Dragon wont eat crickets

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Ztesch

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My baby beardie is not interested in crickets at all. I try offering crickets everyday and maybe it will eat 1 or 2 but thats it. All he will eat rite now are wax worms and mealworms. I verry rarely give meal worms. Is this normal? Any tips would help greatly.
 

Otrobison

Member
My baby beardie won’t eat but 5 or 6 crickets a day either. I also feed him 3 wax worms and a calcium filled worm every other day and I make him a fresh salad every morning (which he barely takes a bite of) I think this it normal. My beardie poops every day (sometimes twice!) so I believe that is a sign he’s eating enough. I believe they will begin to eat more once they are more comfortable in their new environment. Are you powdering the crickets with calcium? Make sure you LIGHTLY powder them or else they won’t want to eat the crickets. Also you shouldn’t be feeding mealworms to beardies until they are at least 6-7 months old.
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
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Sometimes they go through picky phases. Instead of wax worms I would try small silk worms and/or black soldier fly larvae (phoenix worms). They are healthier options an are easier for young dragons to handle because they are soft.
 
Just to add to what cooperdragon has said, there is a good post on the feeder forum showing the nutritional information of all the different types of worms. So if worms are more her thing then you can get a slightly better staple whilst still persevering with the crickets so you know she's getting all the things she needs.

Here is the link:
viewtopic.php?f=76&t=197902
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
Don't be too worried if he's eating some.
Aim for crickets not longer than the distance between his eyes. A 2 month old (between 10 and 30g) will take 1/4 size crickets , give a couple at time , let him catch and eat them , add some more , repeat until he looses interest.

If he's into worms .... buy some 1/2 inch to 1 inch long silkworms .... these he can eat as a great staple feeder insect .... most lizards love silkworms !

This thread will help you : viewtopic.php?f=76&t=234999&p=1807834#p1807834

I found I could get my hatchlings to eat my crushing the cricket's heads and letting the hatchling taste the juices that resulted .... worked a treat .
Is OK to hand feed a reluctant feeder too ... is a great way to form a great bond with the hatchling.
Here are some ways to do this : viewtopic.php?f=18&t=235583
 

Ztesch

Member
Original Poster
Ok thanks for all the advice. I will keep offering crickets and look to order some silk worms of phoenix worms online. Also I plan on starting a dubia colony in the very near future. ( I also have 20+ Tarantulas to feed.)
 

Taffer

Hatchling Member
If you are considering breeding your own Dubia colony, the thread below covers pretty much anything you could want to know about Dubia, their bins, multiple heating sources, what to feed and what not to feed and on and on. About half way through the thread I posted some good info I obtained from a professor that has been posting research papers on roaches since 1966, along with some links to his work that are interesting. One thing to note, people seem to think that you want to feed roaches more and more protein, but in fact that is not good. Too much protein will cause a build up of uric acid in the roaches and then when you feed them to the beardie, it increases their uric acid levels. There are over 4,800 species of roaches and all have not been researched, but most roaches can thrive on as little as 4% protein. Roaches are also selective eaters so if they have enough protein in their system and you give them options without much protein, they will self select the food that is best for them. So be sure to give them fruits and veggies enough so they can opt out of other foods if they need to. Either feed leftovers from dinner. Many people say Dubia breed better when you feed them oranges, but they will eat pretty much anything you put in. You can put in leftover watermelon and the next day the peel will be eaten down so thin you can probably see through it. Just be sure to remove fruit and veggies that remain every day or so. If you don't you can end up with mold which can destroy a colony. We had a box of baby spinach that we would have eaten the night before, but we had fresher and opted to eat that and the next day I gave the leftover spinach to the Dubia, which I'd done many times in the past. This time there must have been mold on the spinach. Some mold is perfectly harmless to Dubia, while others are deadly. Shortly after I put the spinach in (maybe 5-10 minutes) many of them started running around like they were on speed/uppers and would not stop, and a short time later they started having diarrhea, at which point I realized what was happening and removed all the spinach I could, but I still lost about 1/3 of my colony.

If your colony starts to breed too quickly, just turn off the heat and it will slow down their reproduction and growth rates.

viewtopic.php?f=76&t=225240&hilit=dubia+taffer#p1743557
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
Ztesch":34h0fa9z said:
Ok thanks for all the advice. I will keep offering crickets and look to order some silk worms of phoenix worms online. Also I plan on starting a dubia colony in the very near future. ( I also have 20+ Tarantulas to feed.)


I'm glad I'm not living in your home ..... 20+ tarantulas ..... shivers .... I like large hairy spiders but from a safe distance in their natural setting .... not in the house.
 

Ztesch

Member
Original Poster
kingofnobbys":19cakr3u said:
Ztesch":19cakr3u said:
Ok thanks for all the advice. I will keep offering crickets and look to order some silk worms of phoenix worms online. Also I plan on starting a dubia colony in the very near future. ( I also have 20+ Tarantulas to feed.)


I'm glad I'm not living in your home ..... 20+ tarantulas ..... shivers .... I like large hairy spiders but from a safe distance in their natural setting .... not in the house.

Add the fact that I keep them in my bedroom lol. Suprisingly my significant other has taken to it pretty well. Check out the collection.
https://youtu.be/cu9wWAr6gbY
 
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