Shayna went severely downhill during the beginning of January, and in my distress I went out and got Mortimer Mensch.
He is graceful, beautiful and elegant, even if he doesn't much care for my presence in his life. Over the past three weeks he's gone from stubborn brown to a rather dapper camoflage, and recently he's shown brighter colors and patterns. It took him a while to stay out on his basking perch when I came in the room, and even now he tends to be distrustful, but he happily sneaks out of his cage as soon as I prop the door open and leave the room!
Maybe it was that I paid so much less attention to Shayna when Mort came. I still picked her up, pried her toes out of her flesh, and put her back on her branch, but left her on her own much more. She's stopped grabbing her legs, but continued to mangle her flanks.
My most recent decisions for her were such: She's been supplemented and hyper-supplemented for the past three months and she still has this issue. It was time to ditch the extremes. I replaced the strong UVB bulb with a 5.0, I stopped all supplements for a week, then started up with just the basics of Ca and a bi-weekly multivit. I took the opportunity to weigh her two days ago and found her at her all time high of 52g. I put a bit of tegaderm on her worst flank, and she doesn't seem to notice it.
I've realized that she hasn't needed to be rescued for about a week. Maybe we've finally rounded the corner? Perhaps 'benign neglect' was the way to go in the first place? I hate handing her. She doesn't hiss or fight at all, and just lays there in the palm of my hand like a sacrificial lizard, her eyes closed. I love her to pieces, but she breaks my heart.
Lastly, on the lizard front, we've gotten a webcam called 'Cham Cam' and I can monitor them from anywhere. Keeps me from running in there every hour on the hour <grin>.
He is graceful, beautiful and elegant, even if he doesn't much care for my presence in his life. Over the past three weeks he's gone from stubborn brown to a rather dapper camoflage, and recently he's shown brighter colors and patterns. It took him a while to stay out on his basking perch when I came in the room, and even now he tends to be distrustful, but he happily sneaks out of his cage as soon as I prop the door open and leave the room!
Maybe it was that I paid so much less attention to Shayna when Mort came. I still picked her up, pried her toes out of her flesh, and put her back on her branch, but left her on her own much more. She's stopped grabbing her legs, but continued to mangle her flanks.
My most recent decisions for her were such: She's been supplemented and hyper-supplemented for the past three months and she still has this issue. It was time to ditch the extremes. I replaced the strong UVB bulb with a 5.0, I stopped all supplements for a week, then started up with just the basics of Ca and a bi-weekly multivit. I took the opportunity to weigh her two days ago and found her at her all time high of 52g. I put a bit of tegaderm on her worst flank, and she doesn't seem to notice it.
I've realized that she hasn't needed to be rescued for about a week. Maybe we've finally rounded the corner? Perhaps 'benign neglect' was the way to go in the first place? I hate handing her. She doesn't hiss or fight at all, and just lays there in the palm of my hand like a sacrificial lizard, her eyes closed. I love her to pieces, but she breaks my heart.
Lastly, on the lizard front, we've gotten a webcam called 'Cham Cam' and I can monitor them from anywhere. Keeps me from running in there every hour on the hour <grin>.
