Alternative to Crickets

[bdgal]

My 6.5 month old beardie is eaten crickets just fine...although I have been driving all over the city trying to find them. I buy about 300-400 at a time and that lasts me a few days. They just seem to sell out of the pet stores when ever I need them!! The superworms and mealworms seem to always be available though. Can I feed these to him?

My hubby is getting VERY mad with finding crickets all over the house. I try my hardest to keep them contained...but the odd few get out and then start chirping in wierd places in our house. Can I feed an alternative to crickets? Can superworms be used as a staple? Phoenix worms are out of the question because they are SOOO freaking expensive. At one point I was spending close to $200/month on phoenix worms. Not going to happen again.

From nose to tail he is about 15 inches long. Is this long enough or is he old enough to digest supers properly?
Hope to hear from some experts soon!!! Thanks in advance!

 

[Claudiusx]

Well, we normally wouldn't recommend suppers until the beardie is at least 16 inches because below that length they have a sort of kink in there organs which makes it hard for them to digest and pass the worms through them. It MIGHT be safe to give him supers now since it looks like you are at your wits end but you should NOT feed mealworms to any size bearded dragon. Mealworms have little to no nutritional value in them, plus they have a hard outer shell which is hard to digest for any sized dragon and can cause impaction.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Have you tried roaches yet? http://theroachguy.com/ .. Good luck..

 

[VEGASLIZARD]

IDK about roaches because I don't keep them as feeders yet. Still working on the hubby for that one, but I started feeding suppers to Scorch as soon as she was big enough because I hated feeding crix and pw's and butters that I switched to where spendy. They do not escape and are extremely easy to take care of and cheep too.

 

[peera]

The problem with roaches is that they are not a NOW solution, they're a "three months down the road" solution.

Bdgal, have you tried ordering them online? I get 1000 from Ghann's for $28, which at $.03 is generally a LOT cheaper than the pet stores want. I know the frustration of finding them everywhere, what are you keeping them in? If you make sure the tallest place they can climb is at least 12 inches from the top, you should have less escapes. I use a 20 gal aquarium for mine and the only time I have an escape issue is when I'm dumping them in, so I've started doing that outside.

 

[bdgal]

I am definitely going to look into ordering online. Its just that the shipping is usually horrible...even from Canadian feeder companies (I live in Canada). Still, if they arrive on my doorstep instead of me driving all over town looking...maybe it is worth the extra money.

So I went to my local reptile shop and asked for 10 smaller sized supers (as I have seen how big some of them are!!) I fed one to my beardie and he chomped it all up and ate it within seconds. I was worried that he wouldn't chew them....but he did. So I gave him 2 more...same thing. This morning I noticed that his stool did NOT have any shell or pieces of supers in it. That was a good sign I think. The other day when I was stuck giving him 20 mealworms for a meal...he pooped about 15 out!! Never doing mealworms again!!

I am worried about roaches. It just sounds gross to have roaches in your house. What if a few get out by accident? Wouldn't they multiply and you'd have roaches galore in your house? I don't know if hubby will go for that. How big do dubia roaches get?

So if I can stick to the superworms now, how many should my 6.5 month old beardie be eating in a day? He does get salad and cactus pad as well as the odd treat (Fruit, etc). Are supers a good staple? I mean, I can buy a few hundred crickets every now and again, but would prefer not to make them the main staple (2-3x per day). Thanks again for the advice!!

 

[Neromom39]

None of my dragon eat crix at all. Superworms are the main staple for my three older dragons and the babies are on mini-mealies. My three month old is also eating small supers but only because they are still soft and she is digesting them well. Small supers can be purchased from Mulberry Farms. They are less than 1/2 inch long.

The older dragons only get 10 at a sitting and Calliope (3 month old) is consuming about 40 a day. I have seen a great growth increase in all of my dragons since I switched them off of crix. But personally it's more of a convenience factor. Since hubby is the one who does the "live" feeding, I think he was getting tired of chasing crickets.

Robin

 

[peera]

Dubias are tropical roaches that have to be kept at 85-95*F to breed, so if they escape, they won't breed, and will die pretty quickly unless you keep a food out on the floor. They also can't fly & suck at climbing, and are relatively slow, so if you saw it escape you;d be able to catch it. I just got my roaches Thursday & was a little surprised how big the full grown ones are... Haven't measured, but I'm guessing they're about 1 1/2 inches (a little under 4 cm)

 

[buzz86]

None of my dragon eat crix at all. Superworms are the main staple for my three older dragons and the babies are on mini-mealies. My three month old is also eating small supers but only because they are still soft and she is digesting them well. Small supers can be purchased from Mulberry Farms. They are less than 1/2 inch long.

The older dragons only get 10 at a sitting and Calliope (3 month old) is consuming about 40 a day. I have seen a great growth increase in all of my dragons since I switched them off of crix. But personally it's more of a convenience factor. Since hubby is the one who does the "live" feeding, I think he was getting tired of chasing crickets.

Robin

I'm getting tired of keeping crickets too, I was going to post a thread about this until I saw this one covering the same problem. Both my beardies are about 7 months old, the male (Beanhead) is 13.5 inches and the female (Sandboy) 12 inches (though Beanhead is a lot bulkier). They seem to be far more interested in superworms than crickets, especially Sandboy who barely eats her crickets just the supers, so would you say it would be ok for me to replace crickets with superworms as their source of protein, as long as I dust them with Nutrabol?

 

[Claudiusx]

I'm getting tired of keeping crickets too, I was going to post a thread about this until I saw this one covering the same problem. Both my beardies are about 7 months old, the male (Beanhead) is 13.5 inches and the female (Sandboy) 12 inches (though Beanhead is a lot bulkier). They seem to be far more interested in superworms than crickets, especially Sandboy who barely eats her crickets just the supers, so would you say it would be ok for me to replace crickets with superworms as their source of protein, as long as I dust them with Nutrabol?

At the size your beardies are I would say it isn't safe to feed them superworms at all until they are over 16 inches long. When beardies are less then 16 inches long, they have a sort of kink in there digestive track where superworms often can get stuck and cause impaction. Once they are over 16 inches long that kink stretches out to the point where there is no more kink and super worms can safely pass through a beardie.

 

[buzz86]

That's a shame because they really love their supers So it would be safe to feed them superworms as a staple once they are 16 inches? I would replace crickets with locusts as they love them but they're much more expensive than crickets...I'm just worried about Sandboy because she avoids eating her crickets unless I refuse to give her anything else for a couple of days.

 

[Neromom39]

Once they are the recommended length, then there should not be any problem using supers as a staple. As long as you know that they digest them OK and there aren't any pooping problems.

Robin

 

[prickly]

where do you guys get your superworms?
i paid $8 for 100 at the reptile show-
whats the best MO site?

 

[VEGASLIZARD]

I live on the west coast so I get mine from Mulberry farms.

 

[lacy_black]

Dubias are great. When I gave my dragons away I kept the dubias just because i'm wierd and enjoy handling them :lol: