Franklin'sMom
Member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2016
- Messages
- 30
Hi my name is Jessica I have a 1 year old Sulcata named Franklin.
His habitat details:
He has two basking lights (one small and one large) and a UVB strip light. His lights are set on a timer and they come on at 9 am and go off at 9 pm. He has cypress mulch for his substrate which gets sprayed down on one side of his habitat about every other day to keep it humid. The top of the enclosure has a screen that is covered with a towel and has cutouts where the basking lamps are. His current habitat temps are overall kept in the upper 80s to mid 90s with the humidity at 40-50%. The cool side is kept in the high 70s to low 80s with a under tank heating pad. His basking spot is in the high 90s to low 100s. He has plenty of choices to choose from in his habitat from cool and dry to warm/hot and humid.
He eats like every meal is his last meal. I'm not even kidding he loves his food! lol I have not noticed any changes in his appetite. I give him his favorite treat Mazuri M-W-F about 5-7 pellets moistened with water. Sometimes I mix it with the LS Mazuri. He gets a mixture of store bought produce and yard weeds and flowers everyday. I will set out a pretty big pile in the morning if I know I will be gone most of the day. If when I get home most of it is gone or all of it is gone I will give home a little bit more.
He gets soaked everyday if not every other day. The longest he has ever gone between soakings is 2 days. He soaks in warm water that I test the temperature with that back of my hand to make sure it's not too warm. While he soaks I will pour the water over his shell. Sometimes when he's a dirty poopy baby I will scrub him with a soft brittles Cookie Monster toothbrush lol. I use his bath times as a opportunity to examine his pees and poos and give him a look over to make sure his shell and everything looks good. lol I'm a nurse so it's ingrained in me to assess.
His poos are well formed and pass with little to no effort. I can always tell when he has what I call a scaredy poo bc it will be looser as though it was passed before the body was done absorbing the water from it. He usually will have one on occasion when I'm scrubbing him lol, not his favorite. His pees are usually large in fluid amount with little to no urates. Sometimes will be a little dark in color depending on what I fed him.
Usually he will wake up around 9:30-10:30 am, after his lights come on. But lately he has been sleeping more. The other day he didn't get up until 3pm.
When he does get up he's eats everything like usual. So I haven't noticed any change in his appetite.
The other day when he was eating, he was eating his food soo fast that he looked like he kinda choked and spit up the piece of lettuce he was eating with a little bit of water that came out of his mouth and nose. After he wiped his face off he continued to eat like nothing.
Today when he was basking I noticed his eyes were watering. I always listen and observe his breathing bc I'm paranoid of a RI. His breathing is not audible as in whistling or labored. And I can't really hear anything with a stethoscope thru his shell lol. He doesn't not appear to be having a hard time breathing. I have noticed every once and a while he will smack his mouth (not click) and swallow. He doesn't make a noise when he does this. It's almost as if he is just clearing his throat.
I guess I'm just paranoid that he might be at the beginning of a RI.
His habitat details:
He has two basking lights (one small and one large) and a UVB strip light. His lights are set on a timer and they come on at 9 am and go off at 9 pm. He has cypress mulch for his substrate which gets sprayed down on one side of his habitat about every other day to keep it humid. The top of the enclosure has a screen that is covered with a towel and has cutouts where the basking lamps are. His current habitat temps are overall kept in the upper 80s to mid 90s with the humidity at 40-50%. The cool side is kept in the high 70s to low 80s with a under tank heating pad. His basking spot is in the high 90s to low 100s. He has plenty of choices to choose from in his habitat from cool and dry to warm/hot and humid.
He eats like every meal is his last meal. I'm not even kidding he loves his food! lol I have not noticed any changes in his appetite. I give him his favorite treat Mazuri M-W-F about 5-7 pellets moistened with water. Sometimes I mix it with the LS Mazuri. He gets a mixture of store bought produce and yard weeds and flowers everyday. I will set out a pretty big pile in the morning if I know I will be gone most of the day. If when I get home most of it is gone or all of it is gone I will give home a little bit more.
He gets soaked everyday if not every other day. The longest he has ever gone between soakings is 2 days. He soaks in warm water that I test the temperature with that back of my hand to make sure it's not too warm. While he soaks I will pour the water over his shell. Sometimes when he's a dirty poopy baby I will scrub him with a soft brittles Cookie Monster toothbrush lol. I use his bath times as a opportunity to examine his pees and poos and give him a look over to make sure his shell and everything looks good. lol I'm a nurse so it's ingrained in me to assess.
His poos are well formed and pass with little to no effort. I can always tell when he has what I call a scaredy poo bc it will be looser as though it was passed before the body was done absorbing the water from it. He usually will have one on occasion when I'm scrubbing him lol, not his favorite. His pees are usually large in fluid amount with little to no urates. Sometimes will be a little dark in color depending on what I fed him.
Usually he will wake up around 9:30-10:30 am, after his lights come on. But lately he has been sleeping more. The other day he didn't get up until 3pm.
When he does get up he's eats everything like usual. So I haven't noticed any change in his appetite.
The other day when he was eating, he was eating his food soo fast that he looked like he kinda choked and spit up the piece of lettuce he was eating with a little bit of water that came out of his mouth and nose. After he wiped his face off he continued to eat like nothing.
Today when he was basking I noticed his eyes were watering. I always listen and observe his breathing bc I'm paranoid of a RI. His breathing is not audible as in whistling or labored. And I can't really hear anything with a stethoscope thru his shell lol. He doesn't not appear to be having a hard time breathing. I have noticed every once and a while he will smack his mouth (not click) and swallow. He doesn't make a noise when he does this. It's almost as if he is just clearing his throat.
I guess I'm just paranoid that he might be at the beginning of a RI.
