beardies from pet smart

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 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.

---

Boy you aren't kidding, I think ours is trying to eat us out of house and home. He is a juvenile. Crickets, worms, greens, some veggies and occasional fruit. I still need to try some dubias on him. I swear he would eat what ever we put in there. He gets his protien twice a day and greens offered every day. If the size of his craps are any measure, he may wind up big. :D

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

You have them both in one 30 gallon tank?

I'm sorry its been so long..yes they are both in a30 gallon together..still roughly same size ..correct husbandry, eating well...oh well we are convinced that they are just gone stay small

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

It's possible there are not beardies but Lawson dragons which are very similar to beardies just smaller. You never know what you get from a big name pet store.

Lol yes its very true, they could be a different lizard than what Pet Smart advertised lmao i wish we could of had big ole beardies but our 2 lil guys will do i reckon..till the next expo that is :D

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

They might have parasites. I don't know if reptiles can harbor tape worms but those nasty buggers will eat up anything your beardie eats. You really should get a fecal done!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cowbully

I'm sorry its been so long..yes they are both in a30 gallon together..still roughly same size ..correct husbandry, eating well...oh well we are convinced that they are just gone stay small

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

---

Hello,
I have three beardies two from petsmart and one from an expo and one of mine from petsmart is experiencing the samething your having issues with. She is small and will never be a full grown bearded dragon and the cuase for this is gaut. Gaut in beardies is caused mainly from inbreeding and will stunt the growth of the bearded dragons. It can become deadly I would reccommend taking your beardies to the vet and getting this checked out.

I spoke with my vet..they are both normal healthy.."possibly" will not grow due to inbreeding like you said..oh well..i reckon we have miniature beardies for life..we love them just the same

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2