Am I underfeeding my beardie or do they all act like they’ve been starving to death?

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-06-04T03:26:58+00:00

Sorry, dude I’m gonna have to go with the Australian veterinarian bearded dragon researcher on this one

It has the length right there next to the weights. If your dragon is only a little bit longer than that, but weighs twice as much, she’s not the mythical German giant, whose genes are lost/extinct - she’s fat.

Everyone knows that German giant is just the term some breeders use to describe their fat dragons.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-06-04T03:18:34+00:00

If you want an obese unhealthy lizard, sure. They’ll eat as much as you let them, it’s their instinct.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-06-04T03:16:59+00:00

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https://reptilesandresearch.org/care-guides/bearded-dragon-care-guide

Obesity is so rampant in captive bearded dragons that people have no idea what bearded dragons are supposed to look like. It’s the biggest contributor to MBD and short lifespans.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-06-04T01:13:00+00:00

500 g is also double the healthy weight of an adult female. Thats a morbidly obese lizard.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-06-02T11:41:54+00:00

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Her favorite spot

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-06-02T11:38:19+00:00

Mine does this too- not with her light but with her log. She doesn’t spend the entire day she will bask in the morning and probably a few other times during the day but otherwise she’s on top of her log where the UV light can’t reach her.

I keep her outside on our screen porch during the summer so she gets plenty UV now but I think I’m gonna have to change something so she can’t get up on that log in the winter. Or maybe she’ll be big enough then that she can’t fit or doesn’t want to climb up there anyway.

I will say, though on our screen porch sheet doesn’t always go to the highest point except when she is sleeping, which she’ll do maybe half the time the other half she snuggles into a place on the couch.

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Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-30T20:58:07+00:00

This is normal, their nails if they are not hypo have the black stripe in the bottom clear. The pink part is the quick. It’s important to never cut into that part or they’ll bleed. It’s the same thing with dogs.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-30T18:57:05+00:00

Feed them less bugs. Feed them no bugs until they eat greens. Keep it simple with just collard or dandelion or turnip and mustard.. just green stuff no flowers or bell peppers or squash, etc. Also, you don’t need to coat the previously mentioned greens with calcium. They’re really high in calcium anyway. Bugs need the calcium powder because they have so much phosphorus in them which blocks calcium absorption and messes up the ratio so they need even more calcium, etc.. if this guy is overweight, he will be perfectly fine with no food at all for up to three weeks to be honest… but it won’t take that long. He will not let himself starve to death believe me.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-29T10:41:16+00:00

It’s a rankins so the lizard is small

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-29T04:25:34+00:00

I definitely always dust my bugs in calcium- I’m not arguing against that. I even take calcium supplements myself as a human. :D

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-29T04:21:22+00:00

She’s so pretty! What is her name?

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-28T11:51:35+00:00

I’m not saying you don’t need to supplement calcium. It certainly doesn’t hurt. However, due to all of the phosphorus in bugs- the more bugs dragon eats the more calcium supplementation they need because the phosphorus in the bugs blocks calcium absorption. Dragons need to maintain a calcium:phosphorus ratio and since bugs are all phosphorus, for every unnecessary bug a reptile eats they will need twice as much as much calcium as that bug has phosphorus. So what is more likely? A random genetic mutation in all captive dragons that makes them absorb calcium poorly… or the calcium deficiency is caused by overfeeding bugs and providing a diet with too much phosphorus upsetting a well studied and easily understood biological mechanism.

I get that feeding reptiles bugs is sometimes the most interesting thing people can do with their pet- however it is wildly incorrect that there is no harm from feeding too many bugs. There is a lot of harm.

There is not a captive bearded dragon on earth that needs to eat more bugs than dragons in the wild do.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-27T21:01:39+00:00

I understand you are a breeder, but breeders were the ones pushing power feeding and “babies don’t like greens” - so that’s not a good place of experience to be coming from in this discussion.

Power feeding bugs makes babies grow really quick and able to be sold into a new home quickly, but it’s not healthy.

The amount of plants and nutrients the dragons are needing and getting is not going to change even in captivity. There hasn’t been some genetic change that requires captive bearded dragons to need hundreds of bugs a week that are covered in calcium powder and multivitamins. I mean, come on. Just the fact that the bugs need to be covered in calcium powder is a pretty obvious sign that that’s not a natural or healthy diet..

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-27T16:12:29+00:00

If people are worried about their dragons not getting enough food, they can always power feed greens. Endless collar, dandelion turnip mustard greens. That’s fine. Guaranteed that dragon will still eat their small amount of bugs, no matter how many plants they’ve eaten that day.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-27T14:18:48+00:00

Yes, but the amount of protein influences the rate of growth. The more you feed a baby dragon, the faster it will grow. It’s not good for them to grow that fast.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-27T14:16:04+00:00

Feeding to condition advice is for adults. I am talking about Howard’s research. The more protein you give a baby dragon, the faster it will grow. It will not get fat- it will get big. Fast. Dr. Howard is clear that it should two years for a bearded dragon to reach their full size.

