Growth Rate - Appetite
Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 7:29 am
Hi everybody,
I'm beginning to realize that these guys are truly unique and amazing! I raised my Bearded Dragon, Hannibal from an 11gr. 5" long little twig to his current 2 year old size of 21" and 460gr. through what I thought was a fast rate of growth. HA! With my first Bluey, Irwin, I now know what fast is.
I keep very precise records of all my herps and also do my own fecal floats on all of them every three months. If I hadn't weighed and measured and written it down, I wouldn't have believed it.
The day after Irwin arrived, I photographed him for his digital measurment and put him in the weight tub on the digital scale. His weight, the best I could read because he was not about to sit still yet on just his second day here, and the digits were really bouncing around, was approximately 54 to 59gr. His length was 7.72"
He's been here 15 days as of yesterday, and because my wife kept commenting on how he looked like he was growing so fast I decided to weigh and measure him again.
Yesterday, he weighed in at 79 grams! (he handles well now and sits like a gentleman in the weight tub.) And his length (if you can read it in the upper left corner on the screenshot of my measuring software) is 9.03"!
I'm getting so much enjoyment out of watching this little guy eat and grow! Since he's been getting served live now mixed in, or alternated, with his ground turkey, beef, and salad/fruit mixes, he's really become a voracious eater. He loves his silkworms and phoenix worms. So much in fact, that if it catches his attention, it's FOOD! Well, I was putting down the piece of paper towel which I always put under his food plate so he doesn't pick aspen if he drops food outside his plate, which he always does, when I realized my wedding ring had caught his attention. Hey, after all, it's shiney, and it's moving. Next thing I know, he's latched onto my ring with his little snout, along with a little fold of my flesh pinched against the ring. I looked down at him and said "hey!"........no response. I repeated it a little louder. He let loose and actually looked up at me with a look that I swore said, "well, I thought it was food."
What really gets me cracking up is when he first grabs his little 3/4" silky and shakes it back and forth, "killing" his prey as if he were a Nile monitor that just caught a rat. I've got to get some of his antics on video, he's so comical!
It's something new every day!
I love him to death!
I'm beginning to realize that these guys are truly unique and amazing! I raised my Bearded Dragon, Hannibal from an 11gr. 5" long little twig to his current 2 year old size of 21" and 460gr. through what I thought was a fast rate of growth. HA! With my first Bluey, Irwin, I now know what fast is.
I keep very precise records of all my herps and also do my own fecal floats on all of them every three months. If I hadn't weighed and measured and written it down, I wouldn't have believed it.
The day after Irwin arrived, I photographed him for his digital measurment and put him in the weight tub on the digital scale. His weight, the best I could read because he was not about to sit still yet on just his second day here, and the digits were really bouncing around, was approximately 54 to 59gr. His length was 7.72"
He's been here 15 days as of yesterday, and because my wife kept commenting on how he looked like he was growing so fast I decided to weigh and measure him again.
Yesterday, he weighed in at 79 grams! (he handles well now and sits like a gentleman in the weight tub.) And his length (if you can read it in the upper left corner on the screenshot of my measuring software) is 9.03"!
I'm getting so much enjoyment out of watching this little guy eat and grow! Since he's been getting served live now mixed in, or alternated, with his ground turkey, beef, and salad/fruit mixes, he's really become a voracious eater. He loves his silkworms and phoenix worms. So much in fact, that if it catches his attention, it's FOOD! Well, I was putting down the piece of paper towel which I always put under his food plate so he doesn't pick aspen if he drops food outside his plate, which he always does, when I realized my wedding ring had caught his attention. Hey, after all, it's shiney, and it's moving. Next thing I know, he's latched onto my ring with his little snout, along with a little fold of my flesh pinched against the ring. I looked down at him and said "hey!"........no response. I repeated it a little louder. He let loose and actually looked up at me with a look that I swore said, "well, I thought it was food."
What really gets me cracking up is when he first grabs his little 3/4" silky and shakes it back and forth, "killing" his prey as if he were a Nile monitor that just caught a rat. I've got to get some of his antics on video, he's so comical!
It's something new every day!
I love him to death!
