Am i feeding him adequately?

[xjazzyxjaydex]

I am a first time bearded dragon owner and I love him so much. Not entirely sure how old he is as I got him from Petco and they did not tell me. But he is tiny. (Picture attached [I hope] so you can see how young he is). I got him in August so he's been with us a couple months and seems to be doing fine! Shedding as normal, eats well, poops a lot and poop looks ok, hates baths, like to explore. But I am starting to worry that I am not feeding him properly or enough. For the first month, I was just feeding him Fluker's Juvenile Bearded Dragon Diet. Then we ran out and I decided I didn't like that stuff because it looked like actual poop and he deserved better. So I got him Fluker's Buffet Blend (both the veggie one and the mealworms/crickets blend). But I realized that it smells funky after it sits for a bit so I said "he deserves better" and now we hardly use it.

NOW I chef up his food personally. 2 meals a day. Every morning before I leave the house, I will take his plate and tear up some kale, cut up a strawberry, and tear up some shredded carrots and put it in his terrarium. I also sprinkle it with the calcium powder. Dinner is also kale, carrots, and some live mealworms and freeze-dried crickets also with calcium powder. So he gets a veggie diet in the morning and a carnivore diet in the evening with some greens.

Again, he eats it all and poops fine and seems happy. But should he be eating more in the day? Less calcium powder? Less fruits because of the natural sugar? What do your dragons eat for meals in a day?

 

[Shinryu]

Sounds like you really care about the little guy and want what's best for him. I have a couple of suggestions. First, other than in an extreme dire emergency, I would not recommend Fluker's Juvenile Bearded Dragon Diet or Fluker's Buffet Blend. Bearded dragons thrive on live food such as dubia roaches or crickets. Crickets should be live and sized to fit in the space between your beardie's eyes because overly large crickets can lead to issues such as impaction. Also you can give your beardie wax worms or hornworms but as a treat. Hornworms grow quickly so definitely make sure that they aren't too big and make sure to order them from a reputable place instead of using those that can be found in a garden, etc. Juvenile bearded dragons eat 2-3 times per day and can probably consume 10-25 insects per feeding. My recommendation would be to feed them as many insects as they want to eat within 10-15 minutes and offer live insects twice per day, at least. If your beardie is eating significantly less than that, I would review your setup to make sure your lighting/heating are correct since that can really affect how much a bearded dragon wants to eat since they need to bask at proper temperatures for proper digestion.

As far as greens go, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, butternut/acorn/spaghetti squash are good staples. Avoid spinach since it can bind calcium. Many bearded dragon owners consider carrots to be more of an occasional food (maybe 2-3 times per week). Strawberries are also more of an occasional food. As far as kale, I personally wouldn’t feed kale more than once per week since I’ve heard that it can negatively affect a bearded dragon’s thyroid. Dusting the insects with calcium powder is definitely a good idea, especially for growing juvenile dragons. I hope this helps a bit! Let us know how things turn out and if these suggestions help your beardie grow bigger.