imderanged
Member
Vladimir Putinontheritz is about 1 year and 3 months old. He is 17 inches long. he lives in a 40 breeder. His UVB/heat is a MVB, and his spot gets to around 110F. A little while ago, as his growth slowed down his appetite really seemed to drop off quite a bit. At first I wasn't too concerned as it seemed he was just giving up the protein (crickets) in favor of veggies...but then I noticed that he was leaving his salad in his bowl more often. He eats some vegetables but hardly ever touches the crickets anymore.
He has gotten too large for the little scale I had, but he doesn't look like he has lost any weight. In fact, I don't THINK he's fat, but he looks to me to be in a heavier body condition than many other dragons I see on say, Youtube or something like that ( other dragons heads usually look skinnier to me and I didn't know why until I found out they have those little fat pockets on top of their scull, Vlad doesn't look pudgie to me but his head is nice and "filled out")
Then the other day I was feeding my Boxie mealworms, and I decided to give Vlad one as a treat and he ate it right away. But I've always read Mealworms are not a good staple for Beardies so I didn't want to keep giving them to him. I did a little reading and from what I found, Superworms are safer and a better staple than Mealies, so I got some Supers. He is CRAZY about them. I gave him 6 or 7 in a row yesterday and today, and both times if I hadn't stopped he would have just kept eating. But today after he got the supers he went nuts! He was running around the tank which he never does, clawing at the glass, and then his beard turned black! I took him out and he calmed down while I stroked him but when we put him back he started up again...
I watched him for a little while and realized he was banging on the glass on only one side of his tank. Below and to the left side of his tank is my Boxies tub. He saw us give Gherkin a superworm and he was going nuts watching gherkin eat. He kept tilting his head so he could look down at Gherkin and then he would start banging on the glass all over again trying to find away to get down there and steal the turtles dinner. He's still mad about it right now! I've never seen him act like this about anything!
I'm a little nervous that he will become fixated on Supers and not eat anything else. I'm also a little confused... I'm having trouble finding a definitive answer on just how much he SHOULD be eating at his age. I want him to have a healthy varied diet ... he gets greens and squash and some other fruit & vegetables, but I have trouble finding different sources of protein. He turns his nose up at crickets, he loves waxworms too, but he just gets those as treats, I am not allowed to get roaches, and I have looked but I cannot find Phoenix worms anywhere. Any advice would be great! THANKS.
He has gotten too large for the little scale I had, but he doesn't look like he has lost any weight. In fact, I don't THINK he's fat, but he looks to me to be in a heavier body condition than many other dragons I see on say, Youtube or something like that ( other dragons heads usually look skinnier to me and I didn't know why until I found out they have those little fat pockets on top of their scull, Vlad doesn't look pudgie to me but his head is nice and "filled out")
Then the other day I was feeding my Boxie mealworms, and I decided to give Vlad one as a treat and he ate it right away. But I've always read Mealworms are not a good staple for Beardies so I didn't want to keep giving them to him. I did a little reading and from what I found, Superworms are safer and a better staple than Mealies, so I got some Supers. He is CRAZY about them. I gave him 6 or 7 in a row yesterday and today, and both times if I hadn't stopped he would have just kept eating. But today after he got the supers he went nuts! He was running around the tank which he never does, clawing at the glass, and then his beard turned black! I took him out and he calmed down while I stroked him but when we put him back he started up again...
I watched him for a little while and realized he was banging on the glass on only one side of his tank. Below and to the left side of his tank is my Boxies tub. He saw us give Gherkin a superworm and he was going nuts watching gherkin eat. He kept tilting his head so he could look down at Gherkin and then he would start banging on the glass all over again trying to find away to get down there and steal the turtles dinner. He's still mad about it right now! I've never seen him act like this about anything!
I'm a little nervous that he will become fixated on Supers and not eat anything else. I'm also a little confused... I'm having trouble finding a definitive answer on just how much he SHOULD be eating at his age. I want him to have a healthy varied diet ... he gets greens and squash and some other fruit & vegetables, but I have trouble finding different sources of protein. He turns his nose up at crickets, he loves waxworms too, but he just gets those as treats, I am not allowed to get roaches, and I have looked but I cannot find Phoenix worms anywhere. Any advice would be great! THANKS.
