She initially went to sleep in
October, but then was up again in mid-November for an afternoon, when I gave
her a bath but she didn’t have anything to eat and as soon as she was back in her
viv she went back under her log and back to sleep again. Since then, she’s been
in brumation. This is a kind of hibernation stage that bearded dragons go
through. It’s a bit of an unpredictable thing, because not all dragons
(particularly captive ones) will do it, and not all dragons do it in the same
way.
From October to mid-November, I
would have described Lady O as ‘yo-yo brumating’ which means that she was
lethargic and asleep a large amount of time, not particularly active when she
was awake, and not eating. After the mid-November bath she went under her log
and stayed there, shifting occasionally to get comfortable again, but that was
it. Because of the positioning of the log she was under, I could see in the end
where her head was if I went up to the viv and peered in a small space, which I
did every now and then to check on her, and she’d respond by half opening the
eye closest to me, which was all I wanted from her so that I could confirm she
was OK.
On Saturday, she was scuffling
about quite a bit under her log. My mum was here, and at the time she was
sitting in the front room with Jacob and myself, and as we both looked at the
viv we realised Lady O had turned round under the log, and her nose was
pointing out where her tail had been. Her eyes were open and she appeared to be
waking up.
Now personally, I’m not
particularly good when I’ve just woken up – I mean, I’m grumpy til I’ve been to
the loo and had at least half a cup of tea and chance for my brain to get into
gear. So I tend to assume others are like that too, whether they’re people or
animals, so I left her to it for a while. I figured she’s been asleep since
November – it’s probably going to take a while for her to get her bearings.
Sure enough a while later she was
moving again. Where she’d curled herself round under the log to come out
forwards, her tail was still curled up with her. Their tails are quite powerful
for their size, and so as she pushed with her tail on the inside of the log she
propelled herself over the smooth flooring so without moving her legs at all
she slid out from under the log and stood in the middle of the viv looking
around and blinking. It was an epic way of getting out of bed. All she needed
was some grand entrance music the way she did that, it was hilarious.
Anyway, I gave her some cucumber
as it was all I had at the time suitable for her (as she hasn’t been eating
since being in brumation I haven’t been buying anything – the food she eats
goes off too quickly to keep on buying it on the off chance that she might wake
up) She had something to eat, and after she’d had some time to bask and digest
it Daddy P was home, so I took Lady O upstairs for a bath while he cleaned out
the viv and replaced the cucumber with a proper meal for her – some leafy
spring greens and a couple of slices of radish.
In her bath, she wasn’t too
impressed, but then I put some water on her nose which she licked so I did that
for a while and she plumped up even more (she was a little dehydrated when she
first woke up and looked quite wrinkly) She has lost a little weight in
brumation, but that’s to be expected. After her bath I sat and cuddled her for
a while, and J was too, and when we put her back in the viv she had more to eat
and then went to bask before bedtime.
I’m so pleased she’s up again – I’ve
really missed this little character – but she doesn’t seem quite as energised
as I had been expecting her to be once waking up. On the Facebook page where I
go for support and assistance with her care, lots of other people are reporting
their beardies being quite energetic and glass surfing, black bearding, running
around like crazies. Lady O has been awake and moving, but quite lethargic like
she’s still struggling to wake up. She’s not eaten much and she’s not been to
the loo – I’m wondering if maybe she’s yo-yo-ing again.
On the other hand, it could be
that she is in desperate need of a new viv, and I’m very aware of that. Her set
up is the one we inherited when we homed her, and I’ve learned so much since
then that I now understand it is completely the wrong style set up. I can’t
keep her temperatures right, the vivarium is too small for her, and her bulbs
are wrong, so we’ve changed what we can since having her but we decided at
Christmas that when she woke up from brumation we would buy her all new set up
so she can kick off this year in style with everything exactly how she needs it
to be happy and healthy. It’s going to set us back a fair amount of money –
around £200 – but nobody ever said that owning a pet was cheap, and to me it’s
money well spent because I want her to be in the best environment possible.
The trouble is, bearded dragons
tend to be lumped into the reptile category by pet shops who think they need
the same set up as other reptiles. The reality is they need quite personalised
care.
- Pet shops will sell sand or bark
chippings as substrate – this is entirely unsuitable for a bearded dragon, due
to the chance of the dragon ingesting it, which can result in impaction which
can be fatal. It’s also very unhygienic. Rough side up tiles and fake grass are
far better for creating a healthy, safe environment.
- Pet shops will sell more than one
dragon together, and say they need companions. They don’t. They are solitary
animals and if you home more than one in the same vivarium one will dominate
the other and one will end up getting injured. Keep it to a single dragon for
each vivarium. You don’t want to breed them – there are already far too many
unwanted dragons seeking homes, there is no need for you to breed hundreds
more, so just don’t house them together.
