Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We just got a new beardie today and boy oh boy is she FAT. She is 2 years old so I know she should be filled out a little, but...

She has never been bred, but I thought I read somewhere about females laying infertile eggs- could she be gravid? I wouldn't think so because she has chubby legs and many chins (I will skip the joke lol)

SO- how on earth do I put her on a diet???

Here ia a pic but is doesn't do her justice, she doesn't look that big in this one, but as it is her first day here & she is a little stressed... this is the best we can do. I will try to get one of her double chins & post it ASAP

I think she is a he. You should get a weight scale and post how much he/she weighs. Better to make a decision from that than from a picture.

good size adult dragons can weight anywhere from 300 grams-850 grams, some even larger but not many. german giants tend to be a bigger dragon in general so weigh more themselves. like BDLVR says buy a scale and weigh her in grams. also measure her nose to end of tail for a length.

its really hard to get a dragon to become obese unless you feed foods of too much fat and most of those foods shouldnt be fed very often. more often for a gravid female. ive seen 800 gram dragons who were not overweight but they were just huge.
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Beach Beardies

2.2. bearded dragons
1.1. Sugar Gliders
0.2. Felines *queen athena and missy*

She is a She. We went to the vet & she is 638g 19.5" a little heavy per the vet but overall in very good health and if we decide to breed HUGE "IF" we are considering it but not making any plans to do so in the near future. Especially not until the results of her Andeno results come back.

Just wondering what you are looking at in that pic to think it was a male without looking at the femoral glands or the hemipenal bulges?

Big females tend to have long bodies. From the picture it looks like she has a short wide body and a wide triangular head. Often this body type is male. I have a large female also 630 and 19.5" when gravid but she is long bodied to hold the most eggs I guess. He clutches are in the high 30's.

getting her/his weight and length from head to tail will be very beneficial in determining if she is over weight or not.

From the picture, she doesn't look fat at all. The spread out body is normal for bearded dragons, when lying flat, specially if feeling a bit nervous, they do tend to look very wide.

Fat doesn't typically gather around the body like it does with humans. Fat deposits on bearded dragons tend to be on the head (just behind the eyes), base of the tail, the arm pits and sometimes the beard area. More pictures of your dragon from all sides would be beneficial as well.

Checking to make sure she is actually a female, would be a good start. Place her on a flat surface, like a table or your hand, facing away from you. Lift the tail up to about 90 degrees (be careful not to force it up, you don't want to injury the tail). While twisting the tail slightly side to side, look at the area on the tail side of the vent. If you see a single central bulge, it is a female, if you see a dimple in the middle or two bulges on the sides, it is a male. Doing a google search on 'sexing bearded dragons' will bring up all kinds of sites that will have pictures.

Females can lay infertile eggs and many will even if they never saw a male, much less been housed with one.
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PHLdyPayne

The twisting isn't necessary with adults.

http://www.dachiu.com/sexing.html

I will try to take some more pics, but we went to the vet the other day for a adeno fecal etc and she weighs 638g & is 19.5 in. I think I was just really used to looking at my svelte juvenille.

I did have her (the vet that is) check for infertile eggs & she didn't feel any, although she did say that infertile eggs can be mushy and somewhat hard to detect, so I will keep an eye out for digging and put a nest box in if she shows any signs.

She is a good hefty weight for 19.5" but not horribly so. Though it wouldn't hurt to cut back a bit on fatty insects (super worms, waxworms, mealworms) and the overall amount of salad you give her...maybe by 10%. Basically make sure there are no left overs, but you don't want her to gorge either. Try this for a few weeks, weigh her weekly and see if she maintains the wieght or starts to drop some. A little loss is ok but if she continually looses weight after a couple weeks, increase her food slightly (maybe add another insect or two to the diet, or maybe 1-5% of greens given daily).

Checking the nutritional chart for greens at

www.beautifuldragons.com on fat content of various greens etc, and balance the diet you normally feed her based on that, would be good as well. 'Sweet' vegetables such as sweet potato, corn and carrots will have a higher calorie/fat content then others, such as cucumber. Same with leafy greens, they all have different calorie values. Thus, you can reduce calorie and fat intake by reducing the vegetables and greens you feed that tend to be high in these values compared to others.
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PHLdyPayne

OH I can't tell you how greatful I am for that link! I have one that came to be loaded with pinworms, coccidia & one other that the name escapes me right now.. but I think it started with a "g"

Anyways he is grossly underweight, 188g & 16" and is in need of some good nutrition. He was kept in a 20gal tank with a glass lizard (yep you read that right) with no UV light they had him by a window and was being fed 12 crickets a week in supplement of dry beardie food. Not a good situation.

He is now on a whole slur of meds- Albon, Metronidazole, and Panacur along with jumpstart and Acidopholiz. I am feeding water several times a day with a syringe to keep him hydrated & have gut loaded some superworms & crickets but he is not showing interest in them yet. So that link will be very helpful in choosing the highest fat & caloric foods until he is back up on his feet.

Most of the time you're lucky if you can feel fertile eggs until when you can actually see them. So I doubt you'd ever feel infertile ones.

I don't think 638 is all that bad for a 19.5" dragon. I'd just try to not let her get any heavier. I would never restrict salads. First of all if she is gravid, she needs to eat something or reserves from her body will be used and dehydration is possible. I would always put out more salad than she will eat in a day until you know for sure that she is not gravid. The vet could have done an xray or ultra sound and told you for sure but it's not cheap. I'd take out the fruit (high in sugar) and cut back on the live food. If she gained weight fast, meaning in a months time, she may very well be gravid. If she just has been slowly putting on weight then you're probably just loving her too much. lol.