Details on how to feed Dubias to baby beardie?

[chris9]

Probably a dumb question :roll: But I have never fed insects, and trying to get a feel for what will be involved before deciding on whether or not to get a beardie...

I'm assuming every time you feed the roaches to the beardie, you have to chase down 30 or however many roaches (of appropriate size), and wrangle them into a plastic bag or cup for dusting... Just trying to picture myself doing this before work while i'm in a rush in the morning :shock: Or could i skip dusting the first batch? (I will be using a Reptisun 10 tube).... I'm currently freelancing from home but will probably have to work out of an office before much longer.

I guess I would prepare greens the night before, and drop them in the tank as soon as i wake up. Then chase down the roaches right before i'm off to work(?) I figure i could leave them in a bowl that would keep them from getting out, but would allow the baby to get to them? If so, i just need to know how long to allow for the whole process of getting the roaches out of their bin, dusted, and into the bowl... I would do the 10-15min all-you-can-eat thing at night and on the weekends. Office will only be about a block away so i could come home at lunch at least a few times a week if needed.

Bonus Question: (pretty important one i guess)
Can a baby beardie eat dubias if they are the appropriate size? Like 1/4" i would think? I have seen some on here say it's fine, but others sometimes mentioning that they aren't for babies :?:

Thanks for any info or tips on how to possibly make this work

 

[DecoratedDragons]

i allow an hour of light before food is offered. This allows them to warm up before eating. My dragons love dubia. I gutload my crickets and dubia, as most do. You dont want to feed any food larger than the space between their eyes or impactions can occur. Keep in mind dubia contain much more protein than crickets so they dont need as much. I use a 15 minute feed time. I feed mine crickets during day and dubia an hour before bedtime as a treat then all food removed including veggies. Do not leave crickets in cage during night. Hope this helps.

 

[ashleyelsha]

ok, my new dragon is about two months old, and someone can correct me if I am wrong, but here is what I have been doing.
In the morning I turn the lights on then I get dressed. This gives him time to wake up and warm up. Then I mist him and make sure his shallow water dish is full. I have the greens and veggies already chopped up so I just mix some together and put it in a shallow plastic lid in his cage. He just started eating his salad the last couple of days. I throw in 5 or 6 dusted crickets for him to hunt throughout the day. Then when I get home at night I mist him again, fill up the water bowl and I feed phoenix worms. I just got the phoenix worms on wednesday and they are so much easier to feed than the crickets, and they don't have to be dusted or gutloaded! Also the day after I fed the phoenix worms is the first day he ate salad. After I run out of crickets I am just going to feed the phoenix worms twice a day and be done with it. It's a little more pricey but they have a good shelf life and are so much easier for me than trying to capture crickets or deal with roaches.

I've noticed also if I take a cotton ball and dip it in water and put a drop on his nose he will lick it up. And today when I got home his water dish was bone dry (i forgot to fill it this morning and it's really shallow) so I filled it and put him in it and he actually lowered his head and drank water out of it.

 

[chris9]

I appreciate all the info

I was planning on using a timer on the lights, so i could set the lights to come on an hr before feeding... Sounds like i could handle your routine, Ashley. Especially if i do worms in the morning and dubias later. Though not quite as good(?), it sounds like Reptiworms would be a decent option as well.... That's cool that your guy is drinking from a bowl like that. I'm hearing that's kind of rare. Sounds like he stays well hydrated

What size and how many phoenix worms do you think you will be feeding, Ashley? Might be too soon for you to know at this point?

 

[ashleyelsha]

I appreciate all the info

I was planning on using a timer on the lights, so i could set the lights to come on an hr before feeding... Sounds like i could handle your routine, Ashley. Especially if i do worms in the morning and dubias later. Though not quite as good(?), it sounds like Reptiworms would be a decent option as well.... That's cool that your guy is drinking from a bowl like that. I'm hearing that's kind of rare. Sounds like he stays well hydrated

What size and how many phoenix worms do you think you will be feeding, Ashley? Might be too soon for you to know at this point?

I honestly don't know how many he will eat in the long run. Last night he ate about 15 small, but my next order will be medium. I was going to try to breed dubia roaches because I hear they are really good but apparently they are illegal to ship to florida, so.... worms it is! From what I understand reptiworms and phoenix worms are both black fly larvae so I guess they are the same thing. I think I will just do worms until he gets bigger and I can always buy crickets from the pets store from time to time, they are just so smelly and a pain to keep and handle. The worms are sitting in a cup on a shelf, simple.