- Pet shops will sell a small size
vivarium together with unsuitable lighting and tell you that it’s the perfect
starter set up for your dragon. It isn’t. Your dragon needs a space of 4ftx2ftx2ft
to be comfortable, and there is no point in setting up anything smaller just
because your dragon is little. It’s expensive – do it once, do it right, and
you’re done.
- Pet shops will sell heat mats and
heat rocks and say they are suitable for use in your vivarium. They’re not –
bearded dragons can burn themselves seriously on these products because they
can’t feel heat on their bellies, so they don’t know when they’re getting too
hot.
I didn’t know anything about
bearded dragons before I got Lady O, but I’m enjoying learning, and I’m getting
a lot of support and information from the lovely admin on the
BDUK page. They’re
very helpful and have lots of advice and information – if you’re thinking of
getting a dragon check out their page and speak to them about correct set up
and how to responsibly home a dragon.
Now I do know more about them
though, I know that when I walked into my local branch of a well known chain
pet shop my heart broke for the bearded dragon that was in there. His vivarium
was around 2ft long, and about 6ft tall. There was no way he could get close
enough to the heat lamp to properly warm himself, and bask after feeding. He
was dull grey in colour and dark, a sure sign of a cold dragon, and he was
pancake flat on the dirty sand substrate. It looked like a whole box of locusts
had simply been tipped into the vivarium and left – they were climbing all over
him, he didn’t care, he wasn’t interested. Did you know locusts can bite? I
certainly didn’t, but when I first got Lady O she wasn’t interested in a locust
dropped in her viv and then I was advised by BDUK that I needed to remove it as
it would likely attack her, biting her soft parts while she slept, and if a
bite became infected that could be very nasty. So there’s this dragon with them
walking all over him and looking so miserable and unhappy - He was plainly in
desperate need of TLC and if I could have afforded to set him up properly
myself I would have brought him home. As it is, I’m already saving for one
decent set up, I can’t stretch for two right now!
I asked a staff member nearby
whether he was the person who looked after the bearded dragons or if there was
a member of staff who did available. He shrugged and said they just all kind of
helped out with whatever needed doing. I picked up their leaflet – printed by
the company – which states that in all of this well known chain stores, there
was a specialist trained member of staff able to help with all your enquiries.
He shrugged again and said they all just did whatever needed doing, so he could
help with my questions.
I asked him a couple of things
about the set up, the poor dragon, expressed my concerns, and he continually
dismissed me with comments like, “Oh no, that’s the right way to do it” with no
back up to his claims – which I know are wrong – and telling me that a locust
can’t bite a bearded dragon because the locusts can’t break the dragons scales,
telling me that they come from Australia so sand is the best substrate for them
(wrong on so many levels!), telling me that as long as it’s warm enough
generally in the viv there’s no need for a hot end and a cool end, no need for
the dragon to have a way of basking closer to the heat source, no need for the
dragon to have somewhere cooler and shady to hide etc etc. I was so upset by
the time I left, that I came home and I wrote an e-mail to the well known chain
store customer care department expressing my concerns for the wellbeing of this
dragon and indeed any other live animals in this store if this was the level of
care offered to the dragons maybe they’re doing it all wrong for all the other
animals, too? I also noticed that in their official printed leaflet about
bearded dragons that I picked up while in store that they state on it one of
the things you need to have when
creating a suitable set up is a heat lamp or heat rock. No, no, no! Even more
upset, I added this into my e-mail to them.
That was around about eight weeks
or so ago. I haven’t heard anything from them. I haven’t even had one of those
automatically generated “Thank you for contacting” e-mails that tells me their head
office address and when the e-mails are responded to. I’ve had no contact from
them whatsoever to say they’ve read my e-mail, to address my concerns,
anything.
 |
| I'm very disappointed with the lack of reply from such a well known retailer |
At the moment at school, J is
learning about pets. They had a lady from the Dogs Trust visit them the other
week to discuss looking after dogs, and they got certificates for answering
questions about caring for dogs correctly. J was especially pleased that the
lady had asked him what kind of dogs he had at home and when he told her their
breeds the lady gave him an extra point. As part of this continuation, today
the children are going to visit the local branch of a well known pet shop. Oh
yes. They are going to the shop where I know at least one animal has been
recently kept in appalling conditions to be educated in how to care for pets.
I spoke to J. I asked him if he
wanted to go, and he said he did, so that’s fine, though I did remind him about
the bearded dragon we saw in there before and he did go through with me all the
things that were wrong with that set up which re-enforced to me what a bright
little button my boy is. I would love to be a fly on the wall when the staff try to tell him anything about the care of bearded dragons!
Anyway my little princess is in
need of some breakfast, so I’m off to chop some spring greens and butternut
squash!
Have a good day,
Love,
Mummy P
X x x x x
