beardies from pet smart

[cowbully]

we picked up 2 beardies from petsmart 15 months ago. they have barely grown.. they eat like champs. meal worms and crix. i dont understand why they wont grow.. husbandry is spot on in a 30 gal tank

I seen a guy with a one year old and his was 5x bigger than ours..(he got his from the expo we were at) his girlfriends was the same age and was the same size as ours (she also got hers from petsmart)

what is going on and does anyone else have the growing problems.. thank you

[rperry03]

They probably don't get the proper amount of protein when they are at petsmart and only vegetables, maybe even the supplements? Yesterday I saw some 3" beardies there that only had veggies.

I picked mine up at a expo and he is medium sized, whereas my buddy who picked his up at the same vendor is a monster. Mine is feed lots of dubias and collard, mustard, turnip greens, he feeds his crickets and the same greens dusted.

[sporty02]

i agree mine is only a year old got him from an expo and he is a big boy pushing 375grams a month ago he eats lots of greens, super worms and crix daily and dusted crix 3-5 times a week

[Daybreaker]

I have no experience with beardies but is it possible that internal parasites could be causing them to not grow?

[Mft62485]

I also wonder what could be the cause. I'm in a similar situation, my brother-in-laws beardie is tiny compared to mine, and it's about 6 months older.

[cowbully]

I wish i could figure it out..they are both active and healthy..just tiny lol

[4Ballz]

give them some pinkie mice....mmmm, protein

[1nstinct]

Pinkie mice hard actually not good for beardies. They cause liver problems in beardies. Try pheonix worms, and dubia roaches much more hutional value compared to crickets. Also try wax worms they have a good fat % so it might give them some weight. Give it some times beardies all grow at different rates. I got female at the white plains reptile expo in nov 11. She weighted only 15 grams and a few months old. After some time of giving her proper lighting anf diet, she weighed in on Sunday after a nice poop 483 grams. Beardies require a lot of protein their first 18 months, feed more insects less veggies. Offer insects 2-4 times a day, give veggies daily.
What type of lighting are you using?
What's the hot spot?
Type of substrate?

[MarkS]

You also might want to think about giving them more heat. You can feed all the protein you want, but if they don't have the metabolism to process it, they're not going to grow. External heat drives metabolism in reptiles.

[PitOnTheProwl]

The two I got my wife from Petsmart are doing great and trying to eat us broke.
They have almost doubled in size but not nearly as big as my girl but I got her from Pet Barn and she is almost a year old.