effects of only feeding dried crickets?

**QUICK DISCLAIMER: I AM ASKING BECAUSE OF A FRIEND, I NEVER HAVE AND PROBABLY NEVER WILL FED/FEED THEM TO MINE**

I was at my friend's house for new years and naturally I wanted to see their beardie, Smaug, as big and handsome as he was, he didn't have very good care. The main four things being, no UVB ( from what i could tell ), too small of a tank, sand, and improper diet. They got him from a family that ( like a lot of rehomed beardies ) their son lost interest, they just continued to care for him like the previous family did. Like i said one thing was improper diet ( fed only dried crickets ), but he appears to be healthy. I would of thought that a beardie fed like that would be more... underweight, or is it one of those "looks healthy, but isn't happy and/or healthy" type of things?

AngelsAnimals":1jkwskcp said:

**QUICK DISCLAIMER: I AM ASKING BECAUSE OF A FRIEND, I NEVER HAVE AND PROBABLY NEVER WILL FED/FEED THEM TO MINE**

I was at my friend's house for new years and naturally I wanted to see their beardie, Smaug, as big and handsome as he was, he didn't have very good care. The main four things being, no UVB ( from what i could tell ), too small of a tank, sand, and improper diet. They got him from a family that ( like a lot of rehomed beardies ) their son lost interest, they just continued to care for him like the previous family did. Like i said one thing was improper diet ( fed only dried crickets ), but he appears to be healthy. I would of thought that a beardie fed like that would be more... underweight, or is it one of those "looks healthy, but isn't happy and/or healthy" type of things?

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I'm more concerned about the lack of UVB and the sand substrate. No UVB can cause MBD and sand substrate can cause impaction. I don't know much about the dried crickets but I would definitely recommend at least giving variety to the poor guy. Superworms, hornworms, silkworms, butterworms, etc. I can't imagine the beardie is very happy with just that.

Im sure beardies could "live" and appear "healthy" off of that stuff, but it definitely wouldn't give them enough nutrients to really be happy and thrive.

And as the above poster said i would definitely be more concerned with no uvb and the particle substrate.

I am aware of that, I know how bad that is, but sadly I didn’t get the chance to mention it to them, I also don’t see them very much. I really wish I could just take him, sadly they would probably never give him up.

Impaction , malnourishment.

Don't use freeze dried crickets to feed your beardie, it might be convenient and maybe cheaper, BUT beardies get most their hydration from their food ie from nice juicy live insects and freeze drying destroys most the nutritional value in an insect.

Proper heating , UVA and UVB , and a proper diet are not optional , if your friend is refusing these then your friend should not have a bearded dragon as he is slowly killing it through neglect and what he is doing to his dragon is cruel.

That dragon likely has MBD, and a plephora of serious health issues which will shorten it's life and make it suffer sooner or later unless it is provided proper lighting , proper food , and proper husbandry very soon.

I'll be blunt, if he is not able to provide these and change his ways , he should contact a reptile rescue group immediately and surrender the dragon so it can be rehabilitated and then rehomed with someone who will provide for it properly.

I know, but i have no way of contacting them, but i might be seeing them next week, if I do I will definitely be bringing up the issues with his care and see where it goes from there

I was finally able to see and talk to them about the his care! I wasn't able to mention everything but I did mention the biggest problems, and it worked!

Update: I explained how sand is very dangerous and over time can/will cause impaction as well as what impaction is, they will hopefully be changing to solid substrate soon, if they haven't already. Then I mentioned the lack of UVB, how it can cause MBD, what MBD is, I was able to tell them that there is very trustworthy brands/styles of uvb bulbs. I wasn't able to go over much of what's wrong with his diet but I did tell them that they need live food. I didn't get a chance to mention tank size or possible incorrect temperatures, but she said she'll research their care, so hopefully those will get sorted out as well!