Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I feel like my beardie (2 months old) isn't eating enough, his temps are fine, he is well hydrated and does have a UV light. I read ab all these beardies eating 10-20 crickets at a time, i put crix in his tank and leave him for 10-15 minutes and he only eats ab 3, yes they are the proper size. Also, he doesn't touch his greens, so he is getting no other source of food. He eats three times a day, but i still feel like it isnt enough. He is only 5.5 inches long, which i know is kind of on the small side Let me know what to do....

Tell us more about your setup. What are the basking temps? What size is the tank? Substrate? Etc. What size of crickets are you offering?

baby dragons should have a very active appetite though not all eat as much as others. Three crickets eaten per meal and if he eats three per meal every day, and you feed him 3 times a day, that is 9 crickets, which isn't that bad. But if you are feeding crickets that are bigger than they should be (no bigger than the space between his eyes) it could be why he isn't eating as many.

How are you making sure he is getting enough moisture? Most dragons won't drink from a dish of water, though most will drink from the side of the cage if you mist it, or if you mist the dragon himself, they can catch the water as it drains down through their scales.
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PHLdyPayne

Basking temps are ab 110, he's on cage carpet, im feeding him only 1/4 in crix which i know isn't too big for him. I mist AT LEAST every time that i feed him and I watch him drink it off the side of the glass.

Ok here's my baby rescue strategy. Not that he needs to be rescued but here is what I do when I get a rescued baby.

In a small bottle lid (2" dia. ish) offer Repcal juvenile pellets moistened with apple juice.

Offer romaine lettuce. Try feeding by hand. Kinda move it around like you are teasing and they'll take it. Then as they start to take the romaine (beardie favorite) add mustard greens and then others before phasing out romaine.

I'm not a believer in leaving crickets in full time since I think you need to train them to eat when food is available just like in the wild.

Here is a response I wrote to a similar post recently:

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.