How long can he wait to eat?

[beardieluv73]

I was wondering how long my beardie can go without eating. He is about 1 year old and pretty fat. And by the way, does anybody know of a good feeding schedule and the best greens?

 

[snazzyglasses]

Hello and welcome aboard!
The best greens/fruits/veggies are on this awesome color coded list- http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html. I call it the "beardie nutrition bible" lol

And unless there is a medical reason for witholding food (like fasting before a glucose test or something), beardies should be fed daily. At your dragon's age, he should be getting as many appropriately-sized live feeders as he can eat in a 10-15 minute period, two or three times a day. (I can't remember if it's two or three times per day at one year old). For his live feeders you can use crickets, silkworms, Phoenix worms/Reptiworms/Calciworms, dubia roaches, and a few others. Make sure whatever bugs you give him are no longer than the space between your dragon's eyes. But never mealworms! They don't have much nutrition and are pretty notorious for causing impaction in beardies. :?
What most owners do is give their dragon a "salad" of greens & veggies in the morning, and leave it in their tank all day. The bug feedings don't need to be evenly spaced throughout the day, but dragons do need at least 2 hours of basking time to digest their food before bedtime

 

[beardieluv73]

He gets really fat when I feed him as much protein as he can in 10-15 minutes. He's very fond of superworms but won't eat crickets at all. I still have a ton of superworms left but once they run out I will try something else. Any advice on him not eating crickets?

 

[Mistyck]

Older dragons, don't need to be fed as much as they can eat in a 10-15 minute time period. They can be fed every other day, to every 3rd day protein and every day greens. If they're still growing then I suggest feeding them every 2nd day protein, but keep the greens going every day.

He probably just doesn't have a taste for crickets after eating the supers. Try roaches (dubia roaches) or keep up with the supers.

 

[beardieluv73]

So every day greens, and every other day super worms/crickets/etc.?

 

[Mistyck]

Yes

 

[beardieluv73]

My dad won't let me get roaches for T.J.

 

[snazzyglasses]

Oh good lord I read your dragon's age as 1 month, not 1 year! (and was wondering about fatness in a 1 month old lol) Derp. Sorry.
We do give our adults salad and protein daily, but it's okay to do daily greens and protein every other day like Mistyck said

 

[Garys007]

It's funny, my wife wouldn't let me get roaches either, until I explained to her they are not the ones she is thinking of. And once we had the crickets (they jump and smell) and the fact they bite, she started rethinking things.

Once she read up on the roaches and realized that they really cannot climb glass or smooth plastic and will not breed unless under the right conditions, she let me get some. It's only been a week and aready she is ok with them.

So maybe try to explain to him how easy the roaches are to keep. Some of the websites that sell roaches have very good Q&A sheets that explain how easy they really are.

http://www.dubideli.com/Q_A.html

 

[beardieluv73]

I'll try. I also got T.J. some phoenix worms. I hope he likes them.