Outside Time

I spent all morning running around (40 miles south to get the MBD beardie and then 50 miles in the opposite direction to get the adult for a total of 110 miles in 3 hours) and when I finally finally got home, I still had a ton of things on my "To Do" list.

I had my youngest take his beloved pet chickens outside. They are almost 100% fully feathered and will soon be able to stay outside. My youngest begged me to sit outside with him. So I ignored the groceries in bags on the table and the messes that needed to clean up and sat outside with him. For awhile we ate cherries and played with the chickens.

Bunsen, my 10 pound sulcata tortoise, came over to check out the chickens too.

It was a fantastic afternoon in the backyard. I enjoyed it a lot and am glad I chose to ignore the list for awhile and enjoy my family & my animals. <3 nbsp="" p="">

Baby Puddin' Pie, rescue 177

Here's the tiny little Savannah monitor having some daily sunshine time. He wasn't too crazy about it, but it did make him run around like crazy! 

He's still being force fed Critical Care and he prefers to hide a lot. I'll try to offer him worms or roaches tomorrow to see if he'll start eating on his own.

A Video of Junior Crawling

• Look at this wee lil' baby go! Such progress. Love him! SO happy to see him moving-- even if I have to stop working to make sure he doesn't fall out of his box. 

Junior in the Sunshine

Junior got his calcium shot, his saline injection, and a partially tube-feeding (the tube plugged up for some reason and he only got 1 cc). Then I put him in the sunshine in my window while I worked in the kitchen. 

At first, he slept. 

Then he decided to perk up a little bit and popped his head up to see me. He's so stinking cute! Especially now that he isn't dying. 

Junior wobbles around like a newborn giraffe and has almost no coordination, but he's attempting to move around. That is a GREAT sign!

Junior's Sunshine Therapy

Junior got his saline injections and calcium injection today and I had him out in the sunshine at 1 pm for maximum UVB exposure. 

There have been studies about how powerful and effective direct sunshine is for treating/preventing Metabolic Bone Disease. Reptiles thrive on direct UVB-- even those with the most expensive Mercury Vapor bulb you can buy!

Window glass is treated to filter out the sun's natural UVB rays and so direct sun is the best. Plus, it's free.

The sunshine and its warmth really helped perk up Junior. He was much more alert and active in the sunshine. After he got about 30 minutes of sunshine (I didn't want to stress him too much), I gave him his first tube feeding of Critical Care. It's going to take me some time to get the hang of this new tube and system. Dr Echols didn't give me a small one to minimize the risk of accidentally puncturing a delicate organ. I ended up overfeeding Junior and he had formula coming out of his mouth.

I think tomorrow's tube feeding will be better.

Kreature Sun Bathing

Kreature's cage ended up in my craft room/front room which faces North and gets no sunshine. I've been anxious for him to discover the sunny spots on my living room floor (which faces South), but he never had.

Until today.

Kreature came out for his normal drink of water and to poop (thankfully on the tile this time!). Then he discovered a patch of sun on the kitchen floor and basked in it. Sadly, I kept taking pics of his adorable basking and that irritated him.

He left the kitchen and wandered into the living room.

Ah ha! The sun!

He found it and would NOT leave.

Which would have been fine had it been any other day. But today is Valentine's day and I had signed up to help with a 3rd grade class party. And, of course, he found the sun 8 minutes before I had to leave.

Kreature shifted around so he could get optimal sun on him.

He tried to keep his eyes open as he laid there in the sun, but it was a lost cause. His eyelids got heavier and heavier. Here he is with "Half Eyes."

After a few moments, he was OUT. If I didn't have to leave for the school, I think I might have curled up in the sunny spot on the couch and taken a nap with him.

Instead I went to help keep 3rd graders entertained and left my daughter to make sure that Otis and the other critters didn't get TOO friendly with a sleeping Kreature. He's friendly-- but not during nap time or dinner time.

Sun Therapy

The sun is shining brightly in Utah today! Woo hoo! I'm using the opportunity to give the two baby beardies some direct UVB. I'm hoping that the sun will help perk them both up.

Instinctively, they both flattened out and turned their bodies to the sun when they felt it.

Here's Raptor:

Here's Delta:

Our Warmest Day of the Year

Everybody got supervised sunshine therapy yesterday!! It was gorgeous outside. All the tortoises went out. And each beardie got an hour of open sunshine time in the window. I even set a timer so I could rotate everyone through. 

I didn't take pics of every beardie, but here's some of them.