Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't know if some of you remember awhile ago I posted about my beardie partner incubating and raising the little ones and they were not doing so good. Well, we split a clutch up. And after 10 weeks this pictures was the result. The one on the left is the one I raised. The one on the right the one he had. I finally realized he wasn't feeding his half as often as they needed (he was buying 20 crickets for them maybe once a week)while I have been ordering about 1,000 a week online. So, I took all the babies. They were in very poor health and I ended up losing 2 of them the first week. Most of them have recovered and started to grow. I am wondering if they are going to be stunted later in life, or will the catch up to their siblings?
Thanks for all the great advice you guys give!

I'm so glad you have them now! The poor little things were being starved. Only 20 crickets a week? How many beardies was he feeding? Yikes! Since you caught this early on in their life, they may not be stunted that much at all. Hard to say. I rescued an 11 inch beardie (Lizzy) and he was over a year and a half old. He only weighed 150 grams. That's pitiful for an adult beardie. After 9 months, he put on 7 inches and 400 grams! He's my biggest dragon now. He wasn't stunted at all.

Here's a photo of Lizzy when we got him. He's in a 10 gallon aquarium - that should give you an idea just how small he was...

And here's a photo of Lizzy that was taken last month. He's really grown. He's about 20 inces and 560 grams!

Veronica
Beautiful Dragons

That makes me feel better. He's a beauty now!!!

He's very happy and content with us. It's amazing to remember when we first got him how nervous and mean he was. He would run from us or try to bite us. He was abused for so long by some unruly grade school students. I guess the teacher never paid any attention to the care of him. She let the students drop him, poke him in the eyes, etc... He was afraid of us for a long time. I think it took about 2 or 3 months for him to start calming down. Now he's gentle and loving. He knows now that we love him and he's not going anywhere!

I'm glad this story made you feel better. I'm sure your babies will grow to be healthy and strong too!

Veronica
Beautiful Dragons

They aren't done growing at 18 mo. Especially if they were previously stunted.
Makes me wonder how old of a dragon you could do that with....
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TheClassyLizard

Another case in point - I have been looking after Tiki. It all started that I was supposed to watch her for a week, and now it's been 2 1/2 months. She was about a year and a half old when I started looking after her on July 30, 2003. She weighed 71 grams and was about 7 inches long! She's now pushing close to 300 grams and about 14 inches long. And she continues to grow...

This is Tiki when we got her at 71 grams... hard to believe how old she is in the photo. It's also maddening!

And this is Tiki at 280 grams and 14 inches...

She's a big girl!

Veronica
Beautiful Dragons

I was told POGO was the runt of the clutch so I'd like to know also if he's going to catch up to his sibling or if he's going to be smaller!!!

I received some that has not had good light or diet for several months, they weighted like 34 and 37 grams at almost a year old. I sent one to Grimdog after it had been treated and gained weight, in just 3 months with good diet and care, the both are over 200 grams and we both think they will reach normal or close to normal beardie size, and that was after MONTHS of not ideal care and feeding.

Today both are gorgeous, you would never know they were the same dragons that arrived her July 1. Adn they have no signs of MBD or other permanent problems, they had food, probably not enough early on, no UVB and they did have supplements... so that helped, they were just very underweight and smaller. Yes I think you can restore these little ones with good care.

Here is the one I kept, GRimdog has the one that we think is her sister and doing just as well