How fat is fat?

[GoneForLunch]

My dragon is about 1 1/2 years old, 18" roughly (tip of head to tail), and weighs 518 grams.

Is he on the verge of obesity if not already there? I got him at a pretty hefty size, I honestly don't think he's been gaining lots of weight since I got him. But I now have a scale and will watch his weight regularly.

 

[AHBD]

Beardies have different body structures and 518 grams would be at the high end of appropriate weight for an 18" dragon. As long as he eats a good diet , trying to focus on greens, and gets to run around for exercise at least a few times a week he should be fine,but not gaining anymore.

 

[GoneForLunch]

His diet right now is salad in the morning, refreshed at 3.

10-15 Large/Medium crickets, max (or as many as he eats up to that).

But as of today, I swapped crix for phoenix worms to switch it up for him. I have 500 of those worms and then back to crix for a bit.

 

[AHBD]

That's great if he eats all the salad. If the crix are medium then about 10-15 a day is fine, if they're large you might cut it back to about 8-10.

 

[GoneForLunch]

My problem is, he doesn't eat the salad...

If i move it around and show him the fruit he kinda cherry picks the fruit. But generally he doesn't enjoy his greens. He's pretty stubborn with it. I think it may be his mustard greens as he seem to eat more Collard Greens, but not by much. He never has eaten a lot of salad for me.

 

[AHBD]

Just keep offering it, and make sure that your crix are gut loaded a good diet before he eats them. Any greens you feed your dragon can be fed to the crix, just don't let it get moldy. And you can skip a day of crickets once in a while to hopefully increase his hunger the next day + get him to eat his salad.

 

[GoneForLunch]

I have always put some carrots and greens in for the crickets, small bits so it's finished and if it's done before lights out I toss in a little more. They always got gut loaded. And I tried going a day or two with no crickets, and it really encouraged him to eat his salad. The first day he ate like one full salad, and a little more. But the second it was like half a salad. So it didn't seem like it would be super effective.

 

[AHBD]

That's fine, they don't need anywhere near the amount of food as when they are small + growing fast. Skip the insects about 1-2X a week and he should eat more salad and it will keep him from getting too fat.

 

[GoneForLunch]

Will do for sure. I will just not give him insects tuesdays/thursday or something and make sure he gets to run around outside of his tank often. He does get taken out every other day if not every day for a little bit. But its usually a more relaxed (less running) time for him.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Please don't inflict the current human anti-obesity cultism on your pet beardie. He wont understand why he is deprived the food he likes and wants.

 

[kingofnobbys]

His diet right now is salad in the morning, refreshed at 3.

10-15 Large/Medium crickets, max (or as many as he eats up to that).

.

That's perfectly fine, my Rex eats about that many (daily - she LOVES HER CRICKETS which I gut load with buk choi, puk choi, carrot and adult beardie pellets (repcal), and she gets buk choi and carrot sticks every other day, everyday if we can convince her to eat it, apple , green seedless grape, 2 - 3 superworms a few times a week. She's a very fussy eater.

 

[AHBD]

Bearded dragons are prone to overeating just like other pets and we humans. It's important to see this before they become overweight unless we just want to pretend they are not getting fat. Being overweight will affect them much more as they get older, just like humans. So the amount of could be reduced just by a few, he will eat more greens + be a healthier animal. Isn't that a reasonable goal ? We want them healthy,not chubby + lazy. Greens should be the staple of the salad, going very light on the fruit.

 

[GoneForLunch]

It's always a very full greeny salad with few slices up grapes or a couple blueberries. He doesn't like strawberries so those got the boot. His salad is maybe 1/6-1/8 fruit. and the rest is greens. Also he gets carrots fairly often. Maybe 4-5 times a week. But it is still outweighed in greens.

 

[AHBD]

That sounds perfect ! Maybe just a few less servings of carrot, but all in all a good salad if the staple is turnip, mustard, collard and dandelion .

 

[GoneForLunch]

The staple was collard and is currently mustard greens. I'll cut back on his carrots, he doesn't seem to eat them much anyway. He eats more salad if I take it out of his dish and put it next to him in his basking spot, so I do that occasionally so he eats some.