Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I last posted on july 16th sulley was 76 grams and about 6-7 months old. I was beginning to think he was not a bearded dragon but a rankin; Is that right? well anyway i weighed him again two days ago WOW; he is a huge 180 grams. I am amazed at how much he has grown. he eats like a monster loves his pellets and vegetables. He really loves bananas and grapes. and very fond of crickets. he is approximately 9 months old how long do they grow? what a change from the coccidia and tapeworm infested 7 gram lump of lizard I got from petco in january of this year. well anyway thanks for listening. anyone know how to get them use to going bye-bye. I took him to get som crickets the other day and he freaked out and ran under the seat; I want to be able to take him places and show him off he is so pretty.

if you find out the answer to this, let me know....we took our beardie to the pet store to get crix and he wouldn't eat for 2 days.

Mine went all the way to the vet and back and he ate that day. AND he was sick to boot. If you know it freaks the lizard out I wouldn't do it, though, they're all a bit different.
If I understood the first poster right... don't transport unrestrained reptiles in cars! What if he ended up under the brake pedal?

He was on a harness; it has been a couple of months since his last carride and he use to just sit on the back of the passenger seat and stare out the window; for the probobly other 2 carrides he has been on. this time he ran under the passenger seat I pulled over to make sure he was calm and still; the petstore I buy crickets from is 2 minutes away and i got one of those cardboard boxes they send home birds or gerbils in fir the ride home after he freaked out. I am not a bad mommy. your post looked like you were trying to yell.

Not yelling... just a very important safety measure. It's very hard to tell what tone someone is taking when typing... so I usually use smilies... but then someone said 'don't use smilies'... so then I stopped. Perhaps that was ill advised. Now I'm in a smilie quandary.

3;8P
3:8)-~

Use the smileys. If folks don't like it, they don't have to read your posts.

D.A.

I don't have that problem... My beardie "cheyenne" goes with me at least once a week to pick the children up from school. He loves to get "out n about" LOL .. (He is an attention hog anyway and loves all the people going "wow look at that, etc" (great advertisement too) He sits there hanging on my shirt just looking around at everything. Never had an issue with him eating or not eating after an outing either.
I also have a snake that goes to pick the kids up at least once a week and that snake has also showed no signs of stress, etc. As a matter of fact, she ate immediately after returning home on one of the trips.

Wish I could help you out with getting a beardie "used to outings", guess I was just lucky that mine seemed to like it from the start.

If I was to suggest anything, I would start with small "mini outings"... go out in the back yard for a few minutes, then bring him/her "home" again. Gradually increase the amount of time spent away from the cage. Then "up it" to a short car ride around the block and back to his cage... increase the amount of time out gradually.

>>if you find out the answer to this, let me know....we took our beardie to the pet store to get crix and he wouldn't eat for 2 days.
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Lisa
www.beginnersbasics.com

When we took our three to the vet, nobody really minded the ride except the male, and he was okay as long as my wife held him up so he could look out the window.

The trick, I think, is to take them in a carrier that they're familiar with. We have one for each dragon that we use when we have to clean tanks and such, so they've gotten used to being in them. ( Can't clean tanks and chase dragons around the house at the same time. )

I would say that taking small animals out in a car without a carrier is probably not a good idea... Too many places in there that they could get hurt or stuck, and you can't drive and look after them at the same time.

The other side of this is that if you're in an accident, and emergency personel see lizards, snakes etc. running loose in the car, they may not be in much of a hurry to help you until the animal is rounded up. ( I know of at least one case where this happened. It seems E.M.T.s aren't very fond of large snakes... )

D.A.

Mine wanted to look out the window too... I held the lower half of his body in a bag just in case- he's very jumpy.

Some dragons love going out, some get quite scared and you can actually get a pretty shocking display when they take off running in circles body flat as a board with their mouths wide open, and beard as dark as night. I know it scared the hell out of me and the poor dragon the first time =)and this is my big male Foster big 23 inch wimp. Seems birds or any shadows in the wind freak him beyond belief. So he is one of the guys that stays in most of the time except for his weekly repatarium time. Out of 9 dragons 3 do not enjoy time outside at all. All sit scared with their heads cocked to the sky searching for birds. They are a natural predator to beardies in the wild, so I guess instinct takes over in them. Seems my males spook easier then my females. My females sit lazily in the sun soaking up the rays and the males always look tense and on guard. One female fat Anna Nicole =) is my favorite my pet store just waits for her to come in with me and say hello, and some employees are disappointed when I'm alone. Yeah makes me feel wanted, lol. Start slow like Lisa said some will come around with short trips out in the sun not all of mine that go out now where thrilled with the idea at first, but enjoy it now after many short outings with treats. I recommend for anyone bringing beardies out for the first time to have them contained, or on a leash. Repatariums or screened enclosures are great for this. Your slow moving, calm as can be, sweet dragon can turn into a devil when frightened and will bite the hand that feeds them when scared. You will be shocked to see just how fast they can sprint when startled. I know I was =)
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Mystical Dragons

How did you treat the parasites?
Jill

I had to tkae him to the vet thay gave him liquid albon for the coccidia i had to give it to him daily for 2 weeks; (by the way) coccidia never fully goes away it just lays dormant in their intestinal tract and can flare up under high stress situations; and they gave him 2 injections of drontal 2 weeks apart for the tapeworms. now to prevent reinfestation of parasites from eating crickets or mealworms; for 5 days a month i dust his crickets with parazap which is great and can be bought on line. it is cheap; i have had my jar about 4 months and there is not even a dent in it; I think it is going to last forever; I wondre if it expires? good luck if you have parasites; a good trip to the vet is in order

I took them to the vet last week. The vet did not run any tests, he just took my word that I saw small white worms in the poop. He gave each of them got a shot (of what, I don't know) and I am supposed to take them back next week (2 weeks from first visit) for another shot. I'll order some parazap to use as well. Thanks for the info.
Jill

they probobly got a shot of drontal; the second shot in 2 weeks is to kill any eggs that have hatched. I would take a fresh stool sample in and have him check it. your vet should be more willing to let you know what he is doing. i had to take stool in several times and they never saw the tapeworms; I had to take sulley in and soak him inwarm water for like 15 minutes to get him to produce a bowel movement and sure enough like 20 little tapeworms went squirming around in the water off his poop. gross!! yeah but the parazap works great all sulleys fecals have been clean since i bought the parazap.

I would bring in a stool sample next time. Most worms or parasites cannot be seen at all, and if he has the ones you can see with the eye, most likely tapeworm cause of their size. He most likely has others cause of the stress of the original tapeworms will cause the coccidia to flare up. Never treat blindly. I'm shocked your vet would even consider doing such a thing. They have to be diagnosed for the proper meds and strength to be administered. Please, it would be a good idea and give you a clear conscious to know all the parasites he has are being treated for. For the 15-25 bucks they charge to test the poop it is well worth the piece of mind. Then not knowing, and having to possibly treat again in a month when he is not eating or thriving. Prolonging the treatments for all parasites will take a toll on the dragon. You want to bang them out and get it over with in as short a time as possible. Some meds are taken hard by dragons with immune systems already lowered do to prolonged parasitic infections.
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Mystical Dragons

Thanks for the info. I'll try to find a vet who is more knowledgable about Bearded Dragons for the follow up appointment next week.