Older Dragons

**lady_bug87** · 11-19-13, 10:53 AM

Hey I made an observation and I wanted to post it to see if anyone else has noticed anything similar.

I have a male hypo high orange who is around 4 and a half years old. I've had him since he was probably 4 months old. He's always been healthy always had a great appetite.

When he turned 4 I started to notice he was thinning out. (He's always been a lean dragon. Belly off the ground when he walks thick tail no triple chin) I noticed he still ate the same but was not maintaining his body weight as well after the age of 4.

So he gets extra fatty treats like butters once a week and still gets veg twice a week and crickets twice a week the general husbandry is fine I think he's just starting to get older.

Has anyone with older dragons noticed this?

pdomensis · 11-19-13, 12:41 PM

I have a pogo about 4 years old and I'm not sure that I've seen what you're describing. I have noticed however that she will prefer a certain food for a while, like 6 months, and then abruptly decide she doesn't like that any more, so she thins out a bit until I find her new favorite.

red ink · 11-19-13, 04:01 PM

I have a 10 year old lean dragon always loked lean....

This is him at 8 years old - still looks the same today.

**lady_bug87** · 11-19-13, 04:39 PM

My dragon looks just like yours for the most part he's not emaciated I just noticed he wasn't holding on to fats as much

lisas · 11-21-13, 04:44 PM

I have a 6 year old dragon that I've had for 4.5 years. She is much rounder now than she was even 6 months ago; it's the opposite of what is happening to yours. There is a reason for this though: I have learned a lot in the last 4 months by doing more research / joining forums and her diet has improved. I think that she was always meant to look the way that she does now. I guess they're just all different, some meant to be lean and some more filled out. She's an orange crush variety by the way.

Terranaut · 11-21-13, 05:27 PM

Hmmmm. I used to feed my dragons (now gone) veggies every day. They got a bowl of squash with dandelion greens in the morning that I toseed before bed. They also got meal worm sprinkles every other day and the days I didn't do that they got 4-5 dubia. Mine were heavier than the one in the pic red ink posted but not overweight and were very active. I payed attention to how much veggies they ate and gave them roughly 20% of that in bugs. My male was 4 and my female was 11. Not sure if that helps but that was what I used to do. I did also give them treats of banana or shredded carrots on occasion , but not much.

**lady_bug87** · 11-21-13, 05:38 PM

I'm starting to think I'm crazy

lisas · 11-21-13, 06:41 PM

I'm the one with the rounded out 6 yr. old:
I feed mine veggies every morning and insects (waxworms or crickets, just a few) every other day. The veggies are mixed: dandelion greens, clover, mustard, raw squash slivers, green beans, celery, etc. and she eats a lot of them per sitting. I hand-feed her them (its "our time"). Actually, I just find she eats better with the hand-feeding. She gets at least 3 different veggies at a time, mostly dusted with calcium powder.

**lady_bug87** · 11-21-13, 06:54 PM

When I used to offer veg every day he wouldn't touch it half the time so I stopped offering it every day

red ink · 11-21-13, 07:01 PM

Two fuzzy mice

Bump the basking spot by 5C
Plenty of veg - cucumber or kiwi fruit for hydration as addition to regular salad due to the higher temps.

Do not feed any vertebrae prey until defecation and repeat twice in a month until desired weight is achieved - you can feed worms in betwwen but not crickets as the chitin would not be condusive while digesting the vertebrae prey.

This should bump up the fat and weight.

Mikoh4792 · 11-21-13, 07:03 PM

Do you guys find bearded dragon husbandry to be more advanced than normally purported when taken care of properly? Seems to be way more work than a snake.... or even a leopard gecko.

red ink · 11-21-13, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikoh4792

Do you guys find bearded dragon husbandry to be more advanced than normally purported when taken care of properly? Seems to be way more work than a snake.... or even a leopard gecko.

depends on how you want to to it... they are a very tolerant species.

Standard pet keeper care sheet

Newspaper/paper towel or tile substrate
Worms/crickets + Veg
Correct UV + basking temp

= easy

Naturalistic set up

Sand mixture substrate - hygiene factors involved
Higher basking temp
Higher hydration requirements
Occasional vertebrae prey
+
Basic caresheet

= requires a bit more attention.

Either or works well.

lisas · 11-21-13, 09:23 PM

Way more advanced than the corn snake I have.

I'll speak to what I do:

high basking spot, night drop
bio-active substrate, multiple hides, climbing spots
40 gallon
large variety of plant foods
Different insects, worms
soak every night
calcium, repti-vitamins
once in awhile
handling time (my favorite)

When I didn't know what I was doing I had her on calcium sand in a 20 gallon with a 150 watt red left on all the time, no hide. She was eating superworms and greens, some fruit. Glad she's still with us.