Shedding and Appetite Spike, halp

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Lizard of Light

Hatchling Member
Beardie name(s)
Ardbert
I was pretty happy to see Ardbert actually has a HUGE increase in appetite as opposed to the usual decrease I hear about when his limbs and head kicked into shed. That is, until he started utterly DEMOLISHING my feeder population and I seem to have somehow misplaced a fresh container of phoenix worms and now I am in panic mode since it's the weekend and my new phoenix worms and dubia roaches are being processed.

Thankfully my shipment of 100 silkworms arrived in time, but I am legitimately scared of Ardie's new monster appetite. Normally he stops eating at around 20-30 (sometimes 40) bugs a meal and he only eats 2 or 3 times a day. Now he can scarf as many as 80-100 at once and most of the time will eat what I offer between meals, so I am in crisis mode on if he's a bottomless pit now because he needs it or if I can spread out the live feeds a bit until more feeders arrive (or hopefully my silkworms grow faster so just a few can stuff him).

What do I do? .w.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
How old is the dragon? W / him eating you out of house and home I would not be feeding as much insects--- are you feeding salads? He needs salads first thing in the morning -- Silk worms are a great staple feeder --- you can feed both dubia and BSFL and silk - but he needs salads too --- maybe a few super worms and butter worms for treats but I would cut back on the consumption of the staple feeders your feeding
Karrie
 

Lizard of Light

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Ardbert
KarrieRee":4wyu06z1 said:
How old is the dragon? W / him eating you out of house and home I would not be feeding as much insects--- are you feeding salads? He needs salads first thing in the morning -- Silk worms are a great staple feeder --- you can feed both dubia and BSFL and silk - but he needs salads too --- maybe a few super worms and butter worms for treats but I would cut back on the consumption of the staple feeders your feeding
Karrie

Almost 4 months old, but he does eat salads. Even then, he still eats like crazy. Fortunately, whether on cue or the fact I got some plump silks today, he ate more his usual amount for breakfast.

I'm just concerned because the usual advice for juveniles is to let them eat as much bugs as they want within a 15 minute timespan, but he was going for them HARD the last couple days. He's a growing boy so I want to make sure he gets enough protein without going overboard. X'D
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
As long as he's eating some salad too feed him as much as will eat then-- 4 months he's growing- the insects are what size?
Karrie
 

Lizard of Light

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Ardbert
KarrieRee":owoq99m8 said:
As long as he's eating some salad too feed him as much as will eat then-- 4 months he's growing- the insects are what size?
Karrie

Large phoenix worms as his main staple and I try to give him silks at least 1" long (he can definitely stomach a full 2" one without a problem though, even if it is a big meal :lol:). Still waiting on new dubias, but 1/2" fits him perfectly.

I'm a little panicky because I'm almost out of phoenix worms, but hopefully big fat silks will keep him full for less.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Yes silk worms are fine for a staple --- hes not going to starve --- are you giving him any type of worms like supers or butter or horn worms? They too will fill him up-- add them to his salads -- horn worms grow really fast so if you order them only order small amounts of them - they are a good hydrating worm --- butter worms can be found at www.mulberryfarms.com --- they are spendy on shipping but ship Fed Ex I believe --
Karrie
 

Lizard of Light

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Ardbert
KarrieRee":2krqfihd said:
Yes silk worms are fine for a staple --- hes not going to starve --- are you giving him any type of worms like supers or butter or horn worms? They too will fill him up-- add them to his salads -- horn worms grow really fast so if you order them only order small amounts of them - they are a good hydrating worm --- butter worms can be found at http://www.mulberryfarms.com --- they are spendy on shipping but ship Fed Ex I believe --
Karrie

Aside from silks, I just give him phoenix worms. I'm planning on getting hornworms, butters, and supers in the future. For hornworms, at this age I'm a little concerned they'll be too watery because Ardie's stools turn pretty wet already on just silkworms. Haven't been able to find small supers at the moment so that's off the list for the time being (full size ones are a tad big for him), and I'm already spread thin for this month's bug budget (bugdget? :lol:) or else I'd go for the butterworms.

That said, in your experience, how many butterworms does it take to fill up a 3 month old, 12 1/2 in (head to tail) juvenile beardie? I know with silks, about 10 mediums or 2-3 large fills Ardbert up pretty well, so I'm curious if butters do even better or as well as large silks.

In any case, I'm just relieved he doesn't go through silks anywhere near as fast as phoenix worms and dubias at the moment. And got some fresh collards today so tomorrow, he's getting a yummy silkworm salad with bee pollen on top~ :p
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Butter worms are for treats not as a staple you dont want him to eat only butter worms --
Mulberyfarms has small supers but they ship in butcher paper in a gunny sack no food or cup to keep so I recommend you go thru www.dubiaroaches.com they ship in cups w/ food --
www.artilianarts.com does the same w/ the butcher paper and sack no food or cup --- found out the hard way on that one--- good thing I had kept some cups from Petsmart w/ some food left in it - you can get some reg oatmeal from Walmart to feed them --
Karrie
 

Lizard of Light

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Ardbert
KarrieRee":11m52rzb said:
Butter worms are for treats not as a staple you dont want him to eat only butter worms --
Mulberyfarms has small supers but they ship in butcher paper in a gunny sack no food or cup to keep so I recommend you go thru http://www.dubiaroaches.com they ship in cups w/ food --
http://www.artilianarts.com does the same w/ the butcher paper and sack no food or cup --- found out the hard way on that one--- good thing I had kept some cups from Petsmart w/ some food left in it - you can get some reg oatmeal from Walmart to feed them --
Karrie

Oh definitely not, lol. I was just wondering if I end up shorthanded in the future, haha.

And nice, DubiaRoaches.com has the smalls again. I'll have to get some next time around since I know Ardie was fed supers along with silks, BSFL, and Dubia (and red runners, but those trigger my roach-o-phobia, ICK!) by the breeder.
 
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