Just got my little guy...

[jdawg]

And I had a couple questions...

What is normal behavior for a baby bearded dragon? My little guy is pretty chill, but a couple times a day, he zooms around his cage a million miles an hour. The first two days when I took him out to hold him, he was pretty chill. But the last couple times I've had him out, he's been trying to run around quite a bit.

Also, how have you guys been successful in getting your young guys to eat the pellet food? My little guy has sparingly eaten the pellets, but it's hard to watch him at all times to make sure he's eating. I place him in his shallow water dish a couple times a day and he seems to like to lick the water off himself.

anyway, thanks for the advice. just not too familiar with the daily behaviour of a young beardie.

 

[P]

The 1st few days MOST beardies experience relo stress, this may cause them to be quiet, sit still, have stress marks, lack f appetite
Once theyve settled into their new home theyre supposed to be VERY active, energetic, HUGE appetite. It seems yours is adjusting well and hence the increase in activity levels.

Pellet food isnt really eaten by most, some ppl wet it and mix it in with their daily salads. (Note......babies are skittish of salads in the beginning BUT keep offering fresh dalads every day)

They need 20% greens daily and 80% live food till the age of 12 months

Their diet mainly consists of live feeder insects.Never feed any insect that is larger than the space between their eyes. Feed them 3x day as much as they want to eat in a 10-15min timeframe.
Also dust 1 feeding per day with calcium for 5 days of the week. Dust 1 feeding per day with a good multivitamin 2 days of the week

Good nutritional feeders are:
Crickets
Roaches
Silk worms
Pheonix worms
Baby tiny super worms (Not the full grown ones)
Butter worms and wax worms can be fed, but offer sparingly as they have a high fat content, and too much fat can cause liver issues later on

Here is a link to a salad/fruit/veg/greens site. The ones marked GREEN can be fed daily, the others occasionally and avoid the red and yellow ones
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

 

[silverado991]

babies are like jets my trans is easily my fastest dragon dont know what you have...

the behavior sounds normal mine do that all the time especially when im around them i cant even clean the cage without her (trans) crawling onto my arm and running around the room

bearded dragons should not be eating pellets its not natural at all its mostly junk almost like eating fastfood it might be cheap but you wont have a healthy dragon stick with fresh greens i like kale its really bitter but the dragons jump for it stay away from carrots also dragons readily eat them but feeding everyday can lead to vitamin a overdose

also stay away from spinach and lettuce of any kind its just garbage

 

[Jp]

Kale should really be fed occasionally.

 

[silverado991]

your more likely to have vitamin a issues with carrots as a pose to kale

over supplementing has caused kale to receive a bad name if people dident dose so many multivitamins there dragons wouldent be od'ing

it also depends what i have available at my store if somethings looking ugly i simply buy kale i attempt collard greens it just rarely works out that i get a good bunch of collards i dont dose a multi that often and i do calcium everyday so i dont worry that much and being that my dragons have never been salad crazy they dont consume that much

 

[P]

your more likely to have vitamin a issues with carrots as a pose to kale

over supplementing has caused kale to receive a bad name if people dident dose so many multivitamins there dragons wouldent be od'ing

Kale binds the calcium, meaning it CAN NOT be absorbed, so even if you give them a whole bottle of calcium at once (Maybe im exaggerating a bit ) it will do no good if fed TOO MUCH kale, as the calcium can not be absorbed.
Carrots can give a vit OD but not easilly, youre more likely to have stinky runny poop from carrots

 

[silverado991]

ill agree with the stinky poop and yellow patchs which are kinda weird but i dont believe its deadly to feed kale in a mix as long as your not combining the two(carrots and kale)

Kale binds the calcium, meaning it CAN NOT be absorbed, so even if you give them a whole bottle of calcium at once (Maybe im exaggerating a bit ) it will do no good if fed TOO MUCH kale, as the calcium can not be absorbed.
Carrots can give a vit OD but not easilly, youre more likely to have stinky runny poop from carrots

 

[P]

i dont believe its deadly to feed kale in a mix as long as your not combining the two(carrots and kale)​

I dont think you understand the "binding" correctly. Carrots do NOT bind calcium thus you cant compare carrots and Kale.

Kale will not be deadly, BUT if fed daily NO CALCIUM will be absorbed inside the dragon and he will get MBD.......
the MBD will and lack of calcium will cause his bones to soften and bend,
This will affect the muscles, which control breathing, stomach movements and poop muscles.
Eventually the dragon will not be able to poop due to weak muscles and will become blocked up causing an appetite decrease.
And THAT is what will eventually kill them.....not the Kale

It is a very long process (Months to years) killing the dragon slowly.

 

[silverado991]

were not on the same page i never said carrots bind calcium

 

[silverado991]

were not on the same page i never said carrots bind calcium

i said not to feed the two together daily one"binds calcium" and one is known for causing yellow patchs from vitamin a
the argument with kale has gone on for years and has gotten no wear its like saying adenovirus kills dragons no it doesent bad owners kill dragons and make adeno pop out from stress and bad care

ive never had a problem feeding strictly kale with my one dragon ive tried this with and hes still alive and well no sign of mbd or anything