Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have recently become concerned about my bearded dragon's weight and growth rate.

I have a 5.5 month old male dragon named Shackleton, and I acquired him when he was 2 months old. Since that time, he has grown tremendously - he's currently about 15 inches long, plus he has a stub-tail, and I estimate he'd be about 18 inches if his tail were intact. He is about 9 inches snout to vent.

Recently his growth rate began to slow and he began to show signs of being overweight. When his belly is flattened against the floor it looks like a pancake, and he has a fatty-looking double chin under his beard.

He was raised on a diet of gut-loaded crickets, mealworms/superworms, and roaches, plus a variety of greens such as dandelion, collard, mustard, kale, and more. I fed insects more heavily, because he was quite young.

So, my initial assumption about his weight was that I continued feeding protein-heavy foods for too long after his growth rate slowed, resulting in him storing those foods as fat. I've recently cut down quite a bit on the insects and I'm mainly offering greens and vegetables, plus I've been letting him get more exercise by setting up a 5' x 5' pen for him to run around in (only when supervised, he gets himself into all kinds of trouble!).

However...a coworker who has bred and raised bearded dragons for years told me yesterday that he might have some sort of hormonal/thyroid problem. He said that Shackleton is massive for his age (not just too fat, also too long etc) and that his "double chin" could be indicative of swollen glands. This has me extremely worried!

Is 9 inches snout to vent really an abnormal size for a 5.5 month old dragon? I'm attaching a picture - do you think his "double chin" is just from being overweight, or something more serious? I'm really hoping he's just overweight, because I know how to handle that, and I'm committed to getting him healthier.

Some background: he was raised in a 4' long 60 gallon terrarium with an mercury vapor bulb for uvb and and white heat lamp for additional heat. I use Soft Blend coconut husk based bedding.

Now that the weather is nice here in California, I've set up a 4' x 2' basking enclosure outdoors, where he spends his time sunrise to sunset. He still comes inside during the night and sleeps in his 60 gallon tank. He shows no indications of being sick, he's very alert and energetic. I feel like I must be leaving information out, but I can't think of anything else, so if you require further info let me know!

I'm attaching a photo that shows his double chin.

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0.0.1 jungle carpet python - Hydra
1.0.0 red spotted beaked snake - Beaker
1.2.0 corn snakes - Valis, Orlando, and Geislandi
1.0.0 bearded dragon - Shackleton
1.0.0 golden gecko - Nosferatu
1.0.0 leopard gecko - Darwin
1.0.0 Southern toad - Lurch
1.2.0 cats - Moony, Lucky, and Ziva
0.2.0 rats - Kara and Tilly
75 gallon Lake Malawi aquarium
20 gallon Brackish Sri Lanka aquarium
10 gallon South Asian aquarium
6 gallon New Guinea aquarium
3 gallon Thai aquarium

Good husbandry and genetics can make dragons grow very quickly. His beard is normal in the picture and he looks very healthy. There really is a lot of variation between dragons so most likely your friend just thinks your dragon looks different than theirs.

Do you know his weight?

Personally I think you have nothing to be concerned about.

I no longer have a scale, I had one that was used for birds of prey, but it broke several months ago and I never replaced it...

But I can bring him to work tomorrow and weigh him. I'll get back to you.

I also posted some better photos in my other reply.

Thanks so much for your help!
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0.0.1 jungle carpet python - Hydra
1.0.0 red spotted beaked snake - Beaker
1.2.0 corn snakes - Valis, Orlando, and Geislandi
1.0.0 bearded dragon - Shackleton
1.0.0 golden gecko - Nosferatu
1.0.0 leopard gecko - Darwin
1.0.0 Southern toad - Lurch
1.2.0 cats - Moony, Lucky, and Ziva
0.2.0 rats - Kara and Tilly
75 gallon Lake Malawi aquarium
20 gallon Brackish Sri Lanka aquarium
10 gallon South Asian aquarium
6 gallon New Guinea aquarium
3 gallon Thai aquarium

He's fine.

The 'double chin' is just loose skin hanging from his jaw. My female has that too. He doesn't look overweight either though the picture angle does make it more difficult to tell.

An actually weight would be better. Pictures of him from above while he is basking, and a full side on showing the tail base will be nice too.

I suggest feed him as you have been doing normally. Being under 6 months old he has plenty of growing to do before dragons naturally stop growing. A well fed and proper husbandry kept dragon can grow very fast. They usually only start slowing down in growth around 12 months of age to 14 months.
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PHLdyPayne

Alright, I took a series of photos to illustrate his weight.

I am sooo relieved to hear that he probably doesn't have any weird hormonal issues.

Now I'm curious to know if he is in fact overweight, and whether I should cut down on his protein/overall caloric intake after all. I realize he is still quite young, but my impression was that he's overweight.

If he has 6 months worth of growing left to do, I'm excited to see just how big he gets!

Here are the photos - he didn't feel like laying his belly flat on the floor (he kept running around), so I had him cling onto my chest to show how big his belly is when flattened.

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0.0.1 jungle carpet python - Hydra
1.0.0 red spotted beaked snake - Beaker
1.2.0 corn snakes - Valis, Orlando, and Geislandi
1.0.0 bearded dragon - Shackleton
1.0.0 golden gecko - Nosferatu
1.0.0 leopard gecko - Darwin
1.0.0 Southern toad - Lurch
1.2.0 cats - Moony, Lucky, and Ziva
0.2.0 rats - Kara and Tilly
75 gallon Lake Malawi aquarium
20 gallon Brackish Sri Lanka aquarium
10 gallon South Asian aquarium
6 gallon New Guinea aquarium
3 gallon Thai aquarium

He looks like a healthy weight to me. I like mine to be a little on the heavy side though. How much live food are you feeding him? And how often? Too bad you don't know his weight. I think a weight scale that measures in 1 gram increments is a necessity with reptiles.

