New Love

[SpikeDragon714]

Hi! This is Spike, my new beardie. I'm a first time beardie owner and loving it! We naively bought our little one from Petsmart but have been lucky to have him/her growing healthy and strong! Now I'm doing everything I can to learn as much as possible and am really excited to have found this site! It's already becoming a wonderful resource! Based off of what I've read so far, I think Spike is a Citrus of some sort. He has a lemony yellow base color with tangerine stripes and some pale blue in there also. He looked gray and brown when we bought him but a few days after bringing him home he went through a good shed and turned these bright, vibrant colors. It was such a surprise and so cool! He's been waving a lot lately and become very social and finally eating good too! We're enjoying him so much!

 

[DanielE]

Citrus is possible I saw one the last time I went to a petsmart. An iver head pic would be helpful in that regard though.
I also dont see anything wrong with buying from places like petsmart you just got to know what your looking for and look for any signs of preexisting problems.
It looks like you got a nice healthy little guy.
Also no stress marks in sight so thats a good thing.

 

[PatsyB]

Was he labeled as "fancy"? Dexter was a Fancy from Petsmart and she was real dark and now is yellow. She also is a hypo, meaning she is lacking in black pigment (her dark colors actually look grayish/purple) and all her nails are clear.

 

[DanielE]

The one pictured is a hypo aswell. I did not think to look at the nails until you said that. Lol

 

[PatsyB]

The one pictured is a hypo aswell. I did not think to look at the nails until you said that. Lol

I didn't think to enlarge the picture to get a closer look LOL!

 

[SpikeDragon714]

Oh cool! I didn't realize that's what his clear nails and periwinkle purple marks meant. I'm pretty sure he's getting ready to shed again because he's gotten duller over the last week or so, especially on his tail, but here is an aerial pic. His head still looks like what his body normally looks like, but his body is darker right now.

 

[SpikeDragon714]

Oh, and yes, he was labeled "fancy" when I bought him!

 

[PatsyB]

Periwinkle, that's the color! We didn't understand why she was labeled fancy. She looked a little lighter than the other dragons in the tank but not much of a difference. We liked her because she was very sweet and interested in us.

 

[SpikeDragon714]

That's exactly how we felt about Spike! There wasn't an obvious difference other than his being a little lighter but he was right at the glass, begging us to take him home! We've been enjoying him so much we decided to get a second! We found this little gal at a local reptile store where she was bread and hatched. She's totally feisty, very different from Spike! Thanks to the forum, we used the flashlight method to sex both of them and there were obvious differences! Lol! Spike is definitely a boy and the new beardie is def a girl! Glad we already had a separate enclosure ready and weren't planning on housing together! So much fun! Here's our new girl- no name yet!

 

[DanielE]

Id name her..... Coco

Lovely Dragon

 

[PatsyB]

She's a cutie! Good that you got them so close together and get to see those 2 different personalities grow at the same time. We got Dexter and Luci a year apart and it was kinda hard to get used the differences.

 

[Elemental Dragon Lord]

Welcome to your new addiction

 

[SpikeDragon714]

Welcome to your new addiction

No kidding! Thanks! They're pretty fun!

 

[SpikeDragon714]

Spike is almost done with his most recent shed so I thought I'd post a new pic. His colors are coming out so cool! I love that he's as pretty as he is lovable! I am having some issues with my new girl though! We wound up naming her Bellatrix after a character in the Harry Potter books/movies. She's quite moody! She'll spend half her day waving ( waving started 3 days ago) but when you go to open the viv to pet or handle her she'll puff up her beard and twice she's bit me without puffing her beard in warning! We've had her two weeks now and she seems to have calmed down a tiny bit but we still can't pet or handle her much. I've made sure to leave her alone when she's puffing her beard and she's only been handled by me so far, not my kids but I'd love some advice for dealing with this! Spike has never tried to bite and he loves being handled but we bought him much younger than Bella. He was probably only about a month old when we bought him whereas she was more like 8-12weeks old, judging by her size. I think she's showing improvements and she's eating, sleeping and pooping well- plus waving now, but any other ideas for helping her bond with us would be great! Here are recent pics of both (separate vivs- no cohabitation! ;-) )

 

[PatsyB]

We had the opposite. Our girl Dexter was a sweetheart from the beginning. She loves to be held and petted and she is content just sitting in one spot for hours. Luci, our boy was the exact opposite! The first few days he was sweet and let us hold him and then he started with the biting and the "hissing" and the not wanting to be held. He was about the same age as Dexter was when we got her. It's taken us a long time but he's 9 months now and he's just amazing. To get to this point I would pet him and hold him in his tank for small amounts of time right before bed. They tend to let their guard down when they are sleepy. When he'd try to bite I wouldn't flinch so that he would know I wasn't afraid of him. Sometimes when he would open his mouth to be mean, I would put some greens in it so he would hopefully associate me with food. He loves to run so we've set up a safe room in the house for him to run as much as he wants and get tired out. When he gets tired I would put him on my chest underneath my sweater and cover his head, that would make him tuck in and go to sleep. Sometimes putting a piece of your clothing in their tank helps them get used to your smell.

