Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All,

I have got a large adult hypo red male which i am a little worried that he is over weight.
He was 2 years old when i was given him along with his mrs and he weighed in at 700 grams and is 23 inches long and she weighed in a 500 and is 22 inches long.

I dont think they have gg in them, but am worried more so about him. He lost some weight over winter but now has shot back to 700 grams.

whats the best way i can get him to loose some weight, or do you think he might be ok ??? it's just all other males seem to be much lighter in weight that him,

I will see if i can get some pics of him on here for you to see,

many thanks

Funky.

This is the best shot i have with me,, doesn't show the size of him that well,,but gives an idea.

Daisy on top as always lol
and Rocky the big fella on bottom.

i think he is fine. 700g for a 23 inch dragon isn't too bad.
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PHLdyPayne

WHAT exactly you're feeding him, and at what frequency. For a dragon his size/age, I wouldn't suggest feeding crickets more than once or twice a week, unless you want to battle renal failure when he gets older (which is almost always fatal). His diet should be heavy in greens. He should be eating as much greens as he pleases to either every day, or every other day. There is a big problem right now with dragons dying early due to kidney/liver problems, and I think that it can be avoided. In australia there have been reports of dragons living as long as 15-20 years of age, so why do ours usually die out at around 7-10? Because we don't yet understand how their diet should be made up. The most success I've ever seen with a bearded dragon was when it was fed greens 3 times a week, and crickets every two weeks. I've also heard other people that are very good at raising quality reptiles comment that most people overfeed them as babies, and that you should really feed no more than a dozen a day in the dragon's life. They don't grow as fast, but they live longer and healthier. Almost every old dragon death that is commonly attributed to old age has had some sort of renal failure involved.

So that's something you should keep in mind. In captivity we generally get the idea that 'if he keeps eating more crickets, that means he's still hungry'. That's not the case though. They're programmed for a life in the wilderness where they don't know where their next meal is going to be coming from or when, so they eat as much as they can of what they can find, knowing that it will be days before they can find more good food. That's why sav monitors tend to get so chunky.

I think your dragon looks fine though. Very robust, and very large. Is he a German Giant?

Your dragons look great! They do not appear overweight to me. Since they are maintaining their weight as apposed to gaining more and more I don't think that you have anything to worry about.
Like some have already mentioned his diet is what you need to watch. An adult dragon needs about 80% of their diet to be vegetables and only 20% to be protein based. The only exception to that would be an animal just coming out of brumation or a gravid female who needs the calories. Even then, a well balanced diet is best.
It was mentioned that baby dragons may only need about 12 crickets a day. If the baby can only digest 12 crickets and isn't going to grow then that would be ok BUT I find that a baby can only reach their true size (20 to 24 inches) if given more like 30 to 60 daily plus greens. All of those calories are put into its bones, organs and overall body size. I think the limited genes that are available along with under feeding is why the bearded dragons no longer commonly reach their normal size of 20 to 24 inches.
I personaly use silkworms as part of all my dragons diet. They are low in fat, low phosphorus (better calcium absorbtion) and almost no chitin which means no impaction and are more digestable.

Again, I would like to tell you that you have some very nice looking dragons!

Linda

Great thanks for the tips and yes i probably am feeding them a little too much livefoods, so this will be dropped straight away to the suggested.

I think we did fall into the trap where by if they actively showed they wanted to eat more bugs, we assumed they were still hungry.

One or two things i could do with some help/tips on.

firstly,, If the female becomes gravid,, with us doing this food change, will she still be able to get everything she needs to produce healthy eggs from the lack and change of food.
As soon as i know she is gravid then i can up her food or change it, but there is going to be a period of time whereby i wont necessarily know, This is the time i am wondering will she be ok in.

The other thing is that they are getting close to 3 years old now, and i only had them when they were 2 years, and they were big then as well so they haven't gained anything since they have been with me.

I have looked at hundreds of pictures on the net of adult beardies especially when they are lying down and the pic taken from above,, and these two are definately bigger, but more so with the male, His belly looks very rounded rather than longer and more slender.

Can anyone give me some advise on how i can get this weight down.
I am also a bit worried that i am going to end up with saggy beardies,,,,lol.
Are they going to have an ammount of spare skin once this weight starts to drop.

once again thanks for the tips,, very useful to us.

Funky