Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is my female year old bearded dragon. I don't remember my male growing this slow. She eats fine, greens, crickets. Maybe I am just paranoid. I know it may be hard to tell by the pic

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------Misty-------

She looks to be about 10-14" long but hard to say without knowing the width of that container in the background. In appearance she looks alot younger th an a year, she has no prominent spines around her head at all, they are all quite small. My dragon at a year old has much bigger spines.

How much food have you been offering? How many crickets does she eat per feeding. How many feedings of crickets have you been giving her since you bought her. Do you offer as many crickets as she can eat in a 10 minute period, or do y ou give a set amount each feeding? Have you had her checked for parasites while you owned her? How long have you had her on sand? Sand can cause impactions at any time in a bearded dragon's life. The risk is higher when they are younger and under 10" long and if the sand is calci-sand or crushed walnut. However even washed sifted children's playsand can cause impaction. There is a less of a risk for it than the calci-sand (pretty much all the petstore sold sands are higher risk). Is she still having regular bowel movements?

Also, what is h er basking spot temperature? THe ambient temperature? Has she brumated at all while you owned her?
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PHLdyPayne

Perhaps your not giving it calcium. Or you might be giving calcium but theres not uvb to help synthesize the calcium? Maybe your temps humidity arent good. Theres no way that animal looks one. It shoud be fat have large spines and be much larger in general. I think it needs a vet visit. good luck.
heres a pic of my beardie at one

Lets see if I can remember to answer all your questions. I got this dragon, not this last august, but the one before. Sorry if the pic is a little missleading. She is from nose to vent 4" and a total of about 9". I feed her greens every day, and medium to large crickets every 3 days or so. I do not count how many I feed her. I just put some in there until she loses interest after about 5 minutes or so. There is definitely a UVB light. There is also a basking light and an under take heater, both at the same end. That area is mid 90s. Cool end is mid 70s, drops a little lower at night. I do powder the crickets and greens every other time. I think that is all the questions. Let me know if I am doing anything wrong.
thanks

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------Misty-------

9" is deffinitely too small for a one year old dragon. Have you always been feeding it crickets once ever 2-3 days? Baby bearded dragons need to eat crickets 2-3 times a day during their first 4 months of age, and twice a day up to about 8 months of age. Between 8-14 months, crickets once every day then after that, 2-3 times a week is fine. Greens should be offered/available throughout the day for all age groups, though usually they only start eating it around 4-6 months of age, depending on the dragon, some eat earlier, some eat greens later.

Get rid of the reptilite, it's not digestable, no more than regular washed children's playsand and infact, neutralizes stomach acid, making it harder for your dragon to digest food. It also tends to clump up when wet, increasing the risk of impaction.

Though y our dragon is a year old now, I would feed it crickets every day, as much as it can eat in 5-10 minutes. Also, cu t down the size of the crickets. Adult sized crickets are too big for a dragon that size. They should be no larger than the space between the dragon's eyes. At 9 inches, half an inch should be the largest cricket size. Too large p rey items can cause rear leg paralysis, impactions and problems with digestion. Offer small silkworms, butterworms and small hornworms as an alternative to crickets, or inaddition to, as a variety of insects is just as good as a variety of greens.

I would get a fecal to a vet for this dragon as well.

ALso, do you house your dragon's separately or are they all in the same cage? If housed together, I would separate them into separate cages, this prevents any intimidation from larger dragons or even same size cage mates from preventing it access to basking spots and food.

The baskign temperature should be at least 95F, up to about 115F. The best thing is to have a range of temperatures accessible for dragons to bask in, depending on what they feel they need. WIth my dragon, I had a large piece of driftwood. Near the top of the driftwood teh temperature would reach 120F, along the middle area it was roughtly 110F and the edges of the wood, closer to 90-95F. The cage floor was 90F directly beside the driftwood. The other end of the cage was anywhere between 70-80F. I noticed my dragon would bask in the hottest range on the drift wood right after eating, right at lights on. During other times, she would move from the cool end of the tank, lower on the driftwood and sometimes just the floor of the cage near teh basking light. Dragons are very good at regulating their internal body temperatures when given the opportunity to do so.
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PHLdyPayne

Thank you for the awesome help. I will up the food offered for both my dragons. It seems false advertising about the reptilite sand. I do have the animals housed seperately. I will up the temp a little too.
Thanks again.
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------Misty-------
5.12 Corn Snakes --- 1.0 Tokay Gecko
2.1 King Snakes --- 1.0 House Gecko
1.2 leopard Geckos --- 1.0 Golden Tegu
1.1 Bearded Dragon --- 0.0.1 Savanna Monitor
1.1 Green Iguana --- 1.0 Chinese Water Dragon
0.1 Crocodile Gecko --- 1.1 False Water Cobras
1.1 Jungle Corn --- 1.0 Ball Python
0.1 Kenya Sand Boa --- 0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.1 Emperor Scorpions --- 3.0 Ferrets
1.1 Congo African Grey (parrot)
0.0.3 Prairie Ringneck Snakes --- 0.1 Dog

Unfortunately there isn't any tight regulations on animal supplies, especially for reptiles. Problem with the calcium based sands is they may very well be digestable, but just not fast enough to avoid the risks of impaction. Alot of food doesn't digest well unless finelly chopped up or chewed. Even with us, alot of food passes through undigested, either because our bodies are made to break it down, it's not chewed throughoutly enough or just not in our systems long enough. Not sure if you ever noticed, corn is one thing that is very good for us to eat but it doesn't digest very well when eaten just the kernals or corn on the cob. Cream corn is more easily digested for us as it is broken down quite well and the tough skins are either removed or chopped along with the rest of the kernal.

Sorry for the rather graphic mental image.
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PHLdyPayne

I use reptilite sand. It is supposed to be 100% digestable, made out of calcium
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------Misty-------