Petsmart dragons?

4-6 per day for a growing dragon is definitely too low. My youngest is eating 4-6 large per session per day (about twice a day now) but was going through probably 10 or so mediums per session three times a day when he was about a month or so younger.

I have a roach colony but it's awkwardly either all nymphs or adults, so I've still been having to buy roaches as I do not want to deplete my growing colony. I just harvested a bunch of large and X large roaches today but again, don't want to deplete the larger ones as they are nearing adulthood. Otherwise my colony is just a big black tote from Walmart with a sunbeam heating pad underneath set to high, with egg crate flats inside.

Just ride out the cost till the lizard is grown and feed the largest size it is comfortable eating. When they are adults most of their diet is veg so the cost to feed an adult is much less. I think I saw on one of the roach sites where 50 adult- ish sized roaches were like $20 that would easily last an adult beard 2 weeks. That's why with my girl when she eats all her bugs from her bowl I just let her eat greens if she is still hungry. Won't be that long till she starts to transition at this growth rate.

My girl would eat more Dubia than I give her but she is plump and I don't want her to get too fat. IMO you need to increase your bugs per day, at this size they are capable of eating a ton. I've heard of people feeding 50+Dubia per day...that seems like a bit much to me but then I do try to feed her the largest size I can. My roaches are also fat, they have clementines and chow at all times. Ordering larger quantities at a time deflects some cost as well...my order of 1000 was less than $80 shipped and despite losses is still a month's worth of bugs.

Adult dubias are really quite large, so if you were to order them for an adult, make sure it is a large adult dragon. As an adult, just 1 adult roach should be pretty filling with all the veggies

50+ roaches is really high, regardless of age. The reason growing dragons can eat 50+ crickets in a day is they are not as densely packed with nutrients. One roach is the equivalent of 3-4 crickets, depending on size fed, and because they're not junk they're a lot more filling. I would say even 30 appropriately sized roaches is a lot for one day.

If roach prices are breaking the account, mix in other insects. Do a handful of crickets with the dubias, or some phoenix worms, silk worms, etc. Make the roaches the bulk of the meal, and the crickets or w/e a side dish Just be sure he's getting his fill of protein

I got mine from pets mart not even a week ago they seem to be doing good. They are very active when it comes to feed they both get excited and get crickets. 1 is more active then the other which is the bigger of the two. They seem to be happy

I got mine from a Pet Supplies Plus. I'd never heard of it before, but one opened up near me last fall and I love it! The employees at my location are great, and one in particular owns beardies and other reptiles himself. The cages and tanks for all their animals are always clean. Seems like every time I go in there's somebody cleaning the tanks! I went there to check out their beardies one night, wiggled my finger in front of the glass and little Noot came right on up to try and eat me. I returned that weekend to pick him up!

I was a bit worried for a while since he didn't seem to be growing like I thought he should, but just recently and suddenly he's started to grow and shed rapidly. He enjoys 60-80+ bsfl a day, which is... expensive! But to me it's worth not having to deal with crix or roaches. Anyway, he's doing really well right now and I'm hoping he will stay healthy for a long time.

I have a petsmart beardie. She is about a year and half. When I took her to the vet for an annual well check the vet asked me where I got her from and when I told her petsmart she said that she has never seen a healthy beardie come from there and that I was really lucky that I picked a good one. I bought my beardie before I heard the horror stories. But after hearing horror stories from my vet and seeing YouTube videos on petsmart I don't even like to purchase crickets from them. My local petco store is where I buy my babies live food from. They are a clean store. They don't sell pets other then fish and cats. The cats have a long adoption process. I believe it's a third party seller where they rent out the store front because you can only see the cats if the adoption people are there and you have to make an appointment with them. Even after the appointment you still have to go through an application process and wait to see if you were accepted before getting the cat. And the cats area is huge with big fluffy beds. The cage they stay in is really nice and they aren't laying or walking on metal bars. I love my local petco I feel like they actually care about animals instead of looking at them as a price tag. Even the cricket bin is clean. The crickets are bigger and I always see food and water gell at the bottom of the bins so I know the crickets that I buy are gut loaded. where petsmart doesn't feed or water their crickets. Also my local petco has all 3 size crickets. Pin heads medium and large. So when my little girl was a baby I was able to feed her the proper pinhead size and not worry about impaction.

If this is any consolation to anyone, my vet that assisted me with Simon's passing actually is on call to see the reptiles at Petco at least.
After Simon's autopsy, she informed me she was ready to be picked up, and not long after she informed me she had to run to Petco to check on their reptiles and would be back shortly. So at least the Petco near me has vets visit the store to check the animals.

Perhaps my store is better than your average pet smart. I was in there yesterday to get dog food and browsed by the herps. I was greeted by a few that scurried to the font while others were basking. All were of acceptable weight although more thin that I would like and they had bright eyes and heads up. My main issue is my store only feeds a few crickets and a bowl of pellets.

My Yoda is extremely sassy and plump, no vet around me will treat herps so by own account she looks fine. I would venture to guess most beards in the hobby are from a mill situation.

Yes petsmart does display food and some times I do see crickets in there. But what we don't see if the lighting. I have been told that many to almost most beardies that come from petsmart end up MBD because there bulbs aren't changed when they are suppose to. I never see calcium on there food or crickets either. I went in to petsmart today and they had 8 baby beardies crammed into a 10 gallon tank. They are pulled on top of each other trying to stay warm and get light.