CANNED BUGS!!!!!

I'm new to This site! But check it, I have two beautiful bearded dragons and I just ran out of live insects, my friend gave me two cans of bugs, one being "Dragonfly Larvae" and the other one is "large mealworms" I'm going out of town for a couple of days what should I do? I'm super skeptical about these canned bugs but I don't want them to just eat veggies this weekend! HELP! My babies mean everything to me and I really need to know if I can feed them these!

Leave them on the shelves at the petshop . They are worthless as a food source for your pet dragon.

Go and buy some live insects such as :

Good staple insects
>> BSF maggots
>> blowfly gents
and the pupae and flies , great for hatchlings and juveniles , naturally rich in calcium
>> silkworms
small (1-1.5 inch for sub 3 month olds)
medium (1.5 - 2 inch for larger hatchlings and juveniles)
large ( > 2 inch for beardies older than 12 months.
>> crickets / roaches / locusts , must be gutloaded with calcium rich foods and greens & dusted LIGHTLY with calcium powder.

Repashi GRUBPIE is acceptable as a backup food.

Hard and soft pellets are dubious , ok mixed in as softened croutons through their greens/salad (maybe).

Bites = rubbish food.
Canned insects = rubbish
Vacuum dried insects = rubbish.

Insects suitable for treats
wax worms

if beardie is older than 12 months , not before
mealworms (lavae , pupae and beetles)
superworms (lavae , pupae and beetles)

And follow this when settling up your pet dragon's diet and feeding schedule if it's an adult :
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=236074

kingofnobbys":vqugq2gp said:

Bites = rubbish food.
Canned insects = rubbish
Vacuum dried insects = rubbish.

Click to expand...

Why? do you not preserve nutrient in insects when vacuumed or dried ? or does something happen to them when they die?

kingofnobbys":vqugq2gp said:

if beardie is older than 12 months , not before
mealworms (lavae , pupae and beetles)
superworms (lavae , pupae and beetles)

Click to expand...

This is new info to me :shock:
Why cant juvenile beardies eat, say, one mealworm a week?

AreG":2d9jb6ex said:

kingofnobbys":2d9jb6ex said:

Bites = rubbish food.
Canned insects = rubbish
Vacuum dried insects = rubbish.

Click to expand...

Why? do you not preserve nutrient in insects when vacuumed or dried ? or does something happen to them when they die?

Click to expand...

the nutritional value is lost and they have preservatives added in the packing process and vacuum dried insects are worthless even for hydration.

kingofnobbys":2d9jb6ex said:

if beardie is older than 12 months , not before
mealworms (lavae , pupae and beetles)
superworms (lavae , pupae and beetles)

Click to expand...

This is new info to me :shock:
Why cant juvenile beardies eat, say, one mealworm a week?

Click to expand...

best to avoid them but as an occasional treat no more than a few they are OK. They do LOVE the mealworms .... and have been know to go on strike (clamp the jaws shut) until they get their yummy mealworms ....
the problems with superworms and mealworms are:
>>> very low Ca/P = bad
>>> high %Fat = bad
>>> very hard to digest exoskeletons
and young dragons have some hairpin turns and bottlenecks in their GUTs that are prone blockage.

Not only that, but most beardies won't eat pelleted food or canned insects anyway, so it doesn't matter if it's nutritious or not if they won't eat it. On the other hand, most of them do like superworms and mealworms a little bit too much and some can get "addicted" to them and refuse to eat anything else, as Kingofnobbys said.

Our beardie LOVES Repashy Grub Pie, so we keep it around for emergencies (as well as for treats), just in case we get into a situation where we can't get him live bugs for a while.

SHBailey":3uxsl1v2 said:

Not only that, but most beardies won't eat pelleted food or canned insects anyway, so it doesn't matter if it's nutritious or not if they won't eat it. On the other hand, most of them do like superworms and mealworms a little bit too much and some can get "addicted" to them and refuse to eat anything else, as Kingofnobbys said.

Our beardie LOVES Repashy Grub Pie, so we keep it around for emergencies (as well as for treats), just in case we get into a situation where we can't get him live bugs for a while.

Click to expand...

Heck , when my pet bluetongue skinks and beardies and water skink dead set refused to eat canned silkworms , even spat the pieces straight out when I tricked them into eating them by showing them a cricket or mealworm (which they did like) , I then took the canned silkworms outside to get to the wild water skinks who are always starving . They came up and sniffed them and then backed off and gave me the stink eye , the wild birds (magpies) did the same , only things I found who liked them were the slugs and snails and the ants.

Well, that pretty much says it all when it comes to canned bugs. :lol: