What am I doing wrong vet says he's small?

Hi
Randall is nearly 9 1/2 months old is 14 1/2 inches long & weighs 204g.
He had his winter vet check & apparently he's healthy & parasite free but he's very small but didn't find fault with my husbandry.
For last couple of months he's not been a big eater
But has still put on weight.
He has a fresh salad daily of rocket, butternut squash & sometimes blueberries that he rarely touch's. Every morning I top up to 20 med Dubai roaches in his bowl he only eats 3 or 4 a day( I've tried hand feeding him & dropping them 1 at a time in front of him he eats when he wants not to my schedule) I also free range a few locusts to give him something to hunt. & I still offer him calci worms but he won't eat them anymore.

Randall is in a 4x2x2 wooden vivarium he has a Arcadia 14% 22" UV tube that he can get to 14" as Arcadia guidelines he has a 60watt reptile basking bulb ( can't remember make) basking spot 107f warm end 90f cool end 79f in his hut 80f.

Randall is well within the average size range of bearded dragons. His appetite may pick up more in the coming months but he may always be a smaller sized dragon. Smaller doesn't mean less healthy. A 5'3" Asian man is no less healthy than a 6'8 basketball player and may even live longer. So with dragons, huge size does not mean they are necessarily healthier. And he should continue to grow for another 7-10 months, although more slowly. Randall looks pretty healthy, no need to worry if his husbandry is all good.

AHBD":1rybzx4p said:

Randall is well within the average size range of bearded dragons. His appetite may pick up more in the coming months but he may always be a smaller sized dragon. Smaller doesn't mean less healthy. A 5'3" Asian man is no less healthy than a 6'8 basketball player and may even live longer. So with dragons, huge size does not mean they are necessarily healthier. And he should continue to grow for another 7-10 months, although more slowly. Randall looks pretty healthy, no need to worry if his husbandry is all good.

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Thank you AHBD Randall's my world so I appreciate the reassurance

You're welcome. I like his cozy dragon house.

He's very handsome .... and like AHBD says , smallish doesn't infer unhealthy ,his parents may have been small beardies and he may never be a 700g boy. This is OK.

A friend girl was 243g at 9.5 months old , finished off at 490g at 2 years old. She was a little beardie who was a real livewire and was full of personality and character and was a force to reckon with, would headnod/headbang at everyone and was very assertive and knew how to get what she wanted from her humans.

Have you tried him on silkworms ? .... most beardies LOVE them and can't get enough of them once they've tried them and silkworms are a superb feeder insect and can be used as stable.

kingofnobbys":3980jwic said:

He's very handsome .... and like AHBD says , smallish doesn't infer unhealthy ,his parents may have been small beardies and he may never be a 700g boy. This is OK.

A friend girl was 243g at 9.5 months old , finished off at 490g at 2 years old. She was a little beardie who was a real livewire and was full of personality and character and was a force to reckon with, would headnod/headbang at everyone and was very assertive and knew how to get what she wanted from her humans.

Have you tried him on silkworms ? .... most beardies LOVE them and can't get enough of them once they've tried them and silkworms are a superb feeder insect and can be used as stable.

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Thanks kingofnobbies
I have tried to get silk worms but every site I've found that sells them has been out of stock so still looking. I even looked for hornworms but the cheapest I found was £68 for 12 so they are a bit out of my price range.
I had looked on here about smaller dragons & came across a comment that they were only small if you didn't feed them enough. So went into panic mode.

Kay

Sharpy":33kjbjc3 said:

kingofnobbys":33kjbjc3 said:

He's very handsome .... and like AHBD says , smallish doesn't infer unhealthy ,his parents may have been small beardies and he may never be a 700g boy. This is OK.

A friend girl was 243g at 9.5 months old , finished off at 490g at 2 years old. She was a little beardie who was a real livewire and was full of personality and character and was a force to reckon with, would headnod/headbang at everyone and was very assertive and knew how to get what she wanted from her humans.

Have you tried him on silkworms ? .... most beardies LOVE them and can't get enough of them once they've tried them and silkworms are a superb feeder insect and can be used as stable.

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Thanks kingofnobbies
I have tried to get silk worms but every site I've found that sells them has been out of stock so still looking. I even looked for hornworms but the cheapest I found was £68 for 12 so they are a bit out of my price range.
I had looked on here about smaller dragons & came across a comment that they were only small if you didn't feed them enough. So went into panic mode. <<<<< there is nearly 100g difference in weights between my two 11 month olds Peppa and Toothless (who I've feed exactly the same .... I handfeed the insects to them and count the bugs - and have does so since they were little)., Peppa is more lazy and laid back , Toothless is very much a livewire .... he burns up the insect calories faster

Kay

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Silkworms and mulberry leaves will be "out of season" in the UK now. Your best bet is to buy some silkworm chow (powder) and a few hundred silkworm eggs, and hatch the worms and raise them on cooked chow , in about 4 weeks from hatching you'll have medium sized silkworms.

This is also the most cost effective way to get your silkworms. (Cheaper if you can get hold of fresh mulberry leaves).

Here is how I raise my baby silkworms viewtopic.php?f=76&t=222193

I'm raising some silkworms now (bought two weeks ago from a lady in Botany Bay who advertised on GumTree) , these I started giving to my lizards today (the medium sized about 2inches long) a couple each with their crickets, Rex loved her silks but loves her crickets more, Peppa disappeared her 2 as soon as I put them down in front of her (both at once - she's a pig!!!), Toothless took a little bit of convincing but eventually gave in and ate his two, the bluetongues (George and Mildred) disappeared there 2 silks each almost instantly --- they LOVE silkworms).

I've also got about 80 cocoons which will be starting produce moths in a week or 2, the moths are good lizard food too , all my lizards love silkworm moths, and each female silkworm moth will lay up to 400 eggs. I'll let 200 - 300 eggs hatch right away - will work out good as I should be just about run out of medium and large silkworms by then , and will chill the rest of the new eggs so I'll have a ready source of eggs to hatch and a constant "free" supply of silkworms.

Raising silkworms is little bit of work, but IMO very much worth it for the health and nutrition benefits.

If you wind up with excess large silkworms and don't want to let them pupate, the worms can be blanched and frozen for use out of season.
Similarly fresh mulberry leaves can be blanched and frozen to use out of season.

That's great advice king!

Thanks king was following your thread, will have a look see what I can find

Kay