How much is enough?

[Lauram63110]

I recently adopted Big Bertha, a 19 in 680g girl. That is almost 1.5 pounds of Beardie! She's doing fine, but I have a question. This girl is ALWAYS hungry! I don't want to over feed her, but I certainly don't want to starve her, so tell me how much is enough. Am I feeding her too much? too little?

I've been giving her 3 or 4 *LARGE* dubia in the morning before I go to work (they are dusted in a mix of calcium/D3 and Reptivite at each feeding. She also gets a good sized salad of collard greens sprayed with vitamin spray that I keep in the fridge ( I think the chilled spray helps keep the veggies fresh longer). She also gets a few carrot shavings or diced red or yellow Bell pepper pieces or a few Dragon Bites or some soaked RepCal Dragon pellets to add variety to the salad. When I get home from work, she usually has a snack of either more Dragon Bites (about 15-20 pieces) or more Bell pepper pieces totalling a piece of Bell Pepper about the size of a quarter, but diced up small and fed piece by piece off a toothpick. Am I feeding her enough?
She had kind of slowed down on the greens, so this morning, I didnt offer any dubia, I made a nice big salad with all the little extras and left that for her today. I could tell she ate a bunch of it, so she got her dubia tonight when I came home.
I've heard that when they are young, they should eat like 80 per cent bugs and 20 per cent salad and then after a year that should reverse, so now, I think she should be eating mostly salad. I think that from now on, she will get veggies only in the morning, since really, she should be eating more of them now. Please let me know if I am not feeding her enough. She is a lovely creature and the last thing I want to do is not feed her enough or improperly.

 

[AHBD]

It's always nice to see a healthy appetite. She is really a hefty girl, and it's definitely to her advantage to cut her insects to every other day instead of every day. She could benefit from exercise as well....free roam time for at least 1/2 hour every day. Start while she is young, or it will be much harder when she gets older when joints become less flexible and it's more difficult to bear the extra weight. But I would say to cut back on the insects and focus on leafy greens. Use mustard, turnip, dandelion and the ones you are already using. Oh, and dust with calcium only 2- 3 times a week, Reptivite only once a week...also go easy on the vitamin spray, only once a week of either the powder or the spray. I keep on editing my reply, here goes again ! Be on the watch in case she suddenly stops eating and begins scratching around the tank....that could be a sign that she is carrying eggs. If that happens, there is a nice tutorial in the " breeding " section at the top of the page.

 

[Lauram63110]

Thanks! I was afraid I was not feeding her enough! She lives in a 4ft square
Pen in my living room and she bathes every day. She is active!

 

[AHBD]

You're welcome ! Sounds like a nice set up.