Water containment units and overfeeding??

[Rockso]

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I posted here but I've always found the greatest help from these boards. Anyway, I noticed my beardie, Ziggy, being quite lazy today and since it's nearing winter and he/she is a little over a year old I was thinking it's time for his/her first brumation! So I looked up brumation on google and found an article on this site which was very helpful and only left me with one question. In the article, the author talked about how beardies usually drink from licking dew from leaves. I have a water bowl in his enclosure, however I have never seen him drinking from it. Obviously he's got to be getting hydration from somewhere, otherwise i don't think he'd be doing as well as he is now. Anyway, i was wondering if this is the proper method of providing water to my beardie. If not, what is? My next question is that of overfeeding. My mom came from our usual petstore recently from buying crickets and she was telling me that this woman who works their (who seems to be pretty knowledgeable with beardies) was telling her that her husbands beardie died of overeating. I usually feed Ziggy some romaine lettuce with 11-13 large crickets with the occasional few huge mealworms. Is this too much, not enough, just right? I appreciate your help and I wish you all a pleasant evening.

 

[bltkpo]

Hey! I'm rather new too, to Beardies! But here is how I would answer your questions!

Bindy doesn't drink either. I've tried eye-dropping it to her. I've tried splashing it around for her, nothing! But, baths help with hydration! Even though they aren't drinking it, they are absorbing it into their little bodies. I've read that people take their beardies during brumation, into a well supervised bath (making sure they don't go under the water) .. drying them off properly, assuring they bask a SMIDGE before they go back to sleep. Don't want them to go hide out in the cool side of their tank cold and wet, otherwise they could develop respiratory infections. But baths work well to keep your dragon hydrated!

As for over eating. We have a young beardie, so clearly she needs to eat enough protein to gain weight. She eats as much as she will, and once she is full, she stops. If she isn't hungry she shuts her eyes, and turns her head away, or climbs away from her food. I don't think over eating is a big deal. Though I am not sure of the recommended amounts of protein for adult lizards.

I know salads with a lot of variety are great for adult beardies, and should be offered to them throughout the day. www.beautifuldragons.com has a great colour-coded nutritional table to give you an idea of the appropriate veg to feed your dragon (romaine is high in water content, so it isn't the best) .. We feed Bindy a blend of a Collard greens, bok choy, kale, butternut squash, and red pepper. She gets variants of this every week, but it keeps things exciting in the veg dish, so she doesn't get bored. These are all available at walmart believe it or not, and typically cost less than $10 for a week supply.

Hope this helps! I am sure a more experienced owner can give you better answers

 

[jjh1]

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I posted here but I've always found the greatest help from these boards. Anyway, I noticed my beardie, Ziggy, being quite lazy today and since it's nearing winter and he/she is a little over a year old I was thinking it's time for his/her first brumation! So I looked up brumation on google and found an article on this site which was very helpful and only left me with one question. In the article, the author talked about how beardies usually drink from licking dew from leaves. I have a water bowl in his enclosure, however I have never seen him drinking from it. Obviously he's got to be getting hydration from somewhere, otherwise i don't think he'd be doing as well as he is now. Anyway, i was wondering if this is the proper method of providing water to my beardie. If not, what is? My next question is that of overfeeding. My mom came from our usual petstore recently from buying crickets and she was telling me that this woman who works their (who seems to be pretty knowledgeable with beardies) was telling her that her husbands beardie died of overeating. I usually feed Ziggy some romaine lettuce with 11-13 large crickets with the occasional few huge mealworms. Is this too much, not enough, just right? I appreciate your help and I wish you all a pleasant evening.

Beardies get water from the crix or whatever prey your feeding it, also veggies but romaine isnt the only thing they should be eating,here is a great site for you to look at for feeding various foods to your beardie when it comes to veggies http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Also you cant over feed a beardie they know when to stop eating, under feeding a beardie yepp they will die. As beardies also need a soak in the tub I soak mine at least once to twice a week they absorb water through their vent ( bum) and the skin.

I dont leave a water bowl in any of my beardies vivs this causes to raise the humidity levels,and like you said they really dont drink from one. On occasion some beardies might but with standing water they dont even notice it.

With prey that they eat you could try some superworms a waxie for a treat some dubia ( roaches) because beardies are still growing even at that age they should be fed everyday veggies and prey.

Hope this helps you

Joanne slave to 1 dog 3 beardies 1 waterdragon 2 geckos 1 hamster and a bunch of fish