Meet Mango Peace

✌🏻Mango Peace Marcengill🌴

Current physical statuses

Age: 9 months old

Length: 14 inches

Weight: 540 grams

Favorite foods: Collard greens and super worms

Skin tone: Yellow, yellow, yellow

Favorite activity: Laying around

Welcome to Mango's World✌🏻🌎👨🏼‍💻 My love for these reptiles has no boundaries. Yes, geckos and iguanas also interest me, but there's just something about these desert dwellers like my baby boy here. Mango Peace Marcengill is my 9 month old beardy baby. He is my only son, until one day I decide to conceive my first child of course. Mango's name comes from my favorite fruit, which is dumb of course but hey, that's me. His middle name is Peace because of the great amount of positivity his loving little arms and bright personality bring, and he is my very son so Mango Marcengill comes from son of yours truly, Tanner Marcengill. Yes, my name is Tanner Marcengill. I am a bearded dragon lover just like you reading this. If you are not familiar with the species of these dragons, after a few posts of this new blog I'm building, you will have a better understanding of how these magnificent creatures do it. This is my new blog Mango's World and this is the story of my bearded dragons and the main apple of my eye, Mango. When he became my only want✨⭐️ So, when I was 19, which was a little over a year ago, (I am only almost 21 now) me and my girlfriend Aves were going to hangout with our friends Taft and Lay Lay (Steven and Lacie). When Lay brought it to my attention Taft had a pet lizard, I pictured in my head literally just a little green field lizard like the ones that run around your house, you know. That was when I met Sargent. Sarg is Taft and Lay's bearded dragon. Hes over a year old now. Hes very active and he loves to run around Taft's room. Basically when I met Sarg, I wanted a beardy myself because of how laid back and cool they seemed. I can not tell a lie, Sargent did kind of startle me at first. Not in the sense that I was scared of him, he was just very big and very agile. Luckily Sargent wouldn't hurt a human, but he's the type of dragon to rip another beardie's head in two if you put one in his territory. Sargent was part of the reason why I got Mango. After I grew to like Sarg, I decided I wanted a bearded dragon for myself. That is when Mango came into my life. I was working at a vape shop in my home town with Taft and Lay. The three of us ran it together and at the time this was where my income was coming from. I was also still in my second semester of college during this time as well. I decided I wanted a bearded dragon so I went to my mom and stepdad and asked them if I could get one since I still lived with them. My mom said no but my stepdad said yes if I showed him good grades when the semester was over with. I didn't want to wait until the end of the semester to get Mango. He told me that was the rules but in the back of my head, I had other plans. Kids, sometimes begging for what you want doesn't always end well, but slowly letting your parents know your'e going to do what you want anyways has a better chance of working out😏👍🏻 When Metro (my stepdad) told me I had to show him good grades then I could have Mango, I decided to be impatient and slowly give him and my mom hints I was going to get him anyways. First, I started pulling their chain saying things like "His name is gonna be Mango and your'e going to love him." Then it turned into me txting them constant pictures of baby bearded dragons to show them how cute they were and basically just aggravating them about it. Then I decided I wanted to go ahead and prepare for when I brought Mango home, which every owner of a new pet should. I had done my research on how to care for them, what kind of habitat and foods they needed, and how to keep them healthy. I had been saving my money from my paychecks at Vapor Caper and put enough aside to buy a nice setup for Mango. The first thing I did was go to Petco and buy his tank. Even though I was going to introduce him to a captive life as a baby, I still just went ahead and bought him a 40 gallon breeder. It is a glass aquarium with dimensions of 36 x 18 x 18 and it fits him fine even today with him being as big as he is. When I brought the tank home, my parents got a little mad. They kept telling me "you aren't getting him until we see good grades" but I still didn't listen. After I got the tank I went online to petmountain.com and bought all of his interior decor, heating, and lighting items. It was a decent amount of money, but going to the website online v.s. going to the local pet stores in my area helped me save a lot of money. One day, my mom came home and noticed that the tank had been set up and she thought I had already got him and he was already living in it, but he wasn't with me just yet. She got heated but about a week later she came to me and said "do you want to go to the reptile convention with Kayla and Patrick and get him before we go to the beach?" After she said that, I knew I had her. Kayla is my stepdad's sister and Patrick is her husband. We were going to the beach for a week before my semester at Tech was over and me and Aves went to the convention in Columbia with Kayla and Patrick the week before vacation. That was when I got Mango.

