She (possibly he, it's colors have started to brighten up under the new mercury vapor bulb) was kept for the majority of two years in a 10 gallon tank with nothing but a hot rock, a heavily soiled rock, a bowl of water, iceburg lettuce, tons of old feces, and get this...dead grass. My dad had seen the poor little thing when he went to the guy's house (he had known the guy for a while) and saw the little tank with the hugely overweight reptile in it that he first thought was a turtle (it's that fat!). He came home and told me about it and I made it my duty to get in touch with the guy and rescue the lizard (since my dad said he offered it to me when he was there...because I already have a bearded dragon). After a week and a half I finally got in touch with him and went to his house. Once I saw the poor thing I wasn't leaving without it. The guy gave her to me along with the disgusting tank setup she was in (threw it all away...everything was so covered in feces...you couldn't even see through the glass), plus an old dirty 29 gallon tank he had it in before but wasn't using, and what he said was a mercury vapor bulb and dome fixture (after further inspection I saw that it was just a normal spot bulb, but it might have been labelled mercury vapor at a hardware store).
I got her all setup that night (the day before christmas eve). I cleaned up the 29 gallon tank, and used some screen to make a platform on the top of it to hold the light. I also gave her a bath because she was covered in feces. She has what I first thought might be an infection on her sides, but the vet told me it was scars. I think that when the guy that had her was using the light, it must have fallen on her giving her large third degree burns. The spot on her left side looks like it's where the bulb hit, and the one on the right looks like the rim of the clamp lamp.
So since I got her, I've spent some money at the local petshops to get some really nice rocks to bask on, a screen lid, a lamp stand, and a new mercury vapor bulb. The only problem I'm having right now is temperature. I have to have the light lowered inside of the tank with the screen top 1/3 off the tank in order to get the temps even near 110, and according to zoo-med, if I lower it anymore the UV rays can be bad for her. I'll have to get that all sorted out. I think once I get her a bigger tank this summer I'll go to the reptisun flourescent and zoomed spot lamp combo I use with my beardie, because the power suns are more of a disadvantage. I'm just trying to get a ton of UV rays for her right now since it's a wonder she didn't get metabolic bone disease living 2 years without it.
Right now I'm working on getting her to eat, and then converting her to good food like dandelion greens. She's been sluggishly running around so I think she'll lose the weight soon.
I'll keep you updated. I don't have any pics of her in my photogallery thing here right now, so here's a pic of my beardie in his home.
-ryan