 

[SpikeDragon714]

We had the opposite. Our girl Dexter was a sweetheart from the beginning. She loves to be held and petted and she is content just sitting in one spot for hours. Luci, our boy was the exact opposite! The first few days he was sweet and let us hold him and then he started with the biting and the "hissing" and the not wanting to be held. He was about the same age as Dexter was when we got her. It's taken us a long time but he's 9 months now and he's just amazing. To get to this point I would pet him and hold him in his tank for small amounts of time right before bed. They tend to let their guard down when they are sleepy. When he'd try to bite I wouldn't flinch so that he would know I wasn't afraid of him. Sometimes when he would open his mouth to be mean, I would put some greens in it so he would hopefully associate me with food. He loves to run so we've set up a safe room in the house for him to run as much as he wants and get tired out. When he gets tired I would put him on my chest underneath my sweater and cover his head, that would make him tuck in and go to sleep. Sometimes putting a piece of your clothing in their tank helps them get used to your smell.

Thank you! All of that advice is so helpful! I've totally started flinching whenever she starts to twitch around as I'm petting her so I'm definitely going to have to work on that! Lol! She sounds a lot like Lucy with the running too so I love that safe room idea! I had actually been looking at those large exercise balls (like for a hamster) but was worried it might be bad for her spine so I didn't get one. She loves to bolt any time she gets out of the viv and I'd love to let her have some room to run. What did you do to create the safe room?

 

[PatsyB]

I thought about the hamster ball too! None of our rooms have any nooks that they can get lost in. They can't get stuck in anything, except for the subwoofer by the tv that Dexter did get stuck in and we thought we'd have to call the fire department to get her out LOL!

So with our front room we have a table bench that we use to block it off from the dining room. They can run under everything. We are able to move things easily or just reach them if decide to stop and take a nap under something. So far that hasn't really happened. Luci loves to climb and jump so we set up cushions and blankets so that he can easily jump from couch to chair to floor.

The fun room is our game/computer/reptile room. It's a small room and there's a lot of stuff in it but we close the door and let Luci go. Their tanks are on a wire shelving unit with 2 shelves on the bottom and then 2 shelves above with their tanks. Luci's favorite thing to do is climb through the wire shelves and get back to his tank. One day I will take a video, it's really amazing how well he climbs.

I do watch them pretty closely. One, I need to watch Dexter and Luci together because I don't want them to mate. Two, we have cats so I have to watch that they don't mess with the cats. Three I watch them closely around electrical outlets. I don't want them sticking a toe into an outlet.

So basically we just pick a room that is easy to find them in and there's nothing to really hurt them. I would never let them loose in the kitchen (even though Luci has tried to go in there), don't want them to get under the stove or fridge. I don't let Luci in the bedroom because I don't want him going under a dresser or falling off the bed. Bathroom floor is off limits because they can get behind our sink.

 

[SpikeDragon714]

I thought about the hamster ball too! None of our rooms have any nooks that they can get lost in. They can't get stuck in anything, except for the subwoofer by the tv that Dexter did get stuck in and we thought we'd have to call the fire department to get her out LOL!

So with our front room we have a table bench that we use to block it off from the dining room. They can run under everything. We are able to move things easily or just reach them if decide to stop and take a nap under something. So far that hasn't really happened. Luci loves to climb and jump so we set up cushions and blankets so that he can easily jump from couch to chair to floor.

The fun room is our game/computer/reptile room. It's a small room and there's a lot of stuff in it but we close the door and let Luci go. Their tanks are on a wire shelving unit with 2 shelves on the bottom and then 2 shelves above with their tanks. Luci's favorite thing to do is climb through the wire shelves and get back to his tank. One day I will take a video, it's really amazing how well he climbs.

I do watch them pretty closely. One, I need to watch Dexter and Luci together because I don't want them to mate. Two, we have cats so I have to watch that they don't mess with the cats. Three I watch them closely around electrical outlets. I don't want them sticking a toe into an outlet.

So basically we just pick a room that is easy to find them in and there's nothing to really hurt them. I would never let them loose in the kitchen (even though Luci has tried to go in there), don't want them to get under the stove or fridge. I don't let Luci in the bedroom because I don't want him going under a dresser or falling off the bed. Bathroom floor is off limits because they can get behind our sink.

I'm totally going to try this safe room idea for Bellatrix! I think she'll love it! Thank you!!

 

[PatsyB]

She sounds like Luci. I think if you give her a big place where she could run and burn off energy she will be very happy

 

[Elemental Dragon Lord]

I use a kiddie pool for out of viv fun.