Advice on live foods needed

[loulou19]

Hi,

I've had a good look around this website, however I'm still having a little trouble deciding on live foods - which ones, where to buy them and of course the cheapest way!

I now have 4 beardies (after 5 years of only having 1 to feed) and 2 of them are fussy! My 5 year old Izzy will only eat locusts (sometimes) and canned silkies (cannot find live ones anywhere! ) which has been fine and affordable for just him, however this x4 is going to get pricey. My female Xena has only shown an interest in locusts and waxworms so far, and my others eat pretty much anything which is good! All of them eat their greens however which makes life easier.

So basically my question is, what would be the best (nutrition and price wise) insect to try as a staple for them?
And just so I can get an idea - those of you who have quite a few beardies, how much do you spend on average on live food?
Also I live in the UK so I need something that I can get easily here!

Thankyou

 

[amazon]

Hi -
I'm in UK as well - Derbyshire,
and all I've ever seen sold in shops for Beardies is Locusts, Crickets and Wax worms.
Mine will only eat the Locusts -so I am amazed at the choice of live food they get in America and wonder if my Beardie is lacking in his diet?
I do gut load the locusts - curly kale, butternut squash, pomegranate, dwarf beans, sugar snap peas etc -
so hopefully this helps?
Never seen anything tinned for feeding Beardies - apart from baby food.
Also - rarely read mention of Locusts on this forum - any reason why?
Is it a UK thing to feed them?

 

[MissT]

Yep, locusts are a uk thing
you can find butterworms, Phoenix worms and *sometimes* silkies at www.butterworms.co.uk
I have a colony of Dubia roaches breeding- right now I'm spending about £5-10 per week on locusts, just until my colony gets going-def one of the cheapest feeders if you decide to breed them.
You can also feed morio worms to beardies over 16 inches

 

[loulou19]

Ill have a look there thanks, might be able to find something for izzy
I order the tinned bugs online, It was my last resort when izzy decided he didn't like crickets and was bored of locusts!

Wow im spending around £30 a week just on locusts right now. I have greedy beardies, and very empty pockets. Where do you get your roaches from? Never seen them anywhere either! But my partner breeds mealworms for his turtle so maybe I can get him to start breeding dubias too if izzy approves them.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but are morio worms different to mealies and supers? So many worms it's confusing! I normally stay away from them and just feed them waxworms as a rare treat.

 

[MissT]

I foud a colony on reptileforums.co.uk cost me about £40 to setit up but iv definitely saved in the long run. Got a bit carried away though and fed off too many males so need to order some more!!

 

[Ronniexx]

thx for the link missT...i am going to order some soldier worms...

 

[loulou19]

Ohh ok I'll have a look there then £40 doesn't sound too bad at all!
Thankyou very much for you help