Feeding my bearded dragon SuperWorms

[tatmarow]

So my bearded dragon is about 16". Without thinking i bought some large superworms today and now that im looking into it alot of people say not to feed your bearded dragon superworms if they're under 16". I was wondering why and if i should not feed him them. (and if someone could tell me why your not supposed to feed them mealworms.)

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. I'm sure your beardie will be fine. Mealworms have a hard outer shell and it's hard for beardies to digest. That'll cause the beardie to become impacted.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Hi. I'm sure your beardie will be fine. Mealworms have a hard outer shell and it's hard for beardies to digest. That'll cause the beardie to become impacted.

Plus mealworms are like junk food (macdonalds for lizards). Higher fat content. See comparison below:

mealworms are 13% fat .... treats only
superworms are 18% fat ..... treats only
calcigents are 10% fat but perfect Ca/P ratio
crickets and silkworms are 6% fat.

 

[JessPets]

Super worms are higher in fat, like the above poster said. They are usually more of a treat than a staple. There are other options if you are infestered, like phoenix worms (aka black soldierfly maggots and calciworms), dubia roaches (these are NOT your typical house-infesting roaches), silkworms, and some other things. Hope this helped!

 

[tatmarow]

Thank you for the help. I'm going to check around and see if i can find dubia roaches

 

[allusiontoanillusion]

They're extremely high in fat, as other replies have mentioned. But they also pose a high risk of impaction in smaller beardies because of their hard outer shell. Beardies have a kink in their digestive system that doesn't even out until they're about 16 inches so it's much harder for them to digest superworms properly until then.