Feeding a 3 month old beardie!

Status
Not open for further replies.

SomeDude

Member
So I want a feeding schedule and the amount of crickets I should feed a 3 month old bearded dragon. I have been struggling with my bearded dragon in terms of feeding it. I need to know when to feed my bearded dragon crickets and how many. I was thinking of a chart like this:


Monday. rep-cal juvenile pellets and veggies.
Tuesday. Pellets and veggies.
Wednesday. Crickets and veggies.
Thursday. Pellets and veggies.
Friday. pellets and veggies.
Saturday. Rep-cal calcium and Herptivite dusted crickets and veggies.
Sunday. Pellets and veggies.


Is this good? Also, how many crickets?
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
More of a adult bearded dragon diet with junk added to it, the pellets are entirely useless unless you run out of food completely.

This is what i do according to age,
1-4 months feed 3 times a day 10-20 bugs each feeding, 4-12 months 2 times a day 10-20 bugs each feeding, 12-20 months once a day 10-20 bugs each feeding, 20+ months every other day to 2-3 times a week 10-20 bugs each feeding.

And by bugs i mean staple feeders like roaches, calciworms, crickets, silkworms just to name a few.
If you offer treats, that being mealworms (only around 6 months should you give them this in my opinion), hornworms, waxworms, superworms (only for adults 12+ months) only give 2-4 at max each feeding and if you offer superworms only do it once a week or just monthly. Superworms are one of the worst feeders out there and beardies can become addicted to them quickly and refuse everything.

As for dusting you want to dust calcium with no d3 5 times a week on at least on meal each feeding, with multivitamins twice a week on at least one meal each feeding.
So basically this,
Monday calcium, Tuesday calcium, Wednesday calcium, Thursday calcium, Friday calcium, Saturday and Sunday multivitamins.

As for salads offer it daily no matter of the age, things like collard greens, turnip greens and mustard greens are good. Stay away from kale and spinach, and only offer fruits occasionally or rarely. I usually offer fruit once to twice a week.
 

SomeDude

Member
Original Poster
So would I feed him crickets in the morning, afternoon, and evening? And veggies only one time a day? If I feed him that many crickets everyday I'm gonna be broke. The calcium I have for him has d3. What is wrong with d3? It says it's safe for all reptiles. And when would the veggies come in?

Would it be like: mornings veggies and crickets. Afternoon crickets. Evening crickets. I have heard that Too much animal protein is bad and it can cause a lot of problems.

I have did a lot of research. But, feeding them is so difficult. It has been one of the hardest tasks about owning a beardie.
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
Yeah veggies in the morning, i usually turn the lights on at around 7 or 8 go prepare everyones meals (i have 6 lizards in total only 3 beardies so it takes about an hour or so for me), give everyone their salads and for my juvenile throw in like 10 crickets or so in the morning and then go do school work. And then when my juvenile was 4 months i used to throw in 15 crickets around 12 however if you cant you could do it as soon as you can and then at around 6 i give her the 15 dusted crickets and clean any uneaten food out and turn the lights off at 9. So its on a 13-14 hour schedule at the moment.

The reason it cant have d3 in it is because they can overdose on it if they have too much of it, at the moment i supplement with d3 calcium only on Thursday and Friday so they still get a bit extra but not overly extra.

You can get crickets online for a cheap price so with only one lizard it wont break your wallet trust me. I believe you can order like 2,000 crickets on amazon for like 40 dollars. Or you can get dubia roaches from dubiaroaches.com (they stop shipping on the 17th sadly until it warms up) and start your own colony, buy like 25 females and 1 or 2 males and a few babies and wait a few months or so and you should get 40 babies each female when they give birth.
 

SomeDude

Member
Original Poster
Gotcha, do I need to have the calcium or can that wait? Or can I just do the weekly calcium with d3? I usually mix the multivitamins and Calcium and the dust my crickets.

