Help for a novice

[LLBlue]

I've never had a reptile before, and it seems like I always have questions. Can anyone help me with this?
I have about an 8 month old, female bearded dragon. I currently feed her a salad every day, and crickets every day. At what point to I stop feeding the crickets every day and switch to a few times a week? I also dust the crickets in vitamin powder every day. At some point, should I stop doing that every day?
Thanks!

 

[WAFisherman]

I'd read all the great info on this site as a starting point...

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

 

[NegativeCreep]

How big is he? At 8 months, he could still be growing, quite rapidly. As adults, their main diet is vegetables, in fact about 80% veg to 20% protein. They generally become adults around 18 months, but a lot of BDs will begin to consume less proteins on their own, which, in that case, you would want to offer as much salad as he can consume, twice a day.

But, at 8 months, I would continue to feed live proteins twice a day.

Do you supplement with calcium, too? Or do you just use a multivitamin?
They need calcium 5x weekly and vitamins 2x weekly until they reach adulthood (when you can back off to less supplements).

 

[LLBlue]

She is still pretty small, so I'd say she has more growing to do so I'll keep feeding proteins every day. I'd like try worms, but I'm not really sure if she is big enough yet (not the mealworms, but a different kind of worm that they showed me at the petstore-any idea what I'm talking about?)
If anyone has any thoughts on using worms, let me know.

 

[jacqui778]

She is still pretty small, so I'd say she has more growing to do so I'll keep feeding proteins every day. I'd like try worms, but I'm not really sure if she is big enough yet (not the mealworms, but a different kind of worm that they showed me at the petstore-any idea what I'm talking about?)
If anyone has any thoughts on using worms, let me know.

My Evalyn loves her crickets, but worms are an excellent way to make sure she gets all the calcium she needs. I don't know about an age for mealworms, but I know that they still are too hard-shelled for Eva yet, so I can't advise on that. I don't like them, though, and Evalyn doesn't show too much favor towards them.

I use Phoenix worms. I know it's probably different for your dragon, but mine isn't a big fan of salad, and that's where her calcium supplement is! With phoenix worms, you get a higher amount of calcium than almost any other worm. They're also very active once taken out, because they like to be covered so will crawl eagerly to find somewhere to dig or hide. Plus, they're soft-bodied. And -- I'm definitely just guessing here-- I'm pretty sure they taste good. You can keep them at room temperature for about 3-4 weeks, and don't have to feed them. They don't smell either.

Depending on where you are located, http://www.ghann.com could have the cheapest pws for you. I did a big price compare with a few different sites, and found that Ghann's had the cheapest pws out of the sites I compared.

Hope this helps,

-- Jacqui

 

[lyndra]

Our beardies like Phoenix worms too, however from what I understand you have to poke a small hole into the worm for the dragon's digestive juices to be able to do their work. Apparently they can't digest them properly otherwise. I've heard this from quite a few reptile people now, so I guess there is something to it.
Mine also love silkworms, hornworms and superworms.

 

[ozric]

i just ordered some phoenix worms. as for poking holes in them, that seems like quite a hassle. wouldn't the beardie's teeth perforate the worms enough when he chews them?

 

[lyndra]

I completely agree with you. One would think their teeth perforate them, but these are very small worms and I'm wondering if our bigger beardie doesn't simply swallow them whole. Maybe I can find the source of this information. I'll let you know then.

 

[ozric]

well, i can't say what an adult would do with these worms, but my 1-month old has been beating them for a few days now and i can report that he chews them up pretty thoroughly before he swallows them. he's about 5-1/2" long and i have been feeding him the small ones. i'm glad i bought 600, because he eats over 40 a day.