Slacking

I've been slacking on the updates, but it has been quite busy around here.

The shop has been a hit! Definitely not complaining there. Smaug might be, he gets to be the photo model every time i come up with a new idea. Such is the life of dragons.

Smaug, Onyxia, Lilly, Petrie, and I attended the first annual High Desert Pirate Fair a few weeks ago to kick off the renfaire season. Best first-year faire I have been to.

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Took in a few new scaley babies.

GECKY:
We picked Gecky up at the reptile show in Pomona in early January. He was just over a month old. He is a gargoyle gecko.  We got him from GuyCo Geckos. I emailed them after the show requesting his hatch date and other information.  They responded very quickly and were well organized. Gecky is a healthy,  happy little gecko. :)  The name was supposed to be a place-holder till we figured out if he was a boy or a girl, but it just stuck. Now it's his name for good.

MR. TICKLES
We found Mr. Tickles at the local pet store. He is a red bi-color crested gecko. When we got him, he was a little under 3 months old. We got him in early February. He was my Valentine's Day present. My youngest stepson named him, because it tickles when he walks on his skin.

ANDROMEDA :
Andi was a Craigslist find. Her eyes sold me. The guy we bought her from was trying to downsize his collection,  because he didn't have time for them. Andi is an emerine x halloween-mask leopard gecko. We picked her up in early February too, about a week after Mr. Tickles. We named her Andromeda because her eyes reminded me of little galaxies.

CASSIOPEIA :
Cassie came from the same guy who we got Andi from. He contacted me this past Saturday because he remembered me saying that I run a small reptile rescue. She had stopped eating, and she was losing weight. He asked me to take her in as a rescue,  and make sure she got the care she needs. After some argument, she ate tonight. She is a bell albino leopard gecko. We called her Cassiopeia because it just seemed to fit.

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Successfully got Petrie switched over to frozen/thawed food. I am thrilled for that. No expensive vet bills due to rat bites for him.

Now, if only Lilly would switch...

Update 01-09-15

We lost Morgan in November. Our power was out for about 36 hours, give or take, and while that only mildly annoyed Lilly, it was deadly for poor Morgan. My guess is that it was either due to her age (we don't know exactly how old she was, just had an educated guess that she was at least 7-10 years old, if not older.) or there may have been some other underlying condition that we never found. She was in pretty poor shape when she came to us, but appeared to have recovered.

R.I.P. Morgan  <3

On a lighter note, I have not posted an update on Falkor or the babies in a good, LONG while.

Still skinny, but acting much healthier.

Falkor is doing quite well. He is being quite slow about gaining weight, but he eats willingly, and has not lost any weight. His color and energy have improved too. He is still very shy around most people, but REACHES for me when I take him out. He knows who rescued him  :)








The babies have gotten quite large. They just cleared the 6 month mark. Most of the ones that will be going to new homes have been picked up, so I am down to 8 babies now.

 

When they were tiny, ALL 15 OF THEM could fit around this little dish they are drinking from. Not anymore though.

(that's not dirt in the dish, it's the pattern on the ceramic. The dish is spotless)




NEW ADDITION: Petrie.

I received an adorable little pastel ball python as a Christmas gift this year. He's about 4 months old, and his favorite hobby is pretending to be a cookie.

Petrie-cookie

Falkor Update

Falkor on the way to the vet

Took Falkor to the vet last week. He had a general wellness exam and had a fecal done.

Aside from being VERY skinny (he only weighed 185 grams) and having a MASSIVE infestation of pinworms, he was healthy.

He just had his last dose of his first round (of 2 rounds) of Panacur to clear out the pinworms. Round 2 starts in a couple weeks to get any that hadn't hatched yet during this round of treatment.

He had another bath today, and graduated from paper towels to a real cage liner.

He already looks happier.

Falkor

New rescue, calling him Falkor. 

He was found in some guys backyard by his dog (who luckily was afraid to touch it so he just barked at it). The guy said he tried to find his owner, but couldn't.











He couldn't keep the dragon either, so I picked him up earlier today.

He is a little on the skinny side, but otherwise seems ok. He acted very feral at first, but he has calmed down rather quickly and is acting quite friendly now.










He has had a bath, ate a few worms, and is currently settling in to his new cage.

While he was getting his bath I noticed that someone had painted his claws pink.









He will be going in to the vet later this week for a health check and a parasite test.

So many little faces.

Firecracker

The babies are about a month and a half old now. 2 didn't make it. One had digestive issues and one had a run in with a couple crickets that I missed when removing them from the cage after feeding time. I am not going to go into details because it's heartbreaking.

They're all developing the most adorable personalities. I have picked a couple keepers, and several of them have been picked by their new mommies/daddies.

Firecracker

My keepers are Firecracker (male) Onyxia (female) and S (female) I wish I could keep Deuce (male) also. If I can, I will. He's such a sweetheart.

S, the face of my rescue

Onyxia

Deuce (formerly #2, second to cut, first out of the egg)

The ones that have found new homes so far are Meranath (formerly Star) and Nostradamus (formerly stumpy. He has a tail nip)

Meranath, the puppy-dragon

 Meranath is going home with my friend Sahara from Raresight Farms. I know she will have a very good home there.

