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.

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.

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.