Reptile & Amphibian Forums

this is charlye my dragon that i have had since about mid september she is aproxiametly 8 to 8 1/2 inches ive been told to post a pic of her and i finally did someone please give some more advice. im doing everything right her basking temps are 104-110 and her cool side is about 85. shes eating 25 large crix every other day and kale turnip or mustard greens mixed with flukers pellets every day she doesnt eat crix. her lights are on from 6 to 6. i just dont understand why she isnt almost full grown and why she hasnt shed in months

can I ask where you got your little guy. He/she looks alot like mine and i got him around the same time and I she is a "slow-grower" like yours.

Marilee
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0.2 Bearded Dragons (Dezirae & Artimis)
0.2 Dogs (Timex & Brady)
1.0 Sulcata (Speedy)
1.1 Hamsters
1.2 Horses (Joey, Joi & Crystal)
0.2 Beta Fish

i got her from a petstore named pet bazaar.

85 on the cool side is fine...what are you using to check her temps with...if she hasn't been growing or not much, that is probably why she hasn't been shedding...has she been seen by a vet?? had a fecal sample checked for parasites?

coccidia can stunt growth, you should take her to a vet and get a fecal done...when she poops is it real runny and very stinky??

its not that runny but it is very stinky

Offer her more crickets (are the crickets gutloaded by the way?) till she won't eat anymore, and are you feeding 25 crickets once a day or is that the total daily amount? Try offering them twice a day, if you are only doing so once. As another posted already suggested, get a fecal done, a large parasite load could be leaching out her nutrients. Though I think you did mention some fecal work in an earlier post, can't remember for sure.

It's also possible you have a genetically small dragon. It doesn't look like a Rankins, from the picture, just a regular Inland Bearded dragon. What are the sizes of the parents and their relationship to eachother, if you know. Contact the person you bough her from. If you bought from the petstore, you probably won't be able to get any background, unless they purchase from local breeders. Wouldn't hurt to ask them, if a petstore is where you bought her from.
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PHLdyPayne

It sounds like there may be several things at work here.
The first is: She is only about what...7 to 8 months old? While she is small for her age, she is far from being "almost" full grown. Bearded dragons take 12 to 18 months to reach their full size so she has another 10 to 11 months to go.
Second: definately do a fecal exam for internal parasites. This is probably the number one reason I see for dragons with "stunted" growth.
Third: Increase your photo period to 16 hours a day (summer time daylight hours). This will increase her activity and her appetite.
Fourth: Make sure you are gutloading her crickets. Empty crickets equals poor nutrition and slower growth.
Fifth: Kale has a very poor calcium to phosphorous ratio, leave it out of her diet completely and replace it with dandelion greens. They are very high in calcium and extremely nutritous.

Wendy
Scales