Darwin Chillin with Daddy

Just a couple pics of Darwin chillin with John :)

~J

News of the Nursery

Well, since the hatching of our little blind Delta and her twin sister, Echo, we've had two more babies hatch.  Welcome to the family, Foxtrot and Gamma!  We now have the two adults, two juveniles, and five infants with only two eggs to go for this season.  So far we've lost about four eggs, which is sad, but all in all I'd say it's still been a pretty successful run.

Also, since we decided to change from paper towel to sand in the nursery the babies seem to have stopped eating as regularely.  We're not sure if it's the sand, or the fact that we chose black sand (which we later found out can throw them off a little), so we've decided to change their bedding again.  This time they've got reptile carpet.  Not as easy to maintain as sand or paper towel, but healthier than sand and cheaper than paper towel in the long run.  It's also the most often recommended substrate so it seemed like a decent choice.

There are three babies chillin in that little cave, getting used to their new carpet and recovering after the somewhat stressful experience of being moved from the tank to a bucket and back again.

We've started feeding Delta on a regimine of water with diluted vitamin powder from an eye-dropper, as well as organic mixed vegetable baby food.  Here she is licking some baby food off the tip of John's finger.  She's such a sweet little thing, and her twin sister is already twice her size (she may be a dwarf and not ever grow to full size)... As a result she has fast become my favourite of the baby geckos.  Aint it always the way?

~J

Darwin Rescues Rex

Okay, in all honesty Darwin didn't really rescue Rex, and in fact if he'd been given the opportunity I'm sure he probably would have fought that little leopard gecko to the death.  But the fact remains that if Darwin hadn't been roaming around the living room, Rex might be dead.

Most evenings I let Darwin out to run around a little bit, to get some exercise and at the same time give me some amusement.  Well, the other night I had Darwin out and was sitting on the floor about to go pick him up when I noticed he was looking very intently towards the couch.  I followed his gaze to see Rex creeping out from under the couch, slowly coming forward to see who or what Darwin was!  Of course my reaction scared both lizards, "WHAT THE HELL?!  REX IS OUT!!", and Rex went running back under the couch.  I grabbed Darwin and put him back in his tank, then we had to lift the couch to get Rex back.  We have no idea how long Rex had been out, but the balcony door was open so it was very cold on the floor.  We might not have noticed him missing until the next day... or even the day after... at which point he may well have been dead.

Perhaps we should re-name Rex 'Houdini'. 

~J

Second Guessing the "Carpet"

I'm finding myself wondering if I should actually have sand in Darwin's tank.  I know that Cameron, our lizard guy, said that sand was appropriate, but I wonder if he wasn't just trying to make the sale knowing that I didn't have the budget to go crazy on substrate.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think Cameron would do or suggest anything that he felt was dangerous for a lizard, as he loves the little buggers way too much.  It's just that all over the internet all the other people I see with beardies have them in much larger tanks, with virtually no sand.  They've got astro-turf, lizard carpet, flat rocks, logs and plants... but no sand.

I worry because when Darwin drags his salad around the tank, the moist leaves pick up clumps of sand, and then he eats them.  Sand can cause impaction and it's really not a good idea to let your dragon eat it.

The white powder on his salad is calcium.  My crickets all died in an unfortunate cricket-incident, so I fed him some of John's crickets this morning.  John's crickets aren't dusted, so I dusted Darwin's salad instead.

I would like to, one day, get Darwin a bigger tank.  Before then, however, I do think I need to change his carpet from sand to something a little more beardie-appropriate.  I'd also like to put some plant life in is tank, as I see a lot of that in other people's beardie tanks and their beardies are all big and healthy looking with big fat tails.  I don't think I quite need to get the bigger tank yet, which is good cuz I can't afford one right now, but when he gets closer to full-grown I definately think my 40 gal wont be suitable...  Which is really making me doubt Cameron's credibility.  He said that a 40 gal is more than appropriate for one or even two dragons.  He said sand was fine.  He told me that Darwin's a boy, but the longer I have him and witness his body language, the more I suspect he's actually a she.  Now I wonder if the age Cameron gave me is correct, and question everything else he's told me about proper dragon husbandry.  Oh yeah, he also told me that Darwin only needs about 6 crickets a day, when everywhere else I've looked has said more like 20-30 for a dragon his age.  I'm so confused.

Anyway, he's steadily growing and seems healthy, happy and active.  I guess I'm doing it right so far... Fingers crossed.

~J

Check your UVB light!

So, I've been concerned about Darwin's health because I'm a paranoid momma and take every little thing as a possible sign of illness.  Certain behaviours that have had me concerned are his tendency to "flex" his fingers upward while his palm is resting on the ground, and the fact that his hands often twitch while doing this.  I still haven't found anything to tell me this is normal, but have learned that it's possible he's either not getting enough calcium or he's not getting enough UVB light which is essential to digesting calcium.

I know Darwin gets enough calcium and nutrition.  I give him greens, gutload his crickets and give him supplements by the book... so I thought, maybe it's the light?  His UVB light is balanced across one corner of his tank because he doesn't have a screen for it to rest on.  I was sure this set-up was still adequate, but decided to have a look and see if there was a way I could optimize it.  This is when I realized that there was a glass slide-in lense in his light fixture!  Glass filters out UVB rays, so it looks like he really wasn't getting enough UVB rays... None at all, actually!

