Falkor the bratty luck dragon ;-) & his new friend, Raphael

Falkor is my 1st beardie & a major brat. He has been with me for about a month now & is a spoiled little thing. LOL I'm not exactly sure on his age as he was purchased from Petsmart & we all know how well they know their animals. He was tiny when he first came home & has grown a surprising amount in just a month.

This is Falkor on his 3rd day home.

& this is Falkor as of today!
I am really amazed by how much he grew! In just a month he is soooooooo much bigger. I wish I had thought to measure him during those first few days but as of today he is 9 1/2 inches.I need batteries for the scale that I have or I would have weighed him.
So what do you experienced folks think? Does he look like he has grown well in the month he's been with me? My basis for reference is limited.

He is such a snuggler that it's hard for me to get pics of him lol

He has such a yellow tint to his head that my daughters think I should have called him Lemon drop. :lol:

I wish that I could get his colors captured right but this camera...
I am glad I had expected him to have a quirky personality. I researched a lot before he came home & I have heard a few friends talking about theirs so it's no surprise he can be such a brat & he really is lucky he is so cute. I wouldn't ever call him exactly lazy but he isn't a high energy baby either. He does his playtime but most of the day he basks & takes it easy waiting for chow time. It must be nice. LOL
I swear if I could just get him to eat the way I want him to it would make my life easier! My dear little one is in love with his greens but other veggies are a no go at this point. They are offered but if it isn't green & leafy he just ignores it. I just started a dubia colony & was hoping to get that off the ground before he ate all the babies but he thinks it should be different. You see I was foolish enough to think that it would be a good idea to incorporate a dubia or two into each feeding just to transition him slowly. He is fed 3 times a day as much as he can eat in 15 mins plus the veggies are available all day. Well since I started him on the dubia or two he is flat out refusing to eat any crickets! I swear I hate those stinky things too but I need them to get eaten. However my dear beardie turns his back on them at every oportunity. I guess I will have to order more dubia & let the crickets grow for his frog brothers. In case it isn't obvious I HATE having crickets in my house.

 

[htidavid]

Falkor looks like an adult version of my beardie

I keep thinking of him as a baby but he is 5 months old roughly. I bet your baby is gorgeous.

5 months?! He looks huuuuge! That's amazing

I have a thread up for mine, 'Dongo' Check him out!

 

[aidan724]

Falkor looks like an adult version of my beardie

I keep thinking of him as a baby but he is 5 months old roughly. I bet your baby is gorgeous.

5 months?! He looks huuuuge! That's amazing

I have a thread up for mine, 'Dongo' Check him out!

Yea he is bigger than I thought he would be at 5 months but he's a spoiled eating machine. LOL He eats everything as long as it crunches.

 

[aidan724]

Raphael our new baby for all that are curious.

Not a good picture but he just arrived.

I swear Falkor is almost twice his size.

 

[aidan724]

This is Falkor's new brother, Raphael. He's a cutie but I have a few concerns.
Firstly his size is a bit concerning as he is 1 1/2 & this is what he looks like in his 40 gallon tank.

It makes him look like such a little baby!
Then there are these black spots on his beard just near his jawbone. I need to do some research asap on this unless I'm just being paranoid.

That just looks a little suspect to me.
This is what I mean by he looks underweight too. Maybe I just don't know enough & he is just tiny but he doesn't look filled out to me.

Perhaps I am just paranoid but I really want to do him up right. Yes I will be going & getting him new & proper supplies in the morning so don't fret. He will be getting some goodies as soon as possible.

 

[sweetiepie9]

And make sure that red light is out of there. Beardies don't do well with red lights at all, so better not to use them. And yes, he's underweight and small for 1 1/2, bet he was underfed his whole life. I'm glad you're getting the supplies like you did for Falcor, it's amazing how much a beardie can grow in his 2nd year, so he may just grow more.

You'll have to take a closer pic of those black spots, they could just be spots, like Didi has on his beard, nothing to worry about, as least for Didi, as they come and go and I've had them looked at by my vet. She said they're just discoloured scales.

Welcome Raphael, you are a cutie, even if small!