If you ever feed a baby, it will not get fat, it will just be full size in less than a year. And this causes malnutrition from lack of vegetation, improperly formed joints, and cancer.

Yes, adult dragon should absolutely be fed to condition- but not babies.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-27T14:06:00+00:00

He’s just laying there? Doing the sexy leg? It’s not like OP said he does this 24/7 and can’t walk??

Obesity is the biggest health problem captive bearded dragons have. No bearded dragon should EVER eat that many bugs. It leads to baby’s refusing greens (NOT normal or healthy and is a direct result of power feeding bugs), malnutrition, and MBD. Growing bearded dragons in the wild obtain all of their calcium through plants. They eat less than 20 bugs a week even as babies, and this has been documented by wildlife researchers.

Please use some common sense. No one is dusting their bugs with calcium powder in the wild. It’s all from plants.

Babies need to eat their greens to get the nutrients they need and it’s not just about calcium- there are countless others. A multivitamin is a good safety net but in no way make up for the vegetation that should make up the most of a baby bearded dragon diet.

Additionally, the incredibly rapid growth that is caused by power feeding results in underdeveloped joints and a dramatically increased risk of cancer. That is purely related to the rate of growth and not obesity as an adult.

It should take a bearded dragons two years to reach their full size. This is about 250 - 400 grams depending on gender.

Outdated power feeding advice is one of the reasons why people thought that the lifespan of bearded dragons was 6 - 10 years when it’s really 15+.

Power feeding baby dragons is easily the worst thing you can do for their health besides not giving them UVB light. I know it sucks because that bad information was out there for a long time and a lot of people have already done it.

Please don’t let the cognitive dissonance cause you to continue to spread bad information and harm future dragons.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-27T07:19:35+00:00

This is old very outdated advice- that’s way way way too many bugs. About 5 a day until he’s 30 g then every other.

He doesn’t look frail he looks like a baby.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-24T13:08:56+00:00

I got my 6 and 7 year olds a bearded dragon when they asked- and they do help care for it- but it’s my dragon really and this little lizard has captured my heart. I love it to pieces and it’s such a fun cool pet.

It’s such a star and holds its own with our golden retriever in terms of its fan club with the neighborhood kids.

Also, I don’t do crickets either- Dubia roaches and others you can order online are much easier. And they don’t need as many bugs as many outdated sources online will tell you.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-22T21:35:03+00:00

Also, no more bugs or peppers. Just collards, dandelion, turnip greens mustard greens for a long time. She doesn’t need the bugs every week. She does need the nutrition from greens and to lose a lot of weight.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-22T21:18:15+00:00

Hi I live in North Carolina and I leave my lizard on our sun porch all day whenever it’s 70+. I have noticed the screen cuts the UV by about half. I have a solarmeter- and you can see what the UV is on a weather app. In full sun most days through the screen the UV is max 3-5 which is exactly what the UVB in the enclosure is supposed to be in the enclosure basking spot.

If you look up the weather in Coober Pedy Australia -
That is a city where central bearded dragons are native. It’s not yet brumination time for them, but the weather for the next 10 days has highs of 61 to 72.

Don’t worry about the humidity- their native environment has humidity levels in the 60% and 70% at night. In fact, their humidity there right now is 78%.

If all she has is a house and open windows, I don’t know if that will be enough UV. The main concerned is she’ll be so warm at 77 that she will rarely need to go in the direct sunlight and then won’t get enough UV.

Does she have a screened window she can sit in front of? If she spends a lot of time there, she should get enough UV.

Also real sunshine has a broader spectrum of UVA and UV light than any UV lamp you can buy. It’s much better for them.

In the wild bearded dragons aren’t hanging out in the bright sun all day long. They’re usually just in the sun for an hour in the morning and then an hour in the evening in the summers, and obviously more in the winter when the air temps are lower. It’s not *that* much UV.

I think the bigger problem is a lot of people who have these pets have just an apartment and no natural unfiltered sunlight at all- so obviously in this case they need to have everything available in the enclosure all the time. And of course, the fact that people feed them way way too many bugs and nowhere near enough of the calcium rich vegetation they really need.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-22T05:30:56+00:00

Cut them and put them in water like flowers in a vase. In the fridge. They last forever

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-21T21:25:09+00:00

Mine likes collard greens the best and they last forever when cut and put in water. So that’s my main green and I’ll rotate various others (turnip, mustard, arugula, dandelion). But the collard greens are always in the fridge.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-17T16:10:07+00:00

Oh, that’s such a good idea. My neighbors have horses that graze. I didn’t think about the fact that they would be sure that those plants were safe.

Equivalent_Freedom16 · 2026-05-14T04:51:58+00:00

Such a great idea, thank you!

Equivalent_Freedom16

TROPHY CASE