Hello!
I'm the happy owner of a very grumpy and sleepy dragon named Snips. Snips is too young to be sexed yet but I'll be calling him "he" for simplicity. I had just cleaned his tank and his basking rock was still drying when I took this picture!
I got Snips about two months ago from a pet store (I know, I know but he was calling out to me) and he's slowly turning out to be a very big personality, but also a lovely boy. He's not too friendly yet, but he did crawl on my hand of his own accord today! From what I can tell, he hates everything bearded dragons normally like. He hates baths, he hates most fruits, he hates being stroked on his beard (back is fine!), he hates free roaming around the bedroom, and he never, ever, ever goes to the cool side unless he wants salad (the warm side is between 99-105F during the day). Balls and other toys are a no too.
The few things he does like? Watching me work on my bed, protein, yellow squash, and snap peas, being high up, dark places, and car rides (maybe).
I've been lurking on this site since before I got Snips (I've wanted a beardie for years!) and I'm posting because I was hoping to get some aging help? Solely for the purpose of making sure I'm feeding him enough (and also not too much).
When I got him, all the pet store knew was that he was under 3 months. Here's his growth chart:
For anyone who wants the math: He's grown 7 inches and 119.5 g in two months. That's almost an inch and 15 grams a week!
Based on when I first got him, I thought he was 2 months old? That would mean he's 4 months now. But based on other beardie growth charts his current size would suggest 5-6 months old and possibly underweight.
I free feed him salad (dandelion greens, yellow squash/zucchini, and some other beardie safe fruits and veggies I switch out, along with Fluker's Juvenile Bearded Dragon Veggie Blend) all day and he gets as many "medium" crickets as he can eat in 10 minutes at 7am and 5pm. I dust the morning crickets in calcium 5 days a week, and reptivitamins 2 days a week. Lately he's been eating anywhere between 80-125 crickets a day. Not to mention he does eat a good bit of his veggies and I use dried grasshoppers (broken into pieces) as treats for training. This equals about 1-2 adult sized (legless) grasshoppers a day. I will occasionally feed him dubias (his favorite!) and when the holidays are over, I'll order more Phoenix worms.
When he isn't pancaked out, he's pretty wrinkly, but I know it's not dehydration as his urates are fairly watery (I may have overwatered him this week in response to on and off diarrhea - he's just finished a month long parasite treatment). I am hoping to go out and find him a proper probiotic once I'm done quarantining for the holidays, but for now I've been dusting his veggies with crested gecko feed that has probiotics every few days. He doesn't super like it and tends to avoid the more densely coated veggies so I'm not worried about him getting too much sugar.
So any guesses on age? Or suggestions on feeding?
I'm the happy owner of a very grumpy and sleepy dragon named Snips. Snips is too young to be sexed yet but I'll be calling him "he" for simplicity. I had just cleaned his tank and his basking rock was still drying when I took this picture!
I got Snips about two months ago from a pet store (I know, I know but he was calling out to me) and he's slowly turning out to be a very big personality, but also a lovely boy. He's not too friendly yet, but he did crawl on my hand of his own accord today! From what I can tell, he hates everything bearded dragons normally like. He hates baths, he hates most fruits, he hates being stroked on his beard (back is fine!), he hates free roaming around the bedroom, and he never, ever, ever goes to the cool side unless he wants salad (the warm side is between 99-105F during the day). Balls and other toys are a no too.
The few things he does like? Watching me work on my bed, protein, yellow squash, and snap peas, being high up, dark places, and car rides (maybe).
I've been lurking on this site since before I got Snips (I've wanted a beardie for years!) and I'm posting because I was hoping to get some aging help? Solely for the purpose of making sure I'm feeding him enough (and also not too much).
When I got him, all the pet store knew was that he was under 3 months. Here's his growth chart:
For anyone who wants the math: He's grown 7 inches and 119.5 g in two months. That's almost an inch and 15 grams a week!
Based on when I first got him, I thought he was 2 months old? That would mean he's 4 months now. But based on other beardie growth charts his current size would suggest 5-6 months old and possibly underweight.
I free feed him salad (dandelion greens, yellow squash/zucchini, and some other beardie safe fruits and veggies I switch out, along with Fluker's Juvenile Bearded Dragon Veggie Blend) all day and he gets as many "medium" crickets as he can eat in 10 minutes at 7am and 5pm. I dust the morning crickets in calcium 5 days a week, and reptivitamins 2 days a week. Lately he's been eating anywhere between 80-125 crickets a day. Not to mention he does eat a good bit of his veggies and I use dried grasshoppers (broken into pieces) as treats for training. This equals about 1-2 adult sized (legless) grasshoppers a day. I will occasionally feed him dubias (his favorite!) and when the holidays are over, I'll order more Phoenix worms.
When he isn't pancaked out, he's pretty wrinkly, but I know it's not dehydration as his urates are fairly watery (I may have overwatered him this week in response to on and off diarrhea - he's just finished a month long parasite treatment). I am hoping to go out and find him a proper probiotic once I'm done quarantining for the holidays, but for now I've been dusting his veggies with crested gecko feed that has probiotics every few days. He doesn't super like it and tends to avoid the more densely coated veggies so I'm not worried about him getting too much sugar.
So any guesses on age? Or suggestions on feeding?