Pet bearded dragons do not usually lack food. Most pet beardies are generally fed on time. It is more common to find an overweight beardie than an underweight one. For many owners, it can be difficult to determine if their beardie is overweight.
This brings us to the question – Is my bearded dragon overweight? If you are asking yourself this question, then you are in the right place. And the right places to check to see if your beardie is overweight include the abdomen, the arms, the jowl, the spine, and the tail.
If your bearded dragon is overweight it poses health risks. The main reasons for obesity among reptiles include overfeeding, lack of stimulation/exercise, and lack of brumation.
A fat adult female (weighs 534 grams)
(source: https://www.cliffhangerreptiles.com/pages/weight-info)
Table of Contents
Signs that your bearded dragon is overweight
Here are some signs that your beardie is too fat.
- A thick tail – The base of a fat bearded dragon is thick.
- A bloated abdomen – The abdomen of a fat beardie looks swollen and distended. This large belly often scrapes the floor when the reptile walks. A beardie’s belly is supposed to be relatively lean.
- A bloated jowl – The jowl of a fat beardie looks swollen and distended.
- Bulging arms – The arms of a fat beardie have noticeable fat pockets. These fat pockets are also noticeable on the head.
- Spine and ribs aren’t visible and can’t be felt
- Lethargy – An obese beardie is usually lethargic and as such has trouble moving.
If your bearded dragon looks overweight refer to the chart below.
Reasons Why Your Bearded Dragon Is Overweight
There are different reasons why your beardie is overweight. The more common of these include overfeeding and lack of exercise.
Overfeeding & Improper Diet
Feeding your beardie more often than it needs to can lead to obesity. In the wild, these reptiles have to hunt for their food and their meals aren’t readily available. These lizards generally go days without food.
Reptiles, in general, do not have to feed as often as mammals. So while humans generally eat several times daily, most bearded dragons do not need to eat daily. The feeding schedule of the beardie is also determined by age of the beardie. Growing beardies eat once or twice a day while mature beardies feed once a day to once every three days.
Apart from the feeding schedule, the food items offered are also important to maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle. Bearded dragons are omnivores with juveniles being more carnivorous and adults being more herbivorous.
I recommend offering the beardie a diet of 50 percent animal-based material such as insects and 50% plant-based material.
The plant-based food should include mostly leafy greens and vegetables with a small amount of fruits (about 10% of the plants offered to the lizard). Avoid lightly colored greens such as celery, head lettuce, and iceberg lettuce. These have little nutrients and are mostly water and fiber. Darker leaves such as romaine lettuce and collard greens.
The animal-based foods to offer include insects such as mealworms and crickets. You can also offer pinky mice as they are high in nutrients.
Lack of Exercise
Overeating coupled with a lack of exercise is a disastrous combination. It can be tough to get your beardie to be active especially when it doesn’t have to scavenge for food. There are a lot of fun activities you can have your beardie do.
What are some ways to get your reptile to exercise?
- Get it a ball – Beardies enjoy playing with a ball
- Install a swing or hammock in its enclosure
- Take your bearded dragon for a walk with a leash.
- Make the beardie chase its food. Feeding the reptile with long tweezers allows you to play chase with the pet.
High Temperatures/Incorrect Temperature Gradient
The beardie’s enclosure requires a temperature gradient with a warm end and a cool end. This ensures that the beardie moves from the cool end to the warm end as needed. Constant high temperatures increase the lizard’s demand for food. Night temperatures also need to be low.
Lack of Brumation
Many reptiles including the bearded dragon brumate. Reptiles usually brumate when temperatures are low or when food is scarce. Bearded dragons generally brumate when temperatures are cool.
When it brumates, it sleeps a lot more and eats a lot less. During brumation, the dragon loses weight. This is perfectly natural and the way the animal is hotwired to be. Pet dragons sometimes do not brumate. This means that it won’t lose the weight it naturally loses during the brumation period.
Stress
It isn’t only humans that can gain weight due to stress. Stress can also lead to weight gain in reptiles. There are several reasons why your bearded dragon is stressed. Common factors that induce stress include
- excessive and incessant handling – handling the beardie all the time can be stressful for it;
- lack of hiding spots – in the wild, it is common for the dragon to hide in burrows and other cavities. It is essential to provide such hiding spots for your beardie.
- Presence of another pet – Cats and dogs can stress the dragon when they are around it as it views these larger animals as predators. Their presence can be very stressful for the dragon.
Health Issues Associated with Being Overweight
Similar to humans, obesity comes with health issues. Some of these health issues include prolapse, dystocia (egg binding), shorter lifespan, and organ failure.
Prolapse
A prolapse occurs when part of an internal organ of the reptile comes out through the cloaca. There are many causes of prolapse such as trauma, impaction, egg binding, and dehydration.
Being overweight indirectly contributes to prolapses as it contributes to egg binding.
