expensive feeding

[brutusthebearded]

Hey, i got a 8 month old bearded dragon and i was feeding him 15 crickets a day but learned that is not enough so i got 125 crickets today and people say to feed them as much as they want in 15 mins or w/e well he went through 40 crickets and still would have gone for more. I currently am out of work and 15 bucks every 3 days in pretty expensive especially since i live 30 mins away from petsmart. I know i can buy more bulk online but i am scared to get 1000 and since i live in the midwest its real cold now and i heard stories of them coming with half of them dead. i dont want to do that. I also cant start a roach colony because i dont have room for it were im living right now. so is there any other a little more cost effective way to feed my 8 month old or is it just a necessary evil right now till hes an adult...and at what age is adult? were i can cut back to less crickets and more veggies.

 

[Lindz0518]

If he is 16 in you could try super worms. Depending on the company or person you order from they put a heat pack in with shipments. Superworms would be good because they take up less space than crickets. So if your beardies is over 16 inches I would try supers.

 

[PatsyB]

I live in the midwest too. I order my crickets in bulk from a company in Georgia called Ghanns Cricket farm. They are great! They double box the crickets and will put a water pack in with them. They ship FedEx and it's 2 day shipping. I always order 1000 crickets at a time. I have 3 green tree frogs and a juvenile beardie so I need all the crickets I can get! On my end, I have a 10 gallon tank that I store the crickets in and gut load them with fruits and veggies and Fluker's Cricket Quencher. 1000 crickets lasts me just over 2 weeks. It's also way cheaper. I think it's like $14 (plus shipping) for 1000 crickets, that's the same price I would pay for 100 at the pet store!

 

[brutusthebearded]

i checked them out but couldnt find how much shipping would be, do you know by chance how much they charge for their shipping?

 

[drakedragon]

Hey, i got a 8 month old bearded dragon and i was feeding him 15 crickets a day but learned that is not enough so i got 125 crickets today and people say to feed them as much as they want in 15 mins or w/e well he went through 40 crickets and still would have gone for more. I currently am out of work and 15 bucks every 3 days in pretty expensive especially since i live 30 mins away from petsmart. I know i can buy more bulk online but i am scared to get 1000 and since i live in the midwest its real cold now and i heard stories of them coming with half of them dead. i dont want to do that. I also cant start a roach colony because i dont have room for it were im living right now. so is there any other a little more cost effective way to feed my 8 month old or is it just a necessary evil right now till hes an adult...and at what age is adult? were i can cut back to less crickets and more veggies.

some online places you buy live food from will have the option to add in a heatpack with your order so there is less chance of them being dead when you get them. ive spent a fortune on jayden and ive only had her 5 weeks.

 

[PatsyB]

i checked them out but couldnt find how much shipping would be, do you know by chance how much they charge for their shipping?

I looked it up. You have to go go through the order process before you get to the shipping but here goes (you can see the total price before you give your credit card info so you can play with the order):

For 1000 1/2 inch crickets from Georgia to Chicago (not sure if it's more if it's further away)
Next Day Air, Morning is 26.62
Next Day Air, Afternoon is 24.40
Next Day Air is guaranteed as long as the weather in your area doesn't dip below 35 degrees.
2nd Day is 14.09

For me I thought the shipping was worth it. The total price is still the price I would pay for 200 crickets at a store. Before I found them I ordered one time from a company off of Amazon. They were in California and they sent by regular mail. By the time the crickets got to me they had eaten through the box! The post office was so mad at me!

I order 1000, but like I said I have more animals to feed. You can order 250, 500 and also different sizes to fit your needs.

 

[Gogzieboy]

Thanks for the tips guys, just had a read through and was a subject I was unsure of when getting a new beardie, any tips on keeping crickets and other live feeds? To keep them alive etc?

 

[carlisv]

Like LindaZ0518 said, superworms would be a way to go once your beardie reaches 16". I just bought 250 superworms for $19 including shipping, and my adult boys each eat about 12 in a meal. I alternate the supers with Phoenix worms (1000 for $39) and butter worms (400 for $61), and only have to order every two or three months for our two adult boys.

Crickets by the 1000 are easy to care for and only take up whatever space a large rubbermade container uses. I used to pay $25ish for 1000 crickets from our local petstore, so they were delivered to the petstore and not to my house. I just picked them up within a few days of their delivery date; otherwise they would get dehydrated in their delivery box. I did have one box that had a large portion of dead ones in it, and the petstore was happy to replace them for me on the spot. (The only reason I don't use crickets anymore is that I developed an allergy to their shed skins).

Large Phoenix worms might be an option. The larges are still only 3/4" long, and my Dubs, who is a total glutton, can eat 75-100 in a sitting but I doubt your baby would eat anywhere near as many. They come in a pint-sized plastic tub that you just keep somewhere between 50 and 60 degrees and they last well over a month. Right now mine are in our heated garage, but in the summer I put them on top of the air conditioning vent in the guest bathroom.

Since growing beardies eat so much protein, it is a nightmare to pay a petstore per bug, or even by the dozen. So definitely bulk / online is the way to go, and if you have the choice, ship them USPS instead of UPS and they will keep them for you at the post office instead of leaving them sitting on your frozen porch. I live near Kansas City, so the weather here has been awful, but our post office is happy to keep my worms for me.

Hope you find a feeder combination that works for you!

 

[PatsyB]

Thanks for the tips guys, just had a read through and was a subject I was unsure of when getting a new beardie, any tips on keeping crickets and other live feeds? To keep them alive etc?

As I mentioned in the earlier post. I have a 10 gallon tank in my basement and I store the crickets there until I feed them to them to my critters. My basement has some heat in it so that the crickets are comfortable. If it's too cold they will die. I feed the crickets just as good as I feed Dexter. Greens, fruits. I also use Fluker's cricket quencher it's gel and it provides them with water. I also use a dry meal cricket food also made by Fluker's. Also, I store them with LOTS of egg crate to hide.

 

[carlisv]

If you do a search, there is lots of advice on keeping feeder insects. Here's a thread from last year that may be helpful for keeping crickets: http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=167480.

 

[Lindz0518]

Westcoastroaches.com has really good prices and they include shipping.