Beardie Lighting

Just a note on effect of a change in lighting.

I posted a question here a while ago asking if UVA and UVB/full spectrum was necessary for beardies. Most of replies said YES - and lots of it. I also researched topic on Web. Conclusion - yes full spectrum UVB is both necessary and beneficial.

So, I switched from a "sunlight" 30 watt spot which also was supposed to provide UVA. We installed a fluor. UVB 15 watt (7% UVB) and a 75 watt incadescent. Lots more light + the UVB.

Our little beardie (6 months old) went from eating 3 crikets a day to now a pile of greens and 8-10 crikets daily. Now when I open the cage she jumps down from her perch and comes to the front to eagerly grab crikets out of my hand - she has no patience at all. She justs wants to eat eat eat.

Conclusion - change in light - more of it and addition of UVB fluor - increases appetite and apparent health.

Out of curiosity, what basking temperature are you using. Even 8-10 crickets is about half of what any of the dragons I ever had ate, and 3 is just nothing.
I fed hatchlings 12-18 appropriately sized crickets per day, spaced over 3 seperate feedings, and adult dragons would easily eat 2-3 dozen per day, all aside from the greens they got daily as well.
I noted temperature having a very strong effect of feeding response.

I fed hatchlings 12-18 appropriately sized crickets per day, spaced over 3 seperate feedings, and adult dragons would easily eat 2-3 dozen per day, all aside from the greens they got daily as well.

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That's great, but even baby beardies don't need that many crickets. I'd venture to guess they weren't eating a WHOLE lot of greens for you.

But I do agree - temperatures are VERY important for active, healthy beardies.

I'd venture to guess they weren't eating a WHOLE lot of greens for you.

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The adults did, but with the babies it was normally an individual thing, some ate greens fairly well while others were a few weeks old before they showed any interest in them.
The adults would eat a a fairly good portion of greens mixed with other vegetables daily, I always gave them the salad before insects just to try to get something in their stomach and cut down on the number of bugs I went through.

The most important thing to me was over the entire time I raised the beardeds I never had a single instance of conspecific agression among hatchlings, not one nipped tail or toes. I felt as long as they wanted more to eat, give it to them, and I feel this played a big part in preventing the nipped tails and such that happens regularly.
It was never a question of how many they needed, but what they wanted.

It should also be noted that I did always err on the side of caution regarding cricket sizes, so the 4-5 crickets the babies would eat three times per day may possibly not equal the same mass as what you might feed them yourself.