*Long post alert :shock: *
-Long story short is = reptile store employee thinks my beardie is the fattest thing she has ever seen but proceeded to give advice that made no sense and sounded like a trainee when another employee talked to her. I think my beardie probably is fat but I thought I've been feeding her properly and exercising her enough and she hasn't lost weight in the year and a half that i've had her so I thought that this is just how she is.
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So I have had my beardie for about a year and a half now, I got her as an adult. When I got her I was told she was somewhat chunky and needed to watch what she eats and the amount so she doesn't gain more weight. Since I have had her her feeding schedule has been - various greens, switching between collards, endive, escarole, argula, and kale. I offer this daily. I dont give her fruit, and if I do it is once in like three or four months. I supplement with repashy calcium plus 2 or 3 times a week.
I do offer repashy veggie burger 2x a week to offer variety (most recent change, started about 4 months ago). I feed her crickets 2-3x a week about 8-12 tops per feeding. About every 2-3 weeks I will buy a pod of hornworms and give her those 3-4 worms per feeding to help keep her hydrated and offer variety. I mostly stay away from superworms but I will occasionally buy some (15 superworms every other month usually) and give her like 3-5 superworms per feeding 2x a week until gone. When I switch between the bugs I usually only give that type of bug. Sometimes I will give her 2 diferent types of bugs in one feeding but if I do then I will only give her, for example 5 or 7 crickets and then 1 or 2 superworms. So she wont get a surplus of bugs that day.
Now this month she has been bad about eating her greens and just as been eating the repashy veggie burger. I have been offering her greens one day and then repashy the next day and she will only eat the repashy. This has been going on for about a month. She was eating her greens great 2 months ago. Im still offering the bugs on the same schedule. Lately though she seems to be slowing down on the repashy and showing more interest in her greens. So I am hoping she will be back on eating greens mainly again.
The problem is, is that I think she probably is fat. She is about 19 1/2"-20" in length and weights in at 755 grams today. That sounds massive! And is massive compared the the weights of 350g-500g I've read on here. But when I read about how to tell if a beardy is fat, it mainly just says if they can lift their belly of the ground when they run then they are fine, which she can.
The thing is, she is active, alert, great stools/urates, runs around her tank when shes in it or she runs around in the florida room for 5+ hours on the weekends when im home ( it is usually about 80-85f ambient temp in the florida room). If im home occasionally during the week, she is out running around. When she runs her belly is completely off the ground and when I hold her and she clings to my hand, she feels like "muscle" not flabby until she relaxes again. But she has a massive beard and has some beardie boobies. I felt her belly for eggs and I feel nothing that suggests that she is gravid with infertile eggs. She is my only beardie and I don't take her to visit other beardies.
Today when I went in for some supplies I showed a picture and video of her to the reptile store employee and she acted like my beardie was the fattest thing she has ever seen. So I asked her advice on how to slim her and she proceeded to tell me to mash up those zoomed dry pellets and syringe feed her those. WHAT?! My beardie is eating fine, probably too much repashy veggie burger but the employee wants me to syringe feed her mushed pellets? I already dont like that my beardie is eating so much repashy and thats much better than those zoo med dry pellets IMO. So this is why I am here to get some opinions, since the employee's advice made no sense.
But anyways, please look at her pics and let me know your thoughts. Is she fine? Chunky? or utterly obese?
What am I doing wrong? what can I change?
Her set up is a 55 gallon tank, reptisun T5 HO 10.0 uvb long tube, hot spot of 95-102f, cool side of 80-84f and slightly textures tile for substrate. She is about 2 1/2 years old now.
Pictures of her ( All except the last picture have been taken today) please excuse her darker coloration, I just gave her a bath to help with her shed and she wasn't too happy about it lol.
Her set up
Relaxing on the terrazo (I had just put her down here)
Just finished running, still mostly lifted up off the floor but her belly touching. (when she is walking/running her belly is completely off the floor until she stops and relaxes)
Tensing slightly to hold onto my arm. And don't worry, she is not held like this often. I had to use one hand to take the picture.
