Shed question

[JohnM]

I recently changed my bearded dragon diet to include what I call insects substitute. After feeding this for at least the last 2 weeks I've noticed a big change in my BD sheds. Instead of coming off as flakes, a lot of their recent sheds have been coming off as half the entire body or the entire body and lift off with the spikes in tact. I spoke to one breeder about that and he said that it means that it's a good shed. But I'd like to get some more opinions. What do you think?

 

[beardie]

I agree with the breeder. I’m not sure of the reasons why this occurs, but I think it suggests that the skin when it began to shed was healthier. Back when I kept snakes, near full sheds was indicative of a healthy shed.

 

[Nikki.D]

I recently changed my bearded dragon diet to include what I call insects substitute. After feeding this for at least the last 2 weeks I've noticed a big change in my BD sheds. Instead of coming off as flakes, a lot of their recent sheds have been coming off as half the entire body or the entire body and lift off with the spikes in tact. I spoke to one breeder about that and he said that it means that it's a good shed. But I'd like to get some more opinions. What do you think?

Sounds like a healthy shed. What do you feed your bearded dragon that you call insects substitute? Just curious

 

[Axil]

Has the humidity changed? As it's gotten warmer here the humidity has increased in Beebz enclosure from 9-20% to 30-40%. I noticed his latest shed went much quicker and had larger pieces.

Not quite to the extent your talking about, but his whole belly shed as one piece where it was always a bunch of flakes previously.

I'm sure the dietary changes could play a role even if the humidity has increased however.

 

[JohnM]

Sounds like a healthy shed. What do you feed your bearded dragon that you call insects substitute? Just curious

I had tons of discoids from 2 years of breeding them I thought that I'd never run out. Well 2 dozen dragons later and daily feedings, I started to run out of insects to feed them and needed an insect substitute for their diet. So since you asked me, I had lots of data on the nutritional value of various genera and species of insects, both those that are commonly fed to captive reptiles and others as well. So I compiled all that data into an average nutritional value that was my target diet based on moisture, protein, fat, carbohydrates, fiber/chitin, ash and calcium: phosphorus ratios. The only thing missing was the ideal Ca to P ratio which I wanted to be somewhere between 1.5:1 to 2:1. I consulted USDA nutritional value tables available on line.
Based on all that I came up with: it's based on large grade A hard boiled eggs. If you use other than large eggs (average weight of 50 grams) the ratios will need to be adjusted accordingly.

Insect substitute formula:
1 large hard boiled whole egg
1 large hard boiled egg white only
0.5 grams calcium carbonate powder
16.5 grams krill &/or arctic copepod meal through Brine Shrimp Direct or TDO Chromoboost by Reed Nutrition. I used the TDO Chromoboost since I had it on hand.

This mixture will provide:
Moisture 67.9%
Protein 19.5%
Fat 5.88%
Fiber/chitin ~2 - 3% depending on last ingredient chosen (nothing from eggs) with Chromoboost it's only 0.58%
Calcium minimum 287 mg
Phosphorus minimum 170 mg
Ca ratio 1.69:1

 

[JohnM]

Has the humidity changed? As it's gotten warmer here the humidity has increased in Beebz enclosure from 9-20% to 30-40%. I noticed his latest shed went much quicker and had larger pieces.

Not quite to the extent your talking about, but his whole belly shed as one piece where it was always a bunch of flakes previously.

I'm sure the dietary changes could play a role even if the humidity has increased however.

No change in humidity that I know of.