Inherited a female Beardie

[lucki]

I'm hopping someone out there can help me. I have inheited a 16 inch. female Beardie, however I was wondering if there is a way to determine her age. I don't know much on were she came from due to the fact that she was taken in a puppy mill rade. I work for a vet that deals with exotic pets. I have read quite a bit on them in the past few days. I have no real trouble handling her. I just want to make sure I'm feeding her enough and with all I've read I'm a little confussed

 

[Catalyst]

It's hard to tell how old she is just by looking at her. At 16 inches she could be a large juvenile/subadult or she could be a full grown adult dragon (my 2 yr old female is only 16 inches).

Regardless of how old she is, you'll want to give her a large daily salad that's mostly dark leafy greens (collard greens, dandelion greens, endive, escarole, turnip greens, mustard greens, etc.) with veggies and a bit of fruit mixed in for variety. There's a helpful food list available at http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

The area where age makes a difference is in live food. A young dragon eats much more live food than an adult dragon does. For instance, with a growing dragon her size you could safely give 10-20 superworms a day, while an adult should only have 25-30 supers a week.

You could try feeding here the increased amount of food as if she were a juvenile for a month or two and keep a close eye on her weight and length. If she doesn't get any longer then it's pretty safe to say that she's an adult who is done growing. If she is a juvenile after all, the extra food will allow her to continue growing in length.

 

[MALIBUSMOM]

Lots of UVB.Repti sun 10.0 or megaray mvb. temps. 105 basking.bath regularly to stay hydrated as well as h20 dish in viv.