A few general questions for a new beardie mom

I just got my new beardie a week ago and absolutely adore him. I do have a few questions that I hope you all can help me with. First off, based on size, I would guess him to be approximately 4 months old, although I know that is hard to tell. He's maybe 12 to 14 inches long nose to tip of tail, but that is a guess and not an official measurement.
First, I have been feeding him crickets as his protein and he has been eating about 30 to 40 a day, sometimes more. He also eats greens twice a day as well. I want to switch him to dubia roaches (in fact he ate 9 for dinner tonight). What is the equivalent of dubias to crickets? I am told you feed less dubias. He is always hungry. Should I feed him more than he is getting.

Second, he is very cute about falling asleep as soon as the lights go out pretty much where ever he currently is. However, he did something tonight that scared me a bit. When I went to check on him about 15 minutes after lights out, I found him asleep in his water dish. Now I have one of those dishes that is really shallow to begin with and I don't fill it to the brim, but that scared me. I picked him up and moved him to one of his rocks where he promptly re-fell to sleep. Should I take his water out at night?

He also doesn't like to be picked up and handled very much. Within about 5 minutes of holding him, he is squirming to get away, and then I just put him back. I want to get him comfortable with being held. I am a high school science teacher and would like to eventually have him come and spend some time in my room when he gets a little older. Is this typical for a juvenile beardie? Is there more that I can do to get him more comfortable with people and being held.

Thanks for any advice.

Hello,

Congratulations on your new baby, it sounds like she will eventually get used to you & her new
home.
Is she currently at home with you now?
Since dubia are higher in protein than crickets you could give a few less of them than the crickets
so he doesn't have too much kidney stress. It is terrific he is already eating greens now, I am
happy about that. He is still growing so you don't have to worry too much about how many of the
insects he gets.
I'm not sure exactly what the equivalent number or ratio of dubias to crickets would be, maybe a 3
to 1 but not sure. Have you tried other feeders, like silkworms or hornworms possibly? They are
great feeders, balanced & are moderate in protein levels.
Yes, I would take his water dish out at night, so he doesn't fall asleep in it & possibly drown.
As a juvenile, they are still usually pretty feisty & always wanting to run around. In time, he will
get used to being handled more & want to be held more.
Do you hold him at night, while he goes to sleep? You can try getting a nice soft fleece blankie
to wrap him up in at night while he is going to sleep to help get him accustomed to you & to having
more human interaction.
Feel free to post pictures of him, along with your tank setup, too for us.
If you need some help with your tank setup, let us know. We can review it with you to be sure it
is all correct.

Tracie

I have been told that 6 crickets = 1 roach --- they are more filling and more nutritious-- I would feed as many roaches as he can eat in a 10-15 minute time span --- Tracie may be more on than I but I have always gone by the 6-1
Karrie