Hand feeding my beardie

mike · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 12:26 am Post subject:

how often do you feed him iceberg\salad? I would stop feeding him iceberg, it is pretty much just water, no nutritional value, and replace it with another leafy green, such as dandelion, kale, watercress, etc. Also, are you supplementing everything? Maybe he is not eating because the basking temps are too low. Try raising the temps of everything and see if he responds. Also, what is the exact name of the "correct bulb"? Hope this helps!

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Animals: Too many.

worleygurl · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 9:05 am Post subject:

It looks like several areas of your care need to be corrected.

First and foremost, his diet needs a major overhaul. You need to replace the iceberg lettuce with dark, leafy greens. He needs at least three from the following list: collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion greens, arugula, mache, endive, escarole, watercress, spring mix, etc. For a complete list of healthy greens, please see http://www.iguanaden.org http://www.anapsid.org http://www.greenigsociety.org All three of those websites are for iguanas, but the salad portion of a beardie's diet is the same as an iguana's. Ditch the carrot, and onion. Neither have any place in a beardie's diet. The mixture you are syringe feeding him is also not healthy. There are recipes on the net for healthy slurries to syringe feed your bearded dragon, IF NEEDED. If you correct his diet, lighting, and temperatures, it is likely you wont need to syringe feed him.

Your basking temps need to be between 100 and 110. 95 is simply way too cool and he will not properly digest his food.

You say you've got the "correct" bulb. What is the name of it? There are a lot of bulbs on the market that claim to emit UVB and don't. UVB is very important for bearded dragons. Without UVB, they do not process calcium and vit d3. Sunlight is excellent for him but only if it is unfiltered. Sunlight through a window does not give him UVB.

Lastly, his tank is way too small. At this point, it is the least of your worries, but he needs to be in at least a 55 gallon aquarium. Adult bearded dragons need approximately 8 sq ft of floor space to properly thrive.

Substrate is what you use in the bottom of the cage such as newspaper, paper towel, sand, linoleum, reptile carpet, etc.
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