Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ive had my bd for 7 years, and i had 7 or so other pets during those same years... then at graduation time and with big exams and college preparation and with all that going across town to get circkets seemed like a huge impossible task and would get laid back or forgotten completely till my bd got to weak to do anything so i tried to nurse it back to health and was seconds from picking up the phone to make vet appointements when i got back from work but first seeing he was dead... its horrible, im just saying all this cause i want to just warn anyone who may be falling into bad habits, or maybe any of you who it could possbly happen to, i was just like you guys posting bragging out my bd, i love him so much and i miss him so much. its horrible.

That is so very sad, especially being that old of a dragon. At his age though, crickets wouldn't be a huge priority, did he not get greens either?
In any case, I'm real sorry this happend.

He did get some mustards and collard greens to munch on.

I feel you must be an EXTREMELY irresponsible individual. If you can't take an hour out of your busy schedule to get the food needed for your pet, then you should have given it away to somebody who really does care for his pet. Other bearded dragons have heavy responsibilites, kids, school, work etc...and they ensure all are fed well. I would hate to see what would happen if you should have a kid..would you let it starve cause you are too lazy to go out of your way to get proper food?

Yes I am being most hostile cause well you deserve it. I only feel really sorry for the bearded dragon who had to suffer a slow agonizing death cause of your lack of responsibility. I certainly hope you don't get another pet till you learn how to be responsible. Sheesh...I cannot stand irresponsible pet owners and it's not that freaking hard to give them food regularly. Takes me only 5 minutes to prepare and feed my beardie and I can do that while my breakfast is cooking.

There are many things you could have done. You could have just ordered 1000 crickets and had them delivered right to your school, or to your door. At 7 years of age a bearded dragon only needs crickets a couple times a week..didn't you feed it all the greens it can eat every day? A little bit of mustard greens and collards doens't sound like you put much effort into caring for him.

Boy, you must feel horrible talking to someone like that. If you don't I wouldn't want you taking care of anything alive! You don't deserve pets if you can't treat your fellow man with a little respect. Go live in the jungle if you want to talk to people like that. Your animals are probably the only company you keep. I feel very bad that this animal died, but that doesn't mean we have to jump to conclusions, and say only a 7 year old would do that. Come on people grow up or get a life. I hate it when people sit behind their computers and think they know everything. Were here to learn from each other, whether it is a good expierience or a bad one. Mabey you could learn SOMETHING if for one second you realize you don't know EVERYTHING!

I don't think I know everything and I have plenty of friends. I however do not neglect those in my care, even if I am busy. Being a pet owner and this goes for any kind of pet, from dog to goldfish, you take full responsibility for their wellbeing. Unlike in the wild, a captive animal cannot forage for food itself.

As for how I treat humans..well I treat humans with respect until they give me cause to lose all respect for them. Far as I am concerned, if they act like an irresponsible child then they should be treated as such till they show they can take responsibility for their own actions. The only thing I Can say for Phunky Phish is that he did have the guts to admit he royally screwed up. I just hope he doens't repeat the pattern next time he gets a pet. I also hope he thinks twice before getting a new pet to ensure he can care for it throughout it's life.

I agree that it was pretty irresponsible and I too hope he takes into consideration the nurturing it takes to be a pet owner. It's alot of work. And anyone who thinks it's easy, well lets just say it can be as hard as you want to make it, but never easy. I have many, many animals, plus a new baby. I know how terrible it is to lose any of them. Hopefully phunkyfarm, or whoever really takes this loss seriously, and I hope he will keep us posted on any other animals he decides to care for. We should all be friends here, I just hate to see all the negitivity.

You said...

" if they act like an irresponsible child then they should be treated as such..."

So does this mean that you act toward children the way you acted toward him? I.E., belligerent and insulting.

well, that is a sad and tough lesson to learn.

There is one thing to take into consideration, "others' before you tear this poster apart.
There could have been some other health problem with this beardie. It WAS seven years old, and this could have contributed to its death...
Also, this poster did NOT have to post what happened. I am sure it wasnt posted so that they could get 'ripped apart'. It was posted as a "wake up call" for others who may not be giving their dragons the attention they need.

i agree. the poster did not have to post that confession. it's true that it was neglect but i believe he/she honestly feels horrible about what happened. every day is a learning experience for all of us and one bad thing or one good thing doesn't make us any worse or better than anyone else.

next time....you'll take care of your pet and know the value of it's life to itself and to you. see...lesson learned

amy

It might have been a tough lesson. But I have my doubts that it died of starvation. He said it was getting some greens. it would take a beardie over a month to die of starvation with no food, IMO. When being treated for coccidia beardies easily go two weeks without really eating and usually don't lose weight. Give the guy a break, I mean it is horrible, but we can't say for sure it was his fault. I recently had a dragon die from having an abcess in its colon. The dragon stopped eating and was thin from being a first time breeder (2 clutches) I isolated the dragon and tried to get her back to eating. Brought her to vet, he found no reason to believe there was a blockage. Thought it was related to vitamin/calcium defiency from rearing clutches. For the next week I gave her water and calcium/vitamins daily by mouth. And continued to offer food. She continued to get thinner. So I started to feed her baby food. She took a dramatic dive in her health one day, I was going to bring her into the vet on tuesday, was a holiday weekend, and on that tuesday she passed. I had a necropsy done that found the abcess. The dragon was 2.5 years old. It does happen dragons die, it might have been helped along by the keeper, but it might have been something else. Without a necropsy no one will know. So think of this before you rip into the guy, he already realizes that he screwed up. It isn't like all keepers are perfect, I now I am not, and I am sure none of you are perfect either.

