cricket alternative?

[jamesGriffith]

My beardie aspen is around a year old now and i have been giving him a steady diet of greens and crickets. He had a vet checkup like 3ish months ago and was perfectly healthy so nothing is wrong in that regard either! i was just wondering if there was an alternative to crickets that may cost the same or less? It's not that i cannot afford the crickets because i order them in nearly every other week but the problem that i have is they generally show up at my house dead. I always pay for overnight shipping as well but never seems to really work. Iv tried 2 different sites and i still get 70ish% of my crickets dead even when paying the expensive shipping(it's more than the crickets themselves...).

Basically i was just wondering if there is another way to keep him healthy and happy without using crickets? i typically order 1000 each week or so and they usually arrive with like 3-600 alive which is very frustrating because it's slowly costing me loads more money 30 dollars for the first one, then i need to make another order by the end of the week because half are dead.

 

[XiDiS]

I would look into setting up a Dubia Roach colony. There are quite a few posts on here on how to setup your own colony.... or places to order a few hundred feeder roaches.

 

[Lenewen]

Dubias as suggested are an excellent and easy feeder to breed yourself but they can be pricey.

You can also order superworms and phoenixworms in bulk for cheap from just about anywhere and they are pretty resilient. I suggest beardeddragon.co for supers (I order from here) and phoenixworms.com for phoenixworms. I hear they are pretty good but i haven't ordered from them yet.

 

[jamesGriffith]

i heard worms like those are bad to feed your dragon as a steady diet, is that true? i don't want him to get really overweight or anything and iv seen beardies on superworm diets not being able to really move much because there so overweight. not sure if the worms have caused this but any info will help.

 

[Lenewen]

None of my dragons are fat and they eat an alternating diet of supers, phoenixworms and dubia. I have never heard that.

 

[jamesGriffith]

hm well alright, thanks much! gona give the phoenix worms a try i think.

 

[Lenewen]

Good plan, they are very nutritious!

 

[Mustashio]

Phoenix worms are great! They are easy to keep (room temperature) have a low die off rate, and you don't have to dust them because they are the perfect calcium ratio! I always order mine from phoenixworms.com and have had great experiences with them. The only drawback (if you consider it a drawback) is that my adult beardie Tashi woofs them down so fast that he forgets to chew, and then they end up coming out in his poop whole! And sometimes even still alive! That's pretty common though, so I started having to give him only 10 or so at a time. The other thing is that even the "large" worms are pretty small--only about 1 inch long. But they are soft bodied too and keep for quite awhile. Shipping is reasonable, (I order 400 large worms at a time and together with shipping it is about $35) and they even tell the post office to keep them at the post office if the temps in your area are too warm or too cold. They take pride in making sure the worms are alive when they get to you, and don't want them to be sitting in your mailbox if the temps are too extreme. (I do get some strange looks when I pick up my "live insects" from the post office though! LOL! They always ask if I am a teacher and have some science experiment going on! Nope! Just a pet bearded "pig"!!)

Give the PW's a try!
~Jill

 

[TerratheBeardie]

I, for one, am with XiDiS and Lenewen. I'm currently starting a Dubia colony (Going on two months now), and I've recently tried them with Terra by giving her three male dubias. The excitement she had when she hunted down crickets in the past increases threefold when she was hunting them. Granted, they can take awhile for the colony to get started before feeding them off, but it's clearly worth it in the long run.

Phoenix worms and Reptiworms are similar and while most beardies love them, they're abit small and can be abit pricey. That being said, they don't need dusting to my knowledge, and of course they're healthier than mealworms. They're a pretty good staple for babies, though.

Superworms are better than mealworms for Beardies, but they need to be dusted and the Beardie needs to be AT LEAST 16 1/2 inches for them to safely feed. Also, careful with these guys. Some Beardies have a BAD habit of holding out for them. Also, the whole eating through your Beardie's stomach is an urban myth.