size problem

Question

puff   hey, i have a almost 2 year old female bearded dragon, she is 15.5 inches (39cm) from nose to tail body is 18cm and tail is 21cm her weight is 220 grams. i got her when she was 5-10 weeks old, shed ate allot and drinked water from a bowl then 3 months later it was winter then for almost 6 months she stopped growing and shedding skin when it was spring again she started to grow and shed skin, she shed skin almost twice a month now. she eats crickets gutload with potato and carrots 100-150 crickets in 3 days aswel as bearded dragon pellets every day crickets are dusted before feeding her. i have a 1meter in length and 40cm high and 40 cm wide cage for her and a 75w uv bulb. she spent most of the day time outside in the sun with shade if it gets to hot best place to get uv. my question is why did she stop growing for that 6 months and will she reach her max size every dragon i saw at 9 months was 20+ inches even her sister and brother. im worried coz its 3 weeks away till winter time again and im afraid she stops growing and shedding skin again. her cage temp is 100degrees hot side and cool side 89 summer and winter

Answer
Hi Arne,

It is very likely that Puff will stop eating again in a few weeks as your winter season approaches. She will be entering brumation which is similar to hibernation in mammals and is  completely normal. It is not something that you should try to interfere with. Dragons that are brumating usually do not feed or feed very little. They also tend to hide in the cooler end of the cage. The phase can last just a few weeks or for a few months. It is probably brought on by the cooler temperatures, shorter days and change in barometric pressure that winter brings. They enter brumation despite the presence of artificial heating and lighting in their enclosure. There can be a lot of variation in behaviour between dragons during brumation. One dragon may start brumating even though others in the same cage do not. It often worries owners the first time they experience it.
It was a little unusual for Puff to start brumating in her first year. They usually start when they are around a year old.

They do not eat and their metabolism slows down during brumation so there is no growth during that time. There should be no obvious weight loss either. It will not affect her long term growth potential. It may just take her an extra year or so to reach her full size due to her longer brumation periods. It is thought that reptiles that hibernate or brumate may even live longer because their bodies regularly have some "time off" to rest.

Puff looks very healthy, happy and alert in the photo. The care you described is very good. The one small suggestion I would make is to try to offer her some fresh leafy salad greens in her diet. Kale, dandelion, escarole or collards are all good choices.