Hello, my Bearded Dragon's name is Chomps! Shes very sweet, loves to eat, however she doesnt seem to gain weight much. She is about a year and a half old, and up until recently I had the compact uvb bulb. I upgraded her to a 32" (possibly 24") 10.0 uvb bulb, and she seems to love it. The questions I have are 1) she is only about 14 inches in length, however her tail is broken off (I was told another beardie bit it when she was being transported as a baby). Is 14" (minus the inch or 2 she may be missing from her tail) extremely small, or is this somewhat normal? She also seems to need to eat a LOT of crickets and 2 huuuge bowls of kale and peppers in order to look filled out, otherwise she looks pretty skinny compared to the others I've seen. The other question I have is, her back legs dont bend backwards like all the other dragons I have seen. She almost stands up on them and extends them when she walks. It worries me that she has MBD or some other type of disease, although she has always had uvb light and calcium dusted crickets/veggies. I also feed her mealworms and waxworms (to try to put some fat on her). Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hi there, it sounds like she's on the small side but not incredibly so. Might be 16-17" with a full tail. Sounds like a degree of MBD, hopefully with the new bulb it won't get any worse and she can lead a pretty good life.
A good appetite is a good sign, keep feeding her large portions and be sure to use calcium powder , 2X a week without D3 , once a week WITH D3. Can you post pics of her as well as her tank ? Here's how :
Hi there, it sounds like she's on the small side but not incredibly so. Might be 16-17" with a full tail. Sounds like a degree of MBD, hopefully with the new bulb it won't get any worse and she can lead a pretty good life.
A good appetite is a good sign, keep feeding her large portions and be sure to use calcium powder , 2X a week without D3 , once a week WITH D3. Can you post pics of her as well as her tank ? Here's how :
Sure!! Thank you for showing me how to do that, I've read the forums plenty, but never signed up so I'm very new. I uploaded a couple pictures of her and a picture of her tank! Pay no attention to the mess in there right now, tomorrow is cleaning day!
Edit: Did I upload them correctly?? Or is there a way I can insert them into this thread?
Chomps is actually on the chubby side, she looks pretty good and is definitely not underweight one bit. Almost looks like she's carrying eggs. They can develop infertile ones without ever mating. Don't worry about her, she looks fine.
Oh geez that's good to hear!!! This was about an hour or 2 after a pretty decent meal, but nonetheless I'm glad to hear that. I'll try to get a good picture of her where she is "standing up" with her back legs instead of having them somewhat stretched out to the side and behind her like most adults do. She walks more like a baby/juvenile beardie walks than adults do, if that makes sense to you? It's hard to describe it without being about to show you. It could also just be a quirk of hers, and nothing is really wrong with her, which would be the best! I really appreciate the help!!