Reptile & Amphibian Forums

should i feed dragons mice to gain their weight back. should it br frozen or live?

i do feed my adults pinkie mice once in awhile. about 1 per month or so. i feed frozen, after i had a dragon die from feeding a live pinkie. the pinkie had a disease that passed on to my dragon. so to me frozen is the way to go
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Beach Beardies

3.3.0 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

where did u get ur frozen mice from?

my local pet store. you buy from a store near you or buy from sellers on kingsnake classifieds.
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Beach Beardies

3.3.0 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

what size do u feed them? and how many do u give them in a month?

pinkie mice are pretty much one size....only real difference is if they are newborn or a few days old. They can grow a bit in a few days after being born, as long as they are nursed. The larger adult dragons (20" ) can even eat fuzzy mice but pinkies are better to stick with, less chance of any impaction or problems swollowing it.

I wouldn't feed pinkie mice to bearded dragons smaller than 16" nose to tail length, nor more often than once a month. I personally feel there isn't any real benefit in feeding pinkies to dragons at all, except for pure variety of foodstuff. That and to help replenish calcium and fat from egg laying females or dragons recovering from illness.

There are plenty of places to get pinkies from. Many websites sell them in bulk, most petstores sell them singling, though usually it's frozen, which is fine, as long as they are thawed and warmed up before feeding to your dragon. Reptile shows often have live pinkies available though I feel this isn't a good place to get them live. Unless they have their mothers with them to feed them every 2 hours, pinkies quickly start loosing their nutritional value, as they well, slowly starve/dehydrate to death. Not sure how long it takes for a pinky to starve to death though I suspect less than a day.
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PHLdyPayne

pinkies can go about a die before they die. I have 2 bearded dragons and i give them pinkies, well use too. They're big enough to eat fuzzies. You can get frozen mice from PetSmart or Pet Super Market. They are they only chain stores i know to have 'em.pet Smart has a cup with like 6 mice or so in each, and they are indiviually packed. I thaw them out in hot water. Don't want to put them in microwave as they tend to explod x_x. after thawing, i let them cool to about room temp, so it doesn't burn their mouths. As for size, starting off w/ pinkies for adults is the way to go. My two boys are (Rex)8" and (Glutany)9". And that's their bodies, NO tails included. Tails can be nipped or accidentally cut off effecting lenght, but the main body can't. You see what i'm saying? I only give them one at a time, and about once a month. I'd recommend dust with Vitamins and/or calcium to make sure they get 'em.
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1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Rex- "normal" orange fire)
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Glutany- German Giant Mix)
0.1.0 Okeetee Corn
0.2.0 Dwarf Hamsters
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0.0 Boyfriend

In the past, I have fed our dragons pinkies/fuzzies because I thought that is what they needed when breeding. However, for several years now, we have not fed our dragons any mice of any kind and have had much larger and more numerous clutches than when we fed pinkies. When our oldest female was still breeding, her clutches were 24 to 27 eggs and she laid three a year. She did this for four straight years like clock work The two years we bred her without feeding pinkies we stopped her at four clutches that ranged from 28 to 35 eggs. It should be pointed out, that she was past her peak breeding years these last two years by most people’s standard’s (estimated at six and seven years respectively). As many have pointed out, pinkies can loose their nutritional value quickly if they went hungry before being frozen or before being fed.

I think they will live longer without them. Think about their diets in the wild - just about anything - but, how often would they have access to small newborn mammals? Other lizards (including each other), assort insects and arachnids, plant material, small snakes, etc., but nestling rodents; I doubt it. These other foods are low in fats, high in calcium and protein. Because most of us do not feed other reptiles to our dragons, supplements with calcium are important. There is plenty of advice on supplements out there so I won’t go into it. Just don’t jump on the pinky bandwagon without thinking about it; we have had better results without feeding them. I also believe (no proof, just my opinion) that the dragons will live longer without pinkies in their diet.
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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles