how much should a 6 month beardie eat

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Tristyn83

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Hi i have a brearded dragon 6 months old i am feeding him 8-15 crickets 3 times a week with calcum he is going great. but after flipping through the net there is reports of 10 per day up to 40 pre day. help please also have basking temp at 33C is this to low. thanks
 
Basking maybe a few degrees more but that shouldn't matter, feeding depends how active hey are and if they eat it all in one sitting
 
how much salad? my holdbacks from last season were eating more salad than insects by the time they were five months old and are now only getting about five medium woodies twice a week, then as much salad as they want. they grow like little monsters. perhaps post a pic of your beardie so we can see how big he/she is and let us know more about their routine. are they full after that many crix or do they stop eating after that many? Also, what time of day are you feeding as this can influence their appetite and growth rate.
 
get the temps up to 40 degrees in the basking spot and make sure he has good uvb light that is about 15-20cm away from him. It could be due to the cooler weather but really a beardie that age should be an eating machine. I would say feed him daily and give him as much as he can eat within a few mins.
 
My late starter smashes between 10-15 6-8mm crix morning and night. His total length would be 5-6 inches. Not to mention has salad permanently in there
 
feeding at 6pm isn't the best for him either. try feeding him earlier in the day so he has time to digest his food before lights out.
 
He should have a few hours of basking light after his last feed so he can digest.
 
feeding at 6pm isn't the best for him either. try feeding him earlier in the day so he has time to digest his food before lights out.
My heat/light is from 7am till 8pm due to work constraints. Fed in the am when I leave, then again when I get home(5:30-6pm) this way still heated for 2 hrs to help digest
 
We had bearded dragons and eastern water dragons and crickets were offered two times a day and only what that could eat in a 10min period,they also were offered a bearded dragon pellet food, fresh greens and salads were supplied daily and they were finely chopped,carrot,purple cabbage,parsley,broccoli,cauliflower,bean sprouts,peas,corn,saltanas,sesame seeds,tomato and a good one was strawberries cut up small and during the summer months a weed called dandelion (yellow flower with a green stem)spin in your finger's and will jump all over them and we also feed our's hibiscus leafs in red and pink but no pestacides sprays on weeds as dandelion is a weed pest the council's spray them often so during summer they grew in our back yard and just picked what we needed before i cut the lawns or Bobby was set free to run and he ate what he wanted.We introduced chopped greens and new foods when they were young and at the start they ran through the food and even ignored it and then thay started to nibble on some and it's now part of their daily intake,uneaten food was removed at the end of each day.Reptiles can be wary of new foods so make food changes gradually and monitor your bearded dragon's weight and food intake and allow time for changes.

Hope all goes well Paul.
 

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id leave it off unless your night room temps fall below 10 degrees
 
Hey Tristyn83! :)

My thoughts on the subject...

Firstly, the "general rule of thumb" is give the dragon as many as he wants withing a five minute period EACH DAY... They're NOT like Labradors (most of the time!) - guts down everything in sight, irrespective of being too full at the time...

Basking site should be at least 36C (this seems to be the temperature AT the basking site where food is properly digested), making the cool end around 24ish... No heating/light required at night UNLESS your ambient temperature in the house drops below 16C, then a heat-mat would suffice...

UV and daylight lights on at 7am, off at 7pm generally (unless brumating for breeding purposes), so in summer you'd have them on at say 5.30am to 8.30pm (depending on where you are!)...

Hope this helps?!

All the best,
Carolyn
 
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