How do I get my beardie to eat crickets?

[BeardieNewbie326]

Hey guys,

I'm hoping you can help me out. I have a 2.5 month old Beardie that has been eating dubias since she hatched. I have my own Dubia colony that I am having some serious problems with so I have stopped feeding her from it.

(If you have any experience in Dubia's, please visit my other thread! https://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=206020&start=30)

Now that I am no longer feeding her dubia's, she refuses to eat crickets. She has absolutely no interest in them, and just looks at me and cocks her head to the side like wtf is this. (lol)

She has been eating her greens which is good, however how do I get her to eat crickets for the time being? At this point she hasn't ate in over 24 hours and is still being stubborn. I was assuming if she got hungry enough she would, but I don't know how long that will take. Is there any tips that you can give to get her to eat? There's no pet stores around here that sell dubias unfortunately, and I have a colony of 1500 atm so it's not like I want to buy more lol. (However I may have to if I can't save the colony :/)

Any advice you can give on this or my other thread would be greatly appreciated. I am asking for help since at this point Idk.

Thanks in Advance!

 

[dragonlover4774]

What I did to get Venus(my beardie) to eat phoenix worms was to wrap one in a veggie leaf so that some of it stuck out. I then fed it to her by hand. I suppose you could pinch the legs of a cricket and to the following, it may or may not work, depending on the voraciousness of your beardie. If that doesn't work, drop the crickets into a dubia tub so they have the stench. I'm not sure if beardie's will recognize the crickets or not, but its worth a try.

 

[BeardieNewbie326]

She's a sweet heart and has eaten her greens by hand before so that may work. She's just a baby so she hasn't quite gotten the hunting thing down.

With dubias they're slow so she just waits til they come to her. lol

Crickets are so fast that she doesn't even seem to care

 

[CooperDragon]

If she isn't interested in crickets, you could try Phoenix Worms until your colony is back to health. Those are a good staple and are easy to hunt down.

 

[BeardieNewbie326]

Are Phoenix worms okay for a 2 month old beardie? Feed them whole or chop em up?

 

[CooperDragon]

Yeah they're good for smaller dragons because the worms themselves are pretty small. You can order a few different sizes too. Small or medium should do the trick. You can feed them whole and let them wriggle around in a bowl or something like that.

 

[Taterbug]

You can also chill crickets - pop them in the fridge for a few minutes before feeding them off. They cool down and get slow, maybe they will be easier for her to catch.
When I fed crickets I'd tip them out of a cup, the stupid things will crawl to the lip and look out - and get gobbled up. Well, in theory.

 

[BeardieNewbie326]

Makes sense Taterbug

I think I will try that for feeding off the rest of the crickets I have, and look at picking up some worms as well so that she has another source of protein.

Ugh... If only my dubia colony would improve!

Thanks for all the advice! Any other tips are welcome

 

[Taterbug]

If your ordering the worms online, maybe get a sample pack or a few feeders? You can find out what she likes and even have some treats. Silk and hornworms are usually such small counts that the shipping doesn't seem worth it, but packed with some other feeders maybe worth a try. Butterworms, while not a healthy meal, make good treats and keep super well in the fridge.

I wonder if one of the cockroach enthusiast forums may be able to help you with your colony?

 

[LisaG]

What I do to make feeding crickets easy is put the dusted crickets in a tall container (usually the one they came in) and pop it in the fridge for about 10 minutes. This cools them off so they aren't jumping around like crazy but they still move around enough that they reckognize them as food. I tip the container in the cage and my beardie crawls right into the container and gobbles them up.
If this doesn't work, chill the crickets but drop them one at a time right infront of your beardie. The sudden drop of food has seemed to work for me because it seems like beardies will eat anything that moves.

If there is no way your beardie will eat crickets, I highly recommend Phoenix worms even though they are a little more expensive than crickets. They are so easy to care for and they don't smell at all and my beardie goes crazy for them. I also highly recommend silkworms because they are an excellent feeder in terms of nutrition. But they are crazy expensive, 30 small for $12 from my local supplier.

I hope you have some luck finding a new feeder your beardie will readily eat!!

 

[BeardieNewbie326]

I've recently when back to dubia's since my colony has improved dramatically.

Thank you everyone for your input. It was very helpful while I worked on the colony.

 

[Taterbug]

Glad your roaches are doing better!!

 

[icelore]

You could try another staple if she doesn't like crickets.

Baring that, if she is eating her greens, don't worry too much that she's not getting as many bugs as before. Sometimes dragons are stubborn eaters. If she was eating *nothing* should could go over 2 weeks on a hunger strike before you needed to start worrying. You can just keep giving her greens and offering her crickets, and if she gets hungry enough for bugs, she will eat them. Dragons are good at holding out, and since they function differently them mammals in regards to how often they need to eat, most people just cave. Which is fine, but I'm just saying, no need to worry that she isn't eating them yet.