best worms for every day diet?

[jodavis10]

I was wondering what the best worms are for eveyday feeding. I know some of them are fatty and not recommended for the main diet. I feed Loki crikets now but I hate them. They are noisy, smelly and escape all the time. I would love something a little more contained and easy to keep, plus she goes though soooo many of them. Any suggestions??

 

[mikewithsfi]

You may want to try freezing your crickets. When I buy crickets I buy at least a hundred, as soon as I get home I freeze them. Then about 10 minutes before I feed them to my beardie I will let a handful thaw out. If you are not sure if your beardie will eat them this way, buy about 10 to test it. Many people do this and it works. This cut back on cost of crikets going bad, the smell, and the noise.

As far as worms. I feed mealies to my beardie, and also throw in some wax worms as well.

 

[jodavis10]

Do they come back to life when thawed??

 

[mikewithsfi]

no they dont. Thats why i suggested trying about ten first. Just incase yours refuses to eat them dead.

 

[jodavis10]

I was trying to avoid dead!! SHe was being fed dead crickets in her previous home and was severly underweight and undersized when I got her. I was hoping a nice wiggly worm will maintain her interest and be easier for me to handle! lol

 

[Toasty]

I was wondering what the best worms are for eveyday feeding. I know some of them are fatty and not recommended for the main diet. I feed Loki crikets now but I hate them. They are noisy, smelly and escape all the time. I would love something a little more contained and easy to keep, plus she goes though soooo many of them. Any suggestions??

Honestly there isn't any worm that I would recommend as a truly healthy "every day" feeder, although the soft-bodied worms can be very useful for adding variety and supplying different vitamins and minerals for a more balanced diet. I would recommend looking into starting your own feeder roach colony. The most common and well-known feeder roach are B. dubias. They make no noise, do not smell, and cannot climb or jump like crickets. It can take several months to get a colony established enough to the point where you can feed from it regularly though, so you will need to take that into account. I have a dubia colony and like them, but my favorite feeder roaches are actually the B. lateralis ("red runners", "turks"). They are smaller and softer than dubia, and they also reproduce much more quickly. They're also less expensive than dubia, so buying the amount needed to start a colony isn't going to be as expensive. They are considered a climbing species, but in my experience they really aren't very good at it (especially compared to my lobsters!), although I still use a barrier along the top of their bin of course. I still buy crickets occasionally, but just enought for one or two feedings, that way I only have to keep them for a day or two to gut-load them then feed them to the beardies. I'll usually have at least one type of feeder worm on hand too, but since they're not being used every day as the only feeder, they last quite a while if stored correctly. Then next time I'll buy/order a different type of worm to use, basically using them in rotation.

Offering variety is not only more likely to result in a more balanced diet, but it can also help keep beardies from becoming fixated or "stuck" on one particular feeder insect.

 

[Mustashio]

I had your exact issue too. Mustashio is a little bearded pig and I was going through about 60 crickets a day! I would only buy about 200 at a time because I hated the stench of crickets. Even now I am meticulous about scooping out dead carcasses and poo out of the cricket containers! But I hated it! I needed something more financially friendly and a little easier to feed--at least until he is an adult and the greens to feeder ratio levels out!

In my opinion, Phoenix Worms are the ultimate daily feeder. They have the perfect calciumhosphorus ratio, they are easy to feed, have various sizes, are EXTREMELY wiggley, cheaper than crickets and keep for quite awhile at room temperature. I tried a small container of 100 worms from The Phoenix Worm Store (www.phoenixworm.com) the first time, and Tashi was glass dancing as soon as I took the cover off the container! They have a flat $5.95 shipping fee, whether you buy 100 at a time or 1000 at a time. I buy the large ones 400 at a time now, and the bill is $33.00 with shipping, and those will last me about a month. (I usually feed worms in the morning and crickets at night, so he eats about 30 worms a day) The worms are shipped via US mail, but if it is too warm or too cold in your area, then the company will ship them to the post office and have you come and pick them up there. They don't want to run the risk of the package sitting in your mailbox in 90 degree heat because then your worms will all die. Great company! I've never seen a dead worm yet. You can keep them at room temperature, but it is better if they are slightly chilled. The refrigerator is too cold, and they say a wine cellar is about perfect, but I have stored mine on the cool floor right in front of the air conditioning vent (which happens to be right near the viv) and that works perfect!

