Baby beardie eating question

[beardedstone]

Went to a cool mom and pop reptile shop this weekend that specializes in beardies- I mentioned that my baby beardie (2-3 months old) wasn't eating as many crickets as it was when we first brought it home. He suggested I try small white fly larvae (maybe calci worms?) Rango seems to love them - but not too interested in crickets anymore. Should I be concerned? Do baby beardies become finicky? How much in general should a baby beardie eat? I forgot to ask these questions and the shop is only open thurs-sat
Thx!

 

[kingofnobbys]

No.... BSF maggots are fine....

so are blowfly gents , silkworms (up to 2 inches long) , small roaches, locusts or crickets.

He'll have to eat LOTS of white fly maggots ...

 

[beardedstone]

Thank you! Should I be concerned if my baby beardie isn't eating as much as I'm reading he should? One day he eats about 20 or so - the next couple days he eats like 5. I offer veggies everyday but not sure if he eats while we are at work or school. I'm reading babies should eat 40-50 crickets or worms a day...definitely not eating that much

 

[kingofnobbys]

Thank you! Should I be concerned if my baby beardie isn't eating as much as I'm reading he should? One day he eats about 20 or so - the next couple days he eats like 5. I offer veggies everyday but not sure if he eats while we are at work or school. I'm reading babies should eat 40-50 crickets or worms a day...definitely not eating that much

A common mistake , talking about the number of crickets eaten by a little hatching without knowing the size of the hatchling, and the size of the crickets. Usually these reports of hatchling eating 50 or even 100 crickets per day are a situation where the hatchling is being fed very small crickets which are called generically pinheads or crickets smaller than 4mm long (10 days old), or very small silkworms (under a week old) or very small maggots (blowfly gents) or very small BSF maggots , or very small roaches.
See here for sizes óf insects (crickets , gents) https://frogs.org.au/live-foods/product-category/insects/

I found my Peppa and Toothless liked they greens and veg so much they were filling up on these and then come lunch and diner feeds of insects , they were not interested in the bugs because they were already full.
So I simply rearranged my feeding schedule so they had at least two feeds of live insects Peppa was 13.5g and Toothless was 11.1g at 5 weeks old.
I was giving the larger meal of small crickets (25 day old) for brekky, and smaller meal of crickets at about lunch, and also blowfly gents , and small (1.5 inch long silkworms)) for their 3 insect meals, the last being 8 small silkworms left on a mulberry leaf in the salad bowl with their greens and grated veg and 6 small crickets for brekky, 4 for lunch. THIS WAS EACH.

At 3 months old they were guzzling down up to 20 medium (1/3 sized) crickets and up to 8 medium (2inch long) silkworms per day each split over 2 cricket meals , the silkworms were their last insect meal each day. THIS WAS EACH.
At 3 months old Peppa was 61g and Toothless 51g.

I essentially fed them as many insects as they wanted at each meal, no restrictions, a few at a time in their rearing tubs, and when they lost interest , I stopped.

 

[beardedstone]

My little guy(or girl, not sure yet) is about 5.5 inches long and I think about 15 grams - I have to weigh Rango again this week. The crickets are baby crickets - from your link probably about 3-6 days old. When I first got it Rango was eating about 20 crickets a day (probably around the same size). I also just found out that my kids took him out on the back porch about a week and a half ago and he jumped out of their hands and down to the ground - landed in grass, but it was about a story up which is nuts. He's ok - nothing broken, still very active but I'm wondering if that has something to do with it? Or if he's just finicky? Some days he'll eat a ton and some he won't. I offer veggies and crickets/worms in the morning before work but about an hour after his lamp has been turned on, then again when the kids get home at about 330 - then again for dinner at about 6-7. I'm just so new so I'm not sure if I should be concerned.