 

[aidan724]

And make sure that red light is out of there. Beardies don't do well with red lights at all, so better not to use them. And yes, he's underweight and small for 1 1/2, bet he was underfed his whole life. I'm glad you're getting the supplies like you did for Falcor, it's amazing how much a beardie can grow in his 2nd year, so he may just grow more.

You'll have to take a closer pic of those black spots, they could just be spots, like Didi has on his beard, nothing to worry about, as least for Didi, as they come and go and I've had them looked at by my vet. She said they're just discoloured scales.

Welcome Raphael, you are a cutie, even if small!

Oh that red light is GONE first thing tomorrow! I HATE those. I am going to get a CHE for him & the rest of the lights are going to the backup supplies for the rest of our reptiles. Not the bulbs but the domes. LOL Yes I definitely think he was very underfed. I could be wrong but I really think that Falkor ate more as a wee one than she was feeding him now. He is making up for lost time though. He has scarfed a ton of salad, crickets & chow already. I have a long shopping list but he is certainly worth it. He seems to be a little stinker & took to my Gabby-girl hand feeding him. I am wondering if the black spots are related to his stress lines. I am going to watch it closely over the weekend as he is running, eating, drinking & otherwise seems pretty happy.
Thanks we are very happy to have him.

 

[sweetiepie9]

That is such good news and that he likes to be fed by Gabby is also good news. I'm so glad he's fit in so well. Let me know about the spots on the beard, as mine get them too, then they disappear and others come out, usually after they've had a black beard and it's back to normal colour again. Congrats again!

 

[aidan724]

That is such good news and that he likes to be fed by Gabby is also good news. I'm so glad he's fit in so well. Let me know about the spots on the beard, as mine get them too, then they disappear and others come out, usually after they've had a black beard and it's back to normal colour again. Congrats again!

Thanks. We are really happy with him. I haven't messed with him too much yet since I don't want to spook him so it's hard to get a really good look at his beard before he dashes off to check something else out. He is very alert, active, eating well, curious & lounging in his water quite a bit. When we go to feed him his critters this evening I'm going to try to get him to put himself in a position that I can check it out a little better. It doesn't look like it bothers him either so maybe it's related to the stress, bad shed or a coloration to make him stand out. Whatever it turns out to be I'm sure we can deal with it just fine & have him ship shape in no time.
I had a chat with a vet tech friend of mine & she suggested I use a wait & see approach since he was just settling in & isn't showing any real signs of something being wrong. She said they have a dragon that comes in that was named Spot because he has black spots on his beard 24/7 but there isn't anything wrong with him. I have my fingers crossed. He is doing so much better than we were prepared for.

 

[aidan724]

$368 & some odd change later & I think we have most of what we need for Raphael & a hammock for Falkor. Now I need to keep my fingers crossed that we have everything for a little while. :lol:

 

[aidan724]

So last night Falkor decided to be a complete freak & spaz out for "no" reason. He went all Blackbeard macho nonsense in his tank tearing around. I think the lights were hitting just right that his reflection made him mad. I tried to calm him down a bit & he ran up my shoulder & launched himself into the laundry basket. So much for the theory that taking him out of his tank would remove the stimulus that irked him. Oh he was naughty & tried to charge my hand to bite. Ever the bad mommy I tea toweled him & let him sit until he got calm. Then I put him back in the tank & he went to being his bratty sulking self. He's been fine today. Such a brat he's sleeping on my laptop keyboard trying to make typing impossible. LOL

 

[zandi202]

Spring fever hit Falkor hard, huh? Zy sits on all the keys I need, too. :lol:

 

[aidan724]

Spring fever hit Falkor hard, huh? Zy sits on all the keys I need, too. :lol:

Whatever it was it was funny. He's just 5 months old by my guess but I guess maybe the crazy hormones have hit. LOL

 

[zandi202]

This is about hormone time. Jace is 5 months as well and has gone cuckoo.

 

[aidan724]

This is about hormone time. Jace is 5 months as well and has gone cuckoo.

Ah lol I hadn't really thought about it but it makes sense. Especially since Falkor has a full view of the outdoors through the window across the room. We have been in the mid to high 60's this past week & it's been really pretty out. I have been thinking of taking him out for his first romp outdoors sometime this week.

 

[zandi202]

Lucky you. I have to wait still. My town just refuses to hit 60. :roll: