Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey i'm a new Dragon owner, I bought one several months ago and he's only grown like an inch in that time.... he's now about 8 or 9 months old and he's only 7 inches long... according to all the growth charts i've read he should be almost full grown by now.
Am I doing something wrong in feeding him? i feed him about two dozen gut loaded crickets every week and a half - two weeks....
will he grow anymore? and is there anything i can do differently?

any help would be greatly appreciated....

on here please or icq 7660483
or email Derek_campbell_1@hotmail.com

i'm a little worried about him

2 dozen crickets a DAY would be more appropriate for a young dragon. Young dragons need lots of protien to grow. He also needs to be offered a variety of greens and veggies every day. Make sure his food has the proper suppliments added (calcium and vitamins).

What is your setup like? The size and temperature are important for us to know if you want our help.

Agree, he should be eating a lot more than he is. What are your temps, and is that ambient or surface temp? Give as much info as possible to get a more detailed answer, there are a lot of factors that can lead to this so they need to be ruled out one at a time.

Sean
Heart Mountain Herps

ok hopefully this will be more information you could use to help me

i've got him in a 75 gallon tank the ambient temperature is around 80 degrees

i use a substrate heater and a heating rock
i've got a flourescent light and a uv light over head

the tank itself is fairly sparse... just a stick for him to bask on, a shelter for him, the heating rock and a water dish

i understand he should be eating more greens but he doesn't seem interested in anything that doesn't move; which is why i've been feeding him mostly crickets... and i feed him as often as he'll take them... there are always crickets in the tank... but as i said he only eats about 2 dozen or so every week and a half

Ok, tank size and ambient temp sounds ok. Get rid of the heat rock, or at least unplug it, they are no good for beardies. What is his basking temp, and what kind of light is that... I would use a normal halogen light with enough wattage to get the basking spot up to 110 surface temp but the 80 ambient on the cool side is fine. Don't leave crickets in with him, they can cause major stress and even do damage if they get hungry. If he already has a basking spot in that range get him to a vet and have a fecal done, could be parasites. Sometimes there are dragons that are perfectly healthy that just don't grow, I've got one. I think that this is probably caused from years of inbreeding but whatever the cause occasionally you'll just have a failure to thrive animal that you can do nothing to change.

Sean
Heart Mountain Herps

assuming this isn't just a small lizard, will it continue to grow to a normal size if i can figure out what the problem is?

anyways i'll implement your suggestions as soon as possible and i appreciate your help

Bhelliom

Assuming it's not just a small lizard, you should see a dramatic difference in growth rate. He may never reach full size but he's still young enough that he could. Basking temps from the above halogen are probably the most important thing, without the proper temp he can't digest his food properly and won't be as hungry. You should see a difference in a matter of a day or two in his feeding behavior if that's the problem. Good luck and keep us posted.

Sean
Heart Mountain Herps

As i said i'm very worried since he hasn't grown much in the last few months that maybe i screwed something up and now he's not going to be as healthy as he could be...

again any help would be greatly appreciated
Bhelliom

Unplug the hot rock and cut off the cord. heat needs to come from above. Give him branches to get closer or further from the basking light to regulate temps. at that size you may want to put a divider in the tank to make hunting crix easier. what UV bulb are you using? what suppliments are you giving? The UV light needs to be less than 12 inches from the BD and not more than 6 months old. T-rex VGF formula is great and you can use the cricket dust too.
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Bennett

Home Of The Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com