Am I feeding my beardie enough?

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I just got my beardie like a week ago. He is about 8 1/2 inches long, so the internet says he is 2 months old. Anyways, I have been feeding him 4-5 medium crickets twice a day. Is this enough? People say they feed theirs like 30 a day!!! I don't want to blow my life savings on crickets, so how much should I REALISTICALLY feed him? Also, what size? The distance between his eyes is like half an inch if that helps at all.

EDIT: I bought my first round of crix from Petco for like 15 cents a piece. I looked online at Flukers, and they are WAAAAAY less expensive. I am going to see how many he can eat in one 10 minute sitting tomorrow. I will then order enough for him to eat that many twice a day for one week and see how it goes. Is twice a day enough, and is there a better place to order than Flukers?
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
8-10 insects a day is underfeeding... even 30 insects a day is a bit low for a baby of that age, I'd say at least 60 bugs a day if not more.
Beardies are really expensive pets to feed as they need a large number of insects daily when they're young and they must be live insects as well not freeze-dried or canned.

A good thing to do is every feeding feed him as much as he wants in a 10-15 minute time frame. Also if possible I'd suggest bumping it up to 3 feedings a day as two feedings is a bit low for a beardie that young.
When my beardies were in the 1-4 month old age range they ate one feeding at about 7-8 AM, the second feeding at 11 or 3 PM depending on what was going on and then a third feeding at 6 PM.
Each feeding being 20-30 insects at the very least.


This feeding guide should help out.

1-4 months 3x a day.
4-12 months 2x a day.
12-20 months once a day.
20+ months twice a week at the least, every other day at the most.

Staple feeders - Crickets, locusts, grasshoppers, silkworms, black soldier fly larvae, dubia roaches, turkish roaches.

Treat feeders - Waxworms, hornworms, superworms, mealworms, butterworms.
Wax worms - once a week, 4-5 max.
Hornworms - every other day to every two days, 4-6 max.
Mealworms - every other day to every two days, 5-10 max. Only for beardies above 6 months.
Superworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max. Only for beardies above 12 months.
Butterworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max.

Daily greens- Turnip/collard/mustard greens, endive, and kale if added to a mixture of the other staple greens mentioned.
Fruit once or twice a week - Banana, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, red raspberries.
For more food items -
http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/bearded-dragon-diet.php
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Supplementation -

You want two supplements at the very least, a calcium and a multivitamin.
The supplements should be lightly dusted on all bugs.

Generally, beardies below two years need calcium 5x a week and multivitamins 2x a week.

However, beardies above two years or at two years of age need calcium only 2-4x a week with multivitamins 1-2x a week.
This does depend on how your beardie is with diet, health, just laid eggs, is laying eggs, etc.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
VenusAndSaturn":27eoqmrr said:
8-10 insects a day is underfeeding... even 30 insects a day is a bit low for a baby of that age, I'd say at least 60 bugs a day if not more.
Beardies are really expensive pets to feed as they need a large number of insects daily when they're young and they must be live insects as well not freeze-dried or canned.

A good thing to do is every feeding feed him as much as he wants in a 10-15 minute time frame. Also if possible I'd suggest bumping it up to 3 feedings a day as two feedings is a bit low for a beardie that young.
When my beardies were in the 1-4 month old age range they ate one feeding at about 7-8 AM, the second feeding at 11 or 3 PM depending on what was going on and then a third feeding at 6 PM.
Each feeding being 20-30 insects at the very least.


This feeding guide should help out.

1-4 months 3x a day.
4-12 months 2x a day. <<< I believe is best to give 2x to 3x per day if practical, as many live insects as they want, up til 6 months old , then 2x per day til about 12 months old.
12-20 months once a day.
20+ months twice a week at the least, every other day at the most. << I give some live insects each day to my adults , ie a couple large silkworms + maybe 8 - 10 Lg crickets + salad offered too.

Staple feeders - Crickets, locusts, grasshoppers, silkworms, black soldier fly larvae, dubia roaches, turkish roaches.

Treat feeders - Waxworms, hornworms, superworms, mealworms, butterworms.
Wax worms - once a week, 4-5 max.
Hornworms - every other day to every two days, 4-6 max.
Mealworms - every other day to every two days, 5-10 max. Only for beardies above 6 months.
Superworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max. Only for beardies above 12 months.
Butterworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max.

Daily greens- Turnip/collard/mustard greens, endive, and kale if added to a mixture of the other staple greens mentioned.
Fruit once or twice a week - Banana, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, red raspberries.
For more food items -
http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/bearded-dragon-diet.php
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Supplementation -

You want two supplements at the very least, a calcium and a multivitamin.
The supplements should be lightly dusted on all bugs.

Generally, beardies below two years need calcium 5x a week and multivitamins 2x a week.

However, beardies above two years or at two years of age need calcium only 2-4x a week with multivitamins 1-2x a week.
This does depend on how your beardie is with diet, health, just laid eggs, is laying eggs, etc.
 

RarestDragon

Hatchling Member
I think it depends more on the feeders. I feed my baby 10-15 dubia roaches one to two times a day and she has a big belly on her. She's also grown a good deal in the last three weeks. But dubia roaches are about five times more nutritious than crickets and have a lot more meat on them.

You should feed him more than you are, though. Try and see how much your dragon can eat within a certain time frame, about five to ten minutes and plan out his meals from that. My dragon, Lyrica, for example, usually eats the first six to eight roaches very enthusiastically. After that, she'll still eat the roaches but more slowly. Most of the time she eats all 15 roaches but I've seen her turn away at 8 or 10.

My feeding schedule goes like this - Turn on lights at 7AM and allow two hours of basking before first feeding. Fresh greens are always offered, feed dubias at 9AM and 5PM. On alternate days, give her only greens in the morning to encourage her to eat her veggies(which she usually does). If she eats a decent amount of her greens before noon then feed her 10 dubia roaches at noon then 15 at 5PM. All food is taken away at 7PM.

This is how I've been feeding her since I got her three weeks ago and look at her.
90684-1381683140.jpg

Look at that belly.

If you feed primarily crickets then you'll likely have to give your dragon more than what I give mine but increase his bug intake either way and monitor his growth. Then you'll be able to figure out what's best for him.
 

Flapjack6260

Member
Original Poster
I fed him this morning and he turned away after 10 crickets. Is something wrong with his appetites? They are 1/2 inch crickets btw. Also, where is the best place to order crickets? The first place I found was Flukers, but I've heard terrible things about it. Where does everyone else get there crickets?
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
I got away from the crickets all together and went w/ just Dubia roaches - plus i feed him one super worm / day and one horn worm / day - hes is around 6 months old plus greens like collard and mustard fresh-- I have started ordering roaches on line from dubiaroaches.com-- dubias are alot easier to keep I feed them carrots -- they get the water out of the carrot-- less maintenance! :)

Karrie
 
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