my bearded dragon is supposedly 11mth but he is only 10 1/2 inch long ?

Question

hey. my beardie is supposedly 11 mths old. i got him last august and the pet shop told me he was around four months when i got him.he is only 10 and 1/2inch long. he has always ate well. i feed him vits and cal powder with crikets and give him fresh water and veg everyday and the temps are right in the tank. i was lookin at growth charts and they said he should be alot bigger. should i worry bout this or can it be natural. i'm not sure if it is a male or female yet. any suggestions from ya's.....thanks a mil. rob

Answer 1

I don't know how long they say they are supposed to be at 11 months, but that seems like a good length to me. I don't remember how long mine was when I got her (maybe about 1 or 2 yrs), but she was about 22in long after I had had her for about 3 or 4 yrs, and she stayed that way till she passed away. I had heard that the average bearded dragon is 18in long when it is full grown, so I always thought that mine was bigger than she should be.

It sounds like you are doing everything right. You are lucky that you can get yours to eat veggies - you had to fool mine to get her to even taste them lol so your's is probably even healthier than mine was. The only thing that it looks like I may have done differently is that I also fed her pinkies (baby mice). I do not know how you feel about that, but bearded dragons are carnivores, so the protein is good for them if you are willing to feed it the pinkies.

If you are interested in the pinkies, it is very hard to find a pet store that will sell pinkies, so you will have to buy and breed the adult mice on your own. Typically, you only need one male for up to three females (do not get more than that or you will have pinkies/mice up to your eyeballs). You should start with one female just in case your bearded dragon is slow to warm up to the pinkies - you don't want more than one litter if he/she is not eating the ones that you have. If your bearded dragon takes to the pinkies, go ahead and get another female at some point, but keep in mind that the mice will have litters of up to about 15 pinkies, and often as the pinkies get older the bearded dragon will only want one per day, and the pinkies will be considered full grown after 14 days. It is also important to be able to separate the male mice from the female mice to keep them from over-breeding, especially when it gets cooler towards winter time when your bearded dragon may be eating less and/or hibernating.

Answer 2

17 inches so around 45 CM's. That sounds OK to me. If Dragons are having the correct diet and correct levels of calcium etc then they will grow big and strong and be nice and healthy. It sounds to me like you are doing a good job. 20 crickets is not a lot for a 41/2 month old, your dragon is still growing and they need this level of bugs. The fact that he likes his vegetables is also a great sign and also a reason why he is growing so well. As he gets older he'll eat less bugs and more vegetables but at the moment you want to be aiming for at 80 to 20% split in favor of the veg. If you were overfeeding him he will grow outwards more so than in length, Dragons can get obese so just keep an eye on it. Some dragons are big, some are small. I have a two 2 month old babies and the larger of the 2 is probably 8 - 9 inches long whilst the smaller baby is around 6 inches long. Dragons can grow to around 22 inches - sometimes bigger and it sounds like your guy is going to be a large animal. Keep up the great work,

Answer 3

I have owned more than one bearded dragon throughout the years. One of them stayed 10 inces one of them is about 2 feet. Both lived 12 years. Bearded dragons are very hearty animals. As long as your animal is eating i would not worry at all. Your beardie also probably isnt 100 precent mature yet give it sometime. Also like a comment i read above a bigger encloser will give you a bigger animal.

Answer 4

Oh sure. Bearded dragons are just like goldfish. The bigger their tank is, they bigger they get! They never get too big for their environment.
If you have a large tank and a small lizard, then I am not sure. Maybe he is just waiting for a growth spurt! If you are concerned, take him to a vet. Bearded dragons are the best, I had one for 8 years. Good luck! : )

Answer 5

They DO NOT grow to the size of thier enclosures. That definately doesn't sound that large but if it is growing regularly then it should be ok. This is why you should weigh your reptiles in grams as well to see if they are still growing. People confuse growing to the size of the enclosure with poor husbandry leading to growth and health problems.

Answer 6

well depending on the size of your cage you might want to get a bigger cage they grow to their surrounding look under the tail if there is one slit its a boy if there is two slits its a girl or its the other way around not really sure if you go to a web site beared dragons .com it will tell alot of good information