Emergency Food

[Elora]

Hey I was wondering if any of you have any emergency food for your beardies in case something happens to their regular food supply. Like if your roach colony dies or if your order of worms/crickets is delayed. Or even if you just forgot to order new worms and you didn't realize that you were out. I have the Fluker's Freeze Dried Crickets but my beardies don't really like them and they are so dry that they make a huge mess. I know that you could use baby food but that takes a lot of effort to syringe feed a healthy high energy beardie. I tried feeding Skyler baby food a few days ago and it was a MESSSS. It was a lot easier feeding her baby food when she was really sick because she couldn't move and would just open her mouth. Now that she is healthy she attacks the syringe and gets it in her noes and ears

So I got the idea from my mom who makes homemade dog food and freezes it. Is there anything that can be made for beardies that can be saved for an emergency, then thawed. It would have to be something that is chunky so that they can eat it on their own with out us having to spoon feed it or using a syringe. Something that you wouldnt feed to your beardie all the time. My mom makes dog food with oats, rice ground turkey, carrots, peas, and beef liver. Not sure if for a beardie you could partially grind together greens and worms then freeze it? or ground chicken/turkey with greens?

I ordered butterworms and PWs from mulberry farms and the PWs were dead on arrival but the butterworms made it. The butter worms are still too big for Skyler but i can feed them to Stompy. So I ordered crix on Thursday and they only ship on mondays-Wednesdays so I wont get them til Wednesday!!!! I stopped at the pet store Friday and they only had 50 crix left.... that only lasted 2 days haha. So now im stuck with NOTHING to feed my beardies. They still have their greens and squash to eat til Wednesday but for little growing beardies they are going ot need more than that for the next few days. I fed Skyler some ground turkey today but she chewed it for a long time so now im worried that its going to cause a blockage. The darn pet store only has Supers which are way too large for my babies

Any ideas?

Oh my gosh I also wanted to tell you guys about the TERRIBLE dream I had :shock: :shock: :shock:
So the pet store that I have to go to has little baby beardies and in their tank are these HUGE crickets. OMG it makes me so mad. The large crickets are pretty much the same size as the babies. So in my dream i had a dream that the babies were trying to eat the crickets but these huge crickets would eat their way through the baby's stomachs and skin, crawling back out of the baby leaving a huge wound hole in the babies :x and the people at the pet store there didnt even notice
I hade dreams

 

[zebraflavencs]

Check you local bait shop, they could provide what is needed, until you get your regular supply in.
And with roaches, separate so you have more than one colony going, just in case one goes down.
Hope this helps,
Janie.

 

[Elora]

dont bait shops have just earth worms? Ours is closed for the season I think though.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Nope ! They carry crix and other baits as well.
The dried crix are no good, preservatives and no nutrition to speak of, but you can use them on the salad as a crunchy, occasionally.
Janie.

 

[Elora]

well i know they are no good thats why they are for emergency!!! They do have vitamins in them though, the crix are gutloaded before freezing.
local bait shop is closed for the season
any other ideas?

 

[ubergnomie]

I wish I could be of help but I'm stuck in a similar situation. I ran out of crickets giving my beardie lunch saturday because my brother was being ... my brother and fed most of the crickets to his cat... ugh! Sunday the pet shop in town is closed, today I couldn't make it there and back before school so I had to put it on hold untill after and they were out and don't know when they will be getting more in. (not a very good pet shop)

 

[gwoody]

I'm in a hurry or I'd look things up. but there are different foods prepacked of course that you can keep refrigerated or frozen. There's a company that makes squishy tubes of foods in sealed plastic holders. They look like little tube pop sickle shapes, I think they are called "ectotherm cricket Yummies, Mini sticks" I thought I'd seen them in reptile formulas too. But I know some people feed some of the formulas to beardies. I saw a chat here in " reptile product reviews" under "feeder supplies" .
You can get some worms in dry form, sealed they should last a while.
There also is 'dry food ' for beardies, which you would soak for a few minutes and feed.
Also there are canned reptile foods made specifically for beardies and iguana's. The pet stores don't always keep them in stock since they are expensive and likely don't sell so fast. But I'm sure w/ some net searching you could find lots of things to keep for an emergency. If I had to I would feed them chicken , fish, or even steak if its all I had and it was too long since they ate anything. In an emergency there could be an issue of not being someplace too long or just moving around a lot which would make it difficult to keep a water dish down. Some Beardies aren't always great about drinking from them as it is! An advantage to the reptile canned wet foods would be that they have a high fluid level in them already which would help w/ at least some part of your reptiles hydration needs.
You'd want to rotate emergency food stores for animal as well as human food and water. Preferably in time to eat the old food. Which would be good for them to have in their diet occasionally anyway so they would hopefully want to eat it in the emergency!
In a pinch you can always feed a wet cat or dog food. (Don't soak dry cat or dog food to make it soft, its got a mold on all of it and its activated by soaking and softening the food.) One might be preferable to the other not sure. Cat food will be higher in protein , dog food usually higher in veggies and fiber, maybe a combo! Again this would be helping to meet some hydration needs. but they both may have elements not good for long term use. but for an emergency....
If doing a kit , then you might consider including some designated bottles of water for the critters as well, They may have bathing needs as well, due to changes in sanitary conditions etc..
Electrolite water is a good thing to have especially in emergencies,. Stress can be an issue so that can help for humans as well! Stress will also up their normal parasite levels. Some " Grapefruit seed extract" is very safe and very tough on germs, viruses, bacteria , and parasites. It can be used to rinse ,wash, or taken internally for immunity and anti parasite action. For info. find " http://www.nutribiotic.com , or read about "CITRICIDAL" its safe. You can find usage amounts for various needs/ applications. Its something you can keep for a long time and it can be bought over the counter, IE: w/ out a vet. And its definitely for human use also.
My Iguana's would eat just about anything you put in front of them, Spaghetti and pizza being favorites! One of my beardies mostly will too. But the other is a picky critter. But if he's hungry enough he'll be less choosy. Just for the sake though of an emergency situation you might want to keep a list of bad foods or absolute No -No's so you don't accidentally feed those in desperation!