I got a baby dragon and they told me 6 crickets a week with veggies and pellets. However everytime a bug flies near his tank he jumps at the glass... he still seems hungry! Should i feed him till he eats no more?? I am lost at hoe much to feed him?
6 is not enough. Babies can eat up to 50 a day. I am not sure if you supplement with pellets but I would think it would be better to have more crickets and less pellets.
What I usually do with my baby is I put about 20 small crickets dusted with calcium powder into a feeding tank and I let him go at it for about 15 mins. If he runs out before time is up, I will add some more crickets. If he starts insanely glass dancing before time is up, I will put him back in his own tank.
I do this twice a day. He usually eats about 10 crickets around noon time and then 20-25 around dinner time. Every day.
Let him eat as many crickets as he wants in 10-15 minutes, given that they are no bigger than the space between his eyes. If you just got him, it may be that he won't eat very much, since he's still getting used to the flow of his new life, but he eventually should get up to eating upward of 40 a day. Petstores tend to be misinformed or worried about their bottom line more than anything. I would stop with the pellets, and feed exclusively live feeders and fresh veggies.
In the end it's up to you to decide how you want to feed your beardie. I've read a member's post about how she tried to portion control her baby/juvie's food, and it ended up stunted. I know how much I ate when I was going through growth spurts, so I tend to let my beardie gorge if he wants to in the time allotted. Most times though, he's done a couple minutes in.
Crickets are great but, a varied diet will help your dragon in the long run.
Thor will easily eat 40 three week crickets in 10 minutes. 2- 3 times a day. How did the feeding pen go?
Two things happened that suck. 1) I used a big cardboard box - apparently crickets CAN climb that stuff! so I had to constantly keep knocking them back down to the bottom when they got to the top.
and 2. My little guy went after about 4 or 5 crickets right away then seemed to stop and panic. like he was getting overwhelmed by all the crickets in there and I only maybe put 25 in there?
Seemed fine for about 30 seconds then after that let the crickets climb all over him and seemed more concerned about clawing away at the cardboard box
Actually, 25 crickets is a lot to start out with and can be scary as well as overwhelming to them. I would start out with 1/2 dozen, when those are gone, you can just add more. Also, if you want to slow the crickets down so that they aren't so jumpy, you can put the 1/2 dozen in a ziploc bag and place in the frig for a minute or so, that will make them easier for him to catch.
Actually, 25 crickets is a lot to start out with and can be scary as well as overwhelming to them. I would start out with 1/2 dozen, when those are gone, you can just add more. Also, if you want to slow the crickets down so that they aren't so jumpy, you can put the 1/2 dozen in a ziploc bag and place in the frig for a minute or so, that will make them easier for him to catch.
I dont get it. Even with like 5 crickets in a 2.5 foot by 1.5 foot box , my dragon gets almost scared of the crickets. she has no problem at all when in her tank though. Im trying to get her used to the feeding box because I use sand and have a exoterra fake rock wall and the crickets love that wall.
anyone else have a hard time at first with the seperate feeding box?
It takes some adjusting, just like when you first put them in a new enclosure. If you keep at it, she may learn that it's just where she goes for feeding and get used to it. I've never used the feeding tank before, and when Darwin was smaller, I used to use cardboard to block off half his tank before I put crickets in, so that he didn't have to chase too hard, and I could keep an eye on the crickets to make sure none escape.