Darwin's Arrival

This is Darwin, a Super Orange/Red Bearded Dragon. He is about 7 months old, and is the newest addition to my fiance's and my reptile menagerie.

I only adopted him this week, on October 13th, so I am still learning all about beardies and their care. Up until now John and I have been keeping and breeding leopard geckos, but Darwin is my first foray into a slightly higher maintenance lizard. He's especially special to me because he's my lizard, whereas the geckos are more or less John's.

I can't tell you how paranoid and over-protective I've been about Darwin. Because I wasn't completely sure how old he was when I brought him home I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to do anything that could hurt him. Man, when you read about beardie care online you find a LOT of stuff that scares the bajeebus out of you. For instance, I read that if he ate a cricket that was too big for him, it might block his intestinal tract or it could even rupture his spinal column! Imagine my horror when I came home from work yesterday to have John tell me that he found a giant cricket in with the little ones and decided to give it to Darwin! I was worried about the little guy all night, until he finally took a nice huge poop and I realized he was just fine.

Today I went back to see Cameron at Aquarium Services to ask some vital questions about my new baby. I found out that Darwin is actually closer to 7 or 8 months old, not 4 or 5 like I thought, and that large crickets wont be a problem for him. I also picked up some Rep-Cal Herptivite multivitamin powder to mix with my Fluker's calcium powder, and some stuff to gutload my crickets called Zilla Cricket Drink. I guess this stuff isn't all necessary... I mean, you can just gutload crickets with whatever fruits or veggies you're feeding your beardie, but I want the healthiest little bearded dragon I can have! I also picked up some Zilla fortified bearded dragon food pellets to mix with his salad. This is not really necessary either, except that if I can get him used to eating this now, then I can leave him with just the pellets if we go away for a couple days without having to worry about having someone to go to the house and give him fresh crickets every day or two.

Every visit to Aquarium Services is dangerous for me, as my whole fascination with beardies came from a chance encounter with one there while we were shopping for gecko supplies. While John and Cameron chit-chatted for about an hour, I walked around the store with a big adult beardie clinging to my shirt and just chillin with me. I fell in love with the breed that day, and started researching and planning for one of my own. That was less than two months ago and I'm now the proud mommy of a 7 month old beardie! Today's visit was equally dangerous, as I got to interact with the sweetest, funniest little frilled lizard you ever met! John's youngest son, Talon, wants a frilled lizard so we asked Cameron to take one out of it's tank to show him. This lizard was such a character that now John and I are both brainstorming ways to fit a frilled lizard into our family. It wont be until after we buy a house now, as there simply is no more room for any more terrarriums, and we just quite frankly don't have the income right now to support another reptillian mouth to feed.

One day, though, we'll have a home full of happy reptiles! John's oldest son, Drake, wants a Chinese Water Dragon, although I've never met a very personable one. I like lizards that interact well with people... If you can't hold it, it's not worth it as far as I'm concerned. Take Darwin, for instance: He's been chillin on my arm the whole time I've been typing this. I think he likes watching the words move across the screen. :)