Can i feed may dragon baby superworms?

[OhSleeper117]

I have had a dragon for close to 5 months and he is 5 months old. He is a foot long and I was wondering if I could feed him baby superworms. I want to vary his insects instead of giving him crickets only. I was told that they had to be 16 inches to eat superworms. Any particular reason?

 

[Lizzylovesbeardies]

Baby dragons shouldnt eat superworms until about 16" because superworm have a hard exoskeleton and chitin, so they are hard to chew and digest. When they are babies, their stomachs havent developed that special thing that allows them to digest harder foods. When they are 16", they now have the "guts" to eat them. When you baby grows to be 16", you could go out to the store and buy those worms to celebrate it's Sweet 16 Inches!! Hope this helps!

 

[OhSleeper117]

Haha thanks.

 

[woozel121]

I had a question I know you said 16" but I have a rankins variety and he won't get that big from what I have read, does that mean Smeagol can't have superworms?

 

[Claudiusx]

I'm not entirely sure of the anatomy (namely the intestinal anatomy) of the Rankins, and if they suffer from the same issues in regards to a kink in their digestive track like younger beardies.
With that being said, I would not recommend feeding full grown supers.

Stick to other worms such as the BSFL varieties, silkworms, butterworms, and hornworms.

-Brandon

 

[woozel121]

Okay thank you! I was thinking about going with phoenix worms as a staple being they seem easy to breed and healthy as well, it's just in the pet store they fed Smeagol mealworms and now he just doesn't care for crickets and I don't want him getting to skinny.