Feeding Questions

[AtomicJok3r]

Hey everyone, I have some questions about feeding a beardie. I have purchased some crickets from Ghann's, had fun trying to get small crickets into the keeper needless to say (first time doing it lol), and how exactly do I gut-load? I have them in a keeper with food and water, just didn't know if there was anything else to do. Also when I do feed them to my beardie, is it necessary to use the power supplements to coat them? I just want to ask people who have experience in raising a beardie before I go giving them too much supplements or something.

 

[Taterbug]

Give them he food Ty will so the rest Feeding good veggies you would feed your dragon is one option, a commercial dry feed is another. Things like potato, carrot and the cricket cubes are good for moisture but not nutrition. Don't feed things you don't want your dragon eating like dog ,cat or fish food etc.

It is possible to use gut loading to balance calcium, but it's a little more complex. There are a lot of misleading products so it can be easier and more reliable to dust when you are starting out.

Unless you get a good reliable calcium gutload you'll want to follow the calcium 5x per week and vitamins 2x.

 

[AtomicJok3r]

Okay cool thank you! Now do I dust all the crickets every time I feed him a day or just once, then the other times I feed him that same day no dust?

 

[Taterbug]

I dust all feeders (I also use calcium w/out D3). Some folks on here advise to dust them only one meal per day but it doesn't make sense to me, especially for dragons still eating 2-3 meals. My reasoning is that the dust is intended to correct the imbalance of calcium to phosphorus in the feeders, not dusting them all would still be a deficiency. Someone else probably has a better explanation for the once per day regimen though.

 

[CooperDragon]

I always just figured the once per day was because the supplements are so intense that using them on every feeder would cause an overload of Calcium. The instructions on my Repashy bottle do say intended for use at every meal though.

 

[Taterbug]

With vitamins I believe that is true. Especially considering we don't have any good base requirements for reptile nutrition.

Allen Repashy wrote a pretty interesting article about his formula. He explains the details way better than I can dream too. The dusts, basically are designed (particle size, fillers, mix ratios etc) so that each cricket is "dosed" with calcium/minerals based on what is needed to balance the base nutritional value of an average cricket. In the case of calcium the goal is to bump the calcium ratio up to around 2:1 of each cricket - not as a "daily dose" of calcium like we would take as a pill.

http://www.store.repashy.com/vitamins-and-minerals-in-the-superfood-products.html

 

[CooperDragon]

Interesting read. It's nice to know that so much research and thought has gone into the supplements I use!

 

[Taterbug]

Interesting read. It's nice to know that so much research and thought has gone into the supplements I use!

I've thought more than a few times about switching to repashy after reading Allen's articles and forum responses. He's very passionate and is actually out there in the community.

 

[AtomicJok3r]

Wow, thanks for the information. Makes sense though. Thank you guys for the info!

 

[AtomicJok3r]

Okay, well I'm learning through trial and error with live feeders. I have like one day of crickets left, if that, and I'm thinking of making the move to roaches, dubias I suppose. But all the pictures I see of them online, makes me wonder that if even the 1/4in size is too big for my beardie. Is it just the pictures on the internet that make them seem big? Right now he eats 3/8 maybe bigger size crickets, I don't know since they grew since I got them. I assume its just the pictures I found making me think they are bigger since on 3/8 it says its the size for bearded dragons. Also do you need to dust them?

 

[Taterbug]

The newborns/babies are quite small, I'm guessing they would be fine for a little guy. They should still be dusted.

 

[Grimlock]

Someone else with way more experience than me can confirm what I'm about to say, but I believe the rule of thumb is to not feed your beardie anything bigger than the space between there eyes unless they have a very soft exoskeleton like a worm.

 

[AtomicJok3r]

Yeah, I have been buying from lllreptile before I start a colony of my own so I don't have to pay for feeders anymore. He sure loves those roaches haha!

 

[wes]

Dubia are much harder to dust than crickets. Crickets seem to have some tiny hairs (or something) that the dust sticks to, whereas 95% of the dust on dubia falls off within seconds. Adding water to the dubia and then dust might give us 5 seconds, but typically just a mess. We usually just sprinkle dust on the fruit and vegetables.

 

[AtomicJok3r]

Yeah, I have noticed that they are a littler more difficult to dust. Nothing I won't do for my little buddy though!

On a second note, I have been changing around his food a lot lately. I have been switching between foods actually. I give him crickets for a few days, then roaches, but I have been mostly giving him these Vita-Bug Mealworms I bought from LLLReptile. Bought a whole bunch and need to go through them haha. Is it okay to switch around like that? Also is it okay to give them mealworms as a primary diet when they are still in juvenile stage?

Lastly, I just want to confirm what Grimlock said, that worms are okay to be bigger than the space between eyes. He seems to be eating them and passing them fine, but don't know if I should stop just in case.