Back on December 25, 2012, a jolly ol’ elf left a special little gifty for our son T…..a Bearded Dragon named Zorro. I’m thinking the jolly ol’ elf really has something against me; he keeps bringing gifts for my boys that mommy and daddy (well, maybe just mommy) wouldn’t normally buy for the kidlets. But when it came to Zorro…. Really, what was he thinking!!!???!!!
Baby Zorro
Needless to say, it’s been an interesting year getting to know our little reptile. We are *all* fascinated by the little bugger. He is pretty cute. We enjoy watching him catch his crickets. Despite being told that Beardies (as they are called in the reptile world) like fruits and veg, we haven’t seen Zorro being very health conscious. Although, T did manage to video him chomping on some lettuce one night.
He has deemed me as the “pretty one.” He always diverts him attention to me when I enter the boys’ room, and when we let him “out-and-about” he does tend to crawl over to me.
He loves to hang on peoples shoulders and just watch the world.
During the times when Zorro is “hanging out” with his peeps, he can be entirely motionless for a long time, but then he ZOOOOMMMMS around the room. Quick little dude! He has become “trapped” under couches, behind cabinets, and the one time we let him “roam free” in the yard ( lets just say we won’t be doing that anytime soon) he zipped over to the bushes and bark mulch and we had a very hard time finding him because he blended so well!
I think the biggest (and hardest) adjustment we had to make was the crickets that Zorro eats. It’s like a pet within a pet. We have a cricket-keeper, where we hold about 100 crickets per week. T is responsible for feeding the crickets and cleaning out the box. When Zorro was a baby (and that didn’t last long enough!) he ate “tiny” crickets. But at about 4 months, he graduated to the “large” crickets….aka…..the chirping kind. I felt so bad for M (who shares a room with T). It’s one thing to have to deal with T’s snoring, or love of night-lights….which have now been replaced by Zorro’s red night lamp. But to have to sleep with chirping crickets—-that boy deserves a medal!!
This summer, I turned into Cricket Warrior Princess. There was one cricket—I called him King Cricket–who made nice home for himself in Zorro’s log. And he chirped and chirped and chirped…..LOUDLY every day and every night……for 2 weeks. I would go into Zorro’s cage with a pair of tweezers to try to “fish out” the crickets from the log. Kinda help Zorro out finding his food (it got to the point where he stopped “hunting” for a while because he knew the Pretty One would get his food for him). Anyway….I just couldn’t get King Cricket out. And then….one night….I saw him. Holy Guacamole….he was HUUUUGGGGEEEEE!!!
I told Hubby that my plan was to cut a section of the log to create a bigger opening to go “Cricket Hunting.” Hubby thought I was nuts. And I was becoming more nuts with each passing day. The alternative was to send me to the funny-farm, so he gave me his blessing to cut the log. Funny, I wasn’t give the opportunity. M-Man wanted the honor. As you can see from the picture, he (we) meant business!
Cricket Hunters
It worked! Within 2 days, I was able to capture King Cricket, and I was never happier to watch Zorro chomp on a cricket! Luckily, since then the crickets have been on the “quiet” side.
Zorro is now about 10 months old. He is getting quite big. Almost outgrowing his 50 gallon tank. There are days where he is somewhat boring, sleeping most of the day. Other days he amuses us with his funny poses or smiles. He kinda fits well with us!
Catching some rays…
VP of Domestic Affairs 