Posted by:
PHLdyPayne
at Fri Oct 16 17:45:37 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by PHLdyPayne ]
Yes you can overfeed a dragon. Growing dragons during their first year are very difficult to over feed as they burn so much energy by growing nearly 500% of their birth size in their first year.
After they are a year old, growth slows down considerably and here is when its easy to get an overweight dragon. Feeding too many insects to adults certainly can put the weight on. Adults should only receive about 10-20% of their total daily intake as insects, the rest should be a mix of greens and vegetables. Clutching females can receive a little more insects than males and non clutching females.
Overweight dragons have large fat pads behind their eyes (these in a healthy weight dragon should barely be noticeable (if concave then you are looking at an underweight dragon). Really large tail base and thick rounded limbs and hugely sagging bellies are also signs of overweight dragons.
Keeping track of regular weigh ins of your dragon with a decent kitchen scale (preferably one that can weight in one gram increments) is a great way to see if they are gaining or loosing weight. As baby dragons grow so fast, there should never be any weight decrease between measurements. If there are, then either not enough food is being offered and eaten, or something else is wrong. For babies I suggest weighing once a week. Adults once a month should be fine, or every other week.
Feeding a healthy varied diet (of both insects and greens) with proper husbandry will ensure a healthy dragon. Weight gain in adults typical is due to feeding too much insects or high calorie containing fruits and vegetables.
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PHLdyPayne
[ Hide Replies ]
- overfeeding - dragonluis1316, Fri Oct 16 11:51:56 2009
 RE: overfeeding - PHLdyPayne, Fri Oct 16 17:45:37 2009
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