# how much baby food should i give my bearded dragon



## casper2009 (Sep 8, 2011)

ive read they can be fed this is they are not eating. mine is dehydrated so she hasnt been eating anything for over a week now. she is getting a bath everyday now. i gave her a little bit of the baby food before and she licked it off the end of her nose, but i need to know ideally how much i should give her and how often.

here is a bit of info on her

lives in a 3ft tank
temps: cold side 78, middle 88 and basking spot is around 100-109
substrate: carpet tiles
age: around 1 year old
size: last time i measured her she was 16"
weight: 281g


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## Big_Rich (Aug 11, 2011)

I've not heard of feeding baby food before, what are you feeding her normally?


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## Madhouse5 (Jun 6, 2011)

why she dehydrated have you had her check out ? baby food no good you need to see why she not eating , first off get a poo test and a vet check then see what wrong just bathing will not sort this

other thing is has she been with a male , does she look gravid she could have a infertile batch off eggs in her that could be why she off her food i would get some repti boost and bath her in that. a vet will be the best bet 


Paul


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## casper2009 (Sep 8, 2011)

she is dehydrated because i didnt bath her enough. and she has never been with a male bearded dragon.

she is usually fed medium dubia roaches and locusts (when i get them). she doesnt really eat much salad. but if she does she usually likes green beans, curly endive, kale, radicchio. but she doesnt really eat much of it

and just to add im not even 100% sure she is a female.


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## kelsey7692 (Jul 28, 2010)

Like already said get a fecal test done and a vet check up.

I've never heard of feeding babyfood to Bearded Dragons and I think doing so is probably going to make the issue worse.

Get some reptoboost or similar to put in her baths in the mean time.


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## Big_Rich (Aug 11, 2011)

Do you have a UV and are you giving her calcium and vits?


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## casper2009 (Sep 8, 2011)

yes she gets all the right powders and she has uvb light


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## Khaos (Jul 9, 2007)

Rather than bathing her, what about leaving a large enough bowl of water in her viv so she can go in and out of it when she desires? Lizards and snakes know when they need water and, if it's clean and permanently available, will often go into it.


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## Big_Rich (Aug 11, 2011)

Could this not cause the humidity to go up though?

Aslo when was the UV light last changed?

You say shes in a 3ft viv, is this an exoterra viv with the compact UV bulbs?


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## Mal (Jul 22, 2007)

I dont have time for an in depth post. However if she is a yeard old and 280 gm she has an underlying problem. Baby food is NOT the awnser. Complete setup review including age of tube and method for recording temps, food regime, gut load and supplements. Can you post a picture of her ? A faecal sounds essential.


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## casper2009 (Sep 8, 2011)

this is the most recent photo i have of her. i have to use a link to flickr as i cant post photos on here

IMG_6910 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

her uvb light was last changed in jan 2012. so it doesnt need replacing yet for another few months. and she has never been huge but she certainly doesnt look underweight


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## Madhouse5 (Jun 6, 2011)

she look good one think i noticed are you taking your temps off that stuck on strip on the back wall ?


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## casper2009 (Sep 8, 2011)

thats how i was doing it, im using a digital thermometer now.


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## casper2009 (Sep 8, 2011)

just a little update on my bearded dragon. she has eaten a bit of the baby food and has gotten a bit of her appetite back. ate a tiny bit of salad last night and has just eaten 1 locust earlier today. have bought some powerade so will put that in some water and give her a bath


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## Big_Rich (Aug 11, 2011)

casper2009 said:


> just a little update on my bearded dragon. she has eaten a bit of the baby food and has gotten a bit of her appetite back. ate a tiny bit of salad last night and has just eaten 1 locust earlier today. have bought some powerade so will put that in some water and give her a bath


I think your missing the point, you shouldnt be feeding baby food.


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## buddylouis (Apr 28, 2011)

Big_Rich said:


> I think your missing the point, you shouldnt be feeding baby food.


Why not ?


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## Big_Rich (Aug 11, 2011)

buddylouis said:


> Why not ?


Because its not a staple diet for a bearded dragon.

Beardies should be eating live insects and a variation of salad, there should be no need for baby food.


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## buddylouis (Apr 28, 2011)

Big_Rich said:


> Because its not a staple diet for a bearded dragon.