Yeah, I wish I had a scale handy today. But I work at a pet store, and the scale there is accurate to less than a gram. We use it for weighing rats, guinea pigs, et cetera. I can get you guys a weight by tomorrow afternoon.

As for his feeding regimen, in the last three weeks I've cut down to only giving live food 2 days per week. This was after my coworker told me he was obese. I gave perhaps 2 dozen large, gut-loaded crickets each time. And salads every day, just like always. When he was younger, I fed live food every day.

Given his age and size, what sort of feeding regimen would you suggest?
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0.0.1 jungle carpet python - Hydra
1.0.0 red spotted beaked snake - Beaker
1.2.0 corn snakes - Valis, Orlando, and Geislandi
1.0.0 bearded dragon - Shackleton
1.0.0 golden gecko - Nosferatu
1.0.0 leopard gecko - Darwin
1.0.0 Southern toad - Lurch
1.2.0 cats - Moony, Lucky, and Ziva
0.2.0 rats - Kara and Tilly
75 gallon Lake Malawi aquarium
20 gallon Brackish Sri Lanka aquarium
10 gallon South Asian aquarium
6 gallon New Guinea aquarium
3 gallon Thai aquarium

Im sure its that natural sun you have been giving your beardie. At six months they still eat a lot and need much to keep growing. I would continue to do what you were doing before you talked to someone. I find you can talk to 10 different people with beardies and they will tell you 10 different things about the same thing. Looks like your doing right things congrads!

Let's see what his weight is. It's very hard to give a good opinion just from a picture. I feed my adult males live food every other day. The Silkworm eaters get 4. The superworm eaters get 8. A salad is available all day every day. I weigh mine weekly and record it, I try to maintain them in a target weight range.

I don't see any indications from the pictures he is overweight at all. In act he may be a bit underweight, as the fat pads on his head, just behind the eyes look a little concave and his tail base is not very plump.

Bearded dragons can grow as big as 24" especially those who have alot of German Giant blood in them. At his age I would continue to feed insects once a day with salad every day. Once he reaches a year old then you can cut down to insects a couple times a week or just a couple daily (about 10-20% of his daily intake). At 6 months, 50/50 insects/greens is perfect.
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PHLdyPayne

Hi

are you sure he is a male? for girls this chin is more normal and is something with the hormons.

the tale of the dragon start also small i see on the pics so im thinking maybe he is a she
Link

Interesting cause i thought the same thing - that rounded body shape is a typically female trait, but not a good indication of sex. Are you 100% sure he's a he?

~E.

Ok, this is embarrassing... When I first got Shackleton, I would have sworn he was male, but when I just checked again...he's unmistakably a SHE. So you guys are right, she's female!

I weighed her today and she came in at 400 grams. Once again, she is 8 or 9 inches snout to vent. 15 inches total, but she has a stub tail and would likely be around 18 inches if her tail were intact.

Given her weight and that she's only 5.5 months old, what sort of feeding regiment do you recommend?

Thank you so much!

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0.0.1 jungle carpet python - Hydra
1.0.0 red spotted beaked snake - Beaker
1.2.0 corn snakes - Valis, Orlando, and Geislandi
1.0.0 bearded dragon - Shackleton
1.0.0 golden gecko - Nosferatu
1.0.0 leopard gecko - Darwin
1.0.0 Southern toad - Lurch
1.2.0 cats - Moony, Lucky, and Ziva
0.2.0 rats - Kara and Tilly
75 gallon Lake Malawi aquarium
20 gallon Brackish Sri Lanka aquarium
10 gallon South Asian aquarium
6 gallon New Guinea aquarium
3 gallon Thai aquarium

Gee she looks bigger than 400 grams. You must be very small. lol. Anyway at 400 I'd just continue to feed her as you have been since she has grown so well. Just don't forget vitamins. At 400 live food once a day is fine. I'd reevaluate her weight at 500. She's wide bodied, she'll lay a lot of eggs if she does.

Alright, I will keep doing what I'd been doing before I was told she was overweight, and I'll get a scale so I can keep better track of her weight.

Thank you so much for all your help, all of you!
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0.0.1 jungle carpet python - Hydra
1.0.0 red spotted beaked snake - Beaker
1.2.0 corn snakes - Valis, Orlando, and Geislandi
1.0.0 bearded dragon - Shackleton
1.0.0 golden gecko - Nosferatu
1.0.0 leopard gecko - Darwin
1.0.0 Southern toad - Lurch
1.2.0 cats - Moony, Lucky, and Ziva
0.2.0 rats - Kara and Tilly
75 gallon Lake Malawi aquarium
20 gallon Brackish Sri Lanka aquarium
10 gallon South Asian aquarium
6 gallon New Guinea aquarium
3 gallon Thai aquarium

Then Goodluck with the lady dragon. i think her weight is ok for a dragon build the way she is.

Definately. I wouldnt say she is overweight at all!

Hooray! Thank you for pointing out that she's female.
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0.0.1 jungle carpet python - Hydra
1.0.0 red spotted beaked snake - Beaker
1.2.0 corn snakes - Valis, Orlando, and Geislandi
1.0.0 bearded dragon - Shackleton
1.0.0 golden gecko - Nosferatu
1.0.0 leopard gecko - Darwin
1.0.0 Southern toad - Lurch
1.2.0 cats - Moony, Lucky, and Ziva
0.2.0 rats - Kara and Tilly
75 gallon Lake Malawi aquarium
20 gallon Brackish Sri Lanka aquarium
10 gallon South Asian aquarium
6 gallon New Guinea aquarium
3 gallon Thai aquarium