AHBD":17s4iisa said:Hi there, Lenny is surely pampered, beloved, spoiled and adored.It's obvious that you want the best for him ! However, he is also quite overweight. Beardies are eating machines and it's easy to overfeed them which sustains fast growth when they are young but can cause serious health problems down the road. Actually , 2 -4 large roached a day is quite enough and you really won't see him lose weight because it's been on an upward trend and now he's nearing adult size. How old is he actually ? I can see he's young, but he is overweight.
Beardies are being overfed and this seems to be the new normal for some of them. Best to let him eat far fewer bugs and try to keep him on more greens. Pooing even once a week can be O.K for most older dragons, so 2-3X a week is fine.
If there were an underlying health problem, it could be attributed to his overeating and may be a fatty liver problem. As long as he's eating it may just be that he is self regulating and eating the smaller amounts because his body doesn't need all the food. If he begins to look ill or completely stop eating you might want to get some bloodwork done to check the liver enzymes for fatty liver disease. I doubt that's it, but keep that as a consideration. One more thing, are you sure Lenny is a male ?
Be careful about feeding so many insects, this can lead to gout as well, which can flare up overnight.
AHBD":2vy9y7mq said:Actually, all those pics were very helpful. He actually looks much chunkier in the pic with you you on your neck, these other pics put him more in proportion. At 17" his weight is just slightly high but not really bad at all. I apologize for the fat shaming of dear Lenny. If he isn't aware of my post, please don't tell him.
His baby pic looks like a typical 1 month old so you can safely say that he's about 8 months old.
Unfortunately there's no way to tell his sex by that pic. He has to be on a flat surface with his feet on the ground and his tail arched up in the air like a happy dog.
And just keep offering the roaches but not in large quantities. I don't use dubias but I know they are large + meaty. Four-five a day should be enough. And keep offering the salads. When he's closer to a year old, skip a day of insects + offer only salad.
RachelG":41uqpx09 said:AHBD":41uqpx09 said:Actually, all those pics were very helpful. He actually looks much chunkier in the pic with you you on your neck, these other pics put him more in proportion. At 17" his weight is just slightly high but not really bad at all. I apologize for the fat shaming of dear Lenny. If he isn't aware of my post, please don't tell him.
His baby pic looks like a typical 1 month old so you can safely say that he's about 8 months old.
Unfortunately there's no way to tell his sex by that pic. He has to be on a flat surface with his feet on the ground and his tail arched up in the air like a happy dog.
And just keep offering the roaches but not in large quantities. I don't use dubias but I know they are large + meaty. Four-five a day should be enough. And keep offering the salads. When he's closer to a year old, skip a day of insects + offer only salad.
Haha, yes when he cuddles in, he spreads like a little pancake batter. His nicknames around here are "jigglebelly" "meaty" and "little lard," but he has yet to take offense, so I think he (or she) has a pretty secure body image. I guess the motivational poster/ makeshift wallpaper we used when he was little worked, haha.
If I may ask, what do you feed your reptiles if not dubias? I had a tarantula who ate crickets when I was younger, and though he lived for 13 years, I was never able to establish or maintain a cricket colony. I was quite happy to find out that beardies could eat dubia instead, and they've been very easy to keep. I had given different types of worms when Lenny was younger/smaller, but I always worried about impaction, biting, high fat content, etc., so they've never been a staple for him.
<<< I buy my insects by mail order every two weeks ( currently 800 x 2/3 size crickets ) , only insects I've bothered breeding have been mealworms and silkworms.
Good staple feeder insects for a 6 month old are
LARGE SIZED phoenix worms (USA)
medium sized (2 inch long) and large silkworms
crickets , roaches and locusts (size to suit and gutloaded with calcium rich greens and dusted daily)
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