Do I have to feed my bearded dragon breakfast?

[KillerPandaKage]

I have an early schedule for school, and I'm wondering if I have to feed my bearded dragon breakfast, or can I feed him a meal in the afternoon?
If I have to feed him in the morning without gathering the crickets and having to go through all that trouble, can I leave a dish of salad, pellets, or canned crickets, while feeding live crickets at 3:00, when I get home from school?

 

[CooperDragon]

A young dragon needs several meals per day and can go through a LOT of crickets. If you're unable to offer multiple meals I would go with a sub adult or adult dragon who would be OK with 1 meal per day. I like to offer the main meal of the day at breakfast so they have all day to bask but if you offer a meal in the evening just be sure to leave the lights on for a few hours afterward so they can bask and digest. They rely on the heat and lighting to help them digest their food and absorb nutrients.

I also suggest sticking with live bugs. You can gutload them with veges so they are nice and hydrating and nutritious. A varied diet of a staple bug like crickets or roaches combined with some healthy worms like silk worms and black soldier fly larvae is the way to go. A young dragon will eat mostly bugs but an adult dragon will eat some bugs (maybe 20% or so) and mostly veges so a salad with varied ingredients is the way to go. This is a good list to reference for salads. I usually offer 2-3 items per day and rotate depending on what looks fresh at the store each week. http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

 

[KillerPandaKage]

I'm ok with the multiple meals earlier in the Summer. I'm getting my baby/juvenile bearded dragon at the White Plains Reptile expo on July 24, and I will take care of it when it is young as a baby. If I get a 2 or 3 month bearded dragon, will the beardie be a juvenile/sub-adult around November or October? If not, how old of a bearded dragon should I get. I have a 20 gallon, and my parents want me to purchase a juvenile with my own money. Also, how big in inches is a 2 month and a 3 month beardie. Thank you for responding so fast.

 

[CooperDragon]

OK that would work then. They tend to switch to primarily veges between about 12-18 months but they can go down to 1-2 bug meals as their growth starts to slow around 7-8 months-ish. Their size varies because they have different growth rates. I'd think a 2-3 month old might be around 8-12 inches somewhere and maybe 50-100g or so but that's just a really big generalization/estimate.

For a dragon that size I'd say go with a 40g breeder tank at least. You may want to have a final enclosure ready to go (4'x2'x2' or bigger, custom/home built is cheaper). It's much easier to provide proper lighting gradients in a larger tank and your dragon will appreciate the space to climb and explore. You also only have to buy one set of lighting if you start with a larger tank rather than buying lighting appropriate for a small tank and then replacing it with stronger lighting down the road.

 

[KillerPandaKage]

So what size and age bearded dragon would you recommend for me. I want a baby or juvenile in the Summer, and I want him to stay in the 20 gallon until November, so I can buy a 40 gallon for my birthday.

 

[CooperDragon]

A 20g is pretty small for a dragon older than a few months. You'd need to start off with one who is maybe a month or two and even then I don't think a 20g would last more than a few months at most. Instead of shooting for the 40g breeder long term, I'd plan on building something more along these lines https://beardies.dreamwidth.org/2145.html That is a popular enclosure style and will be better suited for an adult/long term.

 

[kingofnobbys]

I have an early schedule for school, and I'm wondering if I have to feed my bearded dragon breakfast, or can I feed him a meal in the afternoon?
If I have to feed him in the morning without gathering the crickets and having to go through all that trouble, can I leave a dish of salad, pellets, or canned crickets, while feeding live crickets at 3:00, when I get home from school?

SHORT ANSWER : if a young dragon / hatchling = YES IT IS NECESSARY.

Best feeders for a hatchling / dragon under 3 months old are :
--- phoenix worms (calciworms/BSF maggots)
--- silkworms (between mealworm size (about 1"-1.5" long) and 2" long
--- live gutloaded dusted 1/3 sized crickets or similar sized gutloaded dusted roaches.
two meals per day (three meals per day is better). You will need to give live insects before leaving to go to school , and again when you return home (AT THE BAREST MINIMUM !!).

Takes me all of 5 minutes to collect the crickets , place them into keeper tubes , dust them , and I'm feeding 3 dragons and 2 bluetongue skinks , and since I'm handfeeding , it takes under 5 minutes to feed each lizard it's ration of live insects each feed.
I find one of these gadgets are fabulous for saving time in collecting/gathering the crickets .... http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/252111312375 , I simply tip the crickets out into a 20 Litre tub and suck up the ones I want , then tip the collected crickets into a small dusting tub , shake shake and they are ready to be eaten.

Is OK to feed early so long as the basking light has been on for at least 2hrs (IMO) so the little dragon has a chance to warm up and wake up BEFORE being fed. You CAN leave the insects in with the little dragon for the day, it'll hunt them down and eat them as they blunder into it while basking. Just be sure to remove any hiding crickets later unless you leave the greens and salad in overnight (the crickets will be drawn out to nibble on these rather than the little dragon).

LIGHTS ON A TIMER.

OK to leave a mix of grated veg and chopped salad perhaps mixed with some softened lizard pellets with the little dragon for the day.

I'd woundn't bother with canned insects (except as an emergency backup).

A properly modified 100 Litre or 120 Litre clear sided tub with clip on lid is a very good rearing tub for a young bearded dragon up to about 12 months old. Will need to drill air holes in each end (one lot up high, and the other lot down low on the opposite end) , and it is very easy to install a NANOHOOD to put a 26W UVB200 bulb in under the lid , and very easy to install a basking lamp hung from under a bit of plywood offcut that is securely fastened to the top of the tub.