(source: https://www.cliniciansbrief.com/article/cloacal-prolapse-bearded-dragon)
Dystocia (Egg Binding)
Egg binding occurs when a gravid female is unable to lay eggs. Causes can be a lack of unsuitable nesting area, poor husbandry, stress/trauma, and being overweight. When left untreated, egg binding is fatal.
(source: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/reptiles—dystocia)
Organ Failure
Being overweight can lead to organ failure notably fatty liver disease (Hepatic lipidosis). This is caused by many factors and overfeeding is one of these factors.
(source:https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&catId=102919&id=8017925, https://ourreptileforum.com/community/threads/fatty-liver-diseases-in-reptiles-hepatic-lipidosis.6326/)
Shorter Lifespan
With all health issues compound and can result in a shorter lifespan as these health conditions can be fatal.
The Right Weight For Your Bearded Dragon
The quickest way to determine if your bearded dragon is fat is to measure the weight using a scale. When determining the right weight for your pet, it is best to use the length and the age of the reptile instead of just the age as the pet can be lengthy or short for its age.
This list shows the right weight of a beardie as it grows.
| Length | Age | Weight | ||
| 3 to 4 inches | 7.6 to 10.2 cm | 1 month or less | 0.14 to 0.21 oz | 4 to 6 grams |
| 5 to 9 inches | 12.7 to 22.9 cm | 1 to 2 months | 0.28 to 1.41 oz | 8 to 40 grams |
| 8 to 11 inches | 20.3 to 27.9 cm | 2 to 3 months | 0.77 to 3.88 oz | 22 to 110 grams |
| 9 to 12 inches | 22.9 to 30.5 cm | 3 to 4 months | 1.44 to 4.05 oz | 41 to 115 grams |
| 11 to 16 inches | 27.9 to 40.6cm | 4 to 5 months | 3.59 to 4.05 oz | 102 to 115 grams |
| 11 to 18 inches | 27.9 to 45.7 cm | 5 to 6 months | 6.46 to 6.63 oz | 183 to 188 grams |
| 13 to 18 inches | 33 to 45.7 cm | 6 to 7 months | 8.11 to 10.2 oz | 230 to 288 grams |
| 14 to 20 inches | 35.6 to 50.8 cm | 7 to 8 months | 8.89 to 11.5 oz | 252 to 327 grams |
| 16 to 22 inches | 40.6 to 55.9 cm | 8 to 9 months | 9.88 to 12.7 oz | 280 to 360 grams |
| 16 to 24 inches | 40.6 to 61 cm | 9 to 10 months | 12.3 to 16.4 oz | 350 to 465 grams |
| 16 to 24 inches | 40.6 to 61 cm | 10 to 11 months | 13.4 to 16.4 oz | 380 to 465 grams |
| 16 to 24 inches | 40.6 to 61 cm | 11 to 12 months | 13.4 to 17.6 oz | 380 to 500 grams |
| 16 to 24 inches | 40.6 to 61 cm | 12 to 18 months | 13.4 to 17.6 oz | 380 to 500 grams |
| 16 to 24 inches | 40.6 to 61 cm | 18 to 24 months | 13.4 to 17.6 oz | 380 to 500 grams |
(sources: https://reptile.guide/how-big-bearded-dragons-get/, https://www.morereptiles.com/how-big-do-bearded-dragons-get/)
A normal weight adult male (weighs 385 grams)
(source: https://www.cliffhangerreptiles.com/pages/weight-info)
How to get your bearded dragon to lose weight
Slow down the eating rate of your beardie
If your beardie is overweight, you should consider ditching the food dish in favor of tweezers. By using tweezers, you can dictate how quickly your bearded dragon eats. You can make the bearded dragon exercise for its food.
Another way is to use a large feeding surface such as a plant saucer. This way you can spread the food out. This ensures that the beardie moves around more when eating. It isn’t advisable to place the food on the substrate as the beardie may ingest some substrate when feeding.
With the vegetables and green, you can offer them in large sizes so that the beardie doesn’t consume them in a single take but rather have to tear them up.
Also, offer live insects. This ensures that the beardie has to work for its food. You must remove any leftover insects after feeding as some such as crickets can in turn bite the beardie.
Offer more greens
The type of plant-based foods you offer the dragon is essential. As mentioned earlier, offer very limited amounts of fruits. Fruits are high in sugar and lead to weight gain. Instead offer more leafy vegetables. Out of these leafy vegetables, offer more greens as they are highly nutritional. Offer greens such as romaine lettuce and collard greens. You should also offer flowers such as hibiscus and dandelions.
With animal-based foods offer more beetles and crickets and fewer worms (such as mealworms).
Get your beardie to exercise more
An active dragon is a healthy dragon. Stimulate the dragon with exercise. As mentioned earlier, you can get it a ball – beardies enjoy playing with a ball, install a swing or hammock in its enclosure, take it for a walk with a leash, and make the beardie chase its food.
Install vines, plants – both natural and fake, logs, burrows, and other objects that the dragon can interact with.
Enrich the environment. You can find several creative ways to get your beardie to exercise more and be more active. The more active it is, the more weight it will lose.
