Growing too fast?

[dappledawnfarm]

Hello fellow bearded dragon lovers. My dragon just turned 6 months old and I've had him since he's 2 months. He's been to the vet for a health checkup and to check for internal parasites. He's very healthy dragon but at 6 months old he's 18 in long, nose to tip of the tail, and weighs 331 grams. I look at growth charts and see he's quite large for his age. I saw one YouTuber that said dragons should take about 2 years to mature and if they're getting too large too fast you should cut back on food to help slow down their growth rate. What advice can you give me here on this forum regarding growth rate? This is my first reptile and I want to give him the best care to help him live a long and happy life. Thank you so much!

 

[Sadie]

Hello fellow bearded dragon lovers. My dragon just turned 6 months old and I've had him since he's 2 months. He's been to the vet for a health checkup and to check for internal parasites. He's very healthy dragon but at 6 months old he's 18 in long, nose to tip of the tail, and weighs 331 grams. I look at growth charts and see he's quite large for his age. I saw one YouTuber that said dragons should take about 2 years to mature and if they're getting too large too fast you should cut back on food to help slow down their growth rate. What advice can you give me here on this forum regarding growth rate? This is my first reptile and I want to give him the best care to help him live a long and happy life. Thank you so much!
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What are you feeding ? How many times per day? Dragons can grow till they are 2- he may slow down here at some point

 

[dappledawnfarm]

I teach High School so during the summer when I'm off, I was feeding black soldier fly larvae, small crickets, or small dubia roaches about four times a day, and I always had greens available. I dust with vitamin powder about twice a week and calcium supplements about once a day. I occasionally will put bee pollen, sprinkled over his greens. Gradually I reduced the number of feedings, mostly because I work all day and leave for work before the sun comes up so he's still asleep, to vegetables and greens during the day, free choice, and about 15 to 20 medium dubia roaches for a second feeding. He also always has free choice water and always has free choice greens. I do the same regimen with the vitamins, calcium supplements, and bee pollen.

 

[Sadie]

I teach High School so during the summer when I'm off, I was feeding black soldier fly larvae, small crickets, or small dubia roaches about four times a day, and I always had greens available. I dust with vitamin powder about twice a week and calcium supplements about once a day. I occasionally will put bee pollen, sprinkled over his greens. Gradually I reduced the number of feedings, mostly because I work all day and leave for work before the sun comes up so he's still asleep, to vegetables and greens during the day, free choice, and about 15 to 20 medium dubia roaches for a second feeding. He also always has free choice water and always has free choice greens. I do the same regimen with the vitamins, calcium supplements, and bee pollen.

I would offer insects 2 times per day and all the salads he can eat- the supplements should be fed on the insects- 5 x per week ONCE per feeding along w/ vitamins w/ beta carotene 2 x per week ONCE per feeding- this will change will he gets to be a year old - and depending on the UVB your using-- NO coils please- long tube fixtures are not all the same and have certain distances and placement for tubes