Posted by:
earth_intruder
at Tue Apr 7 15:22:24 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by earth_intruder ]
I have recently become concerned about my bearded dragon's weight and growth rate.
I have a 5.5 month old male dragon named Shackleton, and I acquired him when he was 2 months old. Since that time, he has grown tremendously - he's currently about 15 inches long, plus he has a stub-tail, and I estimate he'd be about 18 inches if his tail were intact. He is about 9 inches snout to vent.
Recently his growth rate began to slow and he began to show signs of being overweight. When his belly is flattened against the floor it looks like a pancake, and he has a fatty-looking double chin under his beard.
He was raised on a diet of gut-loaded crickets, mealworms/superworms, and roaches, plus a variety of greens such as dandelion, collard, mustard, kale, and more. I fed insects more heavily, because he was quite young.
So, my initial assumption about his weight was that I continued feeding protein-heavy foods for too long after his growth rate slowed, resulting in him storing those foods as fat. I've recently cut down quite a bit on the insects and I'm mainly offering greens and vegetables, plus I've been letting him get more exercise by setting up a 5' x 5' pen for him to run around in (only when supervised, he gets himself into all kinds of trouble!).
However...a coworker who has bred and raised bearded dragons for years told me yesterday that he might have some sort of hormonal/thyroid problem. He said that Shackleton is massive for his age (not just too fat, also too long etc) and that his "double chin" could be indicative of swollen glands. This has me extremely worried!
Is 9 inches snout to vent really an abnormal size for a 5.5 month old dragon? I'm attaching a picture - do you think his "double chin" is just from being overweight, or something more serious? I'm really hoping he's just overweight, because I know how to handle that, and I'm committed to getting him healthier.
Some background: he was raised in a 4' long 60 gallon terrarium with an mercury vapor bulb for uvb and and white heat lamp for additional heat. I use Soft Blend coconut husk based bedding.
Now that the weather is nice here in California, I've set up a 4' x 2' basking enclosure outdoors, where he spends his time sunrise to sunset. He still comes inside during the night and sleeps in his 60 gallon tank. He shows no indications of being sick, he's very alert and energetic. I feel like I must be leaving information out, but I can't think of anything else, so if you require further info let me know!
I'm attaching a photo that shows his double chin.
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0.0.1 jungle carpet python - Hydra
1.0.0 red spotted beaked snake - Beaker
1.2.0 corn snakes - Valis, Orlando, and Geislandi
1.0.0 bearded dragon - Shackleton
1.0.0 golden gecko - Nosferatu
1.0.0 leopard gecko - Darwin
1.0.0 Southern toad - Lurch
1.2.0 cats - Moony, Lucky, and Ziva
0.2.0 rats - Kara and Tilly
75 gallon Lake Malawi aquarium
20 gallon Brackish Sri Lanka aquarium
10 gallon South Asian aquarium
6 gallon New Guinea aquarium
3 gallon Thai aquarium
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 Concerned about Shackleton, my male BD - earth_intruder, Tue Apr 7 15:22:24 2009 
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