kamaladevii
Member
Hi
I apologize in advance for a somewhat longish letter, but I want to communicate thoroughly all information that you might need to make an opinion on the matter. Me and my boy friend have two dragons that have been with us since they were both about 2 months old. They are now about 7 months old and are 13.75 and 17 inches. We've done a lot of research on the net and asked many forums about feeding and general care but there's a lot of conflicting information on when you start treating a beardie as an adult. Some say 16 inches, some say 12 months, others say 200 grams.
Also I'm concerned that the bigger dragon (Kilda) who is 17 inches (& 7months old) is going through a brumation. But it's May, neither winter nor summer, and she's young! I've read in the forums that this can actually happen. She seems to hide in the shade now more often and isn't as active as she used to be. She's 7 months old, 300+ grams, and 17 inches long. She seems lethargic in the enclosure until I take her out then she'll run to my bedroom mirror and stare at herself for a while.
She seems to be avoiding the UV. There's a basking log behind the beardies' basking platform where they can get away from the basking light but be about 6 inches from the UV. Zoey the little one, still goes to the log every time he's done with basking but Kilda will go down to the floor and hide her head beneath the log as if to hide from the UV bulb.
The dragons have a 24 x 22 x 48 enclosure each, they were housed together until Kilda started bullying Zoey. They have 36” Reptisun 10s that will be 6 months old in july (and need to be replaced). Both enclosures use Coralife Digital Thermometers and have Linoleum as a flooring (I used double sided tape to install the flooring so there are no issues with glue fumes). They both bathe every day for hydration and so they don't poop in their cages.
Kilda used to eat 12 large canned crickets a day (chopped up in half ) and get her veggies in the morning . She eats her veggies regularly, though not that much, but will eat her crickets like there's no tomorrow. I thought I'd feed her veggies every day, and protein every other day for now because some sites recommend to start feeding dragons 17 inch, or over 200 grams as adults. She was growing about .25 to .5 of and inch every week. I feed Zoey about 45 – 50 large reptiworms a day. He will eat veggies every now and then but not regularly. He's a lot smaller but very active and sociable so I'm not really worried about him, or should I be?
Besides Kilda's behavior I'm also concerned that if I feed our dragons as adults prematurely they'll not grow to their optimum, on the flip side, if we feed them as adults later they might develop kidney problems from too much protein. Some sites recommend to treat a beardie as an adult after 12 months.
Thanks again for the time. We are looking forward to hearing from you!
Yours truly,
Cj
I apologize in advance for a somewhat longish letter, but I want to communicate thoroughly all information that you might need to make an opinion on the matter. Me and my boy friend have two dragons that have been with us since they were both about 2 months old. They are now about 7 months old and are 13.75 and 17 inches. We've done a lot of research on the net and asked many forums about feeding and general care but there's a lot of conflicting information on when you start treating a beardie as an adult. Some say 16 inches, some say 12 months, others say 200 grams.
Also I'm concerned that the bigger dragon (Kilda) who is 17 inches (& 7months old) is going through a brumation. But it's May, neither winter nor summer, and she's young! I've read in the forums that this can actually happen. She seems to hide in the shade now more often and isn't as active as she used to be. She's 7 months old, 300+ grams, and 17 inches long. She seems lethargic in the enclosure until I take her out then she'll run to my bedroom mirror and stare at herself for a while.
She seems to be avoiding the UV. There's a basking log behind the beardies' basking platform where they can get away from the basking light but be about 6 inches from the UV. Zoey the little one, still goes to the log every time he's done with basking but Kilda will go down to the floor and hide her head beneath the log as if to hide from the UV bulb.
The dragons have a 24 x 22 x 48 enclosure each, they were housed together until Kilda started bullying Zoey. They have 36” Reptisun 10s that will be 6 months old in july (and need to be replaced). Both enclosures use Coralife Digital Thermometers and have Linoleum as a flooring (I used double sided tape to install the flooring so there are no issues with glue fumes). They both bathe every day for hydration and so they don't poop in their cages.
Kilda used to eat 12 large canned crickets a day (chopped up in half ) and get her veggies in the morning . She eats her veggies regularly, though not that much, but will eat her crickets like there's no tomorrow. I thought I'd feed her veggies every day, and protein every other day for now because some sites recommend to start feeding dragons 17 inch, or over 200 grams as adults. She was growing about .25 to .5 of and inch every week. I feed Zoey about 45 – 50 large reptiworms a day. He will eat veggies every now and then but not regularly. He's a lot smaller but very active and sociable so I'm not really worried about him, or should I be?
Besides Kilda's behavior I'm also concerned that if I feed our dragons as adults prematurely they'll not grow to their optimum, on the flip side, if we feed them as adults later they might develop kidney problems from too much protein. Some sites recommend to treat a beardie as an adult after 12 months.
Thanks again for the time. We are looking forward to hearing from you!
Yours truly,
Cj