OP never suggested it was a staple diet, just a means to try to kick start appetite, so i'm rather confused as to why baby food can't be used to aid this.


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## buddylouis (Apr 28, 2011)

Big_Rich said:


> Because its not a staple diet for a bearded dragon.
> 
> Beardies should be eating live insects and a variation of salad, there should be no need for baby food.


As for the second part of your post, nor should the likes of repoboost but sometimes reptile keepers have to resort to trying other methods of kick starting appetite.


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## Big_Rich (Aug 11, 2011)

buddylouis said:


> As for the second part of your post, nor should the likes of repoboost but sometimes reptile keepers have to resort to trying other methods of kick starting appetite.


Reptoboost is designed for the job baby food isnt.

At the end of the day if it worked, great, but now the OP should be able to go back to feeding live food.

But personally I wouldnt use baby food.


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## buddylouis (Apr 28, 2011)

It appears many don't have any source of fruit in there beardies diet whatsoever, fruit needs to be and is a vital part of there diet.

Puried fruit = baby food

So personally if this can aid in boosting and kick starting the beardies appetite i can't see the problem.


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## buddylouis (Apr 28, 2011)

Big_Rich said:


> Reptoboost is designed for the job baby food isnt.


LMAO, do some research fella.

Au revoir !

Hence the reason i don't bother posting on here much, lol.


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## Big_Rich (Aug 11, 2011)

Mmm, I can imagine your a reason people dont ask questions or advise anything on here too.

No one said the baby food was fruit based any way.

If im wrong with something im more than happy to hear a good reason why and take that onboard instead of acting like an arrogent idiot.


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## rickwd (Oct 23, 2010)

casper2009 said:


> she is dehydrated because i didnt bath her enough. and she has never been with a male bearded dragon.
> 
> she is usually fed medium dubia roaches and locusts (when i get them). she doesnt really eat much salad. but if she does she usually likes green beans, curly endive, kale, radicchio. but she doesnt really eat much of it
> 
> and just to add im not even 100% sure she is a female.


she is not dehydrated because you havent bein bathing her enough, i never bath my beardies and there fine, like all the others have said there is something else going on get her/him to the vets asap. and dnt feed her baby food either that is defo gona make things worse.


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## buddylouis (Apr 28, 2011)

Big_Rich said:


> Mmm, I can imagine your a reason people dont ask questions or advise anything on here too.
> 
> No one said the baby food was fruit based any way.
> 
> If im wrong with something im more than happy to hear a good reason why and take that onboard instead of acting like an arrogent idiot.


No ones argueing, just suggesting you make a valid reason why baby food should "NOT" be used in this instance. When baby food is mentioned where reptiles are concerned its 99.9% of the time that puried fruit baby food is being used, supermarket shelves are full of various kinds and can be recommended for this kind of thing. And as for arragant idiot, i wasn't the one or ones implying and quoting should NOT be used under any circumstanses kind of attitude. I like to to hear both sides of an opinion and try to understand the reasoning behind trying various methods and the the band wagon type of person when it comes to reptile or any exotic animal keeping.

Its the only way people can understand and learn if we give reasons behind our advise not just use the band wagon attitude.


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## Big_Rich (Aug 11, 2011)

buddylouis said:


> No ones argueing, just suggesting you make a valid reason why baby food should "NOT" be used in this instance. When baby food is mentioned where reptiles are concerned its 99.9% of the time that puried fruit baby food is being used, supermarket shelves are full of various kinds and can be recommended for this kind of thing. And as for arragant idiot, i wasn't the one or ones implying and quoting should NOT be used under any circumstanses kind of attitude. I like to to hear both sides of an opinion and try to understand the reasoning behind trying various methods and the the band wagon type of person when it comes to reptile or any exotic animal keeping.
> 
> Its the only way people can understand and learn if we give reasons behind our advise not just use the band wagon attitude.


I stick with what I said, you stick with what you said, no worries.

I just dont see the need for:

"Au revoir !"

and

"Hence the reason i don't bother posting on here much, lol. "

There was just no point, either way im not posting on this thread anymore.

Sorry if I come across as a nob.


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## buddylouis (Apr 28, 2011)

Big_Rich said:


> I stick with what I said, you stick with what you said, no worries.
> 
> I just dont see the need for:
> 
> ...


