Transition from juv to adult diet?

[anwyn]

Just for future reference really... I'm wondering how people have transitioned from a bug based diet to the salad based one? Or if the beardie led the way? Mort is 8 months now so thinking ahead.

Right now she gets crickets or locusts about an hour, hour and a half after waking up - as many as she'll eat in 10 min. (tho she likes hand feeding, not chasing) Plus a nice salad.

In the evening about 3 hours before lights out she has another bug session and topped up salad.

I do top up the salad during the day if need be. She's pretty good at eating her greens.


So I don't really know what to look for as she's maturing and when to maybe cut out evening bugs or something? Just looking for your experiences.

 

[anwyn]

and of course after searching for threads first as soon as I posted this lots of relevent topics came up.

FWIW, Mort is a hungry girl and still putting on weight. She had lizard-sitters most of Feb (two different sets, I came home inbetween trips) and the second couple were lovely but definitely indulged her. She put on 60g in two weeks! lol. I came home to a distinctly chubby dragon. But cute.

She just seems to be slowing down on crickets, which is what prompted the question. I'm certain it's just a mood for a few days right now. (plus they're bigger crickets)

Chubby Mort as hat:

 

[CooperDragon]

60g in two weeks is a lot! Sounds like she hit a bit of a growth spurt. As you've probably read, the diet transition is usually gradual but varies with every dragon. I would continue to provide bugs once a day and set a fresh salad in the enclosure every day as well. You can slowly reduce the number of bugs if she isn't taking to the salad but she should eventually be interested in it, especially if you mix up the offerings to find a few staples that she prefers.

 

[anwyn]

yup, I was really surprised when I weighed her! Was expecting about 320-330 and she's 360g. Haven't had a chance to check her length again but that was growing more slowly than her weight. She was at 15" when I left mid-Feb.

I'm pondering just doing an evening bug feed. She can be very lethargic in the mornings (just like me!) and then when she perks up she just wants to socialise. So morning bugs can be difficult anyway. But by evening she's totally into it. She had a healthy dose of 15 standard sized black crickets tonight, so still eating plenty. Just in one go instead of 6-7 twice a day.

Just glad that she does like her salad!