I hope that now that I've taken this slide out of his light fixture he'll be okay.  Going to a vet is not an option right now so all I can do is keep an eye on him and keep my fingers crossed.

He's still quite energetic and has a decent appetite, so I think he'll be fine.  Mind you, yesterday and today he hasn't seemed that interested in his crickets... but he's also actively shedding so maybe that's why.  It sucks that he's not eating his crickets today, because that means that I'm gonna have to go in there and hunt them down and get them out of his tank before bed-time tonight.  Booo.

~J

An Experiment in Substrate

Through our various experiences with baby leos, we've decided to try letting them live on sand substrate from birth rather than starting them out on paper towel.  I don't recommend this for anyone who wants to breed leos, as there is a chance of the little ones ingesting sand and becoming impacted and dying, but we've decided that the chances are low enough to risk it.  Frankly, sand is easier to clean because you can just sift out the poop rather than having to disturb the whole tank by having to take all the paper towel out and replace it.  Besides, we've had babies living on sand before because we ran out of paper towel briefly, and they were just fine.  Really, the paper towel is just procautionary.

This is Charlie and Echo exploring their new sandy home.  Delta is in the wet-box and is difficult to get pics of, but she's Echo's twin (only with much prettier patterning).

I'm very worried about Delta right now.  Baby leos tend to be born with big bulgy eyes and although I don't think they are blind at birth, they certainly look blind.  The thing is, Echo and Delta were hatched just under a week ago (Delta is one day older than Echo), and Echo's eyes were only buggy for about a day or two.  Delta's eyes haven't normalized yet, and actually look as though there might be something wrong with them.  Her bottom lids look swollen, and you can't even see her irises... her eyes are just dark grey.  I guess it's just a waiting game, now.  We'll see how she looks in a couple of days.  I hope she's okay, I'd be so heartbroken if one of my babies suffered and/or died.

On an upnote, Darwin got a new log to climb on today and seems to be enjoying it:

~J

The Elusive Alpha

Finally have another couple pics of the elusive Alpha.  She hides a lot and is a lot more skiddish than the others, so she's tough to get pics of.  Here she is.

She looks like she's pretty close to shedding.  Maybe one day I'll snag a pic of her while her colours are at their brightest.

~J

This Week in the Lizard Household

We've had two more leo eggs hatch, yay! Delta hatched on the 10th and Echo on the 11th, and they're now happily sharing the nursery tank with Charlie. I don't have any pics of the new ones yet because the tank needs to be cleaned tomorrow, so I'll take pics after that.


Alpha and Beta have now moved in with their mommy in the big tank, and the side that was originally portioned off for them now houses Rex because we don't want him to continue getting Buddy pregnant, and he seemed miserable on the other side of the nursery tank. Besides, with all the eggs we've got on the go we needed all the space in the nursery for new hatchlings.

Although geckos aren't supposed to have any maternal instinct or famillial recognition, Buddy has behaved nothing but protective of Alpha and Beta since they moved in. Buddy will even get in the way between us and them if we're reaching in to take one of them out... Explain that one!

Here are a couple pics of Buddy holding vigil over Beta as she takes a nap in the sand:

And to finish things off I'll leave you with my favourite pic of Darwin this week, being all majestic :)

later bitches

~J

PS... I almost forgot the absolute lizardy highlight of my week!  Tonight I took Darwin out of his tank just before his bedtime, and he snuggled down into the crook of my elbow in the folds of my big comfy sweatshirt, and snoozed off.  Aaaaawwwwww.... My wittle baby <3  lol

The Escape Artist

So... remember when I said that Darwin is too small to be able to escape his tank?  Yeah, I was wrong.  We still haven't switched the tanks around, either, because it's a heavy and akward job... So we just lowered the log in his tank in the hope that he wont be able to jump out now.

What's funny is when I give him an opportunity to escape, he just sits there on my hand...  I guess escaping just isn't as fun when you're allowed to do it.  ha ha.

~J

Cactus Baby

After five weeks of living on paper towel, Beta enjoys exploring new textures.

Movin on Up

Now at about 6 weeks old, Alpha and Beta have been promoted to sand substrate from their previous paper-towel.  I think they're still a little too small to live with their mother, so the adult geckos' tank has been divided with babies on one side and Buddy on the other.  Poor Rexie has been demoted to the nursery tank with Charlie on the other side.  We just don't want Buddy to keep getting preggers because she's seemed somewhat stressed lately and has had difficulty with her last couple sheds, and Rex's constant humping can't be helping.

Sometime soon we're also going to switch the top and bottom tanks so the geckos are on the bottom and Darwin is on the top.  The reason for this is that Darwin's lamps create a lot of warmth in the geckos tank right now and with the tank divided it's hard to give Buddy a cool side to escape to (the geckos' heat lamp is right in the middle of the tank so the babies can have some heat and still have a cool side).  With Darwin on top I'll also be able to keep the screen on his tank, which is good because I worry about having no top on his tank.  Although he's too small to be able to escape right now, there is a ladybug explosion in our area lately and I worry about how they would affect him if they got into his tank.  I know beetles are not good for little lizards because their shells can damage the sensitive digestive organs, and I'm not sure if ladybugs carry any other hazards, like parasites.

Moving the tanks will also give me an opportunity to clean the vent behind them and change the air filter.  It's looking pretty filthy, as is visible anytime I try to take pics of Darwin.