lostandfound
Bearded Dragon Egg
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- 2
Bearded dragons have to be one of the most amazing, adaptive and terrifying animals to me. I created this account with the sole purpose of sharing this story here because I read a lot of topics on this forum about lost beardies when we were dealing with this and it was always comforting because I can't recall a story where they were not found. But, I also can't remember any stories with their beardie being gone for as long as ours was - so I thought I'd share in case anyone else in a similar situation finds this.
This will be a long story and I apologize in advance.
My partner and I are both reptile fanatics. We have a shared total of 29. We have a multitude of different species - a few blue tongues, ball pythons, a boa, a few colubrids, crested geckos, leopard geckos, and one bearded dragon. A lot of our animals were given to us by their previous owners because they couldn't take care of them anymore. Our beardie came from a 9 year old who had her living in a 5 gallon aquarium with no heat or uvb and she never has been very tame but she was always a lot of fun. She bounced back quickly and got upgraded to a 50 gallon exo terra. We were in the process of getting a stack of Zen habitat enclosures set up for our skinks and she was going to get one of those as well. She was still growing so it was plenty large for her to run around and explore for the time being.
Somehow one night at the beginning of last year she escaped from her exoterra. The front doors were just wide open the next morning. I vividly remembered locking it the night before so it made no sense. We looked everywhere for her to absolutely no avail. We set up heat lamps around the house with tubs of crickets. We blocked areas of the house off in hopes that she would turn up in that room. I couldn't sleep for the first night, the thought of her being loose in my house was sickening and I was very concerned our cat would do something to harm her. Despite having so many animals, we had never had this happen before. I've always been extremely paranoid about reptiles escaping so I always make sure I lock enclosures, clip lids, and put weights on the top.
We looked everywhere for about an hour every single day and never found her or any sign of her anywhere. Then one day about 2 weeks later she was just sitting in the living room, in the middle of the floor, pancaked out. She was absolutely fine and she was immediately put back in her enclosure, this time we put a lock on the front doors.
All was well for less than 3 days before she somehow escaped again. I still don't understand how. The lock was still intact on the front and everything on the lid looked intact too. It is a true mystery. I figured it would be like it was the last time and she wouldn't be found until she 'wanted to be' but I followed the same routine of looking for her for over an hour a day, setting lamps up, etc.
Days went by, then weeks. It was like she never existed at all, there were absolutely no signs of her anywhere. Months went by. We looked every day in every room in the house. I had my dad check all of the vents. There was logically no way she had gotten outside. We never found any sign of our cat harming her. At the 6 month mark, I was pretty certain that one day I would just stumble upon her body one day when I was least expecting it. I dreaded that every single day. I had nightmares about it.
That escape was on February 28th of last year.
This last Saturday, I went into my bedroom, and she's just laying there on the floor. I screamed and I didn't know whether she was alive or not. She did not look good unsurprisingly, her normal orangey colors were replaced with dark browns. But, I picked her up, and while she was cold and mostly unresponsive, she was alive.
She was gone for 312 days.
The room she was found in was extensively checked on a daily basis and was also where I was sleeping mostly every night for the past year, so I have absolutely no idea where she was this whole time. My bedroom is also on a completely opposite side of the house from where she escaped. I would hear noises all the time, never knowing if it was her or one of our other many animals. We gave her a bath and set her up in her new zen habitat (which has been reinforced with silicone and several locks and clips) and she was pretty lethargic for the past few days. I was only able to get in with my vet on Thursday of this week and unfortunately they had to reschedule me because of weather. Until tonight, she didn't seem very interested in food, but now she is going crazy for her salad and she was thrilled to receive a hornworm.
She's going to the vet now on Monday next week and we've been working on getting the stuck shed off her tail and body. I'm hoping for good news at the vet but I'm thrilled to see her eating and acting like herself and I can sleep peacefully now. Her color is much better now too. Somehow, she is not nearly as underweight as you'd expect for being gone that long.
if you lose your beardie, don't give up, literally ever.
This will be a long story and I apologize in advance.
My partner and I are both reptile fanatics. We have a shared total of 29. We have a multitude of different species - a few blue tongues, ball pythons, a boa, a few colubrids, crested geckos, leopard geckos, and one bearded dragon. A lot of our animals were given to us by their previous owners because they couldn't take care of them anymore. Our beardie came from a 9 year old who had her living in a 5 gallon aquarium with no heat or uvb and she never has been very tame but she was always a lot of fun. She bounced back quickly and got upgraded to a 50 gallon exo terra. We were in the process of getting a stack of Zen habitat enclosures set up for our skinks and she was going to get one of those as well. She was still growing so it was plenty large for her to run around and explore for the time being.
Somehow one night at the beginning of last year she escaped from her exoterra. The front doors were just wide open the next morning. I vividly remembered locking it the night before so it made no sense. We looked everywhere for her to absolutely no avail. We set up heat lamps around the house with tubs of crickets. We blocked areas of the house off in hopes that she would turn up in that room. I couldn't sleep for the first night, the thought of her being loose in my house was sickening and I was very concerned our cat would do something to harm her. Despite having so many animals, we had never had this happen before. I've always been extremely paranoid about reptiles escaping so I always make sure I lock enclosures, clip lids, and put weights on the top.
We looked everywhere for about an hour every single day and never found her or any sign of her anywhere. Then one day about 2 weeks later she was just sitting in the living room, in the middle of the floor, pancaked out. She was absolutely fine and she was immediately put back in her enclosure, this time we put a lock on the front doors.
All was well for less than 3 days before she somehow escaped again. I still don't understand how. The lock was still intact on the front and everything on the lid looked intact too. It is a true mystery. I figured it would be like it was the last time and she wouldn't be found until she 'wanted to be' but I followed the same routine of looking for her for over an hour a day, setting lamps up, etc.
Days went by, then weeks. It was like she never existed at all, there were absolutely no signs of her anywhere. Months went by. We looked every day in every room in the house. I had my dad check all of the vents. There was logically no way she had gotten outside. We never found any sign of our cat harming her. At the 6 month mark, I was pretty certain that one day I would just stumble upon her body one day when I was least expecting it. I dreaded that every single day. I had nightmares about it.
That escape was on February 28th of last year.
This last Saturday, I went into my bedroom, and she's just laying there on the floor. I screamed and I didn't know whether she was alive or not. She did not look good unsurprisingly, her normal orangey colors were replaced with dark browns. But, I picked her up, and while she was cold and mostly unresponsive, she was alive.
She was gone for 312 days.
The room she was found in was extensively checked on a daily basis and was also where I was sleeping mostly every night for the past year, so I have absolutely no idea where she was this whole time. My bedroom is also on a completely opposite side of the house from where she escaped. I would hear noises all the time, never knowing if it was her or one of our other many animals. We gave her a bath and set her up in her new zen habitat (which has been reinforced with silicone and several locks and clips) and she was pretty lethargic for the past few days. I was only able to get in with my vet on Thursday of this week and unfortunately they had to reschedule me because of weather. Until tonight, she didn't seem very interested in food, but now she is going crazy for her salad and she was thrilled to receive a hornworm.
She's going to the vet now on Monday next week and we've been working on getting the stuck shed off her tail and body. I'm hoping for good news at the vet but I'm thrilled to see her eating and acting like herself and I can sleep peacefully now. Her color is much better now too. Somehow, she is not nearly as underweight as you'd expect for being gone that long.
if you lose your beardie, don't give up, literally ever.
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