can crickets be too small?

[lightheart]

New beardie mom and wanted to ask about feeding.
The biggest question I have is the cricket size, our guy had been eating “large” crickets at the pet store where we got him (he had been there at least 3 months) both me and my husband felt they were too big, that he should be eating smaller ones so we ordered 1000 ½ inch size thinking that would be ok, well they are tiny - especially compared to the ones he has been eating. He has eaten a few of them so hopefully it is not a question of whether he will continue to accept them or not, but rather can crickets be too small?

What size should we be feeding him when we go to buy another big box?
Should I be going out and buying some more of the “large” crickets for him until these ½ inch ones we have grow more?

If anyone sees any issues with our set up or anything else please let me know.

Name: our human kid’s haven’t decided on one yet
age: possibly April 2010
got him birthday: 12-3-10
size: 10.5 inches tip to tip
sex: ?? Most likely boy
enclosure: glass tank - 30 in. length, 12 in. deep, 12 in. tall, (20 long aquarium)
temp cool: 72F temp bask: 95F (measured with digital therm., but also have analog therms. in the pen)
substrate: paper towels
lighting: on timer 7:00am to 7:00pm;
100W Basking Spot Lamp by Zoo Med
30W 36" 10.0 UVB Reptiglo by Exoterra, he can either be 14, 11, or 8 inches away (measured at his belly)

For Diet, nothing is set in stone, this is what we have offered him and fed the crickets with. The only thing green wise beardie has eaten so far is the parsley.
diet:
Calcium Plus ICB by Repashy
Ready To Eat Bites by Nature Zone,
veggies : bok choy, dandelion green, flat parsley, carrot, mint, cabbage, green pepper
fruit: red grapes
water bowl and spray bottle
cricket diet:
Fluker’s High Calcium Cricket Diet
Fluker’s Cricket Quencher,
water soaked cotton pad,
mix of grains/dry from my kitchen: quinoa, oats, barley, corn meal, sunflower seed, teff, sweet brown rice, millet, cream of wheat, sprinkled with calcium plus ICB
veggies: parsley, bak choy, carrots, celery, potato, cabbage, green pepper, dandelion green
fruit: red grapes

edited to add, I figured out posting pictures

 

[ziggy23]

If they're too small, they'll just eat more to make up. the size they need to be is no bigger than the space between their eyes. If your ordering online, then it's easy enough to get the exact size they need. It's better to go smaller than larger. Larger has impaction risks, and crickets have short life spans, they grow quickly.

 

[techdave]

One thing you may want to do is change the uvb from the reptiglo to the reptisun. Cheapest place I know of is petmountain.com. For the feeder diet, I always just thrown in fresh veggies. What's good for your beardie is good for the crix. Check out http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html for a list of foods that are good for your beardie.

 

[Damkat]

I would rather feed my girl crickets that are to small then feeding ones that might be to big. The dragon will just eat more of them.
If you still want to post pictures go to Photobucket and set up an account, upload your pictures to photobucket. Get the picture URL by right clicking the picture and copy the URL. Then come to this site and hit the Img button and paste the URL. it should look something like this

then hit preiew to see if it worked!!!
Hope this works, I love seeing pics of our bearded friends!!

 

[jeritta]

I agree with what the above posters said about rather go with smaller than larger size feeders. Also about the UVB light and petmountain being the cheapest. One other thing I noticed is your basking temp is a little low. I would try to raise it a little by moving your basking spot closer or your light closer, but try to get your temp up a little so your dragon gets better digestion and basking temps.

 

[lightheart]

Thanks everyone!

When we were doing our lighting research had thought the reptiglo was ok, will plan on switching over to the reptisun.

Our basking light is adjustable, we dropped it down a little and the temp over ther is now around 100 F, doesn't take much of adjustment in the light itself to raise the temp that much.

I had found the nutrition website before getting the dragon home, thought it was a nice site, need to print it out so I quit having to come to the computer to check which scraps I need to put in the dragon/cricket food container and which into the compost.

Today beardie got butternut squash added to his salad dish!

I think I figured out the picture thing! posted a picture in the 1st post!

 

[Damkat]

beautiful Dragon!!!