 

[chris9]

Worms would definitely be my first choice too, and he will get more of them when i can more easily afford it. Unless i have a dubia colony that really takes off... I'm thinking Phoenix or Reptiworms will be about a third of his diet in any case.

Yeah. I think the only difference between Phoenix and Reptiworms is in how they are bred and fed. Calciworms are black soldier flyies too, BUT are too high in calcium to use as a staple. Phoenix worms seem to be more highly regarded, but a little more expensive too i think.

The Phoenix worm site mentioned beardies can eat up to 60 a day. Was hoping it would be less I'm sure it depends on dragon size, what else they are eating, etc though.

 

[ashleyelsha]

superworms and mealworms are all that is available at my local pet store, superworms are too big right now and mealworms are supposed to be bad but I feed a few in conjunction with the phoenix worms, my dragon takes the meal worms right from my fingers. So far he is having good stool every day and I have read that mealworms can be fed sparingly like this and I figure the phoenix worms are so nutritions a few mealworms just helps fill his tummy so it's not so expensive.

 

[DecoratedDragons]

You do have to be carefull with just a worm diet. Some worms like phoenix are really high in fat content. worms are usually givin sparingly in the diet. Like i said earlier i offer crickets during the day and 2-4 dubia an hour before bed then all food is removed, plus they have greens all day. Right now their diet should consist 90% protein and 10% vegies and as they grow "which is fast" it will turn to the opposite. So as they grow it is important to feed properly. I do use timers on all my reptiles. They are great thing to have!!!! Mine get sprayed lightly twice a day and they get either a bath or outside pool time once a week. Monitor the pee in the stool that will tell you if the dragon is hydrated or too hydrated!!!

 

[ashleyelsha]

might I mention phoenix worms are lower in fat than both mealworms and superworms, and mealworms have almost as high a protein content as crickets. The rational for not feeding mealworms is the impaction risk due to the hard shell, but if you feed a combination of mealworms and phoenix worms how is that different than eating a cricket or a roach that has some soft body as well as some hard shell? With a combination of mealworms and phoenix worms you are not only getting calcium but also a decent protein ratio.
http://www.phoenixworm.com/servlet/the-template/comparison/Page

 

[chris9]

You do have to be carefull with just a worm diet. Some worms like phoenix are really high in fat content. worms are usually givin sparingly in the diet. Like i said earlier i offer crickets during the day and 2-4 dubia an hour before bed then all food is removed, plus they have greens all day. Right now their diet should consist 90% protein and 10% vegies and as they grow "which is fast" it will turn to the opposite. So as they grow it is important to feed properly. I do use timers on all my reptiles. They are great thing to have!!!! Mine get sprayed lightly twice a day and they get either a bath or outside pool time once a week. Monitor the pee in the stool that will tell you if the dragon is hydrated or too hydrated!!!

Oh wow! That's not what my understanding was about Phoenix and Reptiworms. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll definitely keep that in mind when working out his menu :study:
And I just realized that I had seen your booth at the last Memphis Repticon! Really cool and fun stuff you are making for beardies Will do my best to make it to your presentation next time! If you will be giving one again in Sept? Are you currently breeding beardies? If so do you think you will have babies at the Memphis show?

 

[carlisv]

Phoenix worms have a smidge more fat than crickets, but a lot less than supers or other worms. For calcium content theyre the best by far. And I think they're easy to use - put some warm water in a cup and dump a handful of Phoenix worms in. The goo they're shipped in sinks and the worms float. Put a paper towel on the counter and scoop the worms out of the water and put them on the paper towel. Wrangle them for a few seconds so they don't crawl away while they dry off, then put them in a small dry bowl with steep sides an inch or two deep. Dry worms can't crawl out of a dry dish, so they'll be in there till he snarfs them down. My Dubs, who is 2 years old and 19", eats about two full tablespoons twice a week. I also feed Dubs and Richard butterworms and supers. I haven't fed any crickets in months - kind of gunshy after a bad batch this past fall. I haven't tried roaches yet, although its on my list of things to do. But phoenix worms are awesome cos you don't feed them and I keep ours in the guest bath on the air conditioning vent. It's cool enough so they don't mature too quickly. And as they get darker they have more calcium, so feed those first.

 

[ynevar]

My babies love silkworms too... Which are also great as a staple. So my lil guys have a mix of silkworms, Phoenix worms, micro superworms and crickets. I think the varied diet helps.

I like the timer idea in the morning to give them time to warm up.

I give my guys their greens first (usually a mix of greens and a squash) and after a bit give them the live feeders.