20-25 crickets a day and some veggies?

[Usernamesarehard]

Okay so the most my bearded dragon, who I believe is about 1 and a half months old, will eat is 20-25 crickets a day, spread out through two feedings, along with some chopped up broccoli and carrots. is this normal for his age?

 

[Momomo]

I am really glad to see you are taking the steps towards feeding your beardie properly! If that's all he wants to eat, that's fine. Just make sure you give him as much as he wants to eat in around 10 -15 minutes and make sure they are smaller than the space between his eyes. Also, please have a look at this website http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html for a list of good veggies. Anything in green can be fed everyday as a staple. Broccoli and carrots are not the best veggies. Try chopping up some collard greens, dandelion greens and squash and mix it together and just leave it in his cage throughout the day.

Oh, and on a side note, you do not have to create a new thread every time, unless its a completely different topic. You could just as well ask this question in any of your other threads.

 

[hyperc]

Not bad they will eat more, Mine ate 20+ crickets once they entered his cage but he won't eat any greens so far...It is crazy to watch them eat cause you look at the cricket size and then your beardie and wonder how he fits it all

 

[DTRM30]

Sounds good - Hope you found a good alternative/way to manage the number of crickets

Pet stores can be really expensive - there are LOTS of alternatives that will cut the amount of $$ you need to spend

For a comparison ... Just FYI since you were wondering if the number of crickets sounded right ...
Our BD is about 2-3 months old (7-8" ) and eats about 30 per day depending on the size of the crickets - (anywhere between 1/4" and 1/2") except the other day when he was shedding. Poor guy - must have been really bugging him - didn't want to eat. Then about an hour later, he managed to get most of his back shed off, then was happy to eat.

He also likes butternut squash and mustard greens. I cooked the squash to make it a little softer. Lots of inexpensive veges out there though that they can eat. Ours does NOT like green beans though. Licked it, chewed it then spit it out and gave me the stink eye. LOL.

 

[DTRM30]

@ hyperc - I tricked ours into eating greens - I held it by his chin and wiggled it a little.

We normally drop one cricket at a time for him - so we don't have to worry about catching leftovers - and since he is used to the "plop" sound indicating a food item - I tried that with the squash. I took a small piece, dropped it in and the "plop" sound got his attention. He doesn't eat a lot of it yet, but if I do that before feeding circkets, he'll eat 1-2 pieces.

Same for the greens - I put them in for about 5 min before feeding crickets - and I've notice that he'll eat a piece or two then is like - OK - where are the wiggly bugs