TeddyLC
Member
I'm worried whether my beardie is eating and hydrating enough. Sometimes I look at him and think he's lost weight, and other times I think he looks the same... most of the time I think he's lost a bit, but it's only been a week, so it's difficult to tell.
He is currently 5 months old. He has fresh water available to him in a shallow dish (which he ignores except to occasionally step in it on accident, freeze, and then retreat), and I mist his tank at least twice a day. He hates baths, trying to crawl out of them quickly instead of soaking or drinking. He gets a fresh salad of mustard greens, collard greens, and sometimes fruit (diced nice and small), but he just won't eat it fresh. Some days he eats almost his entire salad while other days he barely touches it, but given his age, I'm just happy he eats it at all. He does seem to prefer eating it after it's dried out a bit and gotten crunchy... He won't drink water at all, whether I'm putting it on his nose over and over or whether he's in the bath.
For food, I feed him about 10-15 small calcium-dusted crickets in the morning along with his vitamin-dusted salad. In the evening, he gets about 10 calcium-dusted roaches around 1cm in length, more if he gobbles them up, but he usually still has a few left by the time he stops eating for the night. By evening he usually still has a cricket or two uneaten from breakfast - I think he gets bored of them, since he'll still eat roaches at night and ignore a cricket even if it's right in front of his face. This is why I'll only give him crickets during the day instead of at night, so that if he doesn't eat them they don't nibble him while he sleeps. When he goes to bed there are usually a few roaches left as well, although by dinner the next day they're gone unless there's one or two hiding in a hard-to-reach space. He never scrambles for his food like the beardies in the feeding videos I've stalked do.
Temp is around 80 on the cool side (wavers between 75 to 85) and 105-ish on the basking side (wavers between 100 and 110 - once reached almost 120, but I think I may have been scanning a reflecting part of the tank or my temp gun was hiccupping, as it never did that again). He gets handled daily and alternates between cuddling quietly against me or crawling around curiously. Some days he paces in his tank and wants to come out, while other days he just sleeps. He's had three bowel movements in the last week, and they all come out moist but not liquid with good-sized urates (I think).
I feel like he's not eating enough... Should I be worried yet? Should I start running to the store for baby food, or give him some more time to build an appetite? Or does this sound pretty reasonable for his age? Online guides I've seen typically talk more of duration of feeding time (as much as they'll eat in 10-15 minutes etc.) rather than number of insects, I assume because it depends on the age and size of the lizard and the size and type of insect, but I feel like he should be eating more than he is, and it's difficult to tell since he seems to prefer grazing rather than hungrily gobbling up a meal.
He is currently 5 months old. He has fresh water available to him in a shallow dish (which he ignores except to occasionally step in it on accident, freeze, and then retreat), and I mist his tank at least twice a day. He hates baths, trying to crawl out of them quickly instead of soaking or drinking. He gets a fresh salad of mustard greens, collard greens, and sometimes fruit (diced nice and small), but he just won't eat it fresh. Some days he eats almost his entire salad while other days he barely touches it, but given his age, I'm just happy he eats it at all. He does seem to prefer eating it after it's dried out a bit and gotten crunchy... He won't drink water at all, whether I'm putting it on his nose over and over or whether he's in the bath.
For food, I feed him about 10-15 small calcium-dusted crickets in the morning along with his vitamin-dusted salad. In the evening, he gets about 10 calcium-dusted roaches around 1cm in length, more if he gobbles them up, but he usually still has a few left by the time he stops eating for the night. By evening he usually still has a cricket or two uneaten from breakfast - I think he gets bored of them, since he'll still eat roaches at night and ignore a cricket even if it's right in front of his face. This is why I'll only give him crickets during the day instead of at night, so that if he doesn't eat them they don't nibble him while he sleeps. When he goes to bed there are usually a few roaches left as well, although by dinner the next day they're gone unless there's one or two hiding in a hard-to-reach space. He never scrambles for his food like the beardies in the feeding videos I've stalked do.
Temp is around 80 on the cool side (wavers between 75 to 85) and 105-ish on the basking side (wavers between 100 and 110 - once reached almost 120, but I think I may have been scanning a reflecting part of the tank or my temp gun was hiccupping, as it never did that again). He gets handled daily and alternates between cuddling quietly against me or crawling around curiously. Some days he paces in his tank and wants to come out, while other days he just sleeps. He's had three bowel movements in the last week, and they all come out moist but not liquid with good-sized urates (I think).
I feel like he's not eating enough... Should I be worried yet? Should I start running to the store for baby food, or give him some more time to build an appetite? Or does this sound pretty reasonable for his age? Online guides I've seen typically talk more of duration of feeding time (as much as they'll eat in 10-15 minutes etc.) rather than number of insects, I assume because it depends on the age and size of the lizard and the size and type of insect, but I feel like he should be eating more than he is, and it's difficult to tell since he seems to prefer grazing rather than hungrily gobbling up a meal.
On the downside (again), he's not very interested in salad anymore, so I'm wondering if he gorged on greens too young and that made him have the diarrhea...?
