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Posted 10/5/2008 2:42:34 PM


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There are a lot of different factors that contribute to proper growth of young bearded dragons...definately the fact that you had no UVB till recently will affect this, but other things could affect them too. The best way to assess what other factors could contribute to their small size is for you to give us a real thorough break down of your set up, care etc...

- Are the dragons house together or seperately?

- What type of heating are you using? White bulb? Red bulb? ceremaic heat emiter? under tank heater? etc?

- What are the temperatures in the basking spot during the day?

- How are you measuring these temperatures? Are you using a digital thermometer?

- What type of substrate are you using?

- How often are you feeding crickets? how many crickets are the beardies eating per day?

- How often are you supplementing the food?

- How are the beardies behaving? Are they active or sleeping during the day? Moving around the tank? Basking? etc?

The answers to these questions will help to target any other areas of concern...if you did not know about a dragons need for UVB untilr ecently then its quite possible there are other aspects of their care that you are not aware of...so its very important to know everyhing about your husbandry in order to help out your beardies.

A couple general things...if the beardies are housed together it would be wise to seperate them..especially with babies, they thrive and grow much better if housed alone - and its easier to monitor their health and progress.

Make sure you are providing a nice hot basking spot with a bright white light bulb m- high temps and bright white light are as important as UVB in the health and growth of your beardie.

As for getting the beardies to eat greens...here are a few tips...

 

  1. Try dangling, wiggling, or dragging the greens across the cage floor, anything to convince your beardie that its not a piece of collard green, its actually just an unusually bright oddly shaped cricket! Seriously though, the movement sometimes is enough to stimulate their hunting sense and they will attack the greens.
  2. Feed greens first. Don’t try offering greens right after your BD has feasted on crickets, instead offer the greens first. Put them in the cage in the morning and leave them their all day. Don’t be afraid to make your beardie go for a day without food, it wont hurt her. Feed her the greens when she is hungriest.
  3. Try throwing some super or silkworms in with a dish of greens. Mix it up real well so your beardie has no choice but to get a few mouthfuls of greens if they want the worms.
  4. Make sure you are using a variety of veggies. All beardies have different tastes, and yours may not find the veggies you have been offering palatable. Also try veggies of different colors. You may have to spoil your beardie by offering her the yummier veggies instead of the plain old traditional greens for awhile if she isn’t taking to them. Try colorful ones like shredded carrots, shredded purple cabbage, all sorts of squashes, mixed berries, sweet clover, various bell peppers and edible flowers.
  5. Sometimes it really takes dropping the veggies right into their mouths to get them to eat them. If that’s how it is, so be it. Trick your beardie into tasting as many veggies as possible, eventually she will catch on.
  6. Try using baby food to get your dragon to eat greens. Butternut squash is often  popular flavor – as is chicken. You can start by dabbing a little baby food on your dragons mouth and see if they like it. If so, smear some baby food on the leaves of the greens and try offering them that way
  7. The final and most important tip I have is to be persistent! Continue offering greens to your beardie no matter how many times she turns her nose up at them. That may the only way to win her over.


-Mim, Licensed Veterinary Technician (LVT).

______________________________________________

1.1 Bearded Dragons, 2.2 Leopard Geckos, 1.0 Mali Uromastyx, 0.0.2 Flying Geckos, 1.3 Green Anoles, 2.2 Cornsnakes, 1.0 Rosy Boa, 1.0 Bairds Ratsnake, 0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake, 0.1 Red eye tree frog. 0.1 Bullmastiff. 1.1 DSH cats

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