Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First off does it look like my beardy is FAT? I feel that I have over fed my Bearded dragon Rusty. He is healthy and active but has a pretty large belly. I am new at the lizard scene and am use to dealing with Corns. So could you please let me know the best diet I could put him on in order to get him back down to the correct weight

He looks healthy and at a good weight to me. There really isn't any concern about getting a 'fat' bearded dragon when they are under a year old. They grow so much during their first year any excess fat is pretty much burned away naturally. If you are concerned you are over feeding your dragon, please describe in detail what you feed him, how much do you feed him at each meal and how often you feed him?
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PHLdyPayne

Sorry forgot to include the following questions. How old is your dragon? How long? (head to tail tip)? How much does he weigh right now?
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PHLdyPayne

ok So Rusties diet consists of: for his greens: Red leaf lettuce,butternut squash, carrots,snowpeas, sprouts, and celery.
For his insects I feed him superworms, and butterworms occasionally. I use to feed him meal worms but read that they were very hi in chitton so I put that to a stop. I feel bad that I am not feeding him crickets which I use to up to 3 weeks ago but I had an escape incident and I live in a place were I am not suppose to have animals. Anyway back on topic, I put a bowl of the "salad" in his cage in the morning and feed him insects twice a day.(6-7 superworm eachtime) I don't have a scale but I would say hey weighs about twice the weight of a optical mouse for a computer (a mouse with a cord)He is about 11" long as you will see in the picture sorry I can't give you more accurate info By the way he is around 3 months old

11" long at about three months of age is a good size. Again he doesn't look over weight in either of the pictures you have shown.

However, I have some suggestions about his diet. The redleaf lettace, though a bit better than iceberg lettace, shouldn't be a stable green. Collard greens, dandelion greens, endive, escaroli, mustard greens and turnup greens, are more suited for daily salads. It is best to mix two or more of the greens listed above, then add other vegetables etc into the mix. Such as, collard greens, endive, green bell pepper, zuccini, little bit of carrots (or squash), one small strawberry,chopped.

Squash is a good vegetable to give but too much can cause the stools to be runny. I don't know off hand if there is any other negative aspect of feeding too much squash. Use as much variety as you can, not necessarily ever day, but frequently. The way I have done it before was alter the staple greens, or have 3-4 staple greens, plus various vegetables/fruit/edible flowers. A great guide for what foods are good for bearded dragons, what to avoid and quantity to give them on a daily/weekly basis, is the nutrition chart at:
www.beaufituldragons.com

Butterworms are good insects to give dragons, superworms are much better than mealworms but I would keep them moderated which I see you are doing. If you find butterworms starting to be costly, silkworms are good too. They are also almost escape proof and even if one does manage to crawl away from the tub they are stored in, it is not hard to find them. Nor are they any great problem even if it does crawl away and coccoon somewhere. The moths they hatch into are incapable of flight so they are not likely to spread. A variety of insects is good to, so offering butterworms, silkworms, superworms, crickets, roaches etc, is great.

Overall, I think you are feeding at a good rate. Keep up what you are doing, dusting your insects once a day with a multivitamine and calcium powder, if you are not already. When your dragon reachs about 8 months,cut back to one insect feeding a day (lots of salad still of course) and dust once every other day. At 12-14 months, feed insects 2-3 times a week, dust 2-3 times a week, salads every day. Alternatively, for adults, is feed only a few insects daily, no more than 10% of his daily intake of food.
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PHLdyPayne

Thank you very much for all of your help. It is greatly appreciated. I will try to change out the red leaf in his diet, and cut down on the squash abit. I feel much more comforted now that i know I am not going to kill my beardy with my husbandry habits.

Thanks Again.
RustyBeard