How much to feed?

[NathanNatalie3002]

Hello, I have a 6-7 month dragon who is very plump and eats well! I feed her in a separate tank as the supplements are messy and the crickets hide. She is currently eating rocket, butternut squash, crickets and locust mainly.

I cut down about 2 months ago on feeding 3 times a day and now feed in the morning livefood and veg and live food in the evening.

She eats tonnes and I don't want to overfeed her, as I told someone and they said I shouldnt let her eat as much as I do!

In one feeding depending how she is feeling she can eat around 15 correctly sized crickets + as many locusts as I will allow her, I think she is still hungry so I keep giving her them and feel like I shouldn't, I would say she would eat non-stop if i left her with live food in her tank all day! She rarely jumps out of the feeding tank when she is full, only if the crickets are hard to spot with the calcium on them.

She also polishes off her whole bowl of veg each day- or every other depending how often I give her it. I just fed her and she ate 9 crickets and 10 locusts, about 1 1/2 cm ones.

I stopped adding food to the tank to post this.

So- how much do all your beardies at this age eat? Should I let her eat as much as she wants in 10 mins?

Also, I always coat my crickets with pure calcium 5x a week (on both feedings and veg) and vitamins 2-3x a week (on one feeding = veg).

Also heard that Locusts are high in Calcium, so shall I no coat these and stick with just coating the crickets? I gutload all the live food, mainly with rocket as that is what i always have in.

Temp and set up all correct by the way!

Thanks

 

[Claudiusx]

Hi there,

While the general advice of letting them eat as much as they can while they are young is good advice that can pertain to many beardies, I think it also needs to be customized on based on your own dragon.

If your dragon is gaining too much weight or getting pudgy, you should cut back. If your dragon is growing at a good pace, and not becoming fat, then keep things the same. If your dragon seems to be getting skinny, add food.

Each dragons body is different, some absolutely need to be fed as much as they can eat 3 times a day to make them not look like starving beardies, and some get pudgy eating insects only once a day.

If you think your dragon is getting pudgy, cut back on the insects a bit.

-Brandon

 

[NathanNatalie3002]

Thanks for your reply, she is a good weight but looks wrinkly sometimes and she isn't dehydrated. She changes like if she sits in the middle if the tank under UVB where it's cooler she goes very dark with stress marks and looks wrinkly. Under basking she is bright yellow and more alert. I am sure she will be fine. Also in the wild they don't get food at regular times so is it okay to feed her at different times of day just as long as she has 3-4 hours of basking time with no food before bed?

I think I will feed twice a day as I have, she eats as much as she did at 3 feeds it helps her appetite. She has always been a brilliant eater, no issue with veg from the start.