The worms are so wiggly too! Tashi knows the black container, so whenever I take it out he jumps off his climb to watch me get them ready. They will stay in a dry shallow dish and usually won't escape if the dish is deep enough. As long as it is dry. The only "problem" I have with them is that Tashi gobbles them down so stinkin' fast that he doesn't chew them, and so sometimes I find them in his poop. Not a lot of them but a few. I've had to give them to him 10 at a time to slow him down! Piggy!

Anyway! I know this is long, but I would highly recommend the PW's. They are helpful too when you are in a hurry and have to "quick" feed the dragon before running out the door. No more waiting for the crickets to be gone! Hope this helps!

~Jill

 

[Claudiusx]

Silkworms.

Silkworms are probably the best possible feeder insect you could get for your dragons. Unfortunately, their price reflects this. lol.

-Brandon

 

[ButterflyGirl89]

I agree with Mutashio. From everything I've read and heard, Pheonix Worms are the best staple. There are some owners on here that feed pheonix worms exclusively, but that's a bit rich for my blood so I started up a dubia roach colony. But if you just want feeder worms, Pheonix Worms are the way to go.

 

[SherryInFL]

Variety I think is best. I use crickets as the main food but Wilson also gets 30-40 phoenix worms a day and Spike gets a few extra small super worms. When I have the budget they also get silk, butters, and horn worms as a treat (no more then 2 a day).

 

[xcynnerx]

I was just wondering about this! I'm glad that I found this post. I'll feed crickets every now and then, but I'd rather have worms!!!!!!!

 

[jodavis10]

Wow, thanks for all the input!! I think I might try getting a roach motel going as my main feeder and trying out the butter or wax worms as treats. I wish my girlie would eat more greens. I got her off of cl and was told she was a year old, but she eats like a juvie knocking back hundreds of crickets a week and turning her nose up at the greens I leave in her cage everyday. Im hoping that she just needs to fatten up ( she was very underweight when I got her) and once she reaches her weight she will make the switch to veggies. I'm going to go broke buying crickets and I tried buying bulk but the massive quantity of crickets FREAKED me out and I went back down to a few hundred at a time, which last 2-3 days at the moment. I've been looking around at the sites trying to find the most economical way to order some worms....shipping is killing me!! Thanks again for all the advice!

 

[Mustashio]

Silkworms.

Silkworms are probably the best possible feeder insect you could get for your dragons. Unfortunately, their price reflects this. lol.

-Brandon

Brandon you have given me (and others) tons of great advice in the past. I was wondering if there is a specific age or "space between the eyes" type measurement that the BD has to be before they can start eating silkworms. Tashi is 8 months old, 15 inches and approx 226 grams, and we just moved up to large PW's and large crickets (although the "large" crickets from the reptile shop are about 1 inch or smaller). Also, are silkworms easy to keep?

Didn't mean to hijack the original post, but I was just wondering.

~Jill

 

[Claudiusx]

Silkworms are a soft-bodied worm and therefore easier to digest and the space between the eye rule doesn't really apply.

At 15 inches, your dragon should be able to eat even the largest of silkworms.
They come in all different sizes just like PW's and other insects, so you can choose a size you think will suit your dragon.

Silkworms are easy to keep, you usually buy them in a little cup that contains enough food for them to live on until you feed them all off. The only problem you might run into with them is they are very susceptible to mold and bacteria, which will kill them. Washing your hands before handling them or using tongs to grab them pretty much eliminates that risk.

-Brandon

 

[kFitz]

I agree with brandon on the silkies, but they are very touchy as far as bacteria and whatnot is concerned. I like them, but they do make silk while you have them which they stick to, and so does their poo. I just chopsticks to grab one at a time and pull them out of the silk webbing. I find it easier that way.

Also, when I started branching out from crickets, I ordered a "snack pack" from mullberry farms. They have a few different options, but the one I got came with hornworms, silkies, butterworms, and reptiworms (same as phoenix worms, just different brand name). It was pretty cheap and let me see what my beardie liked, and also what it was like keeping each feeder. All of the softbodies are great to feed, and the snack pack gave my girl the variety that is recommended.