So what you are saying is:
Monday. Veggies in the morning. Crickets in the afternoon. And dusted crickets in the evening.
Tuesday. Same.
Wednesday. Same.
Thursday. Same.
Friday. same.
Saturday. veggies in the morning. Afternoon crickets. Evening dusted (multivatimins and Calcium with d3) dusted crickets.
Sunday. Same as Monday.

Does that seem good? What if all these crickets are too much? And what if he doesn't eat 10-20 crickets? Say like he only eats 5. Are the crickets gonna hurt him or try to bite him while I'm away?
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
I only say 10-20 because thats the average amount beardies usually eat per feeding though they can eat less or more of it.
I wouldn't worry about them biting him as long as they are the right size and arent super agressive like a few cricket species are. Though you do have to clean them out before the lights go off or they might take advantage of a sleeping beardie.

I'd say go and get the calcium without d3 when you can so you dont cause an overdose, though it does take time for one to happen i believe. Sooner the better anyway, and i wouldnt mix the multivitamins and calcium together, multivitamins or the one i have anyway already has calcium in it and its best not to mix supplements.

And yeah basically that feeding schedule but once he reaches probably 4 or 5 months he'll be eating one feeding less so thats good until he gets up to 12 months where he'll be eating once a day for bugs.
 

SomeDude

Member
Original Poster
I'm not using the Calcium with d3 everyday. Only once a week, so how could this overdose him? I think I'm gonna order a 500 count of crickets tonight off of Amazon. Could the calcium wait? I'm really tight on money this month. So I'm going as cheap as possible.
My beardie has all the lighting he needs such as a reptisun uvb bulb and a ceramic heat emmitter. So if I can wait on the calcium for a while and just use the d3 and multivitamins that would help out with my situation. Of course if I should stop the d3 until I get that Calcium and just use multivatimins once a week would that be better? Like should I just not use the d3 at all and wait until I get The calcium without d3?

Also, thanks for all the help. It's much appreciated.
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
Well you should offer calcium 5 times a week so only offering calcium once a week could cause a calcium deficiency which means spending quite a lot of money to then fix that most likely. Bugs dont have a very good calcium to phosphorus ratio so thats why you have to dust them often.

I believe its only like 6 dollars on amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Rep-Cal-SRP0...id=1513054641&sr=1-2&keywords=rep-cal+calcium

I say just offer the calcium with d3 three times a week for now with the multivitamins on the weekends (just multivitamins no calcium mixed in) until the calcium without d3 arrives and then offer the calcium with d3 only 1-2 times a week (not mixed in with multivitamins)
 

SomeDude

Member
Original Poster
Gotcha. I will try and pick that up. Thanks for all the help! Any tips on keeping crickets alive.
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
Well usually what i do is get a 90 quart bin from walmart or a 60 quart, put empty paper towel rolls in there (easier to shake into a cup or tank for feeding and dusting) though you can use egg crates as well. And then just feed them collard greens and spray down the front sides and the greens so theres water droplets (not too much though and not by where the crickets are mainly going to be hiding or it'll get too humid) I leave the front portion about an inch open with the lid covering most of it so theres still air flow however if you want you can drill some holes into the sides or completely cut out the inner portion of the top lid and put screen there.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
SomeDude":200nmr2y said:
So I want a feeding schedule and the amount of crickets I should feed a 3 month old bearded dragon. I have been struggling with my bearded dragon in terms of feeding it. I need to know when to feed my bearded dragon crickets and how many. I was thinking of a chart like this:


Monday. rep-cal juvenile pellets and veggies.
Tuesday. Pellets and veggies.
Wednesday. Crickets and veggies.
Thursday. Pellets and veggies.
Friday. pellets and veggies.
Saturday. Rep-cal calcium and Herptivite dusted crickets and veggies.
Sunday. Pellets and veggies.

Sorry but this will not do.