Nostradamus

Nostradamus is going home with my good friend Amanda. She is already head over heels in love with him, and I know she will spoil him rotten.

Big Red MIGHT have a family waiting for him, I am still waiting to hear back from them for verification.

Went to the Renaissance Faire up in Big bear these last 2 weekends. The first time I took ALL of the dragons, but I went in plain clothes. That was when Amanda chose Nostradamus. She is calling him Nos for short.

This past weekend, we went up for closing day. I took 5 of the babies (Firecracker,Onyxia, Deuce, Nos, and the NEW star, since Meranath got her new name), Smaug, and Tiamat. We took the boys with us too. The younger one LOVES to tell people everything about the dragons. I am VERY impressed with how well he remembers every little thing I tell him about them, but that IS an Autism spectrum thing, and he IS on the spectrum. He recognizes each individual dragon as well as I do, and he has only seen them 3 times since they hatched.

Amanda got to spend all day with little Nos to get to know him better. She is so very smitten with that little dragon. It makes me very happy to see.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Lucky recovering from near-drowning.

Had an incident just a few minutes ago, one of the babies almost drowned in the water dish. Another one sat on his head. I pulled him out and he was limp and drooling slimy water. I held him by the tail,head down, with my pinky finger wedged in his mouth, and gently tried to force the water out of his lungs.


It worked.

Lucky

He started spewing water in big gooey drops. I swear I didn't think his little body could hold that much water. After that, he recovered pretty quickly.

This little guy has now EARNED the name Lucky.

He is now trying to have dragon adventures by climbing all over me and running all over the bed.

15 minutes after the near drowning incident. Lucky is fine.

Dragon Eggs, Day 80

I've been slacking. It got crazy around here the last couple weeks, and I didn't post any updates.

But today, you all get the ULTIMATE update.

The best update ever.

Seriously.

So, I was visiting my friend in the hospital today, and talking to her about the dragons. I told her that they were all good, and could come visit her at home when she gets out.

She asked about the eggs, and I told her that a few had sunken in, especially the one I had been measuring, so I hadn't been able to do any measurements, but any time I picked up the shriveled eggs, I could feel the babies moving around inside. When they start to shrivel and wrinkle, that means they're getting ready to hatch.

As of last night, 4 were wrinkling, and the one I had been measuring looked completely collapsed. It bore a strong resemblance in shape to a raisin.

When I got home from visiting, I checked the incubator for temperature, because it's REALLY hot today.

I popped it open to put in a blue-ice bar to bring the temperature down (it had jumped to 93) and saw this:

That's the one I was measuring. No more charts now, it's too late  :)

Dragon Eggs, Day 46, and Gecko Eggs Round 2, Day 1

Incubator Status:
Temperature: 84 degrees fahrenheit
Humidity: 84%

Dragon eggs are doing well. More wiggling, more defined feet and toes visible.

Also, Squeaker popped.

The eggs look a LOT healthier this time.

Round 2, looks good so far.

They aren't all wrinkled and caved in looking. The last pair looked like little white raisins.

The first batch. They didn't do well.

May get a successful hatching out of her this time around. The last pair mildewed into nothingness.

Size comparison. Gecko eggs on the left, dragon eggs on the right.

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Found a home for Quill, the dragon in need in the slightly previous post. Hoping he gets all the love he deserves with his new people.

<3

Dragon in Need of a Home

This is Qwill, and he is in need of a new home.

A friend of mine requested my help finding one for him. He belongs to her friend's son, who is not taking care of him.

Her friend feeds him, but does not touch him because she is afraid of him.

She says he does love snuggles though. He is very friendly and good with kids.

This boy deserves a loving home where he can get lots of snuggles and love.

She is asking a re-homing fee of $40.

Included is:
- The dragon (of course)
- 1 40 gallon tank
- UV lighting

The setup alone would easily cost between $200-$300. This is a great price for a good dragon. He's even got some nice color going. Look at that "eye-shadow".

If you are interested, get in touch with me through my rescue's Facebook page at

https://www.facebook.com/thedragonzden

and I will relay the message.

Dragon Eggs, Day 30

Amy knocked the lid askew on the incubator again yesterday. Again, don't know how long it was off, but I fixed it and moved the incubator out of the reach of small dogs.

The heat was BRUTAL today.

When I got home from work, the temperature inside the incubator was at 94 degrees.
it's supposed to be at 84 degrees. Extended periods of time at over 90 degrees can kill the embryos.
I really hope I wasn't too late.

Before

Incubator Status (3pm):
Temperature: 94 degrees fahrenheit
Humidity: 47%

After

Incubator Status (6pm):

Temperature: 86 degrees fahrenheit

Humidity: 55%

The humidity is STILL super low. It should be between 70 and 80%

I threw so much ice in there to cool it off, I was worried there wouldn't be enough to put in the cages for the dragons and geckos, and in the water bowl for the dog and cats.

There was enough though. The girls were so happy about the ice water in their pool, they decided to go swimming (it had gotten around 110 in their cage, Smaug's wasn't so bad, it stayed around 98)

I know, their pool is dirty. They keep dragging material from the dig box into it.