Okay, so my cousin went to a pet store a short while back and found freeze-dried crickets and persuaded her mother into buying them for my Beardies. Now I wasn't keen on them as freeze-dried anything doesn't have really any nutritional value and I was a bit concerned about impaction (although if they can digest live crickets - surely they could digest freeze-dried ones).
My cousin was so excited to see them eat the treat she bought them, so I gave each dragon one small freeze-dried cricket. To my amusement, they both ate it without hesitation. I'm simply wondering if it'd be okay to give them these as an occasional treat.
It's been about a week and both dragons have had normal BMs and no adverse effects from eating their small treats.
I've looked online for any negative concerns and the only issue I've noticed were all surrounding the fact that freeze-dried foods don't have any appropriate nutritional value and that they shouldn't be fed as a staple.
Again, they wouldn't be given as a staple nor would they be given often (just an occasional treat). They get daily crickets, dubia and a salad.
So, any input on whether they could have these as a treat?
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Like you had already stated, freeze-dried crickets would not contain as much nutrients as live ones, so your beardies wouldn't get the full advantage of the crickets.
If you only fed those crickets to your beardies on occasion, or mixed some in with the live ones, I'm sure it wouldn't cause any harm. Be sure to keep track on how often the container is opened/left opened, as each exposure to the air would add moisture to the contents and cause spoilage to occur faster.