(Mango, the day he was brought home)

Repticon and Leaving Mango for a week🦎🐍🐢🌴☀️👋🏻

I brought Mango home to his fully decorated tank July 9th, 2016. He was put in a 36 by 18 inch 40 gallon aquarium and he was very edgy at first sight of his new surroundings. After a while he grew to enjoy his basking spot and climbing to it very much. The first day he was brought home and the day after, he didn't eat. I was upset because the third day was when my girlfriend came over and somehow, Aves got him to eat a mealworm. I was confused as to why he didnt eat when I tried to feed him but was open to eating from his mother's hand. I guess he just loves his mommy like that. I documented Mango's eating habits the first week I had him. I had him for a whole week, then we had to take off to the beach. While we spent a week at the beach, which was his second week in his new home, Kayla and Patrick took care of him. When we went to repticon to get him, it was very interesting. Repticon is good and worth the money if you are going to buy things but if you are just going to look, you would be better off going to a pet store. Repticon was really neat though. I was in search of beardie babies. Didn't see many at all really. When I did though, they were always ugly in color or expensive so I kept searching. There are lots and lots of snakes at repticon in case you haven't been before. Aves didn't like all the snakes but I wasn't afraid of them as longs as it wasn't slithering towards me at 15 mph. We were walking around looking at all the reptiles, other animals and merchandise when I walked past a man who had a small 10 gallon tank filled with desert tan colored beardy babies. I automatically noticed them by their bright colors and after looking at them for a minute, I told the man I would be back. Me, Aves, Patrick, and Kayla kept looking and after pretty much mapping out the whole building, I went back to speak to my friend with the babies I met earlier. He had normal spiked back babies for $35 and leatherbacks for $45. I told him I wanted a leatherback and he asked which one. At the time, I didn't consider I could choose my baby by choice so I told the breeder "just grab any leatherback" and that is how fate brought me and my beloved Mango together. While we were at the beach, Kayla stopped by at least once every 2 days and fed and checked on Mango. While I was away that week, I kid you not he grew 2x his size while we were gone. It doesn't take a bearded dragon but about 6 to 9 months to grow 75% of it's full body size. They are quick to sprout so love them as babies while you can.

When we got back from the beach, I was so excited to see Mangy. I had only had him for a week then I had to say goodbye to him for another week before I could finally come home and see him every day the way I wanted to. Mango, like most dragons was very active as a baby. Nowadays he doesn't do much at all which is their natural way of living. Bearded dragons can be very docile and my Mangy is living proof that is true.

Conclusion and Upcoming Posts

This is where my story with bearded dragons begins. It all starts with that first little touch of love you give to your first pet and Mango is just that to me. He brings me joy and laughter just because of how crazy yet lazy he truly is. Most people who have bearded dragons don't take in how intelligent and loving they can be. Befriend them and feed them and they will make you smile until your dying days. That is a fact right there. Mango Peace is my little slice of happiness that God has given to me at a younger age and I pray he is around to recieve the love my kids may give him one day as well. 

This is the opening post of my new bearded dragon blog "Mango's World, I'm Tanner Marcengill, and thank you for reading my first reptile experience story. There will be many more helpful and thought provoking blogs on the way soon so stay tuned readers. Thank you for reading and I'm always open to hearing stories, experiences, and here to talk about any questions you guys may have so leave some comments and tell me how things are. Thank you. 

✌🏻Cease the hate, peace we create✌🏻

"Meet Mango Peace" 

Blog post #1

Tanner Marcengill

April 30th, 2017