Au revoir is simply good bye, a term generally used to wish you a good day, and the other is because i enjoy good healty debate and not overly keen on no reasoning behind peoples views :2thumb:

My personal opinion overall would be a vet check if the OP has genuine reason to think the BD is dehydrated or has other problems and in the meantime i don't see a probem with using a fruit purie (baby food) in its diet to help boost appetite if it seems to be doing the job and getting the beardie back onto its normal diet. Reptoboost is a good product but isn't as easy to get your hands on quickly for some people, so in the meantime once again if puried fruit (baby food, available in just about every conveinience store or supermarket) has been recomended and is having positive results then there really isn't an issue in using it until seeing a vet.


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## Mal (Jul 22, 2007)

The type of baby food isnt specified, it could be sausage and mash. The point is that the animal is underweight for its age and anorexic. Something is compromising its normal gut function. The anorexic element is natures way of saying ' hey Ive got a problem, sort it out '. Until the reason the animal is having problems is identified I would be reluctant to give it baby food, bug slurry, fruit smoothies etc. Hydration is essential to preserve life while the cause of the problem is identified. The details of things I mentioned yesterday may help but I think a parasite and coccidea screen is absolutely essential.


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## buddylouis (Apr 28, 2011)

Mal said:


> The type of baby food isnt specified, it could be sausage and mash. The point is that the animal is underweight for its age and anorexic. Something is compromising its normal gut function. The anorexic element is natures way of saying ' hey Ive got a problem, sort it out '. Until the reason the animal is having problems is identified I would be reluctant to give it baby food, bug slurry, fruit smoothies etc. Hydration is essential to preserve life while the cause of the problem is identified. The details of things I mentioned yesterday may help but I think a parasite and coccidea screen is absolutely essential.


I gave the OP the benifit of the doubt, its a reptile and fruit purie baby food can and is used for reptiles for various reasons. Usually i'd agree with everything you've said but the beardie in the picture certainly doesn't look "anorexic" or underweight to me personally. As for weight and age, remember we can only go off guideline weights for age and we must remember that guidelines is exactly that and should be just used as a guideline. I've had and seen beardies of the same age with huge differences in size and weight all perfectly healthy.

Edit: The latter part as to parasite and coccidea screen would be the way forward if the OP has genuine concerns.


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## casper2009 (Sep 8, 2011)

there are many people who have used baby food to kick start the appetite of a bearded dragon thats not been eating. and i never said it was her staple diet. its used to get her eating again which it has a little bit. and the baby food is sweet potato. and she puts weight one every week. i see her everyday and get her out everyday and there is nothing anerexic about her


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## buddylouis (Apr 28, 2011)

Just to add the OP has only given an approx age, i'm keen to know how the OP knows the BD is de-hydrated and not eating much for only a week with the current climate wouldn't be a massive worry to me personally, many reptile keepers are experienceing all kinds of issues at the moment because our climate is all over the place, the beardie in the picture though from appearance only looks fine to me.


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## casper2009 (Sep 8, 2011)

IMG_0047 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
IMG_0043 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

these are photos of her that were taken just yesterday

this is the size of her when i bought her. i bought her in august last year. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/7220880380/in/photostream


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## casper2009 (Sep 8, 2011)

im going to roughly guess and say she was around 6 weeks old when i bought her, so she is only around 10 months old now


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## JamesJ (Apr 12, 2008)

She is still small for her age regardless to if she doesn't look slim, and if shes not eating there has to be an underlying reason for this. Getting her to eat babyfood might hydrate her a little and even let her put on a bit of weight but if parasites or similar are the reason behind her small size and appetite the babyfood won't fix that. She needs to see a vet and have feacal samples took at least.


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## Scrimey (May 12, 2012)

i know this may sound strange but on another forum i read that someone gave their beardie a bath but not in reptiboost but powerade and they said it donethe trick and she was back to normal in a couple of days


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## Bab1084 (Dec 9, 2011)

Scrimey said:


> i know this may sound strange but on another forum i read that someone gave their beardie a bath but not in reptiboost but powerade and they said it donethe trick and she was back to normal in a couple of days


Powerade can be used but its not a long term fix, as a few ppl have said the beardie ideally needs to see a vet and have poop tests done.


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