Heating and Feeding for Beardies and Netteds

Hi guys,
I asked this a week or two a go and i need to be pretty certain on this before i convince mum.
1. Feeding - How often do young and adult dragons need to be fed i know it's every day for hatcies to juveniles what about adults? And if i bulk fed them vegies and chucked in some crickets can the last 6-7 days.

2. Heating - Mum is worried over the summer will they be alright with 40+, Mum doesn't want them to overheat.

Please give me your personal opinion and input it'll be great help, thanks.

Juvenile dragons should be fed every day. It's a good idea to offer greens and live food every day even if they don't eat it.
Adults can be cut back to live food every 2 to 3 days with greens every day. It's better to give fresh greens each day rather than put in a lot once a week.
Over summer turn the heat off when the temp is 35 or over.
That's how we've done with our dragons.

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Young bearded dragons (hatchlings) require live insects a minimum of two feeds per day (three is better), you will need up about small crickets (Piscus / Biolabs) or 25 day old crickets per day for a 1 month old. DO NOT give them MEALWORMS !
So count on needing 4 tubs of crickets per week minimum for a 1 month old hatchling.

A four month old hatchling/juvenile bearded dragon will still need two meals of live insects per day, my two Peppa and Toothless are eating 25 x 1/3 sized (medium) crickets + 6x medium (30-40mm) or 8x small (20- 30mm) silkworms per day too and I also offer some puk or buk choi greens and grated carrot.

My big girl (3.5 years old) is very spoilt, she still gets some live insects each day (one meal) + her salad and veg, she'll happily eat 16 medium - large crickets or 4 large silkworms per day. Some give a lot less insects than I do, but she's not so keen on her veg , so I gut load the insects with these veg and she gets the nuitrition in disguise in their guts.

Basking spot about 40oC , some have 45oC for their basking spot. The correct UV (A and B) and a good thermal gradient is important.

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HerpNthusiast said:

Hi guys,
I asked this a week or two a go and i need to be pretty certain on this before i convince mum.
1. Feeding - How often do young and adult dragons need to be fed i know it's every day for hatcies to juveniles what about adults? And if i bulk fed them vegies and chucked in some crickets can the last 6-7 days.

Click to expand...

bad idea , sorry but you need to offer the live insect EACH DAY, and you must replace the veg each day too.

2. Heating - Mum is worried over the summer will they be alright with 40+, Mum doesn't want them to overheat.

Please give me your personal opinion and input it'll be great help, thanks.

Click to expand...

no will be fine.

I generally feed my Netted Dragons five days out of seven. In my experience I find that due to their small size, higher activity levels and higher metabolism, Netted Dragons can burn through their fat stores fairly quickly - particularly growing youngsters and breeding females - and because of this, I would not recommend a feeding regime that alternated between "bulk" feeding and the complete absence of food. But there may be exceptions. Netted Dragons in general benefit from small and frequent feeds. Also, the release of excessive amounts of live foods that are not eaten quickly can prove stressful to the lizards.

With the topic of high temperatures, Netted Dragons are known to cope well with temperature extremes. The habitats of Netted Dragons in WA, that I have visited, can be extremely hot during the day, and bitterly cold at night. However, by retreating into their burrows underground where the temperature is far more stable, they are able to escape the extreme heat and cold. But I have seen Netted Dragons basking in the high 30s. I also noticed that recently, when we were going through a severe heatwave of high 30s and low 40s that my Netted Dragons didn't appear to be too bothered by the high temperatures. My other lizards, however, didn't appear to be as tolerant of the high temperatures and looked pretty miserable.

But as pinefamily said, when ambient temperatures exceeds the mid 30s then simply switch off the heating. Good luck with picking out your next lizard. Further reading and research may help you to decide which lizard species is best for you.

It's a toughie i know thanks guys this is a hard decision