The Pet's Food Becomes Pets

Here is the cute before the gross. Christian is everywhere these days. We love his blue eyes and endless slobbery kisses.

The other, yellow-eyed, latest edition is doing fine thanks to my efforts to get him to poop. He hadn't pooped for the whole week we'd had him. Jeff says there are no surgery funds for lizards who need to be de-compacted. So it was home remedy time. I treated Mr. Beardie to a warm bath and trip outside when it was 100+. All the warmth did the trick and he made a biggy out in the dirt. I couldn't help but appreciate that bit of thoughtfulness on his part. I had worried he might unload in the tub. I embarrassed myself because I didn't realize the neighbors were also out in their backyard until after I'd made a clap and yelled out to the kids, "yeah, Mr. Beardie finally crapped." I'm normally not so crude but I had worried we might lose our guy to his irregular bowels.

I expected Nicky would love her pet. He is friendly and loves to be taken outside. I did not however expect that the kids would give pet status to Mr. Beardie's food. Apparently meal worms are fun to feed to Mr. Beardie and they are also fun to play with. Both kids requested they get two for their own fun after Mr. Beardie ate. Just to gross you out further, the giant meal worms, which look more disturbing than maggots, are kept in the refrigerator. They stop wriggling at a cool temperature and hibernate. They come back to life after five minutes out of the fridge.

Here are the kids playing with their worms in the dirt. Notice the picture is taken with a screen door barrier. Here are some classic Andy announcements. He periodically came up to the screen door to give updates on his worm.

"I put my worm in wet dirt and he likes it."

"Daddy, my worm likes me. He's getting used to me."

"My worm will sleep tonight."

Surely these two are not my offspring. They handle the worms, crickets, silkworms, etc. as if they weren't disturbing in the least. They love the little creatures with sweet innocence and seem unaffected by wriggling and slime.