Should I be feeding my beardie more than once a day?

[jfingers]

I have a 5 month old beardie dragon named Iggy. I feed him twice a day along with veggies. He does seem to really eat well as far as veggies goes for his age. I feed him crickets twice a day. The thing that I noticed is that he is really starting to get a belly. I've only had him for like 3 weeks, but he has really put on a lot of weight. Should I cut his feeding on crickets down to once a day since he eats his veggies really good?

 

[MrWhite]

in my opinion, I wouldn't start cutting back on protein until he's much older and/or full grown.

 

[brezofleur]

I agree. Babies eat much more protein than adults (80% protein, 20% veggies as babies, and opposite as adults).

I think most here would say to feed him 2-3x / day and have him eat as much as he can in 10 minutes. He might have a belly today, and then tomorrow he'll be twice as long with no belly. They grow extremely fast! I didn't believe my Athena was every 5 inches long. I blinked and she's almost 12 now... Sniffle.

 

[jfingers]

ok thanks guys

 

[SoleSky]

Definitely feed him/her 2-3 times a day as much as he can eat and nothing bigger than the space between the eyes. At 5 months that little guy should be eating upwards of 50-75 crix per day. So about 25 per sitting. As Don't worry about a baby getting fat or overeating, in fact the more they eat the better at such a young age, as brezofleur you can offer then food 2-3x for 10-15 minutes.

 

[jfingers]

ya he eats about 15-20 crickets a sitting. Today he ate 35 total. I'll continue to feed him twice a day.

 

[SoleSky]

That's great! He's got quite the appetite for a little guy fantastic.

 

[Kray]

I have two beardies, hatched in late July, and between them they eat 1000 crickets a week. So yes, keep feeding your baby twice a day, and she will grow like a weed.

 

[MrSlak]

This is interesting to read my beardie has been a very slow grower and he went off his food quite badly for a while and he didnt eat anywhere near this many crickets. This could be why he is such a slow grower i shall be increasing the size of his meals.

 

[Repkyle]

That's intresting, my dudes around the five month mark now and he's eating around 10 crix 10 mealworms and around 3-5 roaches, twice daily. Very little salad ATM. Up untill I read his I thought this was loads :/ guess I need to incourage more eating then. I'd like to feed 3 times but I'm in work most the day so unless it's a weekend I'm stuck with twice.