Is my beardie under weight?

[Nessiedrakosmom]

My lil dude is about 6 months old now.
Hes in a 40gal tank.
100w basking light, perch is a little over 6 inches away.
10.0 UVB light.
CHE for overnight.
Substrate is a calcium sand I believe. (Im not 100% on that)
I feed him greens everyday which usually are collard greens, kale, or bolk choy. Mixed in with bell peppers or carrots every once in a while. He gets as many crickets as he pleases for two days and then one day of just greens.
Bath time about twice a week, sometimes more if hes in shed.

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, no pics showed up, here's how :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload

Also, be careful of calcium sand, beardies can become impacted from eating it.....it turns in o sludge if enough is eaten. Better to use non adhesive shelf liner or newspaper sections.

 

[Nessiedrakosmom]

The pic should be up now.
I do not feed my beardie in his tank, not sure if that helps with the sand. At the moment i have a small feeding tub. And his bowl for greens is the only thing that goes in his tank. I do my best to make sure theres no sand on his greens at all. And im very thorough with cleaning.

 

[CooperDragon]

He looks decent for his size. How is he about eating his salads? You may want to give him bugs every day until he's about a year old but if he's good about eating veges that will help. Do you offer any bugs in addition to crickets? Treats of silk worms and black soldier fly larvae might be a good addition to his diet.

 

[Nessiedrakosmom]

Heres more pics. I have given horn worms once while they were small. But that's it. Ill try the silk worm or the black soldier fly larvae. Hes easily going through 5 dozen crickets a day. Is that normal? He also loves his greens. The salads i give are quite large and hell pick through the day.

 

[CooperDragon]

He looks a bit lean in those photos but if he's picking off 50+ crickets per day he is in a growth spurt and probably burning them off quickly. It's good that he's into his salads. That will give him a healthy, varied diet. The hornworms are also a good treat for him. Variety is key. He will probably start to slow down in growth soon and his appetite will start to decline. As that happens I'd move him (gradually) more and more toward a vegetarian diet with bugs only a couple of times per week.

 

[Nessiedrakosmom]

Alright the growth spurt makes sense and makes me feel a bit better about his size. I was worried because his length increased so quickly but wasnt getting girthier. Ill try to vary the bugs as best i can, not much option locally around here. Crickets are also a dollar a dozen which is quite a bit out of my pocket. Any other options that wouldnt have to be local you know of? Websites that ship bugs? Lol

 

[CooperDragon]

Think of him as a gangly teenager (with the appetite to go with it) :lol:

Yes, definitely order bugs online. It's much cheaper to do that than get them locally in most places. I used to order crickets from premiumcrickets and they were around $30 for 1,000 shipped which lasted around a month when my guy was hitting his growth spurts. I replaced those with a dubia roach colony I started with a mixed order from ABDragons. I get silk worms and horn worms from coastalsilkworms. I get my black soldier fly larvae from SymtonBSF. I just order the worms on rotation as a treat. My main feeder is now dubia roaches since my colony is established and thriving. They replaced crickets as I hated dealing with them.

 

[Nessiedrakosmom]

That is extremely helpful!! Thank you oh so very much

 

[AHBD]

Definitely order online.....if he's eating 60 crix a day, they are probably on the small side. At his size he could easily eat large crix, but if you order online get the next size down [ 3/4 or winged ] then let them grow. 3 dozen large size [ or slightly more ] should fill him up, split onto 2 feedings.