Induce brumation
Brumation is similar to hibernation. Reptiles brumate while mammals hibernate. Brumation is a natural process among most reptiles and reptiles that brumate are perfectly adapted to do this. One of the reptiles that brumate is the bearded dragon. In the wild, this reptile brumates when temperatures are low. During brumation, the reptile’s metabolism slows to almost a halt. At this point, the beardie relies on fat reserves to maintain the needed body functions. When the beardie doesn’t brumate, the excess fat isn’t burned. This will have an accumulative result which ends with the lizard being overweight.
While brumation is natural it comes with risks especially if the lizard isn’t healthy. A sick lizard may not have the fortitude to survive brumation. You must visit the vet before brumation. You can schedule the yearly vet visit to occur right before brumation.
The condition needed to induce brumation is low temperatures.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if my bearded dragon is overweight?
There are a few signs to watch out for.
A fat bearded dragon has a thick tail. Its abdomen also looks swollen and distended. This large belly will often scrape the floor when the reptile walks. A beardie’s belly is supposed to be relatively lean.
Fat beardies have fat pads on their arms and head. The spine and ribs can’t be felt and aren’t visible.
A fat bearded dragon is also lethargic.
A fat adult female (weighs 534 grams)
What does a normal-sized bearded dragon look like?
While bearded dragons aren’t naturally lean, a healthy dragon is relatively lean-looking. Refer to this chart to see if your bearded dragon.
A normal weight adult male (weighs 385 grams)
(source: https://www.cliffhangerreptiles.com/pages/weight-info)
| Length | Age | Weight | ||
| 3 to 4 inches | 7.6 to 10.2 cm | 1 month or less | 0.14 to 0.21 oz | 4 to 6 grams |
| 5 to 9 inches | 12.7 to 22.9 cm | 1 to 2 months | 0.28 to 1.41 oz | 8 to 40 grams |
| 8 to 11 inches | 20.3 to 27.9 cm | 2 to 3 months | 0.77 to 3.88 oz | 22 to 110 grams |
| 9 to 12 inches | 22.9 to 30.5 cm | 3 to 4 months | 1.44 to 4.05 oz | 41 to 115 grams |
| 11 to 16 inches | 27.9 to 40.6cm | 4 to 5 months | 3.59 to 4.05 oz | 102 to 115 grams |
| 11 to 18 inches | 27.9 to 45.7 cm | 5 to 6 months | 6.46 to 6.63 oz | 183 to 188 grams |
| 13 to 18 inches | 33 to 45.7 cm | 6 to 7 months | 8.11 to 10.2 oz | 230 to 288 grams |
| 14 to 20 inches | 35.6 to 50.8 cm | 7 to 8 months | 8.89 to 11.5 oz | 252 to 327 grams |
| 16 to 22 inches | 40.6 to 55.9 cm | 8 to 9 months | 9.88 to 12.7 oz | 280 to 360 grams |
| 16 to 24 inches | 40.6 to 61 cm | 9 to 10 months | 12.3 to 16.4 oz | 350 to 465 grams |
| 16 to 24 inches | 40.6 to 61 cm | 10 to 11 months | 13.4 to 16.4 oz | 380 to 465 grams |
| 16 to 24 inches | 40.6 to 61 cm | 11 to 12 months | 13.4 to 17.6 oz | 380 to 500 grams |
| 16 to 24 inches | 40.6 to 61 cm | 12 to 18 months | 13.4 to 17.6 oz | 380 to 500 grams |
| 16 to 24 inches | 40.6 to 61 cm | 18 to 24 months | 13.4 to 17.6 oz | 380 to 500 grams |
What do I do if my bearded dragon is too fat?
If your dragon is overweight, feed it less often. Offer healthier foods such as greens. Get it to exercise by enriching the enclosure with vines, plants – both natural and fake, logs, burrows, and other objects that the dragon can interact with. Lastly, you can induce brumation when the season is right.
What’s wrong with my bearded dragon being too fat?
Similar to humans, obesity comes with health issues. Some of these health issues include prolapse, dystocia (egg binding), shorter lifespan, and organ failure.
Conclusion
It is not uncommon for a bearded dragon to become overweight. There are many reasons why a beardie can become overweight but the main reason is too much food. In captivity, food is easily accessible. They do not need to hunt or travel long distances in search of food. The food comes straight to them.
Many pet owners tend to overfeed their pet as they assume that the pet needs to eat as often as humans. Matured beardies need to eat once every 24 to 72 hours. Juveniles need to eat thrice to twice a day. As most bearded dragons are adults/mature, they need to eat just once a day and in many cases, once every two to three days.
Another reason for obesity among reptiles is the lack of stimulation. Install plants, swings, hammocks, vines, and other objects that the reptile can interact with in the enclosure. This will get the beardie up and moving.
The last main reason for obesity is lack of brumation. Brumation allows the reptile to burn excess fat. In captivity, beardies will not brumate when temperatures are not low enough. Allowing your lizard to brumate through the cold months can help it to keep a trim figure.