How many live feeders for a 9-month-old dragon?

[XtinaBeardieMom]

Hey everyone,

So I just brought home a 9-month-old male beardie a little over a week ago, and I'm really struggling to figure out how many live feeders to give him. When I brought him home he was 15" long and weighed 290g. I was giving him 10 medium feeders per day for the first several days (consisting of mostly medium dubias and a few butterworms). However, he would snap them up in just a couple of minutes and seemed like he was still hungry. So then I experimented just to see how many he would eat in a 10-minute timeframe if I let him go at it unlimited. He ate about 20 dubias and 10 butterworms :shock: Now I've been giving him 15 dubias and 5 butterworms per day, so 20 total medium feeders per day. He's already gone from 290g to 330g in just over a week! Am I hurting him by putting weight on him this fast, or is that a normal growth rate for a juvenile/sub-adult dragon? He eats his salads pretty well too - at least a little every day, sometimes a lot. I want to make sure I'm feeding him enough, but I also don't want to cause him to get fatty liver disease or become overweight. Help please!

 

[Askele]

Well, I have a 4 month old dragon, and I was told to keep it 6-8 units a day. So your dragon might be something like 5-6 or something. I'm not sure. Don't go overfeeding your dragon, he'll keep on eating. In the wild, food isn't so plentiful, and a dragon will just keep eating whatever he can find because he doesn't know when his next meal will be. Keep it strict. He won't starve or anything, he's a reptile, and reptiles don't need to eat so much. That's why they adapt so well. At 9 months he should be given more greens. Make sure there's always a few vegetables in his dish.
Don't listen to someone when they say "You have to give them 20 crickets a day and another boxload in the evening" or "just feed them as much as they want". Bearded dragons don't care about going on a diet. They don't care about how obese or fat they are. It's your responsibility to make sure he eats the right amount of food. Overfeeding is very common, and some of us keep on feeding our dragons out of love and anxiety, hoping we've given them enough food.
Keep the units strict. Don't be afriad to skip meals.

 

[miloandrufusdragons]

Ok. If he's 9 months U should probably give him abt 15-30 large crickets (3/4-1" crickets) a day and a small bowl of salad.

Askele wrote:
Well, I have a 4 month old dragon, and I was told to keep it 6-8 units a day. So your dragon might be something like 5-6 or something. I'm not sure. Don't go overfeeding your dragon, he'll keep on eating. In the wild, food isn't so plentiful, and a dragon will just keep eating whatever he can find because he doesn't know when his next meal will be. Keep it strict. He won't starve or anything, he's a reptile, and reptiles don't need to eat so much. That's why they adapt so well. At 9 months he should be given more greens. Make sure there's always a few vegetables in his dish.
Don't listen to someone when they say "You have to give them 20 crickets a day and another boxload in the evening" or "just feed them as much as they want". Bearded dragons don't care about going on a diet. They don't care about how obese or fat they are. It's your responsibility to make sure he eats the right amount of food. Overfeeding is very common, and some of us keep on feeding our dragons out of love and anxiety, hoping we've given them enough food.
Keep the units strict. Don't be afriad to skip meals.[/size][/quote]

And Askele, how big is your dragon? How big are your feeders? A 4 month old should be getting as much as he can eat in 10-15 minutes 2 x a day. Your dragon is being underfed!!!!! His diet as of now should be 80% protein and 20= veggies. If 6-8 bugs a day is 80% of his diet then you are not only malnoutishing him you are underfunding him. You can start controlling his bug intake by 8 months of age. Your dragon growth will probably be stunted at this rate. PM me for more info : D

 

[Mariah94]

Don't listen to Askele, she's been giving out wrong info all over the forum. I'm not positive about a 9 month old as that is nearing year old, but baby and juvi's are supposed to be offered as many as they can eat in 10-15 mins twice a day, and also offered veggies daily. as they age the diet sort of flips around to veggies as the main feeder, but bugs are still a part of the diet. I would ask a moderator as they know for sure, sorry I can't help you too much here. But Askele is wrong.

 

[Catalyst]

There are two methods I know of for feeding a growing dragon: let them eat as much as they want two feedings per day, or cut them off once they hit 50 bugs in a single day. The first method reasons that by offering everything they'll eat, you make sure your dragon gets enough protein to grow properly. The second method reasons that 50 bugs a day is enough to support growth while encouraging healthier eating habits because the dragon isn't constantly stuffed full of bugs and is also likely to start eating salad at an earlier age. I've seen big, healthy dragons result from both methods. Either way, once your dragon is about 12 months old, you start cutting back on the number of bugs each day so that around 18 months of age he is only getting 25-50 bugs per week, with a large daily salad.

Hope this helps