Her big beard.
Thank you for your help!
-Long story short is = reptile store employee thinks my beardie is the fattest thing she has ever seen but proceeded to give advice that made no sense and sounded like a trainee when another employee talked to her. I think my beardie probably is fat but I thought I've been feeding her properly and exercising her enough and she hasn't lost weight in the year and a half that i've had her so I thought that this is just how she is.
_____
So I have had my beardie for about a year and a half now, I got her as an adult. When I got her I was told she was somewhat chunky and needed to watch what she eats and the amount so she doesn't gain more weight. Since I have had her her feeding schedule has been - various greens, switching between collards, endive, escarole, argula, and kale. I offer this daily. I dont give her fruit, and if I do it is once in like three or four months. I supplement with repashy calcium plus 2 or 3 times a week.
I do offer repashy veggie burger 2x a week to offer variety (most recent change, started about 4 months ago). I feed her crickets 2-3x a week about 8-12 tops per feeding. About every 2-3 weeks I will buy a pod of hornworms and give her those 3-4 worms per feeding to help keep her hydrated and offer variety. I mostly stay away from superworms but I will occasionally buy some (15 superworms every other month usually) and give her like 3-5 superworms per feeding 2x a week until gone. When I switch between the bugs I usually only give that type of bug. Sometimes I will give her 2 diferent types of bugs in one feeding but if I do then I will only give her, for example 5 or 7 crickets and then 1 or 2 superworms. So she wont get a surplus of bugs that day.
Now this month she has been bad about eating her greens and just as been eating the repashy veggie burger. I have been offering her greens one day and then repashy the next day and she will only eat the repashy. This has been going on for about a month. She was eating her greens great 2 months ago. Im still offering the bugs on the same schedule. Lately though she seems to be slowing down on the repashy and showing more interest in her greens. So I am hoping she will be back on eating greens mainly again.
The problem is, is that I think she probably is fat. She is about 19 1/2"-20" in length and weights in at 755 grams today. That sounds massive! And is massive compared the the weights of 350g-500g I've read on here. But when I read about how to tell if a beardy is fat, it mainly just says if they can lift their belly of the ground when they run then they are fine, which she can.
The thing is, she is active, alert, great stools/urates, runs around her tank when shes in it or she runs around in the florida room for 5+ hours on the weekends when im home ( it is usually about 80-85f ambient temp in the florida room). If im home occasionally during the week, she is out running around. When she runs her belly is completely off the ground and when I hold her and she clings to my hand, she feels like "muscle" not flabby until she relaxes again. But she has a massive beard and has some beardie boobies. I felt her belly for eggs and I feel nothing that suggests that she is gravid with infertile eggs. She is my only beardie and I don't take her to visit other beardies.
Today when I went in for some supplies I showed a picture and video of her to the reptile store employee and she acted like my beardie was the fattest thing she has ever seen. So I asked her advice on how to slim her and she proceeded to tell me to mash up those zoomed dry pellets and syringe feed her those. WHAT?! My beardie is eating fine, probably too much repashy veggie burger but the employee wants me to syringe feed her mushed pellets? I already dont like that my beardie is eating so much repashy and thats much better than those zoo med dry pellets IMO. So this is why I am here to get some opinions, since the employee's advice made no sense.
But anyways, please look at her pics and let me know your thoughts. Is she fine? Chunky? or utterly obese?
What am I doing wrong? what can I change?
Her set up is a 55 gallon tank, reptisun T5 HO 10.0 uvb long tube, hot spot of 95-102f, cool side of 80-84f and slightly textures tile for substrate. She is about 2 1/2 years old now.
Pictures of her ( All except the last picture have been taken today) please excuse her darker coloration, I just gave her a bath to help with her shed and she wasn't too happy about it lol.
Thank you for your help!
