Big belly worries

[kimmy624]

My bd seems to have a pretty big belly. I don't know if it's normal or not. Her appetite and activity has decreased, could be related to the time of year.

She is pooping just about daily. She is eating supers and salad, lately has been kale and some cilantro.

For a while she was eating a ton of worms, I have decreased her worms to about 5 in the am and 5 in the pm (they are about 1 inch) and trying to encourage more greens.

In the picture, she's laying kind of funny. She's flat but laying at an angle.

I've been thinking she's just fat but maybe not? She really grew very quickly. Her belly has been this way for a while. A couple of friends came over yesterday who are more familiar with bd's than me (she's my first) and they didn't think this was necessarily normal.

Her basking rock is at about 104 degrees, she spends most of her time right there.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....how old is she, and what type of worms are you feeding her ? She id definitely quite a bit overweight. She may be developing eggs, that's possible or has just had too much fatty worms in her diet. There are other causes, sometimes a tumor or retaining fluids because of an illness. Can you post a few more close ups ? If she IS gravid [ pregnant ] you'll notice signs of wanting to lay, restlessness, scratching around the tank, etc. If you see that, there's a thread in the breeding sub forum at the top of the page to help you out. EDIT....sorry, you mentioned that she eats supers....if she was eating tons of them, that could have caused the huge weight gain. Cut her back to about 5-6 a day with plenty of greens and offer other insects besides.

 

[kimmy624]

Well I can't seem to figure out how to upload more pictures, but I do have more that are close up.

She just grew so quickly. I was feeding her as much as she wanted because that's what everything I read seemed to say. When they are young, feed as much as they want in a set time.

Should she see a vet?

 

[kimmy624]

I got it!

This one was from mid October

 

[kimmy624]

She actually just pooped, here it is (nice huh lol), the next one she's kind of hanging off her basking rock.

 

[AHBD]

No, you don't need a vet.....just cut down on the amount of protein and take her out once a day in a warm, safe room to run around for a bit. Make sure there's nothing on the floor that she could swallow [ beardies are notorious scavengers ] like rubber band, coins, baby doll toys, lego's hair scrunchy's etc. She just needs less food + more exercise. The " all they can eat" method is not really the best feeding info once a dragon reaches a sub adult size and is chunky. Dragons are all different just like people, dogs, other animals. Some will always over eat. And the best insects for a growing dragon are crickets, dubia roaches and just some worms as part of the diet....phoenix, silk, horn + some supers.

 

[kimmy624]

Thank you for setting my mind at ease!

I'll just cut back on the worms, increase the veggies and let her run around more. When she's out and about she doesn't run around too much. She has a hard time on the hard wood floors and that's mostly what we have. She does enjoy running on the couch more.

 

[AHBD]

Aw, her pics are super-sweet, she's a pretty leatherback And you're welcome....I think she just got carried away with her delicious superworms. Her belly is a bit lumpy so there is a chance that she's carrying eggs. You'll know after a few weeks because she'll stop eating + start digging in corners. And it's fine for her to run on the couch, just watch that she doesn't take a flying leap and flop off .

 

[kimmy624]

She actually does dig at the corners of her enclosure, on the warm end. It's weird because she'll be out and about, and it seems like she doesn't want to be out so I put her back in and she acts like she wants back out.

Maybe she is carrying eggs. She's had this gut for awhile now.

She's such a sweet girl. She loves to cuddle with me in the evening. At least I think she loves it...