MrSpectrum
Gray-bearded Member
The prevailing wisdom--as I understand it--is not to feed a BD anything larger than the space between their eyes, lest it not go down their gullet and they choke. This has not been my personal experience, so how valid is it, or is it just one of those things like, "Never eat anything larger than your head," etc.? :shock:
I followed it in general, until my first mail-order of dubias, and basically any/all mealies. giant mealies, and supers. My first order of dubias was for 3/8", and while probably 2/3 were that size or smaller, a fair number were considerably larger--up to an inch. Even when he was quite small, ZaRDoZ had no trouble munch-munch-munching them down, even going for the largest ones first. At first I was a little concerned his eyes might be bigger than his stomach, but he had no problems munching, swallowing, or at the other end. Same for all the worms. Now that he's grown some, the smallest meal worms are of a size that would fit between his eyes, but they're long gone. Currently, the space between his eyes is about ¾". His large super worms are easily running 1½" to 2", and again--no problemo. Sometimes he slurps 'em like spaghetti, and sometimes he bites them in the middle and they go down folded in half.
The only thing I make sure is that small anymore are pieces of salad, because if they won't fit entirely in his mouth, they either fall out or he spits them out and I find them all over the enclosure.
So is ZaRDoZ an outlier, or has anyone else had similar experiences? Is this "guideline" a lot of hooey?
Does it only apply to certain (e.g. crickets, locusts/grasshoppers) feeders, or what?
I followed it in general, until my first mail-order of dubias, and basically any/all mealies. giant mealies, and supers. My first order of dubias was for 3/8", and while probably 2/3 were that size or smaller, a fair number were considerably larger--up to an inch. Even when he was quite small, ZaRDoZ had no trouble munch-munch-munching them down, even going for the largest ones first. At first I was a little concerned his eyes might be bigger than his stomach, but he had no problems munching, swallowing, or at the other end. Same for all the worms. Now that he's grown some, the smallest meal worms are of a size that would fit between his eyes, but they're long gone. Currently, the space between his eyes is about ¾". His large super worms are easily running 1½" to 2", and again--no problemo. Sometimes he slurps 'em like spaghetti, and sometimes he bites them in the middle and they go down folded in half.
The only thing I make sure is that small anymore are pieces of salad, because if they won't fit entirely in his mouth, they either fall out or he spits them out and I find them all over the enclosure.
So is ZaRDoZ an outlier, or has anyone else had similar experiences? Is this "guideline" a lot of hooey?
Does it only apply to certain (e.g. crickets, locusts/grasshoppers) feeders, or what?