It's been a month!

Look at that belly!

Well we have had Norbert just over a month now and he seems well settled in. He has been eating roaches like crazy, on multiple occasions he has eaten around 25 roaches in one sitting! We have also been introducing him to some of the medium sized roaches since we are running low on the small ones, or they are growing into medium ones. He is turning into quite the little porker. I would rather he be a little on the chunky side though than go back to not eating and being extremely underweight. He has a lot of growing to do so he needs a lot of food

We are getting closer to putting him back into his 20 gallon tank too. The silicone smell is almost completely gone, and since we have had the heater on every night for the past week I think that is contributing to the smell going away quicker.

Me and Husband's Christmas cards went out last Saturday. I wanted to include Norbert in the photo collage card but I wanted it to be cute. A friend asked if we were going to dress him up like people dress up their cats and dogs and that gave me the idea to try to do a Christmas theme. Since he is a bearded dragon I
thought it'd be cute to put a Santa hat on him but I didn't have one so I tried to make one. Norbert is still pretty small so even the hat I made (the smallest I could with the felt) was a little big. Every time I got it to stand up on his head without me touching it he would turn his head and it would fall off. So we went with a different strategy....

I measured Norbert on  the 9th, exactly one month after we got him, and since he looks around a lot I can't get a good reading on a ruler, so I draped some string along him from nose to tail (so I could account for any turning he might be doing) and I measured about 6 1/2" which is only up to half an inch of growth in a month. I have to keep in mind though that he probably wasn't growing much when he was refusing to eat. Now I tease him though because of the thunder thighs he has going on. His arms are still a little thin though.

The other day we have him a couple extra medium sized roaches and he gobbled them up, but he ate so much I honestly have no clue how he fit it all inside his belly. As soon as he was done he went up to his

hammock and basked as close to the heat lamp as possible. Husband and I were getting our own dinner ready so we weren't paying too much attention to him when I hear Husband tell me to come look at Norbert because his mouth was hanging open. I walked over and for the first time ever I saw Norbert gaping. Gaping is a behavior bearded dragons do to thermoregulate. Since they cannot sweat, they open their mouth while basking to help regulate their body temperature (like dogs pant with their tongues hanging out). We figured since Norbert ate so much he needed a lot of heat to help him digest. Bearded dragons cannot digest food properly without raising their body temperature by basking. Husband kept noting how happy Norbert looked because with his mouth open like that he looked like he was smiling.

Norbert seems to be more comfortable with me than Husband. Husband has been working later than normal occasionally the last couple weeks because he has been volunteering to work various Toys for Tots events and since we are stationed out in the middle of nowhere he has been traveling on average 1-2 hours away for these events, in a government van. I have been feeding him and snuggling him before bedtime so he is used to my smell. When I try to put him on Husband he tries to run away or is all squirmy. I make sure that Norbert has some folds of my sweatshirt or blanket for him to nest in and cover him with a warm blanket. Husband just likes to try to keep him on his lap or chest and Norbert feels exposed I think so he tries to run. I finally got him to fall asleep on Husband the other night but I had to make sure there were folds on his hoodie and had to show him how to cover him with the blanket. Husband kept peeking to see if he was asleep so I had to tell him just let him be. He could feel him nesting and getting all snuggled up so he kept wanting to see what was going on. I have a couple different fabric pieces here that I am trying to introduce to Norbert because it's been getting really cold here at nights and I stick them in his tank for him to snuggle with at night. We are starting with a piece of plain red t-shirt fabric and up until last night he didn't even seem to care it was in there. But when we put him in his enclosure last night for bed he walked around a little and then we heard the sound of him snuggling into the paper towel and when we looked we could see the little lump wiggling around under the piece of t-shirt. It's now the next morning and he is still asleep underneath it. Every once in a while I hear him move a little, but he seems to like it under there :)

All you can see is a section of his tail

Snuggle Time

I am happy to report that Norbert has been eating his roaches regularly for about a week now. We started out feeding him just 5-7 at a time and he would sit half way in his bowl looking at us like he wanted more. Now we give him 10 or 11 roaches and this seems to be about the right amount for him. He eats them all in about 5-10 minutes, the first 5 he will almost swallow whole, the next couple he chews, and he slows down by the end it usually takes him a minute or two to finish the last two in his bowl, that's why we think it's about the right amount. He still isn't even wanting to touch his salads but that's fine because has a baby and juvenile they are supposed to have a diet mostly of crickets and/or roaches anyway. They don't really get interested in the greens until they get about a year old.

