All he can eat every other day or X amount per day?

[goalie75]

I have a baby beardie and I was wondering if I should feed him all the crickets he could possibly eat every other day or if I should give him a set amount of crickets everyday. When I do the every other day thing, he can down about 2 dozen crickets. I can't give him all he can eat everyday because due to financial reasons (24 crickets a day for a week = $14, 52 weeks in a year = $728 a year). Should I give him like 8 crickets a day, 10 crickets a day, or keep him on his every other day routine?

Btw, I give him a salad everyday, which he eats most of, and I put him in a little tuberware container to eat, so I can make sure he gets all the crickets and that none of them hide in his cage forever (which happened the first time I fed him and I ended up with a bunch of dead crickets that were hiding under rocks for weeks).

 

[ses2682]

I feed my little guy all he can eat. It was getting really expensive just going to Petco for crickets...10cents a cricket adds up...especially if they can eat 30 or so a day. I ended up just buying crickets online from Ghanns. It is around $25 dollars with shipping for 1000 crickets and that will last my guy for awhile. It will eventually get cheaper as the weather gets better because the $9 shipping is only because of the cold temps.

I would definitely check out online options..especially when you have a young beardie and they are so hungry all the time. Now that my beardie is a few months old and 9 inches long he has started to eat a good amount of greens and veggies with his crickets and phoenix worms and the occasional waxworms so a large amount of crickets has taken him several weeks to eat.

 

[MissT]

Baby beardies should be fed every day. Most people choose 1 of 2 options.

Option 1 - feed twice per day allowing your baby beardie to eat as much as he wants in 10 mins (thats 10 mins each sitting) - this could be 50 + cricketc per sitting

Option 2 - feed twice per day allowing your baby beardie a maximum of 50 - 70 crickets

In order for your little one to grow correctly + get all the protein and calcium etc that he needs, he needs to be fed every day.

I hope you figure out a way to do this - check out online deals - usually they are much cheaper.

Once your little guy gets to about a year old, you can cut him down to 1 feeding per day and start really pushing salads!

Good luck!

T

 

[EmpNortonII]

I have a baby beardie and I was wondering if I should feed him all the crickets he could possibly eat every other day or if I should give him a set amount of crickets everyday. When I do the every other day thing, he can down about 2 dozen crickets. I can't give him all he can eat everyday because due to financial reasons (24 crickets a day for a week = $14, 52 weeks in a year = $728 a year). Should I give him like 8 crickets a day, 10 crickets a day, or keep him on his every other day routine?

I suppose if he's eating salad, it's no so bad, but...

You can buy 1000 crickets online for twenty bucks, easy. If you start breeding your own, the price drops, as I'm told- and number depends on size, a lot. The teeny crickets I got at PerSmart laster a couple of days. The 3/8ths I got at the Midwest Reptile Expo lasted much longer (that's a little less than the eye to eye distance). I do all he cares to eat twice a day- when he's full, he stops chasing, and will usually crawl up my hand when offered. I drop him on his basking spot, and he'll sit there til he is happy and warm. Croaker eats a lot of crickets, ignores salad, and is ambivilent about waxworms.

 

[goalie75]

I tried ordering online, but a lot were dead when I got them and the rest died before he could eat them all. Not only that, but they produced a horrible odor.

 

[JagersMom]

A young beardie should be eating every day.

I did the petco crickets for a while, and it was just too expensive (and I work there) but I have a local reptile store (LLL reptile) and I'm right down the road from their retail store, but they also ship worldwide. I get my crickets there, and they're great on pricing (1000 for $20) and the crickets last a lot longer.

If you want the crickets to survive the trip, it's strongly recommended you have them shipped overnight. Are you feeding/gutloading the crickets? If not, that could be the reason that they're dying so fast.

 

[goalie75]

I throw some collard greens in there every few days. Is that enough? Is there anything I can do for the smell?

 

[JagersMom]

In my experiences, crickets need food and water at all times. I use flukers orange cubes. They're food water and nutrients all in one and it's not messy. As for the smell, well crickets stink, biut cleaning out the container every couple of days helps tremendously

 

[techdave]

I was feeding Tiamat about a dozen a day since I got him. He's almost 10 months now and small for his age. Since I started feeding him as much as he can eat, about a month and a half ago, he's been rapidly growing. But I'm still unsure if he will get to his full potential since he didn't get the right nutrtional early on. Definitly, try to feed him a lot.