Interrupted Feeding Schedule! HELP!!

Hello all! I'm DarkLight and I'm the mom of Kenai (sounds like key-neye). I just did a post in the intro forum. One of the reasons I decided to make an account is because I have a problem. My class time has changed and it's going to mess up our feeding schedule for two days out of the week, Thursday into Friday. From about 2pm Thursday to about 11 am Friday, I won't be home because of classes. I have a night class on Thursday and won't be able to make my morning class Friday because of traffic so I'll be staying over a friends house near school which is like an hour away from home without traffic. I mentioned in my intro post that my parents aren't too keen on feeding him the crickets so there is no way to feed him at his normal times on Thursday night and Friday morning.

I want to know if I feed him before I leave for school on Thursday (around late 1pm, early 2pm) and then feed him as soon as I get back before i leave for work on Friday (sometime in the hour of 11 am), will he be okay? I have veggies for him and I know about the wetting the dry pellets thing to make them soft but will my sweet baby be okay if he doesn't like to eat that? I can talk to my parents about handling that for me. They aren't afraid of him, just of handling the bugs. Then what if they don't let me off of work in time and I have to head start to uni and the last time he ate was at 7 am Thursday morning before I left for work and then I can't get to him until the next morning? Will the kale, carrots, and wet pellets that my parents can give him hold him off until the next day? Will he be like "Okay, mommy isn't home yet and I'm hungry. I'll eat this stuff because it's here to eat."

I'm a worrywart so please forgive me but I don't want Kenai going through any discomfort or hunger while he's still a juvenile beardie. I know they eat more when they're younger. I know my little man wants to hunt for his food when mommy drops it in and doesn't like the pellets and freeze dried insects so will he be able to hold off while I'm in class on the veggies? Will he go for that until I can give him the live food when I return?

My schedule will be like this until mid-December.

Please help!!

(P.S. I feed him medium crickets twice a day everyday. He'll eat about four or five each feeding. I give him a few minutes and if he's still hungry, he gets some meal worms. I leave kale in his terrarium during the day while I'm at work in case he wants a snack. I don't know his age exactly but I read an article and will be measuring soon.)

Hello, how old is he? Also, bearded dragons should not eat mealworms, IMO. They are one of the worst feeders, and he should especially not get them everyday

Hi there,

First off, 4-5 medium crickets is likely not nearly enough to really fill him up. My little guy puts away 15-20 mediums per meal (twice a day).

You say your parents don't want to handle bugs. What if you pre-prepared a dish or two of worms that they can just place in your dragon's enclosure at the appropriate time. You could get a couple of containers like the flat sour cream or cream cheese ones, pop some holes in the lids, pre fill them with bugs and then your parents could just take the lids off and put them in with your dragon.

JessPets":183fjmpg said:

Hello, how old is he? Also, bearded dragons should not eat mealworms, IMO. They are one of the worst feeders, and he should especially not get them everyday

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The store said he is about two months old but I'll be measuring him today to get a better estimate at his age. What kind of worms do you recommend?

quyllur":1krpfwe9 said:

Hi there,

First off.....

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Thank you for the recommendation. I'll talk to them again today to see if they are cool with that option. I don't want to leave crickets and worms in there all night while I'm in class. I read that's not good to do. I have a Kricket Keeper so they don't have to touch anything really but they still freak out. I even bought tongs to get the crickets out that he won't eat. If they don't go for it, what do you think? Will veggies be okay during that 2 pm to 11 am time span?

And the 4 to 5 cricket is like on average. I've tried feeding him more but he won't eat anymore than maybe 6 in one sitting but that's pushing it. I have to go back into the terrarium to get the ones out that he won't eat. So when he starts walking around again, I'll give him a worm or two to see if he goes for it. Sometimes he will, sometimes he won't. He eats pretty quickly as well, within 5 minutes or less. But when he's done, he's done. I want him to eat more but he just ignores it. He's definitely developed a larger appetite since I've gotten him because the store would only feed him the same about 7 to 10 or so once a day. Sometimes would feed him in the morning one day and then not again until the evening the next day. It was weird. She told me that I can feed him every other day but he seemed too young for that.

If that's all he'll eat, then I guess that's all he wants. His appetite will probably grow as he does.

When I was referring to your parents feeding, I meant worms. Put worms in containers in appropriate meal amounts and then they can just put the container in the vivarium without having to touch any bugs or use tweezers. Your little dude will figure it out once he seems them moving around. Phoenix worms or silk worms would be good choices. Phoenix worms are excellent climbers though, so make sure that both they and the container are dry.

Crickets are to jumpy for anyone who is not dedicated to corralling escapees to feed IMO. There is a strategy to feeding them.

If you can't make it work with your parents, I would just try to give him a good meal before you leave. As many crickets as he will eat and then maybe a few worms in a bowl that they can't escape from for him to snack on later. Then another big meal when you get home. He'll survive and if it forces him to consider vegetables as food, so much the better.

I feed Peaches crickets from a 16oz glass mug, it makes it so much easier and she loves it. We still feed her in a separate cage most of the time but, it saves time when I am home for lunch.

This method is easy,
I use a cut off paper towel roll to catch them (the crickets) with. Cut it to the desired length and fold on end towards the middle, they see it as a hiding spot to escape you, jokes on them. Once I get them in the tube, I put the open end into the mug and thump the side till they are out and repeat till I have as many as I need. Then I dump them from the mug into the supplement powder bowl, quickly covering it and gently shake them til coated good.
When I feed from the mug, I just tip the bowl and drop them in the mug, they will generally crawl right out of the bowl and into the mug because at this point their eyes are dusted to and the can't see good. I have had very few ever escape this way and I don't have to touch them.

That's very clever!

CooperDragon":32m56uab said:

That's very clever!

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I came up with this for my wife ( of 32 yrs today) she is horrified of bugs. This way she can feed if I have to work late. I worrk on a farm and, hours get long sometimes.

What about having another feeder on hand for the days they feed him? Maybe they'd be OK handling silk worms or phoenix worms. They're soft and pretty easy to deal with.