He now has his hammock up and a lizard ladder in his temporary 10 gallon tank and he really seems to like it. His new routine in the middle of the day is to climb up to the hammock and sit on one of the far corners and dangle one leg off the edge. He always looks like he wants to jump. Sometimes he does jump which worries me because it is about a 8-10 inch drop down into his food tray. He knows how to use the ladder or branch to get up to the hammock, and knows how to use the branch to get down, but apparently he can't figure out how to get down the ladder. I will be sitting next to him on the couch and I will see him dangling his foot, then as soon as I look away I hear a *thump* *rustle rustle* and I look and he has landed in his food tray on top of his salad.

We have to keep the branch out of the terrarium now (unless someone is keeping a close eye on him) because the branch is meant for our 20 gallon, therefore it sticks out the top of the 10 gallon and the lid can't close all the way in the back. It was fine for a while, until Norbert figured out he can actually climb to the end and is out of the tank. Last night we caught him completely out and standing on top the screen. He's figured out how to escape, so we have to take it out if no one can keep a close eye on him.

The other night I took him out to handle him after his lights turned off and he crawled right up my hoodie and snuggled up in a fold on the front of my hoodie while I was laying on the couch. I covered him part way with our fuzzy blanket and he snuggled in and fell asleep. I let him sleep like that for a while before putting him back in his terrarium. He new sleeping place is no longer in his cave house, but instead he climbs up the lizard ladder to the hammock and falls asleep in the highest corner closest to his heat lamp. whatever makes him happy I suppose. We are hoping his 20 gallon terrarium cures soon so we can put him back in that but it still stinks like silicone since we put in the slate tile. He needs to file his claws soon!

I finally got around to measuring Norbert. We don't have a scale that can weight in grams so I was not able to get his weight, but he is just about 6 inches long. He could be a little longer but I couldn't get him to stand or lay straight, either his tail was curved or his head was turned. I'll try and get another measurement once we have had him for a full month.

Plumping Up

The past few days or so we have been having problems with Norbert. When I came home after my couple days out of town for classes, Husband pointed out that Norbert looked skinny. I agreed, he had a feeding frenzy the weekend prior when my parents came down to visit, but the following Thursday when I came back he was very thin. We tried and tried to get him to eat, we gave him baths, I researched why he may not be eating and found it was likely a heating/lighting issue. He was still pooping regularly, but they were watery. Based on my research, watery poop can be do to stress, bad food, over-hydrated, or parasites. I kept a close eye on him, but he wasn't showing any signs of parasites besides the watery poop and the lack of appetite because he was still very active, running around, basking, etc, so I figured it was the temperature.

We decided to put slate tile down in his terrarium since the sand is not recommended but it can take weeks for the silicone curing fumes to dissipate completely and I didn't want Norbert in his temporary tupperware for a couple weeks. This was just all adding to his stress. Good thing with deciding to tile the terrarium though is we got rid of all the crickets that had still been in there hiding.  Since Husband wants to breed the feeder roaches we feed Norbert (Dubia roaches) the adults he had were housed in a 10 gallon terrarium. He wanted to transfer them to a 30 gallon plastic storage container like roach breeders used anyway (like the GIANT plastic containers to put Halloween or Christmas decorations) so we ran to our Dollar General and picked up two tubs. We cleaned out the terrarium (which Husband had a stick-on heating pad underneath) and I made a better temporary home for Norbert with all his things while his 20 gallon dried/cured. We just put newspaper around it (I used the crossword and sudoku puzzles for him to read while he is basking) and newspaper and paper towels on the bottom. The heating pad will help Norbert stay warm, plus since it's a smaller tank the two lamps should heat it up better. Husband gave him 4 small roaches last night and a couple baby crickets. We didn't see him eat anything though and he just went in his cave to go to bed.

