Recommended workouts for overweight beardies?

[discojan]

Hi all,

We just bought a big kiddie pool for our 4yr old citrus, Electra who is weighing in at a whopping 715 grrams. I'm just curious, what are recommended beardie workouts? We let the water warm up in the sun and let her swim around--but do they need intervals or anything like humans? I thought about making her do it in front of Richard Simmons, so she too could "sweat to the oldies" (if beardies could sweat), but alas it's just me cheering her on.

Does anyone else have experience with this?

Many thanks, Jan

 

[BadCon]

Reptiles are masters at conserving energy...loosing weight for them takes time. My best suggestion is to just reduce her feeder intake. Limit her diet to dark leafy greens only, only a few veggies occasionally. Perhaps give her just a few crickets/worms/roaches/etc once a week. As for workouts, swimming is good...though its typically pretty stressful, so I wouldn't want them to do it for a long period of time....and always with supervision. I also wouldn't have the water so deep that they are truly swimming...just a few inches, enough that they start to float, but their feet can still touch the bottom.

 

[discojan]

Thanks BadCon...We did short interval sessions yesterday. She swam around the pool and then treaded water near the edge, under my supervision the whole time! I'm hoping she will feel better and be more active on her own after shedding a few grams. She is a beloved member of our family and we want her to have a long and healthy life!

 

[BeardieGrandma]

Joga's workout consists of laps around the livingroom and the backyard. We start on the couch and she walks to the end, jumps on a pillow on the floor, and waddles to the sliding glass doors to look outside. I pick her up and take her back to the couch. Lather, rinse, repeat.

When we're outside, we start on the far side of the patio on my leg. She jumps down, does the army crawl slowly at first, then a light sprint across the patio to jump on a small retaining wall. We do this about 10 times...

Seriously, though, I'd agree with previous poster, may need to keep the activity going and reduce the caloric intake a bit...

 

[discojan]

Dear Beardie Grandma,

Joga's routine sounds good! Our Electra is so lazy that even when she is allowed free reign in the house or outside she chooses to stay in one place and bask! We figured with swimming, her survival instincts would kick in and she'd have to move, but like the other poster suggested, we realize it's also pretty stressful, so we only do it in short spurts--like 30 to 45 sec. at a time, for about 5-6 times. We're going to do it most days this summer and see if it helps. We've already reduced her diet to only greens and the occasional super or horn worm ( like 1x a week).

We'll keep you posted!

Best wishes, Jan

 

[discojan]

Here are some photos of exercise in action, so far, she's lost 10 grams!!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150337904573298&set=a.10150337904268298.429580.698523297&type=1&theater

Enjoy, Jan

 

[discojan]

Yay! Hooray for Electra! We're happy to report that after a month of increased swimming and decreased insects, Electra is down to 670g! Still about 25g heavier than she was when we got her, but she seems happier and is much more active now that she isn't carrying around all that extra weight. Yay!

 

[Gail]

Way to go electra! Weight can be so hard for dragon to shed, you've done really good with her.

 

[discojan]

Thanks Gail! We're really proud of her.