Rhaegal, My New Rescue *PICS*

[Archimedes]

Well, as a first-time beardie owner, I've sure got my hands full with this one.

Rhaegal is 1 year old last month, and I knew she was on the small side before I picked her up, but I was unprepared for how far gone she seemed when I arrived to pick her up on Tuesday. Her former owner obviously meant well, but she'd been sitting in his garage with the door wide open, with no light at all on her, while he waited for me to come get her. For who knows how long. That was my first red flag.

When he handed me to her, he described her as "very docile". Lethargic is more like it. She barely even opened her eyes when he took her off her driftwood. She felt like bone and skin. I kept my mouth shut as he explained her setup and reached for her lamps, saying that at least one of the bulbs was broken. (When I got home, I found out it wasn't just one bulb, but all three-- UVB, Daytime, and Nighttime.) She had some stuck shed on the top of her head, and he'd been misting her rather than giving her a couple of short soaks a week.

I had to keep her at work with me until that evening, as he'd forgotten to provide her screen lid for her vivarium (unacceptable if I didn't want the cats to get her, not to mention there was nothing to set her lamps on. She stayed in the shoebox by my feet, barely stirring, breathing labored. I didn't think I'd have a dragon by the end of that shift, and it passed agonizingly slowly.



As soon as I got her home finally, I scrambled to get her set up. I had to borrow the ambient UVB from Magnus' tank, as the lamp her last owner had given me didn't work. Luckily, I had a clamp-lamp already set up, so her basking light wasn't an issue. I gave her tank a very quick spritz, and like that she came to life, scrambling to drink the water dropping from the nozzle of the mister. I quickly set her in front of her water dish and she drank from it for several minutes. So dehydration was on the table now too.

I left the UVB on overnight to make up for the light she hadn't gotten all day. By the next morning, she seemed a little more energized, moving around the driftwood on her own.





I felt a little more hopeful at this point, so I ran out for some baby food and collard greens, blended them together with some Zilla fortified kibble and Fluker's Calcium with D3. I want to keep her on a liquid diet until I see her first stool passage. Luckily, it only took one taste from the syringe to have her clamoring for more, so I gave her a little bowlful and she went to town:



She's got a little bit of a belly on her as of this morning, I am relieved to report, as opposed to the ribcage under skin that I felt when I first got her. I even took her outside for some natural sunlight, and she perked up a lot, looking around at some blowing leaves and even examining me carefully. I don't think she knows quite what to expect from me yet, but she's willing to sit in my hand and see how things progress.

I'll be running out this weekend for butterworms if I can find them to add some protein and fat to her diet, superworms if I can't find butterworms. I don't think she's up for chasing crickets yet, but hopefully in the next week or two!