Meal size question

Hello-
Our little dragon is about 6 months old and we have had him for 2 weeks now. I think we finally figured out the right temps and bulbs situation however feeding is still a challenge. This little guy can eat a horse! We started with crickets only to realize that we did not know how to keep them alive. The little guy loved them and he would eat up to 20 in one feeding. I felt like he could eat another 20! With 2 feedings- that's 40 medium sized crickets. Is that normal?
So now we are experimenting with dubias- it has been 2 days and it takes him 10 seconds to eat 6 dubias. Is 12 dubias per day enough? How do i know what is enough or what is too much?
He also gets a decent size salad in the morning which he of course eats as well.
Thank you for your guidance ?

Hi there,

Feeding can be tricky, it's a lot of times just dependant on the dragon. Growing dragons can eat a ton of insects. It's great that he is eating his salad too, that is important.

It would be best IMO for you to offer a variety of different bugs. Too much of one thing can be bad just like it can be for humans. And, variety helps negate the risk of nutritional deficiencies

So, do crickets if you can figure them out, along with dubias, and try out some other worms too such as BSFL, silkworms, butterworms, mealworms and supers (all appropriately sized of course)

To directly answer your question, the cricket amount seemed about right if that was the only bug. He will eat a lot more dubias than that too im sure if you let him, however I don't like letting them gorge out on dubias as they are quite high in uric acid content, and can lead to health issues later down the road. So i'm sure if you gave him the amount of dubias you're doing now, and also added in some crickets/worms, he'd be just fine Especially with him being a good salad eater.

The key is variety, and the goal is proper health, not quick growth rates

-Brandon

Thank you. Will be adding BSFL next week.