All of a sudden sleepy dragon?

[Katiemehaffey1]

So I got my beardie from petsmart(I know now that I shouldn't have) but anyways I've had her for 4 months now so she's still fairly young. I'm guessing about 5-6 months. And she has been super super sleepy lately falling asleep at like 6pm and not waking up till like 10-11am. Is that normal or is she about to brumate? I thought they didn't start brumating until 1yr old?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Well, it isn't completely out of the realm of possibility that she could brumate at 6 months. It is not common, but it happens. We have a male who brumated when he was 6 months old & at first I panicked but since he was healthy & of excellent weight, I went ahead & let him. He brumated for several months & came out, finished growing & was perfectly fine.
Have you gotten a fecal done on her?
What is her lighting & temperatures comprise of, which UVB are you using & how is her diet?
Do you have pictures of her?

Tracie

 

[Katiemehaffey1]

I brought her to the vet a month or two ago just for a check up and they gave her some stuff to supposedly protect her against parasites. Her diet is good. She eats her greens( sometimes is picky but I have been using that bearded dragon salad dressing from nature zone and she loves it. She also eats all her bugs. She even tried to eat my stuff that looks like worms lol but I'm in the process of building her a new bigger cage but as of right now she has the Zilla heat and basking fixture. Her tank stays around the 70s-80 degrees Fahrenheit and her basking temp is high 90s usually. And i weighed her this morning and I think she's around 310grams, if I calculated it right I don't have a electronic scale I use a kitchen scale.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

So she seems to be maintaining her weight & doesn't have worms or parasites right now?
She could just be slowing down somewhat, as some do after growth phases. For now, I
would be sure that she maintains her weight & doesn't start losing weight. It's ok if she
wants to take a few naps here & there as well.
The tank setup sounds good. I am sure she will love a new larger tank, too. Since she is
still eating, it sounds like she has just slown down a little bit but not fully.
Maybe try to encourage her to get up a little earlier, if you can that is.

Let us know how she is doing.
Tracie

 

[Katiemehaffey1]

Thank you so much! Also something else I have been wondering how old she is. I heard somewhere that they are usually 2 months when they get to petsmart but I'm not sure that's the case. When I got her she was 5.5in. And I'm curious because someone told me they think she could be a male because of how much she waved at another dragon(first time ever seeing one since I got her). So what's a proper age/length to properly and accurately sex a beardie?

Thanks!

 

[traildrifterphalanx]

At 5.5" she was likely about 4 weeks old at the time unless she was malnourished, resulting in being a bit behind size-wise.

At a few months old you should be able to get a good idea of her gender. Beardies of both genders will wave, but this is often done by the female dragons when they're older. All my beardies waved as babies, and at about 6mo old my male became a macho man and started the head-bobs while my female continues the waves and slow head nods.

There's a good guide on this site about checking gender, but basically you'll want the dragon flat on their belly, and you lift their tail up to about a 90 degree angle. This will cause 1 or 2 different set up bumps to show near the vent. One center bump means female, 2 bumps at the sides means male.
If you cannot see any bumps doing this, you can also shine a flashlight near the base of their tail while it's up and the bumps will show up as dark masses

 

[Katiemehaffey1]

Thank you so much!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

How is she doing today?
Let us know how she is & what's going on with her.
It sounds like she is healthy.

Tracie