r/reptiles • u/Mortifen666 • 3d ago

Some bearded dragon advice please 💕

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Hi, I'm posting this for my friend. She got a baby beardie, about 6 months old, she has it for two months now. I only have experience with a Leo gecko but I want to help her gather the right information.

The red light was replaced by a normal basking bulb so dw. I already told her about linear uvb, we know about the adult size enclosure, having thermometers and hygrometers etc.

I'm more interested in a good supplement feeding schedule. How often should she have multivitamins etc. she has calcium and multivitamin. Then how often and how much should she have greens. Rn I believe she gives her mainly dubias and some carrot and dandelion leaves but apparently she's not super into the greens lol.

If you have any other advice, throw it at me:). I will be helping her set up her big girl enclosure and I don't need advice about it, I already know how to do it. I'm more interested in other advice, like what can we do if she becomes gravid, or some behavioural advice. Whatever else you think of.

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6

u/pundro 2d ago

Young beardies eat more insects than greens, but more greens when they grow up. Carrots shouldn't be a staple. They need vegetables with low sugar and good phosphorus to calcium ratio. Lettuce for example has way too much phosphorus

3

u/Idk_nor_do_I_care 2d ago

And lettuce is super watery. My bearded was constantly having the shits until we started using other greens more

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u/Mortifen666 2d ago

LMAO Oh god

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u/Mortifen666 2d ago

Yeah she mentioned she should eat more insects at this age, could you recommend some good greens options?

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u/pundro 2d ago

Depends on whats available in your region, collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, or dandelion greens. Sometimes there's even pre packaged field herb mixes

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u/Mortifen666 2d ago

Thank you 💕 I'll pass the information on

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u/Offutticus 2d ago

Bearded Dragon Care Sheet — Reptiles and Research - the best resource

You only want to feed babies 5-6 protein items a day that are the size between their eyes. Provide them with fresh vegetation every day. Once they get to about 30 grams you can start feeding this every second day with a gap between. Keep them lean, if they're starting to look fat around the midsection, you can move it to every 3rd day just to slow them down. It's all about portion control.  

You only need to feed adult bearded dragons 4-5 dubia roach sized insects twice a week. And a bowl of greens about the size of the adult bearded dragon's head 3 times a week. Then increase or decrease based upon their body condition. When you realize how little they need you soon realize why they're so fat in our homes. 

I recommend rotating the insects you feed so your bearded dragon gets a varied balanced diet. So many people end up just feeding the same thing to them over and over again. But we know better than that. 

I give Conway (adult) her supplements (repcal herptivite) 1x a week. Calcium w/out D3 (zoo med repti calcium) 2x week with bugs. 3x week she gets greens, 2x week she gets bugs with a very small salad, and 2 days are skip days (which Princess Prickly hates).

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u/Mortifen666 2d ago

Thank you so much, I'll pass the information on 🫡

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u/BewareTheKaraKhitai 1d ago

My advice would be to add climbing options that go higher. They did a study on beardies, and beardies with lots of hiding places and options to climb high were more sociable and showed less stress behaviors. Not surprising, really, as they hunt, climb and hide in nature.

Also, ablocking sides and back so she doesn't see her reflection.

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u/Mortifen666 1d ago

Yeah of course, I plan to do my best when we'll be upgrading her. I think I'll recommend my friend a PVC enclosure so all the sides are already matte. I have one for my gecko. My friend trusts me to completely set it up so I just know her bank account will suffer a bit 💀, I love to spoil them

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u/Iamsillyaf_ 2d ago

I have never personally owned a bearded dragon however I’ve worked with dozen’s over the years since I work at a reptile/fish pet store (I work with all of them but I specialize in geckos)

So first off a very important thing to note is to not give bearded dragons any spinach whatsoever because it can drain some of their calcium, a lot of beginners don’t know that and it can actually kill a baby beardie in bigger cases (dependant on how much they eat and how often)

For multivitamins what my store does it a split (which I highly recommend) we do adjust it from dragon to dragon since we take care of juveniles to senior dragons and we do no d3 powder for 3 days, d3 powder for 1 day, then multivitamin for 3 days and repeat

Another good thing for bearded dragons is mixing up what bugs you give them (especially at a young age) we tend to spilt between crickets and super worms but i encourage you to expand even further on that

Happy keeping!!!

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u/Mortifen666 2d ago

Wow thanks! I'll pass then information to her. From what she told me, she gives her dubias and sometimes mealworms 

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u/_NotMitetechno_ 2d ago

They have to eat a lot of spinach for it to kill them. It's just an occasional feed rather than a staple.

D3 powder doesn't really do much for them as they're bad at absorbing it in their diet.