Reptile & Amphibian Forums

im going to be picking a beardie tonight that a friend of a friend doesnt want any longer. he is about a foot long SVL (so the guy says, i have not seen the dragon yet).
can anybody please help me out with a feeding schedule? how many times a day should i feed? should i feed mostly greens or bugs at this size? I think he is about 6 months old, but again, i am not sure. any help is greatly appreciated.

First, find a basic care sheet and make sure your temperatures, lighting (both heat and brightness) and cage size are optimal.

At 6 months beardies should receive high quality greens/veggies and protein foods daily:silkworms, commercial roaches or crickets, or superworms in a pinch--not the healthiest but will do temporarily, or high quality pellets. Avoid mealworms. Wax worms are the lizard equivalent of candy--tasty and pretty much nutritionally worthless.

Live prey should be gut loaded before feeding. Veggies should be given fresh every day. Live prey can be offered twice a day. Dust foods with vitamins/calcium a couple times a week, if you aren't using fortified pellets. Make sure any leftover prey isn't left in the cage.

Go here for great general care and diet information:
www.beautifuldragons.com.

Best,
Michele
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4.3 Bearded Dragons (Rescues)
1.0 Corn snake (Rescue)
0.1 California King
4.5 Royal (Ball) Pythons (3 rescues)
1.1 Dogs (Rescues)
2.0 Cats (Rescues)
2.2 Humans
No, it's NOT a big house

www.beardiecrazy.com has a age specific care plan.
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www.classylizard.com

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Be careful so you don't get stuck with someones sick animal. Get a fecal done ASAP. I "adopted" 2 beardies a few weeks ago and found out they both have parasites really bad.

well i talked in detail with the owners last night, setting up a time to come by and get him. they have had the dragon for 2 years now, and it is only 12 inches INCLUDING the tail. I must have misunderstood them at first. This seems like the dragon is to small to me, am i right? They also only feed crickets, no veggies except for some lettuce every now and then. They have florecents, but no UV bulbs. They also made no mention of supplementation, but i forgot to ask about that. I hope this dragon is good health, they say he very very active.

Is it goign to be hard to get him to eat some greens? Should i be worried about MBD? As soon as I can, I will be getting him into the vet for a checkup.

He is badly undersized, probably suffering from MBD or has in the past, especialy if he isn't getting any supplimentation of calcium with D3. Unless he is getting natural unfiltered sunlight every couple days for an hour at a time. I would be prepared to pay alot for vet. Unless they actually have a rankins dragon which don't get much bigger than 12", deffinitely hasn't had sufficient nutrician during it's youth.

My dragon at year and half or so, is about 18" and she's a little on the small size but her parents weren't much bigger. She was 12" when she was about 4-5 months old then had a growth spurt and reached 16" by the time she was 6 months old.

There is a possibility the dragon is healthy with no parasites or MBD as it lived this long but it certainly didn't get all the care it could have years ago. YOu could always encourage your friend's friend to take it a vet and get a clean bill of health before you take it. Up to you. Also, if you do have other dragons, keep this new one separate, complete and clean your hands/utensils after working with the new dragon.

A two year old dragon should get greens every day, insects a couple times a week, dusted with multi-vitamin and calcium with D3 about twice a week.