This morning when I got up I noticed there weren't any crickets in sight (but they could have been hiding in the cave or under the paper towels) but even better was there were no more roaches in his food dish (they can't escape from it). Norbert still looked very skinny though but was active and basking all day.

When Husband came home from work (since I don't want to touch the bugs, ick) I had him put 5 Dubia roaches in the dish and we placed it in Norbert's terrarium. Norbert attacked the dish and ate all 5 in less than 30 seconds! Hallelujah!! I couldn't tell you how happy that made me. We put 6 more roaches in the dish and walked away to let him eat in peace while we went to get pizza. When we came home about 15 minutes later, there were only 4 roaches left, so Norbert ate a total of 7 roaches tonight. That's the most we have ever see him eat in one sitting. I'm a happy dragon mommy haha. We removed the uneaten roaches and put them back, now Norbert is just basking up on his stick, digesting his dinner.

I took a picture of Norbert basking this morning and one of him just a few minutes ago after he ate. I'm so happy his belly looks full now

Norbert before and after he finally ate, he was unhealthy and skinny, glad to see his belly bigger!

Lessons Learned #3 - Backgrounds

Once Norbert was finally all settled in we noticed he spent a lot of time trying to climb the glass and it looked like he was freaking out. I looked into some terrarium ideas and some people recommended putting up a landscape backdrop which can reduce his stress and not feel overwhelmed by everything going on outside. We went to our most local pet shop (30 miles away) where we got him and they had a nice desert scene. The owner cut it to the size of our tank and we took it home and taped it on. It covers the back and two sides, leaving only the front open. It actually looks really nice as long as there is no backlight on behind it. It's double sided (aquarium underwater Colosseum scene) so the back shows through if another light is on.

After we put it on Norbert ran over to it and put his little hand on it like "my home!" He still spazzes out sometimes but not as much as before. It looks at it longingly sometimes like he wishes he could go back, even though he was bred in captivity.

Here's a link to some bearded dragon history and facts!

Husband's Favorite Buddy

"Daddies mean fun. Mommies mean business" - Honey, I Blew Up The Kid

I can't agree anymore with that line. At least when I was growing up this was true. I feel like this is true for Norbert, Husband, and myself. I feel like I am always the one worried to death about Norbert and wanting to nurture him, and I often talk to him throughout the day if I'm home to ask him how he's doing (Norbert, not Husband haha). When Husband is home, he would prefer to just play with him and not do much as far as worry whether he's healthy and what to do about it. These are just a few pictures what I have found Norbert doing when Daddy is in charge....

On the couch

He wants Dad's attention

Norbert watching TV on Dad's knee

One night I wasn't home, this was the picture Husband sent. He let's him lay on our bed...

Norbert thinks he's a cat

I never thought that bearded dragons could have such big personalities, but it didn't take long for us to see Norbert's little quirks. I took this pictures one morning when I looked over and saw my lizard-cat perched on his branch like a cat perches on a table or a window. I'm used to seeing lizards straddle on their branch and wrap their arms and legs around it... Nope, not my Norbert, he sits upright, like a cat....

Lessons Learned #2 - Feeding Crickets

Since Norbert was sort of picked up on a whim, we didn't get to do much research on taking care of bearded dragons before we got him. I spent more hours the first week we got him researching and compiling information for a comprehensive care guide than I spent in class and doing homework that week.

Ever since we got him he hasn't been a big eater. We were told he should be able to eat about a dozen crickets a day but many online resources state you should continue to feed him as much as he wants to eat in a 5-10 minute time period. Our first couple days we figured he wouldn't want to eat because of the stress of being in a new environment, but we also dumped the whole dozen or two (we bought a few dozen crickets since the store we bought them from is 30 miles away) in his terrarium all at once. Up until recently, he has basically been rooming with all these crickets the whole time because when the feeding time is up, whatever crickets he didn't eat should be removed, they could cause added stress hopping around in there all the time. But they are very difficult to catch by hand. Last night we removed all the sand to replace the flooring so that has been the first time since we got him that he won't be surrounded by crickets all the time.

Norbert and all his "roommates" coated in calcium dust (that's why they are white)

Lesson Learned? Take out the crickets your bearded dragon doesn't eat!