1.5 Gram Hatchling - Help With Care

Lizards Bearded Dragons
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1

UPDATE 9/18/25

Little one will be 6wk tomorrow. Just finishing up the first shed now and has almost tripled in weight at 4.3g. Voracious eater!

Hatch Day 8/8/25

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Today 9/18/25

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We had an odd clutch, 20 eggs laid June 7, 19 infertile. Both parents healthy, unrelated, good genetics. Our singleton hatched Aug 8 and came in at a whopping 1.5 grams. The yolk sac was punctured during the first pips and had a fairly good bit left in it that leaked out or dried up between then and fully hatching, which didn’t help. We’ve never experienced one so small and are looking for any advice there is to be offered.

A rundown of our last few days:
Aug 6 - Pipped egg overnight, tore yolk sac
Aug 7 - Not much progress, lots of cuts made with eggtooth but still could not get head out of the shell. We made a small cut at the tip to allow the head out and ensure hatchling could breathe.
Aug 8 - Hatchling emerged overnight and was left to rest in the incubator. Fed 3x xxxs mealworm, drank water, moved into hatchling enclosure in the PM with salad offered. Very active & alert.
Aug 9 - Offered & refused both crickets & mealworms. Offered & ate mix of water, Beardie Buffet, calcium powder, bee pollen. Drank. Active & alert.
Aug 10 - Weighed in at 1.7g. Same as Aug 9, refused insects but ate meal replacement mix. Still very active, curious, and alert.

Hatchling Enclosure

  • 20"x10"x13"
  • screen cover
  • basking platform/hide on hot side
  • hide/climber on cool side
  • 22" 24W T5 HO 10.0 UVB
  • 50watt basking lamp
  • 42C hot side, 30C cool side (107 & 86F), humidity 51% (misting every few hours during the day to allow drinking droplets rather than risking drowning in water dish)
  • small finely chopped veg. in dish

If anyone has had a similar hatchling or has any advice or tips to offer, they would be greatly appreciated. The weight gain and activity level has us hopeful but we want to give this one the best chance possible.

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Awww, good luck with the little one!

Is the temp range the air temps or the surface temps? The temps you have work well for surface temps but if that’s the air temp it sounds a little too warm and that can dehydrate this little one if you don’t have the water access in there. I do understand the worry about drowning, but dehydration can be just as much of a killer with these little guys.

And just making sure, they are the first three mealies, but no bugs after? And are they eating the salad you’re giving or just the replacement meal?

As long as they’re eating something and it can be supplemented with the correct vits and calcium, I wouldn’t worry too much. Once they’re a bit larger you can always introduce other foods again little by little.

As far as the rest… Small hatchlings of any species with a rough start can be difficult. Sometimes you can get really lucky and it ends up being an easy start after all. Sometimes as much as we do there can still be underlying issues that we can’t know.
Being active is a good sign tho. I hope he continues to be!

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Those are surface temps, air sits around 34 & 28C (93 & 82F). Since we did a smaller enclosure for now, we went with screen top for extra ventilation to make sure there was enough airflow to cool that ambient heat.

Hatchling has not accepted insects since and also no interest in veg, just meal replacement mix the past two days. Currently trying to hunt down some smaller syringes to make it a little easier to feed and track exact amounts. The .2g weight gain in 24hr seems promising though.

So far we’ve decided they are absolutely their mother’s child though, the mannerisms and personality are STRONG in this one. Here’s to hoping we can get that weight up quickly, even if it’s without “real” food for now, but the overall outlook here with the consistent level of activity we’ve been seeing is much better.

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