and putting her off her food.  The photo above was a quick snap taken on my phone while I had her out briefly.  Loving every minute so far!