1 Year old but only 11"....

I just got my first little guy on Saturday. I bought him from a guy on craigslist, who said he did his friend a favor and adopted his female and male, and the female ended up being pregnant and laid 27 eggs! Due to this, I'm not sure Iroh (my beardie) got as much care and attention as he needed. He's friendly and so far fairly comfortable around me, and seems to really love his enclosure. However the breeder said they all hatched April/May of last year, so he's about a year old. Iroh was definitely the smallest of the group that the breeder had left.

My question is: since he's so small, should I feed him as if he's under a year old until his growing catches up to where it's supposed to be? i.e. insects 2-3x a day instead of just once a day.

Also, separate side question - right now I'm offering him fresh greens in the morning and leaving them in his enclosure, and then offering a fresh batch at night (along with insects). This is a good schedule, correct? Just want to be sure

Thanks in advanced for your help!

At a year old I'd probably still go with 1 bug feeding per day for a while and see if his growth catches up. It may be that his growth is stunted and that's OK if he is otherwise healthy. It's a good idea to offer salads in the morning and bugs in the evening as you've been doing. Do you have good lighting in place for him? That's also critical for their growth and overall health. You can upload photos of him here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button if you wish.

This is my setup so far....I got a little carried away so it's plenty big (70" long x 20" deep). I have 2 Reptisun 10.0 tubes, a basking lamp, and a CHE.

My temperatures are 105 at the warm end and 80 at the cool, but I'm using dial thermometers right now (I know not a good idea). I couldn't find any temperature guns at the store so I'm waiting for it to arrive from amazon (should be here by Thursday).

I have some questions about the enclosure (I can move this post to the enclosure feed but figured I'd add it here too):

1. Are the UVB's too close? He does climb up to the top of the background sometimes.

2. The basking lamp is shining down onto that background ledge. Could the ledge itself get too hot for him to walk on? I haven't seen him get directly under the lamp in a day or 2 so I'm wondering if it's too close/hot under there. He's currently under that hammock (which I plan to remove just in case the mesh harms his nails) and the basking lamp hits him a bit there.

3. He's been "panting" some too....is that a sign of being too hot? or is it more of sign of good temperatures?

Thanks so much for your help, I never knew I could worry so much about something so small! :lol:

That looks incredible! As far as the temps go, I'd just wait until the temp gun arrives and double check everything. I doubt the surfaces will get too hot but having accurate surface readings will help you really fine tune the basking light and temperature gradient.

As far as the UVB tubes go, do they have plastic in front of them from the fixture? If so, I would remove those because the plastic will intercept all of the UVB light rendering the bulbs useless. They look like T8 bulbs so optimally they should be about 6'' above the basking area. You don't really need UVB light (or much of it anyway) over the cool side of the tank. It's good to create a UVB gradient just like you do with heat so they have plenty of options. High heat and UVB over the basking area, and lower heat and lower UVB on the other side. In your setup, you may find upgrading to a 22'' T5 UVB light is worthwhile. They are quite a bit more powerful than a T8 and work well in larger enclosures. Setting one of these up on the roof above the basking area should suit that tank very nicely.

Awesome, I'll work on switching the lights next. Thanks so much for your help!