New Baby Beardie and Incorrect Feeding Advice— Help please!

Hi guys.

I recently (just on Friday!) adopted a 2 month old baby beardie from a commercial pet store. They told me he was eating 6 crickets per day, and that he was also eating mealworms.

Now, I’ve owned a beardie before, but never a baby beardie. I knew that feeding babies was a bit different than feeding an adult, so I thought this advice seemed a bit off, but it didn’t register at the time that mealworms were bad.

So I bought a small container of mini mealworms, and I’ve offered my new baby about 4-6 mini mealworms for the last two days, and he’s eaten them up like candy. I’ve also been giving him the 6 crickets per day that the pet store recommended.

Today, as I was continuing to research different food options, I came across several sites saying not to feed mealworms to babies due to a risk of impaction.

So now I am worried I’ve done damage to my new baby without even realizing it. He pooped in his box on the way home on Friday, and I found droppings in his tank late yesterday as well, but so far, no poop today.

I’ll stop feeding him mealworms right away, but what do I need to watch out for? How can I help him if he is impacted?

Also, how many crickets should he be eating per day? It seems like 6 crickets is not enough.

Thanks in advance!

For babies 1-4 months should be eating three times a day, usually 10-15 each feeding or 10-15 minutes all he wants each feeding. And offer salad like collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens daily just so if he wants he can have some though its not too important like the insects until they get 12+ months. After or at 4 months slow the feedings to twice a day until hes 12 months, still all he wants in 10-15 minutes or 10-15 each feeding. Once hes 12 months give him crickets once a day, basically the same except make sure hes eating his veggies even more and then what i like to do is wait for them to get to 19-20 months to start feeding them every other day for insects or 3-2 times a week for insects with a large variety of veggies available 24/7.

My youngest beardie is 8 months of now and 4 months when i got her, usually now she eats twice a day, all she wants in the morning (usually 10-15 crickets and 10-20 calciworms), then later in the day around 4 or 6 pm she gets 20 crickets dusted with calcium or multivitamins and 5 calciworms. Once my dubia roach colony has grown to a better size she'll be eating 5 crickets, 10 dubias, 10 calciworms in the morning, and then 10 crickets, 5 dubias and 10 cacliworms. However since she'll most likely be around the 12 month mark by then i'll be feeding her 5 crickets, 5-10 medium sized dubias or large, and 15 cacliworms. It'll be the same thing except for every other day when shes 19-20 months. I also only feed superworms/mealworms once a week or once every two weeks as treats since they are one of the worst feeders out there.
Thats just how i do it anyway.

Could you post a pic of his setup by the way just to make sure everythings good?

Thanks for the advice! That’s much more helpful.
Here are a few pictures of him and his cage.

He has a shallow water dish, a hide in the cooler side of his tank, and a basking spot. His UV light is a reptisun 10, and I plan to get a tube UV bulb next weekend for him.

Please excuse the salad...he didn’t eat it earlier today.

He looks pretty healthy and the setup is good so just get him the reptisun t5 ho 10.0 tube light soon and get him on a better feeding schedule. And also a new thermometer as those stick on ones dont work, a digital one with a probe works best so you know the exact basking temp.