Growth Spurt

We have been noticing how much Ivy has been eating lately - she used to sit back and let Jack have the main share of the crickets and cockroaches, but over the past few weeks she has basically wrestled him for food, and at one point was trying to eat a cricket out of Jack's mouth! All of this eating has led to a big growth spurt, and Ivy now appears to be longer than Jack - at least her tail definitely is - and it has meant that she is now shedding her skin again!! Jack is showing no signs of shedding, but Ivy has now almost completely shed all of her skin. Here is a photographic journal of the highly attractive process that is the shedding of skin...

It begins with a bit of shedding on her tail...

Her tail has finished shedding, now it's her legs' turn..

Oh dear...this is how I found her when I came home today...
her legs and tail have shed their old skin, and now her whole torso and head are shedding, it's really quite freaky!!

Poor Ivy...she won't be winning a dragin beauty pageant today

A fully-shedding Ivy in her favourite tree

Handsome Jack looks on with amusement..no signs of him shedding any time soon...

Yuck!

I got home from work today to find the freakiest looking things I've ever seen! Jack has almost totally shed his skin - it is hanging off him in large sheets, and Ivy has shed a lot of her skin too. It's taken Jack a week to shed, but Ivy seems to have shed most of her skin in one day which is strange.

Jack and his vest of loose skin...eewww..

Ivy shedding...

By tomorrow they will look like transformed lizards!

Stop the Press!

There comes a time in a young dragons life where he has to grow out of his skin...literally. That's right, Jack is shedding! I think it is quite gross, he is reminding me a bit of a zombie with flaky bits of skin coming off him, but it is also quite fascinating at the same time. What is even more fascinating is the fact that the new skin that is peeping through seems to be quite patterned. Female dragons are typically more patterened than males, so i'm very intrigued as to what Jack will look like after his transformation is complete.

Will he have to change his name to Jacqui?

If you click on the photo you can see a larger version of the picture to see the shedding process more clearly. Isn't it lovely? Look at where his legs attach to his body, his knee, foot, and his left forearm. Turns my stomach when I look at it, so just thought I'd share and see if anyone else had a similar reaction?

 Since the taking of this photo, he has shed the skin on his arms, legs and tail. Photos to come...the suspense is gripping, isn't it?