Feeding Phoenix Worms

[momofmcc]

I started feeding Spike Phoenix Worms about a month ago. He seems to be doing great. They are supposed to be really healthy for him and he loves them. My question is "Do I still need to feed him crickets?" or can I do away with my cricket keeper, cricket food, etc. The phoenix worms are much easier to deal with than the crickets. I would love to be done with them. Please let me know if they are enough or if I should still feed crickets once in a while. Thank you!

 

[pego]

As far as i know, because phoenix worms are high in calcium they should not be used as a staple. I recently started feeding Omar these worms and it means i do not have to dust my crix every other day like i was doing.

 

[whopper]

since i would also like to know this, BUMP

 

[Ethelia]

Hello there,
I would like to respectfully disagree with the above posters.
Pheonix worms are fantastic staples because of their high calcium levels. This is also true of butterworms and silkworms.

There is no problem whatsoever with feeding both crickets and pheonix's. The crix will however need to be dusted.
I try to offer a selection of feeders to my monsters because if I feed only one they tend to get bored and refuse to eat them after a while.

If you are not a fan of crickets (me bloody either!) I would look into spicing up his diet by offering pheonix's and another feeder such as butterworms, silkworms or morio worms (superworms).
Superworms are only for dragons over 13inches though and do need to be dusted.

Personally Id recommend butterworms. They are very clean and keep for ages. I order a bulk box of butterworms and keep them in my fridge. Unlike other feeders butters can remain live and kicking in the fridge for up to four months! This makes them ideal as an occational feeder because they can always be popped back into the box and kept for another time unlike pheonix's which need eating quickly.

If you cant get hold of butters superworms are nice and cheap and provide decent levels of protien. My boy loves them because of the CRUNCH they make when eaten.

Hope I was of some help.
Holly

 

[ScooterBlenny]

If you can afford to feed only Phoenix Worms, then rock on! Pudge would eat about a container a day, maybe a little less, but it would easily be $150/month to feed her only PWs (and salad, of course). I think I'm ready for her to become a vegetarian

 

[GoFast]

Hello there,
I would like to respectfully disagree with the above posters.
Pheonix worms are fantastic staples because of their high calcium levels. This is also true of butterworms and silkworms.

There is no problem whatsoever with feeding both crickets and pheonix's. The crix will however need to be dusted.
I try to offer a selection of feeders to my monsters because if I feed only one they tend to get bored and refuse to eat them after a while.

If you are not a fan of crickets (me bloody either!) I would look into spicing up his diet by offering pheonix's and another feeder such as butterworms, silkworms or morio worms (superworms).
Superworms are only for dragons over 13inches though and do need to be dusted.

Personally Id recommend butterworms. They are very clean and keep for ages. I order a bulk box of butterworms and keep them in my fridge. Unlike other feeders butters can remain live and kicking in the fridge for up to four months! This makes them ideal as an occational feeder because they can always be popped back into the box and kept for another time unlike pheonix's which need eating quickly.

If you cant get hold of butters superworms are nice and cheap and provide decent levels of protien. My boy loves them because of the CRUNCH they make when eaten.

Hope I was of some help.
Holly

exactly! I am still not sure on the butters yet though. I got into a debate about them somewhere else on here. Someone said that they are bad because of a high fat percentage but I don't think that we ever came tp a factual conclusion on this.

** here is that thread

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=98953&p=783062&hilit=butterworms#p783062

 

[Ethelia]

Hi there gofast,
I had the same discussion about butterworms nutritional content quite a while ago. There was some myth lurking around that butterworms are as high in fat as waxworms.
Someone managed to dig out some stats for me.


Nutritional Value of Butterworms:
Moisture- 58.54 %
Ash- 1.04 %
Protein- 16.20 %
Fat- 5.21 %
Calories/ Fat- 87.73
Calcium (ml/100 grs)- 42.90


Nutritional Value of Waxworms:
Moisture: 61.73%
Fat: 22.19%
Protein: 15.70%
Fiber: 7.69%

 

[GoFast]

Thanks Ethelia...

I think that I have seen those stats before. The frustrating part is that nobody seems to have the same info. What i mean is that you have different things being measured for each of them. I like sites like beautiful dragons because it has all the same info for each food source and you can make a fair calculation off of that. Someone should ask them to post up nutritional stats for butterworms...

 

[Ethelia]

Good point gofast.

I would give Dr. Pheonix a PM. He runs the main supplier of pheonix's in the US and UK and is a member here. He pops on from time to time.
Perhaps he has some more solid evidence for you ^_^

Personally I love butterworms and my monsters are still growing so Im ok with them having a little extra fat from their supplimentary worms.

All the best
Holly