Okay, so my brother bought a baby bearded dragon in August of this year and did pretty good, to begin with, but then he started getting way busier, (he's 20), and kind of stopped taking care of it. He literally would not let me feed it because he thought that I knew nothing about what it needed. Well, several months down the road, here is a full-grown bearded dragon that is in a skinny fish tank, without a lot of room to move around, constantly dirty water, and all to eat is the ten mealworms and crickets that he would be given every day, sometimes my brother ran out of food and would forget to buy some for a couple of days. Okay, so I've probably made my brother sound like a careless guy, but he was not doing it on purpose, of course. He knew that the lizard was in bad conditions but wasn't taking the time to get him into better ones.
So, I decided to start feeding it vegetables, since he never had had one in his life, and didn't really tell my brother. He ate it and so I continued to feed him zucchini and kale, (that's all that we had at the time). I told my brother to just give it to me so that I could take care of it and he wouldn't have to worry about it. After getting him from $100 to nothing, (and a dare to pick up a whole cowpie), he finally decided to give it to me for free!
Anyway, I built him a new enclosure, bought new lighting, substrate, things to climb on, bathed him for the first time in his life, and gave him a proper diet, (at least I think that it is), I need to know if what I am doing is for the best. After picking him up several times, I realized that he has nearly no muscle on his body, he looks too fat, and he's not very active. Maybe it's because he never had a chance to run around or climb on things, but what is normal with these things? I've been feeding him different things every day, such as; aloe vera, kale, zucchini, bell peppers, and asparagus. I don't believe that he has the right temperature quite yet, it never drops below 65 degrees Fahrenheit and the highest temp is probably around 75-80, but I am working on that and saving money to buy some reptile heating pads.
So, any advice? Fill me in! I want him to be as happy as he can be!
So, I decided to start feeding it vegetables, since he never had had one in his life, and didn't really tell my brother. He ate it and so I continued to feed him zucchini and kale, (that's all that we had at the time). I told my brother to just give it to me so that I could take care of it and he wouldn't have to worry about it. After getting him from $100 to nothing, (and a dare to pick up a whole cowpie), he finally decided to give it to me for free!
Anyway, I built him a new enclosure, bought new lighting, substrate, things to climb on, bathed him for the first time in his life, and gave him a proper diet, (at least I think that it is), I need to know if what I am doing is for the best. After picking him up several times, I realized that he has nearly no muscle on his body, he looks too fat, and he's not very active. Maybe it's because he never had a chance to run around or climb on things, but what is normal with these things? I've been feeding him different things every day, such as; aloe vera, kale, zucchini, bell peppers, and asparagus. I don't believe that he has the right temperature quite yet, it never drops below 65 degrees Fahrenheit and the highest temp is probably around 75-80, but I am working on that and saving money to buy some reptile heating pads.
So, any advice? Fill me in! I want him to be as happy as he can be!
