Is 4 crickets a meal enough?

We have a very young bearded dragon. I was told by guesstimates on here that he's around 6 weeks to 8 weeks old. I have all the things he needs to thrive. A 40 gallon breeder tank, uvb and heat lamps along with a basking spot, hiding places and no sand in our terrarium. He gets live small cricket 2-3 times a day. Along with a green salad with cumber, mustard greens, and carrots or what ever we have that is safe for him to eat that day. Also gets a few juvenile bearded dragon food pellets on his salad misted down. Every other day or so I add a fruit strawberries or papaya something like that just a tiny bit. My question is I've heard that even a baby can eat like 15 crickets in one sitting but our little guy can barely eat 4-5 crickets in a 15 minutes period.

Is that normal. I always offer him as many as he wants but he is just slow after the first couple and doesn't seem interested. I was worried because he wasn't eating much salad until today, he eat like half of the salad I gave him.

Thanks for the responses in advanced

What size are the crickets? Make sure they are no bigger than the gap between his head. Does he eat his veggies more than his crickets?

I buy small crickets and none of them are larger than the gap between his eyes. And I wouldn't say he's eating more veggies then protein. Today's was the first day I've actually seen him eat any of the salad. He has been eating max 10 crickets a day. On a side note he has only been home fore 5 days now. Maybe his appetite will pick up when he's been home a bit longer?

I had this problem with mine as well... we have only had her with us since June 16... took her about 2 weeks to where she would eat normal amounts but then we discovered she didn't like crickets. She would only eat 3 MAYBE 4 of them and really didn't have an interest in them.

After reading here a lot, I picked up a small 80 count of roaches.. man she went to town and I had never seen her eat that much! Now, she will eat some greens, roaches and BSFL... that is my rotation with her now

That's not good news. I hate roaches, I can deal with the crickets and later on different worms and stuff but roaches are like the worst. I couldn't do it haha I don't think I would sleep knowing there were any roaches around my house let alone 80+ Stashed for my beardie to eat. Yuck I hope his appetite just picks up with the crickets...

I've heard soldier fly larva are really good feeders aswell. I'd love to be able to have dubias as I hear they are much easier, but I don't really stress with crickets. To me the noise and smell isn't bad at all and the only thing I really hate are the idea that they die off real quick.

The crickets aren't that bad to me beside what you said the fact that they die off easy. Roaches I honestly just don't think I could do it. Like it's a whole different scenario for me when I think a bout dealing with a roach and watching my beardie eat it. Crickets are just crickets I can touch them they don't scare me like a roach does.

Ugh liking animals/reptiles but hating bugs is difficult!

I have a 5 month old beardie and I have been feeding him crickets until about a week ago. I bought some roaches and I was literally screaming putting them in the container I have for them. But once I fed them to my beardie and saw how much he loves them and how excited he gets... it's totally worth it!! Plus they are so much more filling. He eats about 7-10 roaches versus 30-40 crickets. They don't jump, climb, smell, or make noise! Trust me, I think you'll get over it once you see how much better they are.

AnnaC109":3t8bt9pp said:

I have a 5 month old beardie and I have been feeding him crickets until about a week ago. I bought some roaches and I was literally screaming putting them in the container I have for them. But once I fed them to my beardie and saw how much he loves them and how excited he gets... it's totally worth it!! Plus they are so much more filling. He eats about 7-10 roaches versus 30-40 crickets. They don't jump, climb, smell, or make noise! Trust me, I think you'll get over it once you see how much better they are.

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This is exactly me lol I had my son grabbing them ?? the breeding colony at least I don't have to touch for a while, just replace the food stuffs. I have a repeating order for smalls until my colony produces enough and then of course I may have to get another dragon after that to feed off more ?

AnnaC109":16ijbi78 said:

I have a 5 month old beardie and I have been feeding him crickets until about a week ago. I bought some roaches and I was literally screaming putting them in the container I have for them. But once I fed them to my beardie and saw how much he loves them and how excited he gets... it's totally worth it!! Plus they are so much more filling. He eats about 7-10 roaches versus 30-40 crickets. They don't jump, climb, smell, or make noise! Trust me, I think you'll get over it once you see how much better they are.

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OMG this is so true!! I got 120 crickets for 10 dollars at my local pet store (Mom and pop shop) better than petco's 16cents per cricket and petsmarts 14 cents per cricket. He eats soooo many crickets vs the dubia roaches. Like literally i gotten 100 dubias to start out with and see how he likes them it lasted me 5 days mixed in with Black Soldier Fly Larvae. Crickets on the other hand you just need a big tub and thats his meals :lol: Plus my beardie sometimes doesnt want crickets like he will eat them but he ISNT into them as dubias or the BSFL. He <3 the BSFL with a passion though. I bring out the cup and immediately he sees it and he knows it too he will run back and forth. Too cute!

This is the snub I got for trying to give her crickets instead of roaches ?? literally...

It might be just that you've only had him for a very short time. Be patient and you'll probably see him slowly begin to eat more of whatever you offer, whether it be crix, roaches or maggots. [ Ever think you'd be discussing these bugs with such interest ? :lol: ]

ChristinaMike":13h5csd6 said:

This is the snub I got for trying to give her crickets instead of roaches ?? literally...

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OMG thats hilarious photo! :lol: That's the look my beardie does when im trying to offer some veggies. Some days are better than others which he will go crazy and eat. Then sometimes other days not so nice, i will leave some veggies out in his food bowl then to come back to delightful toppings for his salad :roll: :lol: :shock:

Thanks all for the advice, it's much appreciated! Today he ate a lot more crickets in one sitting and was actually chasing them around his cage unlike before where he would just let them come up to him and then maybe eat one if he felt the need lol I'm definitely going to hold off on the roaches just because like I said I would loose sleep if I knew any number of roaches were around my home ? But I also want to make sure I make our beardie happy, so if he doesn't love his food in the end I'll think about switching it up. But I'm really hoping that I won't have too.

And no I wouldn't have guessed in a million years I would be discussing bugs to this extent plus having to actually keep them alive