Peanut is Home!

After a stressful night with not enough FedEx updates, Peanut made it home! 

Hooray! Have a great life, sweet Peanut! 

Bon Voyage, Peanut!

The weather finally warmed enough to ship Peanut to his new home in Arizona. 

Shipping reptiles = sleepless night for me. Especially when FedEx doesn't scan his box's barcode when he departs the Salt Lake airport. :( 

Every time I ship one of my critters, I think "I'm never doing this again!" This is shipment number 5. Shipping ranks up there with "No iguanas in rescue" and "Never taking in a red earred slider." ;) 

I'll feel much much better when Peanut has safely arrived at his new home. Until then, I'll try to sleep instead of compulsively checking my FedEx tracking updates. 

Easy Peasy..... Or Not So Much

The last few rescues were supposed to be "easy." 

Uh huh. 

After 3+ years of rescue, I should know that anything that's "easy" is guaranteed to be not. Like this post-- I wrote it this morning and right before it posted, Blogger froze and I lost the entire thing. Ugh! Irony! This is my 2nd rewrite. 

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Spike the 3rd-- 

He was healthy and friendly, right? 

Nope. He hid under the paper towels for two days straight and he pooped, it had quite a bit of blood in it. Now I'm waiting for his next poop so I can do a fecal test. 

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Fatty Patty--

This girl was supposed to be at her new home already. She is a B.R.A.T.!! I can't even touch her. I'm so busy with my Etsy shop and the sicklies that I've just been letting her chill. 

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Lucky--

This little guy went from a friendly (?) little guy to a monster. And he's taken to hiding in his hide all the time. And he won't eat on his own. 

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Jessie-- 

This girl has discovered her independence and her love of food. She hates being held and is happiest being left alone. She has an adoption pending but the owner doesn't quite have enough money yet. 

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Smaug-- 

He was supposed to be wild and difficult. He was a spaz for two days and then calmed down. I discovered two infected cuts on the tip of his tail that have become necrotic (dying). He'll have to have about a half inch of his tail amputated on Monday. Maybe that will make him happier. 

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The rest--- 

Dragon-- His bones are still rubbery and he won't eat on his own and he hides all the time. :(  He's not doing well. 

Simba-- Poor guy is hanging in there. He has a vet check on Monday. We'll see if he's improved any. I don't want to prolong his suffering, but I don't want to give up on him. 

Peanut-- His adoption is all set up but it's  too cold to ship him out of state. 

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So I have 12 beardies. 6 are permanent; the others can't be adopted or shipped. 

Easy peasy? Not so much 

Raging Hormones

Hormone season almost always follows Brumination season and most my boy beardies woke up with a vengeance!

Oh boy. 

There must be hormones in the air or something because they are all acting crazy. 

Here is Spike the 3rd mating with his blanket. He's been at it for quite some time. 

Here's Ziggy displaying his manly black beard while head bobbing. For who? I have no idea. He can't see another beardie. 

Peanut is trying to claw, scratch, and jump his way out of his tank. 

Tiger & Nubs are just as bad. Smaug goes crazy in his tank hourly. 

Hormones. 

Makes me miss the quiet days of Brumination. ;) 

But don't worry-- within a few weeks the hormones will slow down, they'll lose the instinct & urge to mate, and they'll go back to their general slug-like state. 

P.S. Iguana hormones are WAY WAY worse. Trust me. 

New Blankies on Etsy-- my BEST yet!!

Now you can have a personalized 13" by 13" blankie for your beardie!! Click HERE!! 

Gen was not impressed! 

Peanut was more interested! 

All the colors: 

Peanut loves his blankie!

Dragon, rescue 109

Dragon is a little beardie with severe MBD. :( His bones are like rubber and he's unable to eat on his own. 

I've already got him under a new UVB bulb and am giving him calcium syrup every day. Yesterday I started mixing in small amounts of Critical Care and baby food. 

His arm bones have already started to spread out and thicken. He'll probably end up walking on his wrists like Peanut does. 

Dragon reminds me a lot of Peanut when I first rescued him. Dragon is much smaller at 18 grams. Peanut was 41 grams. 

He's got a long road ahead, but I think he'll be able to recover from the MBD.

Taming the Shrew--- I mean, Peanut

Peanut has become a bratty beardie! Because he couldn't be held without hurting his fragile bones, he was left in his tank a lot. 

This boy is a pill. He puffs out his little black beard at me and scratches to get down. 

I've been taking him out more for short periods to get him used to being held. It's sorta working. 

I let him run around awhile tonight to wear himself out and then I wrapped him up in his blankie. He's sleeping in my shirt. 

Baby steps forward. 

He'll always walk on his wrists and look like he's army crawling so he'll always be a "special needs" beardie. But as long as he's friendly, it will be ok for him in the long run. Plus he's gorgeously colored and a leatherback. 

Two Special Needs Beardies Available for Adoption

Dory, a 3 year old female, with one big eye. She eats well (though sometimes needs help finding live insects because she can only see well out of one eye). Super friendly, loves to snuggle, loves soft blankies. 