Yours Truely
-----
Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

going from the 'poster's description, his beardie was weak and could barely move around before he decided to try and nurse it back to health. Whether it died of parasites, disease or starvation, my opinion stands. The beardie died due to NEGLECT! Most responsible beardie owners won't wait till their pet is all skinny and lathargic to pick up a phone to get help.

To me this is a huge sign of neglect and irresponsibility on the part of the poster, and can even be considered a case of cruelity to animals. For all we know this poor beardie could have been suffering for a month of little to no food, with only a few greens to munch on.

So, go ahead and give him all the sympathy you want...but it doesn't change the fact that I am most upset that this person failed to provide proper care for his pet. Being busy at school or whatnot is not an excuse.

Anybody who has seen animals die or put down just because the owner was too irresponsible, or lazy to properly care for their animals, should understand the resentment and anger I have.

Sure the poster didn't have to admit he did wrong but doing so doesn't mean it is all right to neglect your pet, as long as you 'confess' and get sympathy notes from people who should know better. I don't care if a person confesses they did wrong, jsut don't repeat teh same mistakes should that person get another pet. In fact I would rather they think twice before getting another pet to ensure they can spend the little bit of time needed to take care of it and do so for the entire natural life of the animal.

I agree....he sounds pretty irresponsible in my opinion.
To have a pet for 7 years and neglect it that bad.....I had only had my beardie for a couple of weeks and took him to the vet because I was concerned. I'm sure he had time to go out and have fun but not enough time to run to the pet store? Come on people....no one is THAT busy....PLUS crickets can be delivered to your door. But if someone is THAT lazy he probably wouldn't have bothered putting the crickets in the cage. I can't have sympathy for him either.

When I graduated a few years ago(exams, preparing for college, and everything the poster had been "busy" with as well, as well as a 30 hour a week job), i cared for two leopard geckos, a chinchilla, a sun conure (bird) and two african clawed frogs (this was before i got my beardie). even with the hectic graduation time, i still had plenty of time to care for my pets, and they all remained healthy. It honestly doesnt take that long to feed them and make sure they have water, and to clean them every week or so when they need it, and play with them. I agree, no one is THAT busy. exams only last a week, you only graduate on one day, i mean, come on! its just irresponsible, thats all there is to it. theres no way anyone should try and justify what he has done. sure its good that he saw and realized what he did was wrong, but still, thats NO excuse. i always hear people say on these forums "dont get a pet if you arent willing to pay the vet bills if it ever gets sick." isnt this the same thing? dont get a pet unless you can give him a happy healthy life at all costs, no matter how "busy" you may be? a pet is your responsibility, and YOU are what the animal depends on to stay alive and healthy. if you dont have time, MAKE TIME.

Just my opinion

-----
~Melissa~

I have no sympathy for you, only for your dragon. It really isn't that hard to provide the very basics of care. I mean, you must be like 7 years old or something to completely forget to feed a dragon until it starves. It takes a long time to starve an old dragon, they can go weeks without food.

I also don't think not having crickets was the reason for your beardie's death. Contrary to what these people think, I believe you've done well if your beardie lived for 7 years. You were obviously doing something right. I notice a lot of you who are ripping this person to shreds are new beardie owners, and you haven't lost one yet. Beardies really can go downhill quickly. It happened to me last summer. I put my beardie out on my deck in a reptarium and came back out an hour later and he had puked up his food. It was already too late in the day to get to the vet so I gave him a warm bath and put him in a warm box for the night with a heat pad under it. That morning he looked better, but I still went to the vet. By the time I got the vet he was a lot worse again. You get to know your pets I think, and I knew he wouldn't live much longer. I wanted to take him home, but really I had no idea if he would survive a ride home. He was euthanized. A lot of you who haven't lost a beardie yet may not understand this until you do lose one. You do everything the right way, and still something goes wrong. So, i'm terribly sorry to hear about your beardie. I bet he had an excellent 7 years with you.

The beardie I spoke of above one day had one sunken fat pad on her head, nothing that scary. The next day all three pads were sunken in and her tail seemed to have lost half of its size. And seeing as how I was suspecting she was sick at this time I was paying very close attention. Friday I was a little concerned, saturday I was a little more concerned, sunday more so, monday thinking it was coming around a little, tuesday dead dragon. They can get cancer, gout, kidney failure, liver failure, impaction, internal abscesses, and a host of other things. These things can take a healthy beardie and kill it over a weekend. he did have intentions of going to the vet. I lost a boa the same weekend as the mentioned beardie. I didn't notice anything with him till saturday night, he didn't move normally out of his cage and didn't flick his tongue right. He was dead sunday morning, gout was the cause. If you haven't been doing it for years and had it happen you really don't know. Trust me. I was pretty distraught about both of their passings. I was scared for the rest of my animals. Cut the guy a little slack here. The dragon probably didn't starve is my conclusion, but maybe it did the guy hasn't provided enough info one way or the other to confirm or refute this.
-----
Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

I would really truly doubt that this dragon died from starvation. They can live all winter long with little or no food when they brumate. What would make one think that a week without food would kill a beardie? This doesn't mean that I think you shoudl all stop feeding your beardies for a week, but I don't think that it would kill them. Certainly they would get mad at you though.

When any creature brumates their metabolism slows down drastically, even to the point you can bearly notice any heartbeat.

Lack of food will slow the metabolism down in order to prevent starvation. The same thing happens to humans who eat less.

Do you even know what the word 'metabolism' means?

I agree that a beardy would not starve to death in that short amount of time. Maybe a prolonged lack of food, but not a week or two. His or her body would start eating fat and muscle, and in that short amount of time, it wouldn't be a significant amount. Not enough to kill the beardy. Maybe if it were a little tiny baby, but I highly doubt it with an adult unless, like I said, there was a prior problem.

n/p
-----
TheClassyLizard