How much to feed a 5mo??

Hello! We got a bearded dragon as a family pet for Christmas, named George! Honestly he's pretty happy (I guess?) He basks, climbs, moves well, etc but I'm concerned about how much he's eating? Maybe 3 medium crickets per day that I can tell, I leave out yellow squash, kale, and zuchinI daily and try to also get him to eat worms (meal and wax- but maybe he eats 2 wax? I haven't witnessed actual eating of meal). He went through a period of about 2 wks where he didn't eat at all so I'm just glad he's eating and pooping. It *looks* like he at least is getting a bit of a belly back. I've got repti-mats instead of sand substrate so impaction shouldn't be an issue and I've upped my lamp so he's got the appropriate amount of heat and he's in a 40-50 gal tank (it's been a lot of touch and go and having zero idea what I'm doing lol).

So- how much should I actually expect him to eat? Am I thinking he's gonna eat more than he actually will? I just want to know what a good guideline is because everything I've read says he should eat like 10+/day?! There's no way he wold eat that much.

Heya, love the name if you got him for Christmas he might still be adjusting, it took my jubsie about 4 weeks to fully adjust and eat properly (then we moved and had to start again ?) I think with 5 months it's mostly bugs with 20% made up of veg, so probably upward of 10 when he gets his appetite back. If it's any help jubsie eats around 40 bugs a day and she's 4/5 months got any pics of the little guy? ?

Are you only feeding once a day? At that age he should be eating 2-3x per day, as much as he can eat in 10-15 minutes.

So I've done crickets twice today and he's eaten -0-. It looks like he ate 2 meal worms (unless they escaped somewhere) and 2 wax worms. If I let him only eat for 15 minutes he wouldn't eat. I've had these worms and crickets in here for like 1.5 hours and that's all he ate?

Sbach1360":9egciilc said:

So I've done crickets twice today and he's eaten -0-. It looks like he ate 2 meal worms (unless they escaped somewhere) and 2 wax worms. If I let him only eat for 15 minutes he wouldn't eat. I've had these worms and crickets in here for like 1.5 hours and that's all he ate?

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Stop the mealworms. Mealworms have a hard chitinous shell that can cause impaction.

Ugh! I bought those on recommendation from the pet store so what do I feed him? Wax worms until he actually starts eating enought crickets? I feel like I'm at a loss! Kids are easier than this beardie

Yah, pet stores don't have good recommendations most of the time. Can you get crickets? Other good feeders are silkworms, BSFL, and the roaches. Wax worms shouldn't be fed as a staple, they are fatty.

I have crickets and he seemed kinda interested once I went in to remove them and I moved him off his basking rock but he's kind of a terrible hunter lol so he looses interest pretty fast. I can get roaches but what is BSFL? Would the pet store carry silk worms?

Most pet stores wont carry those. Buying online will be better and cheaper.

I got my worms and dubias from Rainbow Mealworms (I know, I don't get the mealworms, I get the other stuff lol) Its a website and they have great prices as well as great shipping options. I've never had a problem with them at all.