Hello from Lilo and Katie!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to introduce my beautiful girl Lilo and myself ( mainly Lilo lol). Lilo came into my life two weeks ago and she's really seemed to settle in and make herself at home. Lilo is a year and a half old and I got her from a wonderful local breeder who rescued her. I am not new to beardies but I still did a lot of research before I got her. I really love this site, it has help me learn new things about beardie care as well has remind me of some of the information I have forgotten. I dont know anything about Lilo's past, only that the person before her gave her lots and lots of food. I weighed her today and she was 712g!!! Lilo and I are working on a diet it plan for her and lots of play time to run around and get some exercise. Shes a very big girl as is but she its most definitly overweight. She loves her cuddles and roams around the house though she loves to show off with head bobs and blackbeards. She also loves to beg for stuff because she knows mommy will cave and buy her whatever it is she wants. Like the lizard couch she is sleeping on in one of the photos. I am completely smitten with this girl!

This is the couch she shamelessly begged for at the store. So cute!

Shes fired up after her bath.


I love her colors! She really enjoyed this bath after a gentle scrub with a soft toothbrush. Any guesses on her color phase? She has some brilliant oranges and redish orange areas along with the bright yellow.


Shes doing great so far! I brought in a fecal to the vet to make sure she doesnt have parasites, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Thank you for staying through my rambling lol im not good at intros.

Welcome to the forum! I'm glad to hear she's settling in so well. I love that couch you got for her. It looks like she does too =). At 712g she's definitely a big dragon. It's good that she's getting lots of time to run around. Setting up a portable basking spot for her may be helpful so she can return to warm up and stay out of her tank to play longer. At a year and a half, she should also be moving toward a primarily vegetarian diet with bug meals only about once or twice per week. A nice big varied salad every day should help keep her nice and healthy. Try out a bunch of different salad combos to find her favorites. I usually offer 2-3 items from this list in each salad and just rotate depending on what looks fresh at the store each week. http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

That's a great idea about the portable basking spot, I have extra bulbs and light fixture so that's easy =) I offer her greens daily with different veggies, thank you for the link though. It is much better than the one I was using. I am definitely watching her protein intake. Is there a bug that would be best for her? I know wax worms and butter worms are fattening so I don't give her those. I have been giving her 3-4 super worms 2 times a week but I will decrease her to once a week. She loves horn worms but they grow and die too fast to give them once or twice a week. I was thinking discoid roaches? I'm in Florida and dubia are illegal here sadly. Her fecal came back fine also, which is great news =) I'm bringing her to work later today for the vet to do an overall health check (I work at a vets office). Thank you for your help!

Discoids or horseshoe crab roaches might be a good choice. Starting a colony for an adult probably doesn't make sense because she wouldn't be able to keep up with them once they established (I've already had to split my colony twice). They would be a good staple though because they're really easy to care for and stick around for as long as they're needed vs the hornworms which grow quickly like you said. I keep a roach colony but I also order black soldier fly larvae, silk worms, and horn worms now and then to mix up the protein. I usually don't give full meals of the worms but will toss a few to him in passing as a treat. Those three are my favorite worm options in terms of healthy feeders. I had supers for a while but wound up letting them turn to beetles and let them go inside my roach tank to work as cleaner crew.

I agree with you that starting a colony for one adult dragon won't be practical. I found a place that sells them a few at a time so I got lucky lol. I'll try out those worms you mentioned, I can get those in small quantities from the same place.=) My vet said she looks great, nice and healthy just chunky. She said that Lilo is a huge dragon but thinks that Lilo should weight about 650g with her length. I think with cutting back her bugs, giving her daily exercise, and good greens and veggies like you said, I think she'll be able to get to that weight in a few months (not going to rush it to prevent fatty liver disease). Thank you for your advice! You've helped a lot =)