At 3 months old your HATCHLING is growing and developing rapidly and NEEDS AT LEAST 3 meals of high quality live insects (LOTS OF THEM , and AS MANY AS IT WILL EAT PER MEAL) per day
+
all insects need to be LIGHTLY dusted with calcium powder everyday and a mix of calcium powder and reptile vitamins on the weekends.
+
NOT NEGOTIABLE at least 10% UVB from a GOOD UVB globe or tube (ensure the level of UVB is at about 180-200 microW UVB / sq.cm at the basking spot and 100 microW UVB elsewhere
see viewtopic.php?f=34&t=235611
+
NOT LESS THAN 14 hours of UV from a UVB tube or globe EVERY DAY.

Suitable insects to feed a 3 month old bearded dragon hatchling as listed here as GOOD staple insects
>> BSF lavae and pupae and flies
>> blowfly gents & pupae & fliues
..... the pupae and flies , great for hatchlings and juveniles , naturally rich in calcium

>> silkworms
small (1-1.5 inch for sub 3 month olds)
medium (1.5 - 2 inch for larger hatchlings and juveniles)
large ( > 2 inch for beardies older than 12 months.

>> crickets / roaches / locusts , must be gutloaded with calcium rich foods and greens & dusted LIGHTLY with calcium powder.

Repashi GRUBPIE is acceptable as a backup food.

Hard and soft pellets are VERY dubious , ok mixed in as softened croutons through their greens/salad (maybe). BUT NOT ADEQUATE for use as a hatchlings staple source of protein despite the sales pitch.

Bites = rubbish food.
Canned insects = rubbish
Vacuum dried insects = rubbish.



Is this good? Also, how many crickets?

Offer the crickets 2 -3 at a time , let hatchling chase them down and eat them , then off another few , keep doing this each meal until the hatchling looses interest (because it's too full).
The number of crickets per meal, and per day is stongly dependent on the crickets' size and the actual size of the hatchling .
How heavy is the hatchling ?
What size crickets are you buying ?
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
VenusAndSaturn":a9yl8h8w said:
Yeah veggies in the morning, i usually turn the lights on at around 7 or 8 go prepare everyones meals (i have 6 lizards in total only 3 beardies so it takes about an hour or so for me), give everyone their salads and for my juvenile throw in like 10 crickets or so in the morning and then go do school work. And then when my juvenile was 4 months i used to throw in 15 crickets around 12 however if you cant you could do it as soon as you can and then at around 6 i give her the 15 dusted crickets and clean any uneaten food out and turn the lights off at 9. So its on a 13-14 hour schedule at the moment.

The reason it cant have d3 in it is because they can overdose on it if they have too much of it, at the moment i supplement with d3 calcium only on Thursday and Friday so they still get a bit extra but not overly extra.

You can get crickets online for a cheap price so with only one lizard it wont break your wallet trust me. I believe you can order like 2,000 crickets on amazon for like 40 dollars. Or you can get dubia roaches from dubiaroaches.com (they stop shipping on the 17th sadly until it warms up) and start your own colony, buy like 25 females and 1 or 2 males and a few babies and wait a few months or so and you should get 40 babies each female when they give birth.

Lights on a timer , set to turn them on at 6am, first feed about 8-9am, last feed maybe 6pm no later, lights off 10pm.
This is a 16 hr photoperiod. The hatchling will be awake and really warm and hungry and ready to eat come brekky.
The last meal at least 2 hrs before lights and heat off.
If you are in a colder climate , a ceramic heat emitter to keep the hatchling warm overnight is a must, don't want the hatchling getting colder than 22 degC overnight.

No hotter than 42 degC at the basking spot during the day.

If the hatching is a poor feeder , this will be due to inadequate UVA , inappropriate (wrong) temperatures and too short a photoperiod are the most usual reasons. A DETAILED run down on the lighting and temperatures will be helpful.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Members online

Still Needs Help

Latest resources

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

I miss you so much, Amaris 💔
What is a quick way to warm up a cold beardie? His heating element went out overnight and now he's very cold.
Pearl Girl wrote on moorelori1966's profile.
i feel so sad reading your about me 😢
Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

Things to do:
Buy calcium powder
Material to raise surface for basking spot
Scenery decals for back of tank

Forum statistics

Threads
155,897
Messages
1,255,656
Members
75,965
Latest member
williamyoung
Top Bottom