Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a baby high red that I lost and knowing how much a baby cost to feed I decided I wanted an adult bearded dragon that someone was selling that they no longer wanted. I went to visit family and found what I was told to be a yr old male dragon for really cheap with lighting and everything so I figured why not. I got the "male" saturday night and he seemed perfect but it was 10 at niht and I was tired. Well for one its a female and has been kept with a male for its life and is missing 3 toes. She is actually 2 yrs old and only 16 inches total length. I had a vet check done and no parasites or anything wrong just a little under weight. I don't have a scale and can't recall how much she wieghs now. My question is the vet told me to feed her like she is a juvie meaning one or two times a day as many live feeders as she wants in 10 minutes wiht a bowl of greens everyday. She is eating a bunch of crix every day so far 30 today and its only noon. She has eaten her greens so I gave her another bowl also to see if she wants more. I am just wondering how long I should keep this up since she is supposed to be getting more greens then crix at this age. Also would superworms be better for her then the crix to help gain some weight?

if she is underweight keep feeding her as much as she'd like until she gets her weight up. (Her pelvic bones at the base of her tail should not be sticking out!) Also, she might be dehydrated. the bumps on her head that store water should be nice and plump and not sunken in. You should bathe her. Soak her in a very warm water and trickle the water over her head so she can drink. sometimes they'll go under water and drink. I'd soak her every other day until she gets her weight up, just to be safe. If she's not thirsty then she won't drink. a 5 min. bath can't hurt her!

Crix and supers are both good. make sure they are "gut loaded'' with veggies and make sure you shake them with a calcium supplement like miner-all or repti-cal. If you really want to fatten her up you could give her a pinkie this week and one in 2 more weeks. Those are high in fat and calcium but don't give them all the time. Also, give her some Wax worms , they love those and those are HIGh in fat! vary the wax with the other bugs b/c if she eats only wax worms for weeks she'll get too fat!!

hope that helps,

kristen
-----
4.1 Bearded dragons (Lee,Stumpy,Blackie,Spazz,Lynn)
1 Egyptian Uromastyx (Niles)
(Papa Kunja and Uri have recently passed..we love you)

Thank you for your advice!

She actually has a water dish she uses to my surprise. She sits in it and drinks from it daily on her own. Even then I have still given her 2 10 min baths this week. She ate 30 crix and her greens already today and is looking plumper but she's full right now. Should I feed her again before lights out (couple hours before) or just let her wait till tomorrow. I wanna get her back up to health but will they even touch a frozen pinky if they have never had them before?

I disagree with ever giving pinkies or waxworms. I take in rescues and believe that it is important to put on the right kind of weight not just weight. I have never fed any of my dragons (16) pinkies or waxworms. There is a real risk they will develop a taste for them and hold out for them only.

A 16" dragon should be fine with superworms but it's hard to visualize your dragon without a weight or even a picture. Perhaps you could post one?

Just feed her once a day with greens and insects. After a couple months cut back on the insects so she only has maybe half a dozen adult crickets or large superworms/silkworms etc as well as her bowl of greens.

She will put on weight as she eats but as BDLvr points out, better to get good weight on her, and not just a lot of fat. It may take longer to put on good weight, but she will gain it. I definitely suggest getting yourself a decent gram scale to weigh her and write down her weight... record it weekly..then you can see if she is gaining weight more accurately and adjust her food as needed. Good clean pictures will help us to judge on whether she's at a good weight or not. Good pictures would be a nice head shot from the side and slightly rear but more overhead than profile. OR just a few different angles of the head. A full body shot from the side and overhead. A close shot of the hind legs and tail base showing just before the hindlegs and maybe about a quarter of the tail...

Try and get the pictures done with the dragon resting on a flat surface, this way its belly isn't distorted by a curvature of a basking area etc.

Oh if your dragon is skittish, best time to weight and photograph is several hours before it falls asleep. Lift carefully out of the cage, put in a smaller container and weigh her (zero out the scale with the empty container first, this way you will have just the weight of the dragon, otherwise you will have to subtract the weight of the empty container from the total weight, if your scale can't be set to zero). Then take pictures with your dragon on a flat surface quickly, then put her back to sleep. If done fast enough she wont' have time to fully wake up and go into panic mode. May need to do it over a couple nights time. If she's pretty laid back, could take the pictures and weigh during the day.
-----
PHLdyPayne

This was her in the holding tank till I got the bigger one cleaned out fully. She came with a tank but I left it behind since it was only a 20 gallon and is to big for it. I will try to take better pics tonight after I get my camera back. not sure what u can tell from it but maybe something and she is on rocks so i need to get the flat surface. I am feeding her crix and greens right now with some phoenix worms off and on and shes eating everything I put in

She looks like a good weight from this angle. Also appears to be in the process of shedding too.

will wait for the rest of the pics you can give us before saying anything for sure. Getting her weight would be helpful to. Could just call your vet and ask him what hte weight was....they tend to record those things for future reference so the receptionist may be able to call up the info from the records if you can't reach the vet himself.
-----
PHLdyPayne

She is 16in and 310 grams. Vet would like her to get to 340 or so.

30 grams is childs play.
I would feed regularlily and allow it to put on that weight at its own accord, its like, my doc saying I want you to gain 5 lb,
Myabe a few xtra croks a day... dessert salad? but 30 grams is nothing