Underweight beardie

[nuxmnn]

Hi there , About five or six months ago one of my bearded dragons fell ill. He was very lethargic, not moving for days , very stiff and refusing any food. After taking him to a vet and a series of antibiotics and medications he has been doing way better. He is now a healthy and active boy. The only issue I have is that he is severely under weight, he gets a variety of mealworms super worms crickets and roaches everyday but he still refuses to eat any veggies. Another thing to note is that directly after he became more active he went into brumation. My question is how I can safely yet effectively get some weight on him when he refuses to eat vegetables except for a few bites here and there , he gets as many bugs as he will take yet he doesn’t eat very many. I am very worried, how can I get him to eat more / gain weight in a safe effective way. Any bug/protein recommendations ???

 

[LewisBD]

Hi there, I'm glad to hear that your beardie has gotten better from the past. First off, no mealworms please. They have an exoskeleton of chitin, which is hard for beardies to digest. Roaches and crickets are fine, superworms are alright once in awhile. If you want to fatten him up, add weight, give him waxworms (maybe 3-5) as they're mostly fat every other or third day along with his normal feedings of crix and roaches. Can I ask what his basking and cool temps are? Is his feces 'healthy' looking? Brumation could also have a part in this. Just wake him up whenever your feeding time is, so he still eats.

 

[nuxmnn]

Thank you for the advice, His basking spot is at around 105-115 degrees depending on the area ( he has a custom grout ledge and a multi-level log so he can adjust to how he wants to ) I think the UVB lighting may have played a role, I originally had a single UVB that gave around 13 of the UV so I completely got rid of it and I got two completely new lights to double the UV out put. His cool side is around 74-78 degrees, he has a 120(30?) gallon aquarium so his cooler side temperatures vary a little.
I finally got him to poop last night after a bit of a swim and I looked through his poop and sure enough! Full of chitin, i've read many conflicting things about meal worms and now I have seen first hand evidence, silly owner
I went out immediately and purchased 150 crickets, gonna try and get them to breed hopefully with some luck :mrgreen:
Hoping the meal worms were the issue?
Hes very active and very alert all the time,
Just got a new female as a rescue and the first day I brought her in the house he was sprinting around his cage head bobbing at everything, he has calmed down a bit with the head bobbing but still gets the occasional glimpse of her when I take her out of her tank :lol:

 

[BeardieLover232]

ohhhhh males.. tsk tsk.. Cant get enough with the lady's. :lol: :lol:
Mine recently was underweight, i gave her roaches everyday and supers every other day. i try to encourage her with greens by putting a super in there and maybe she would "accidentally " eat the greens and give her a first taste.
I heard that breeding dubia's are much easier (to care) harder the breed, and slow growing. but they are def. better then crickets, they are a good staple food and they have a lot of calcium!

 

[nuxmnn]

Ive heard that, would LOVE to feed dubias....
unfortunately I live with my parents... Mom barely allows the crickets let alone roaches haha

Im going to be gutloading the crickets and obviously dusting them a bit, hopefully that will help me solve my problem, unfortunately just spend 20 bucks on 150 supers :shock:
Ill still offer them occasionally!

 

[BeardieLover232]

Ive heard that, would LOVE to feed dubias....
unfortunately I live with my parents... Mom barely allows the crickets let alone roaches haha

Im going to be gutloading the crickets and obviously dusting them a bit, hopefully that will help me solve my problem, unfortunately just spend 20 bucks on 150 supers :shock:
Ill still offer them occasionally!

not bad for supers. i used to work at a pet store and i got 1,000 supers for 20. it was a nightmare, they stinker so bad.
it will take a little convincing, they are not bad as others think they are. I also live with my parents, they don't jump, they can last 2 years. and they don't poop and die fast as crickets do. good luck on the crickets. some how they escape even with the best sealed encloser. somehow espacie XDDD :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[LewisBD]

Ive heard that, would LOVE to feed dubias....
unfortunately I live with my parents... Mom barely allows the crickets let alone roaches haha

Im going to be gutloading the crickets and obviously dusting them a bit, hopefully that will help me solve my problem, unfortunately just spend 20 bucks on 150 supers :shock:
Ill still offer them occasionally!

If you want also, rainbowmealworms.com sells a ton of insects to choose from, from a low cost and only $6 shipping (U.S, might vary for different places.) I get phoenix worms, which are also loaded with calcium. If your mom doesn't like things that jump/crawl or what not :lol: , you could get these. The only downside is that the large sizes are kind of small, so you'd have to order 2-4 cups of 100 at a time, which can get expensive in the end. (Fyi, that's why I use rainbowmealworms because they give you points and stuff for buying their products, and then you can gain more and use them later on, on coupons from $5-$40 off. .)