Vampiresswolf
Member
Hi again! I'm concerned about Anubis and his eating habits and its really beginning to worry me.
Anubis hasn't grown very much in the month that I have had him (from 6.5" to 7.1" to be exact, I measure him once a week) and he's only shed twice, neither time have I seen anything but his back and tail shedding.
He's had a problem with becoming discouraged, and whenever he missed he wouldn't try again. I have alleviated this by removing the jumping legs from his crickets and he doesn't miss nearly as much and he mostly tries again when he does. His discouragement still sometimes gets the better of him.
What I'm really worried about is the amount of crickets he eats and how I should get him to eat more? He only eats about 6 1/2" crickets a day over three feedings (the space between his eyes is 1.5") I thought at first it was just that everyone elses beardies eat littler crickets, but I'm not sure anymore since he doesn't seem to be growing very fast. I tried switching him to Dubias, as my friend breeds them for her rescues (all sorts of lizards, including beardies at her rescue) and she gave me some of the appropriate size for him. He grabbed one, then spit most of it out and refused to eat any more, so I returned her dubias to her after I realized he hated the things (something I'm actually okay with as I cant stand roaches lol) and went back to crickets. But he still won't eat any more than about 6 and I'm really worried.
He gets fed in a smaller 10 gal feeding tank with the same parameters as his 20 gal long habitat tank (he refused to hunt in his tank). He gets calcium dusted crickets once a day, and baby food veggies every other day, as he won't eat veggies otherwise. I leave him in there for about 15 minutes or until he's done eating and glass surfs at me (his way of telling me he's ready to leave the crickets).
He is very happy in his own habitat, a creamy belly and extremely happy and active. He basks on his basking rock, swims and sits in his water dish (not deep enough for him to drown), doesn't really care for the veggies I leave in a dish, though he loves to play on them, and has his cave and canopy climber hammock and reptisafe piece of driftwood he loves to run about in, on and around. he loves to be out of his enclosure and likes to romp on my dog when she's beside me (she just lays there and sleeps lol could care less) and enjoys watching my cat play with her toys. He isn't out of his enclosure very often, or for very long, as I don't want him to get cold, and as soon as his stress marks appear I put him back in his enclosure, so I don't know why he doesn't eat much or grow much.
His tanks parameters:
20 gal long habitat and 10 gal feeding tank, measured by many probes, along the length of both for temperature and humidity. (Temp-Tec, Zilla and Repti-sun brands, all which read the same as the other brands when placed in different parts of the enclosure)
Hot side: about 105-115* depending on time of day
Cool side: about 78-87* depending on time of day, around 77* consistently inside his cave
Humidity throughout the enclosure is at 10-15%, kept constant via a small portable dehumidifier
Reptisun 10.0 UVB bulb
Bright white basking bulb
Black Heat Emmitter bulb for nighttime on a dimmer so it can be adjusted for weather
Assistance would be amazing, please and thank you!
Anubis hasn't grown very much in the month that I have had him (from 6.5" to 7.1" to be exact, I measure him once a week) and he's only shed twice, neither time have I seen anything but his back and tail shedding.
He's had a problem with becoming discouraged, and whenever he missed he wouldn't try again. I have alleviated this by removing the jumping legs from his crickets and he doesn't miss nearly as much and he mostly tries again when he does. His discouragement still sometimes gets the better of him.
What I'm really worried about is the amount of crickets he eats and how I should get him to eat more? He only eats about 6 1/2" crickets a day over three feedings (the space between his eyes is 1.5") I thought at first it was just that everyone elses beardies eat littler crickets, but I'm not sure anymore since he doesn't seem to be growing very fast. I tried switching him to Dubias, as my friend breeds them for her rescues (all sorts of lizards, including beardies at her rescue) and she gave me some of the appropriate size for him. He grabbed one, then spit most of it out and refused to eat any more, so I returned her dubias to her after I realized he hated the things (something I'm actually okay with as I cant stand roaches lol) and went back to crickets. But he still won't eat any more than about 6 and I'm really worried.
He gets fed in a smaller 10 gal feeding tank with the same parameters as his 20 gal long habitat tank (he refused to hunt in his tank). He gets calcium dusted crickets once a day, and baby food veggies every other day, as he won't eat veggies otherwise. I leave him in there for about 15 minutes or until he's done eating and glass surfs at me (his way of telling me he's ready to leave the crickets).
He is very happy in his own habitat, a creamy belly and extremely happy and active. He basks on his basking rock, swims and sits in his water dish (not deep enough for him to drown), doesn't really care for the veggies I leave in a dish, though he loves to play on them, and has his cave and canopy climber hammock and reptisafe piece of driftwood he loves to run about in, on and around. he loves to be out of his enclosure and likes to romp on my dog when she's beside me (she just lays there and sleeps lol could care less) and enjoys watching my cat play with her toys. He isn't out of his enclosure very often, or for very long, as I don't want him to get cold, and as soon as his stress marks appear I put him back in his enclosure, so I don't know why he doesn't eat much or grow much.
His tanks parameters:
20 gal long habitat and 10 gal feeding tank, measured by many probes, along the length of both for temperature and humidity. (Temp-Tec, Zilla and Repti-sun brands, all which read the same as the other brands when placed in different parts of the enclosure)
Hot side: about 105-115* depending on time of day
Cool side: about 78-87* depending on time of day, around 77* consistently inside his cave
Humidity throughout the enclosure is at 10-15%, kept constant via a small portable dehumidifier
Reptisun 10.0 UVB bulb
Bright white basking bulb
Black Heat Emmitter bulb for nighttime on a dimmer so it can be adjusted for weather
Assistance would be amazing, please and thank you!
