Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I hope I'm not being repetitive, but I just want to make sure I'm doing it right now...earlier input about feeding my 14 mo old, I was told that he should get about 90% veggies/10% crickets. He is now eating his daily veggies better (as long as I put a few pieces of apple on top). I'm feeding him about 20 crickets every other day. Is that enough, still too much?? He is 22 in. long and the vet just weighed him at 3/4 lb. Thanks

Three quarter pounds seems a little light for a 22" dragon but not excessively so. The amount of greens and insects sounds alright, but if starts to look overweight, you can cut back on the insects to maybe only twice a week. Giving him some superworms and silkworms in addition to the crickets on insect feeding day will give some variety to his insect diet as well. (roaches and butterworms can be given as well).
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PHLdyPayne

3/4 a pound is 340 grams and that is pretty light for a 22 inch dragon...(nice lenght he has!) but at 14 months he has spent the last year gowing in length mostly and will bulk up A LOT more the 2nd year. So I would not cut back his insects too much yet and he is a long ways from being over weight.

Our dragrons that are around 22 inches weight about 550-600 grams and are not overweight or have excess fat on them. So you can see he has a long ways to go before he might get overweight and he really does need more weight on him.

Once they stop activly growing, you can cut back the insects to every 2 -3 days as long as they have good rich greens all day long and pellets also such as rep_cal brand ones. Rich greens are like mainly collards, dandelions, mustard greens with small amounts of kale, arugula, mizuna, tat soi, frisee, oakleaf, red chard, radicchio, or radicchio. Mixing 2-3 of those in a day makes for a great salad and you can also add in a few different veggies such as squashes, green beans, snow peas, bell peppers, sweet potatoe etc.

Male sure the insects he does eat are well gutloaded with good nutrition and not empty calories from corn based gutloads. We use the commercial gutload from Cricketfood.com and I think this is one of the best products to come out for reptiles ever, you can really see the difference in the crickets and the reptiles that eat them.

Very nice to see a 22 inch dragon in a time that the dragons have seemed to have gotten shorter the last decade. Many people feel that the shorter dragons is a result of inbreeding, but there are smaller ones in the wild also.
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www.reptilerooms.com

Thank you both for your response...the vet did not say anything about his weight but I value your opinions. He is eating his greens better now, so I feel more comfortable about feeding him a few more crickets...but I do believe I was feeding him too many before. I am also going to take a sample to the vet for a fecal. It took about a week to get the proper basking temps when I moved him to his larger enclosure, but that is all set now. I think he is having a hard time shedding and didn't shed when he should have (seems built up to me??)...I give several baths a week. If I can figure out how, I will post a picture so you all can see if he looks okay. Thanks again.