Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just want to let all you who are debating over me know something about myself. Im 18 and going to college in a couple months... an honors college, to major in biology and go on to vet school. Ive had reptiles since i was 6. Currently I have 2 dogs, a cat, a bird which ive had for 5 years now, 2 turtles one ive had 10 years, the other 3 years, an iguana which i rescued it got abused at hope could tell by its color, weight, and broken tail and fingers, he was 28 inches and brown, hasnt been quite 2 year slater hes a beautiful green and his orange and reddish adult colors show though, he eats about 8 handfulls of different greens a day, and hes a big boy, very muscular, lives in my bathroom of all places for the room. i also have fish, and a tadpole... Im not a tottaly irresponsible persopn. I [bleep]ed up bad i know, but thats not usually the ttype of person i am. And im not totally irresponsible if i could keep these other reps and other animals alive for as long as i have, my oldest dog ive had like 13 years and hes epileptic. just wanted to let you guys know more about me.

You know nothing about me, and i wrote that i was not using me being bussy as an excuse as there is no excuse... yet you know nothing about me, im in the internationnal baccaluareate program, and our final exams stretched 3 week periods, each subject we had two days of exams on, and each exam was from 2-3 hours long. see thats one thing no one knew about me...

Even so, your first post made it look like you were just too busy to go get him crickets and feed him. I agree with everyone else- it may not have been your fault that it died, it could have died entirely of something else, not necessarily you forgetting to feed it. But seriously, your first post basically sounded like you were saying "I was too busy to feed my dragon and I ended up starving it to where when I finally decided to try and help him it was pretty much too late." and THAT sounds bad, and irresponsible, I'm sorry. and thats why some people sorta jumped down your throat about it. people care about beardies on this forum, and enough people out there as it is dont even know close to the correct husbandry for them (not talking about you, though), but have them anyways. so some people on this forum are very touchy when it comes to that. But i still stand by my words that being busy is no excuse to neglect animals, and if you dont have time, to make time. it may not have been entirely your fault that it died, im very sorry that he did, and its cool that you realized your bad habit and confessed about it, but it honestly doesnt matter how much i know about you. all i knew was, and all i needed to know was, you owned a beardie, and anyone who owns a beardie, or any animal for that matter, in my book needs to make sure they never neglect it. no matter what. so sorry if i came off harsh, and i dont want you to hate me or anything Good luck in college, dude. i'm starting my 3rd year, and im pretty sick of it already, lol

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~Melissa~

Hey PhunkeyPhish, dont sweat it anymore, we are all humans and we ALL make mistakes, we just got to learned from them. Thanks for sharing that experience with us. Rico

You know what they say about opinions....
Your beardie could have very well died of old age, don't beat yourself up. I'm sure he didn't pass from not having crickets.
Most people here, including myself, can't say they have a 7 yr old bearded dragon. I think that is an accomplishment in itself.
Move on past the negative comments and learn to be the best Vet you can be.
**What people think you are doesn't matter at all, it's what you really are that will always matter.
Good Luck to ya!
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TheClassyLizard

7 years old is a long time for a beardie to live and i highly doubt that not feeding it crickets for a week is going to result in the lizards death. One of my water dragons died a few months back and he was approx. 8 years old... sometimes there is nothing you can do. don't beat yourself up about it...

lissa

I know that sometimes it is hard to get live food, so my beardie used to have to have just greens a couple of times. He wont eat live foods now anyway and I've heard that adults don't need live foods so I don't think you have done anything wrong as long as he had green food available.

I'm really sorry you got that kind of treatment on the forum. Things like that make me question why I keep coming back. A friend and I keep discussing why we keep posting here. There are much nicer places I could go.

Some people are just like that. They look for things to pick apart, and put down. Most of the time it's to make up for their own short comings. Don't take it to heart. I hope that I myself can raise my beardies over 7 years without problems. God knows how much effort, and time we put into these animals, and how much we love them. Some people are just insensitive, and don't apprecaite other peoples hard work, or lessons learned. It's the same people who will go on and learn for themselves with the same mistakes. Just look at the post check this out. It's a drawing that someones wife drew of a beardie, he shared it with us and had someone tell him that it needed more shading, and toning. Give me a break! it took guts to post the mistake you've made, and I'm sure you felt terrible, and guilty, and wanted people to learn from the mistake, and how you felt about it. If you didn't you wouldn't have shared it with us. I'm afraid you are not the first, and not the last person who will make the same mistake. Good luck with school, and work.