Bottomless Pit

[pechadm88]

Hey guys, I’m back with another question.

I have had Pascal now for a little over two months. He was probably 2-3 months old when I got him, making him 4-5 months now. Got him at Petco but he wasn’t a hatchling.

So I was informed that when they are young to feed them until they are full within a 10-15 minute interval. At what age does this stop? As I feed Pascal and he is a never ending pit. He just keeps eating and eating until I have tocut him off. I feed him medium-large black soldier fly larvae and he can eat over 100 of those a day. I feed him twice a day so that’s over 50 in a sitting. And he is still hungry after it all. I do provide a salad mixture that is available all day and dried crickets and grasshoppers on the side that he will touch throughout the day, but he loves his live food.

He gets super worms every now and then as a treat and has even had a couple large horn worms that he loves...again as treats. But even after the fully grown horn worm he still ate his 50 larvae and was still hungry. He acts as he hasn’t eaten all day. I have found some still in-tact larvae in his fecal matter and a couple that have still been a live. He eats them super fast and I haven’t found a way to slow him down. Even when I tong feed him he just grabs and swallows. He is super active and full of personality. Doesn’t seem to be deficient in nutrients. His fecal matter is solid and normal looking other than the larvae that aren’t digested every now and again.

His tempts are good and lighting is good. Any info would be nice. 150 watt basking bulb, I probe check the temps now and again. Reptisun 10.0 T5HO UVB Bulb and T5HO reflective hood.

Any info would be appreciated!

 

[MrChenMan]

The first year of a beardies life will be mostly insects (80% insects and 20% veggies) so if he is eating 100 insects a day then it should be fine. Almost all lizards will stop eating when they are full so don’t be worried. At 1 year old the roles will switch (so 80% veggies and 20% insects) so you won’t be be feeding that much anymore and it will stay that way for the rest of it’s life

Hopefully this helped

 

[kyleena29]

Phoenix worms are pretty small and they can go undigested if they don't chew them. Have you thought about dubia roaches or crickets?

 

[pechadm88]

I’ve done crickets and I absolutely hate it. I like the BSF cuz it’s more convenient and they are a great source of calcium and protein. I don’t really have to dust them and whatnot. And I don’t have to worry about impaction...granted I didn’t feed large crickets anyway but I still worried about it. It’s just a win/win in my book. The large larvae I buy are about the size of a half inch cricket or so. So they aren’t super tiny. He used to eat crickets about as fast but I guess chewed them a bit more cuz of the exoskeleton and legs and such. He is still growing and super active so I can’t assume he isn’t getting nutrients he needs. I really don’t want to switch if I don’t have to lol.