Beardie doesn't like calcium powder

Age - 5 months
Size - around... 10-11 inches as an estimation

Hello there. I have the pickiest beardie on planet earth and this week he has decided he does not like calcium supplements on his feeders. I can feed him as many crickets as he will eat without any issue but the second I put even the slightest amount of Repashy's calcium powder on them, he has no interest.

My usual staple feeder is phoenix worms as they're naturally very high in calcium but unfortunately my provider's fridge malfunctioned and froze all 3000 of his stock and I haven't been able to get any others locally. I have ordered some phoenix worms online for 2 sources but I won't be receiving those until tuesday to wednesday next week.

My main question/concern... I do not want to starve the poor guy if he refuses to eat the crickets with the powder but would it be a really bad idea to feed him without a calcium supplement until next week? I am a very paranoid person when it comes to the health of my little dude.

Pics of Fred - https://imgur.com/a/ngZbH

I’m a new beardie owner so I’m not sure if this would work but maybe try dusting a few crickets a tiny bit and he may grab the dusted ones accidentally? Also someone more experienced correct me if this is awful but I was wondering if you could dissolve a tiny bit of powder in some water and use that to drip on his face for hydration? That’s just an idea, I have no clue if that would cause a higher risk for impaction but if someone else with more experience can support this it could be worth a shot. I’m sure a few days without calcium would be okay, especially since he doesn’t seem to be a tiny baby. Mine has gone a little while with minimal calcium while we were working on getting him feeders he likes, and he seems to be just fine. I wouldn’t worry too much . Just keep trying to offer some with calcium on them, if he’s hungry enough he’ll go for it. Maybe look to see if there are some acceptable veggies with naturally high calcium that he can snack on, too.

Chalooby":2e6hi8ao said:

I’m a new beardie owner so I’m not sure if this would work but maybe try dusting a few crickets a tiny bit and he may grab the dusted ones accidentally? Also someone more experienced correct me if this is awful but I was wondering if you could dissolve a tiny bit of powder in some water and use that to drip on his face for hydration? That’s just an idea, I have no clue if that would cause a higher risk for impaction but if someone else with more experience can support this it could be worth a shot. I’m sure a few days without calcium would be okay, especially since he doesn’t seem to be a tiny baby. Mine has gone a little while with minimal calcium while we were working on getting him feeders he likes, and he seems to be just fine. I wouldn’t worry too much . Just keep trying to offer some with calcium on them, if he’s hungry enough he’ll go for it. Maybe look to see if there are some acceptable veggies with naturally high calcium that he can snack on, too.

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For your guy, I recommend you take a look at phoenix worms, calciworms, Black soldier fly larvae, reptiworms (All 4 of these are the same worm under different "Brands"). They are naturally very high in calcium and do not require ANY dusting. They are also the ONLY feeder with the perfect Calcium to phosphorous ratio. They're not too fatty and have good protein so can safely be used as your beardies main feeder. If you can't get some locally, you can order them online from several sources...

In canada - http://www.recorpinc.com/ or I'm relatively close to http://thewormlady.ca/ who operates in Toronto which for me is significantly less shipping costs.


As for my issue I've read online that there are liquid calcium supplements that I might try since that wouldn't change the colour of the crickets which might trick Fred into ingesting some in case I have issues getting phoenix worms again.

I actually do use the Phoenix Worms! My guy seems to like them a lot, he just took a while to get off wax worms! Thanks for the suggestion though! Glad to hear the liquid calcium is a thing, maybe there’s a way to make it from home so you don’t have to wait for shipping. Good luck!!