1. "Those young dragons do not look healthy, the one's backbone is showing through its skin and has sticks for front legs, the other's the hip bones are showing... how do you think this is good? I think you should get fecals of both to a vet ASAP "
--I think you see my bad photography, those baies are huge, yet very very young, there is nothing in their fecal matter, do you have any 16.5 inch 4-5 month olds? The pic also shows them leaning against a plastic surface, see them on their feet and how fat they are, usually they burn it off fast though. Heres a measurement of leg thicknesses of both, so you dont have to assume from my bad picture taking ability, they both have front legs almost 1/2 inch in thickness, and tail bases and inch or more thick, they are both very big babies. Heres a pic tonight from inside a cooler thats a better background (transport container for educational shows), its 12 inches from front to back.
2. "As far as the male eating after the female, like a nice gentlemen, looks like either can eat whenever they want with all the dried up food laying all over in the dirt. You think that is good for them? Thats not picking on you, they are your pictures and obviously a reflection of how you care and feed them."
---That dried greens you see is from the day before, the crickets and lobster roaches I feed them eat that overnight, and yes they throw some about when eating and running through the dish. Yet 99% of the time they eat every bit of it in a few hours in the dish. As far as is that healthy, yes they eat what they want and need it there and the rest is gone by morning, just as all of their shedded skin disappears overnight from the feeder insects also.
3. What are the dark patches on the females head, and discolored areas on her side and back leg? Also, you have noticed that she has about zero fat pads on her head? You might want to work on helping her regain those before you have another problem on your hands. Separating her from the male and allowing her to recover from too early breeding and egg laying would be something nice you could do for her.
---The discolored areas on her head are from digging nest sites so often, yes she digs alot even when shes not laying, the dirt is watered down once a week or once every 2 weeks to get moisture back into it. That dirt by the way is something I tried, its a mix of old used potting soil and some cocopeat mixed, they use it and it works so I dont worry about dirt that washes off quickly, they get dirty the next day anyways. As far as her weight and fat reserves, she lays 21 eggs every 3-4 weeks, 6 clutches this year so far and doesnt lose more than a few ounces which she recovers in less than a weeks time, she can eat as much as she needs or wants to, thats how I lets them live. If I wanted to Id take pics of them after soaking them in water for a few hours after new shedds and make them pretty for everyone to see just how brightly colored they are, but why, Id rather someone see how they live and are everyday.
4. "Is the monitor in the top picture the one that had to have surgery to removed egg bound eggs when she was younger... maybe too young?"
She was 18 months old and bound up with eggs because I had the wrong substrate, causing her to be dehydrated internally, not too young, her mother, Shadows sister layed Sobeks clutch at exactly 6 months and 2 weeks old, its about how good your husbandry is, females lay eggs whether you want them to or not unless you get them fixed as Sobek has been since that incident. I used a dirt that I bought from a local hardware warehouse made from recycled tree bark at the time and she refused to dig in it, she couldnt lay after I was able to switch out 450 lbs of dirt although she tried with no luck as she was dehydrated, anyways I didnt want to risk her life so had her ovaries removed. She absorbed her first and second clutch at 6 months old and 1 year old, it was easy to recognize after learning how to do so, if they are in good health they can absorb a few times but it is streesful to them physically, this is true with all reptiles. Even if some of my beardies clutches were infertile, it doesnt matter to me, the female layed them and showed almost no dufference after laying from before other than a bit of stomach size and a dirty body. As far as that goes as I told someone else I dont do this for money they are pets and its a hobby Ive offered some of their eggs to my monitors to get rid of them, as I dont worry about making money from them.
I recently had a female with that head shape that was kept by someone else for me (I dont have the room as she was to be an extra breeder), she had suffered from inproper husbandry and some inherited internal problems, she was obtained from a very reputable breeder, a nice woman (Im not mentioning names because she was positive on a fecal and after necropsy for something, she should have never been sold for in the first place, but now I know to never deal with this person again). That feamle had a different head shape than any of mine, was fat, thick bodied for her size, thick leg build, and looked almost identical to that beardie other than the fact she was a firetiger, yet was dieing no matter what was done with her, she was kept separate and was recently put down. The fat short head shape doesnt mean anything other than a different head shape. I wont go through to many more details of her infection, and what her symptoms were. It may have been someone on here, I bought her in person.
