Am I Feeding My Beardie Enough?

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So, I've had my beardie, Artemis, for almost two months now, and he's about 5 months old.
Here's his whole schedule:
9:00 am is wake up time, and then I feed him at 10:00 am. Breakfast is crickets, as many as he can eat before slowing down and not chasing the crickets as much. Around 1:00-2:00 pm I give him lunch, which is usually a few leaves of turnip greens, and some celery leaves every now and then. Sometimes he has bell peppers instead of/with his turnip greens, and I usually use squash instead if we have any in the house (usually acorn or yellow, as those are the kinds my parents eat so we get them fairly often). If he's still hungry later, I'll give him some more of the same veggies. I calcium dust one veggie meal just about every other day (sometimes two in a row, sometimes a little longer between, but at least 3-4 times a week) Dinner is at 8:00 pm, which is the same cricket situation as breakfast. Lights out is at 10:00 pm.
A few things that I know (aka I'm trying to fix and don't need pointed out to me): I know crickets aren't the ideal solo feeder insect, but that's all my local stores carry and ordering online isn't currently an option. I do gutload them as best I can though. I also know that a 13 hour day isn't quite long enough for a beardie, but I don't have a timer set up and that's about how long I can regularly wake up and stay up without messing up Artemis' schedule. I'm considering going until 11:00 pm but I need to make sure I can consistently stay up that late before changing the schedule.

Now, my question is this. Every time Artemis' feeding time comes around, he practically throws himself at the food like he's starving. Is he? Or is he just being dramatic? How can I be sure? Should I start counting how many crickets he eats? I haven't before because the sizes are pretty inconsistent at my local pet store (I never feed him anything too big, but sometimes the store gives me crickets the size of pinheads...), And also because I didn't think it mattered how many he ate as long as he ate until he was getting full. Thank you in advance for any advice you may have for me!

(Oh, and just so you know: his tank is set up with a t5 reptisun uv bulb and a 75w zoo med basking lamp. His basking spot gets to be about 100-105 degrees. I don't have a secondary heat lamp set up. The tank is 2.5'x1.5'x2')
 

CooperDragon

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It sounds like you have a pretty good handle on things =). Crickets are a good staple, they are just expensive to buy in small amounts locally (14 cents each last time I checked at Petco) and they can be a pain to keep in bulk that's all.

Keep dusting the crickets with calcium at every meal. There's no need to dust the salad as that is nutrient rich on it's own. Turnip greens are especially good greens and that's great if he's eating them. The other veges you're rotating in are also good options so keep that up. The more variety the better.

Your schedule sounds good to me and the two meals all he can eat is the way to go. Don't worry about counting because the numbers will fluctuate. He will go through phases when he is super hungry and goes after a bunch of them, and he will have phases where he shows less interest and that's OK. Just keep offering all he wants a couple of times per day combined with the salad. If you have some of the really tiny crickets that aren't useful yet, keep them in a bin with some cardboard tubes and feed them fresh veges to give them a chance to grow a bit. Their lifecycle is only about a month or two so they should grow up quickly.

If you can find a two outlet mechanical timer at the hardware store, then that should save you a lot of headache having to turn the lights on and off every day. The heavy duty ones have a ground port with the plugs and should be able to control two lights easily. They are pretty easy to set up and cost under $10 in most places.
 

EvilMuffinOverlord

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Thank you so much for your response!
I'm pretty lucky then, crickets at my local store are 10 cents a piece, and I usually get them for a little cheaper because of my membership!
I will definitely calcium dust the crickets though, and I also have some cricket quencher stuff that I think has some calcium in it? But I don't rely on it too much except as a water source.
He actually loves turnip greens, he gets as excited to see me ripping up a big leaf of it as he does to see the cricket tank!
I appreciate you taking the time to answer, I just worry about my little guy, hahaha. It's good to hear that he's probably getting enough to eat though!
I'll look into that, that does sound very affordable and like a smaller hassle than the current set up, hahaha
Thank you!
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
I'm glad he loves his greens. Give him all he wants =). I'm not a big fan of the cricket quencher or the water crystals. Better to offer them pieces of squash and veg scraps. That will give them food and hydration.
 
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