Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a baby beardie hatch, he is now 5 weeks old. out of 5 eggs he was the only one to hatch. the problem is that he never chases crickets. when i feed him I have to press the cricket against his mouth until he opens it, then he will gladly eat them, but he has never ate on his own, is this a big problem, and what can I do to fix it? also how big should he be at 5 weeks? when he was born he was 3.25 in. he is now 4.75 in. head to tail. I thought they grew faster than that. he also hatched after 53 days in the incubator which I hear is very early could that have something to do with it? thanks

That is a bit early but not majorly so. It really depends on the temperature you were incubating the eggs.

Other than being very slow to eat or at least unwilling to eat on his own, is he active? Or is he rather lathargic? What type of setup do you have him in? What size, tank, UVB light, basking temp? Do you mist regularly? How often and how much do you feed him? What size of crickets (or other insect). Do you dust with a multivitamin or calcium powder. How often?

Have you tried offering phoenix worms or small silkworms?

His growth rate is rather slow for a 5 week old dragon but he was rather small out of the egg (most are closer to 4" but he isn't horribly small out of the egg though). Typically by 6 weeks bearded dragons are at least 6" long but all dragons grow at different rates. Hand feeding may be part of the reason if he isn't eat sufficient amounts of food on his own.
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PHLdyPayne

I second all of the husbandry questions asked by LdyPayne.

I took in a dragon last year that the girl swore was a couple months old. It was 4". I had it 7 weeks and when she took it back it was only 5 1/2". I don't know why some grow very slow even with the best of conditions. The important thing is that it's growing but I would still recheck all of your husbandry specs.

The outcome of the dragon I had was that it reappeared here 2 months later at 8". About a week after being here she started growing an inch a week. She has laid 130 eggs so far this year and is the largest dragon I've ever had.