Feeding Feeders for Different Life stages

[tyryce]

Hi,

i'm not new to the forum (I have been on the beardie ER) I was wondering when you start lowering the feeder intake for a beardie. My little guy is 4 months and 1 week old about , 10 3/4 inches long and only 78 grams right now (I know he is a runt but he had a slow start which I have been correcting) Currently he eats roughly 30-45 crix a day which is mixed up with pheonix worms sometimes and he eats a little of his salad once a day. Some days he eats more than this and sometimes less. He also gets syringe fed butternut squash babyfood and chicken baby food sometimes.

At what age do you normally start reducing the protein? Not sure when I should start doing this because he is small. And at 4 months old is he considered a juvenile? When is he considered a sub adult? At what age should his diet be changed to 20% protein and 80% veg.

 

[peera]

You should start lowering his protein intake at 1 year, with a goal of reaching 20% protein-80% veggies by the time he's 18 months. With stunted dragons I personally feel it's best to let them have extra protein just a little longer, but your guy isn't to far behind normal. If he's reached 17 inches by the time he's a year, it's perfectly alright to treat him like a "normal" dragon. There's no need to be syringe feeding him baby food if he's eating normally, which it sounds like he is.

As for when they can be considered sub-adults, there's no clear cut line, but I'd put it at about 6 months and at least 12 inches, since that's the point where they can start becoming sexually mature. I would say yours was already a juvenile.