Weight gain in adult dragon

[dogndragonmom]

Hi there, We rescued Cheech on 11/22 and he had his first vet visit with us on 12/13. They did everything, labs, xrays and fecal to check his health and give us a baseline for him. His fecal was negative and his labs were ok. His xrays were also good. He was having some loose stools, so we started him on Benebac and thankfully that has helped with this issue.

At the time he weighed 324 grams, and the vet said this is a little small and could be attributed to his poor care/diet/husbandry before. She recommended feeding him insects daily to help put a little weight on him, so he has been getting a mix of gutloaded and dusted crickets, waxworms, superworms, and BSFL in addition to his salads. I ordered a scale from Amazon and weighed him this morning and he weighed 358 grams. I know there can be a small margin of error in the weight, but is 30ish grams in 2 weeks a normal weight gain for an adult that has been getting the above diet? Once we got him to 350ish grams, I plan on feeding him insects, once maybe twice a week and feeding mostly salads. He is probably going to go on a complete food strike now, because he LOVES his bugs lol

Just wanted to ask this amazing community and get some feedback from people that have more experience with dragons that we do. We absolutely adore this little lizard so much and want to spoil him and make up for all the bad care he had before us.

He is in an 4x2x2 Zen enclosure. He has a 150w plus a 75w basking bulb. His UVB is a Reptisun T5 10.0.

 

[KarrieRee]

Hi there, We rescued Cheech on 11/22 and he had his first vet visit with us on 12/13. They did everything, labs, xrays and fecal to check his health and give us a baseline for him. His fecal was negative and his labs were ok. His xrays were also good. He was having some loose stools, so we started him on Benebac and thankfully that has helped with this issue.

At the time he weighed 324 grams, and the vet said this is a little small and could be attributed to his poor care/diet/husbandry before. She recommended feeding him insects daily to help put a little weight on him, so he has been getting a mix of gutloaded and dusted crickets, waxworms, superworms, and BSFL in addition to his salads. I ordered a scale from Amazon and weighed him this morning and he weighed 358 grams. I know there can be a small margin of error in the weight, but is 30ish grams in 2 weeks a normal weight gain for an adult that has been getting the above diet? Once we got him to 350ish grams, I plan on feeding him insects, once maybe twice a week and feeding mostly salads. He is probably going to go on a complete food strike now, because he LOVES his bugs lol

Just wanted to ask this amazing community and get some feedback from people that have more experience with dragons that we do. We absolutely adore this little lizard so much and want to spoil him and make up for all the bad care he had before us.

Ok I would lay off the wax worms they are very fattening -- he could of gained that amount of weight in that time frame w/ all the things hes been eating --- super worms are also fattening so I would cut back to 2 - 3 times per week and feed 1-3 -- wax worms less than that per week - the BSFL and the crickets are good I would get him switched over to dubias --- try him on those first sometimes dragons are picky and wont eat the dubias but will eat the crickets -- or vice versa --- feed your BSFL as many as you want as they are a good staple feeder w/ the crickets or dubias as well - I would cut back on the insects to 2-3 times per week - salads every day as much as he wants --- please do not dust the BSFL dust the insects only --- what kind of UVB are you using this is going to tell me the supplements being fed if hes eating salads and a variety you wont haft to feed the vitamins w / beta carotene so much as he will get his vitamins thru them --- please NO coils for a UVB --- I will help w / what you need if that is what your using --- this is extremely important along w/ your basking temps -- they should be 95-100 taken w/a digital probe thermometer place the probe on the spot where he basks wait 10 min or so get the temp 95-100 --- you want surface temps not air -- basking bulb should be a CLEAR bright white bulb NO colored NO off white or yellowish bulbs NO day time bulbs they have a neoyidium coating on them that hurts the eyes --
his weight is good for over 300 grams -- that is what you want --- you dont want him having a tail bone that is not thick you want it thick -- not boney sticking out --- also to keep him hydrated you can get him some horn worms they are good and rinse his greens before serving and gut load the insects I would feed them at nite or before lights off then they will be good and gut loaded in the morning

 

[dogndragonmom]

Ok I would lay off the wax worms they are very fattening -- he could of gained that amount of weight in that time frame w/ all the things hes been eating --- super worms are also fattening so I would cut back to 2 - 3 times per week and feed 1-3 -- wax worms less than that per week - the BSFL and the crickets are good I would get him switched over to dubias --- try him on those first sometimes dragons are picky and wont eat the dubias but will eat the crickets -- or vice versa --- feed your BSFL as many as you want as they are a good staple feeder w/ the crickets or dubias as well - I would cut back on the insects to 2-3 times per week - salads every day as much as he wants --- please do not dust the BSFL dust the insects only --- what kind of UVB are you using this is going to tell me the supplements being fed if hes eating salads and a variety you wont haft to feed the vitamins w / beta carotene so much as he will get his vitamins thru them --- please NO coils for a UVB --- I will help w / what you need if that is what your using --- this is extremely important along w/ your basking temps -- they should be 95-100 taken w/a digital probe thermometer place the probe on the spot where he basks wait 10 min or so get the temp 95-100 --- you want surface temps not air -- basking bulb should be a CLEAR bright white bulb NO colored NO off white or yellowish bulbs NO day time bulbs they have a neoyidium coating on them that hurts the eyes --
his weight is good for over 300 grams -- that is what you want --- you dont want him having a tail bone that is not thick you want it thick -- not boney sticking out --- also to keep him hydrated you can get him some horn worms they are good and rinse his greens before serving and gut load the insects I would feed them at nite or before lights off then they will be good and gut loaded in the morning

Thank you so much. We live in Florida so we cannot have dubias. He has a Reptisun T5 10.0 placed inside the enclosure. He has not colored bulbs at all, as they are bad for them. I only dust the crickets because BSFL do not need dusted.

 

[KarrieRee]

Thank you so much. We live in Florida so we cannot have dubias. He has a Reptisun T5 10.0 placed inside the enclosure. He has not colored bulbs at all, as they are bad for them. I only dust the crickets because BSFL do not need dusted.

Google discoid roaches in Fl you will come up w/ some websites to order from -- distance should be 12-15 inches directly above the basking decor for your UVB