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Peanut, a 9 month old, is quickly recovering from Metabolic Bone Disease. Because of two undiagnosed bone fractures that healed badly, he walks on his wrists. He loves to be wrapped in soft blankies and snuggled. He eats great too! Because of his MBD, he hasn't been handled a lot and is still learning to be picked up without fear. I call him a "He" but I'm not 100% sure on that. 

Looking for stable loving homes for both of them. Willing to ship to right person. Must show you have complete set up (at least a 40 gallon tank). 

Message me for more details. 

Delilah & Peanut went to the Vet

Delilah's tail was looking rather odd and Peanut's upper arm was swelling up, so off to the vet we went. 

Delilah was NOT happy to be held. Or touched. Or looked at. 

She was only fine when she was down. I was trying to flick off a little piece of fluff on her incision and the whole end came off! 

Dr Folland said it looks fine and I'll keep it washed and cleaned until it heals. 

Peanut has a thickened bone because at some point his upper arm broke. :( On his other arm, his elbow broke and healed in a twisted way which is why he walks on his wrists. 

His bones are still pretty soft due to the MBD. Hopefully by the end of the year, he will have recovered from the MBD. He will most likely always walk on his wrists and have a smaller than normal size, but the rest of his life will be ok. 

When I got Peanut, he wasn't even strong enough to lift his body up and walk. He's made a lot of progress in just a month. 

Update on Mooshy, Dory, Delilah, and Peanut

All 4 of these beardies are doing great! 

Dory still has her stitches in and will for another 2 weeks. She actually can see better out of her swollen eye now even though she'll always have swelling. She adores her blankies and snuggling at night. 

Peanut is a PIG!! He still walks on his wrists but he's getting better at chewing solids with his jaw and his bones are getting stronger. He eats better and is more active now that he's alone in the tank (LilBit went to his new home on Monday). 

Delilah is perfectly fine and very temperamental. Some days, she's mellow and kind and other days (like today), she didn't want to be held and bit my finger when I wouldn't put her down. She's got a ton of personality and is ready to be adopted out as soon as I finds good home. 

Mooshy has finally started becoming active! This morning he was scratching at his tank so he could get out. He is eating more (he used to only be able to eat one superworm before he was too tired to continue) and putting on weight. I suspect he has some neurological issues going on because his aim is bad. He has a hard time catching insects because he misses them by a quarter to a half inch. 

Mooshy is getting sun therapy today! 

Except when he wants to go exploring which is a new thing for him. 

Updates on All 6 Sicklies

Mooshy ate a worm yesterday on all his own! He is very sluggish and doesn't move much. He has put on weight thankfully. He loves to snuggle at night. 

Dory is doing great after her surgery. She's out of her sick tank and in a regular 40. I'll feed her later today and see how she does. 

Peanut is eating on his own! He is more active but still walks on his wrists. He's such a pretty beardie. 

LilBit has SO much personality! He's doing the best. He's energetic and active all day. He eats like a horse! 

Saphira aka "Bean" doesn't move much and doesn't like to eat on his own. He has a vet appointment next week. 

Delilah is doing great. She is learning how to snuggle and be held. It's obvious she wasn't held much before. I think she'll quickly become a sweet & friendly beardie. 

The Three MBD Amigos

Peanut who has the most rubbery bones and moves the least. He walks on his wrists and army crawls. 

Lil Bit who is the most active, eats the most, and has the most personality. He walks and moves totally normally. His bones are still soft. 

Saphira who is the oldest and the smallest. He has soft but not rubbery bones. 

Sad Sicklies & Bad Junie

No real change for my 3 sicklies. :( Dory will go in next week for another check. 

Mooshy is hanging on but I keep finding him in awkward positions where his body is half off the hammock. He got his 2nd saline shot today. 

 Peanut hardly moves and won't eat at all. I force feed him daily. He is gaining weight though; I guess that's a good thing. 

I did give Mooshy & Peanut a mixture of baby food mango mixed with Pedialyte today to give them something very digestible. I'll get some baby food squash next time I go to the store too. 

So we just keep plugging along. I check Mooshy several times a day to make sure he's alive. In the evening, he and Dory get kangaroo care with me (I wrap them in a blankie and tuck them in my shirt for a few hours). 

And in other news-- Junie tried to burn down my craft room today. :( He knocked his Mercury Vapor Bulb off and it burned the sheet under his "perch" area. I found the room filled with smoke as he sat calmly on the curtain rod. Bad Junie. 

This was around 11 this morning. I was supposed to leave the house at 10 for a couple hours but didn't sleep well last night and was being pokey. I feel sick inside when I think of what could have happened had I not been here. :( 

Critical Care Mornings

I tried to feed roaches to all 4 of my sickly beardies this morning but only 1 of them ate well. Lil Bit gummed down 3 small roaches. Dory was only able to catch and eat one. Peanut & Mooshy didn't even show interest. 

Back to the Critical Care routine I go. 

Lil Bit gets 1 cc. Peanut gets 2 cc's. Mooshy gets 6 cc's of Critical Care and 6 cc's of Pedialyte.

 All of them are gaining weight slowly. Peanut's jaws are still too rubbery to actually chew roaches. Mooshy doesn't seem to have the strength to chase the roaches. Until they are strong enough to eat on their own, I'm going to continue to force feed them. 

I think I finally picked Names

Peanut (the leatherback) and Lil Bit (the little one with a stumpy leg).