I'm looking into getting a bearded dragon...

[veronicainpsycholand]

But I'm terribly afraid of crickets. I know that they are part of their diet, but is there anyway to not feed them live crickets and maybe substitute something else in their place? I don't want to get one and then have problems feeding it, but no websites really addressed that issue, because i guess not many people are terrified of crickets. Thanks for your help

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

As a staple you are looking at crickets or some type of roach. Some have used super worms but I dont think they make a good staple. more a treat.
Welcome aboard good luck ect ect ect.

 

[Momto3boys]

I too was afraid of crickets.....but seriously, you get used to them

What I did was put toilet paper or paper towel rolls underneath their egg crates, alot of the crickets will hide in the toilet paper rolls so when it was time to feed Moose I would just grab a toilet paper rool and put it in the container.

I also feed in a seperate feeding bin, that way I can control where the food is....so I have a little tupperware container about the size of a dinner plate, I put the vitamins/calcium in that.....put the crix in and shake them all up...I then put Moose in his feeding container and I only give him 2-3 crickets at one time, that way I can see what he eats, once those are gone, I add a few more until he is done....then I take out the remaining crickets and put them all back in their big rubbermaid...I have NEVER had to touch a cricket.

I then bought some roaches...nice dubia ones and those are AWESOME, you might think they freak you out but trust me these guys are 110% better than crickets! They dont fly, climb, bite or stink....and if you have alot of patience you can get some now and within a few mths (usually 3) you will have enough babies and they will be breeding enough that you could feed roaches instead.....then you dont have to worry about buying feeders anymore, you will be breeding your own (all you need is a little heat and humidity for your roaches to breed) loads of sites out there on it if you want to google it.

Supers were mentioned but they can only be fed to a dragon that's larger that 16" in length.

Other worms that can be fed are phoenix worms but they are very expensive to use as a feeder.

Now you can buy can-o-crickets or freeze dried crickets which are dead crickets in a can, alot of people dont like them and alot of dragons wont eat them, but Moose gets can-o-crickets everyday with his salad and he loves them.

 

[diamc]

Moved here from Website comments

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Veronica, you will get over the fear! You just have to stick your hand into a cage of them and let em crawl onto your hand! :lol: :wink:

 

[Freeie]

I too was once scared pooless about crickets intill i got my first shipment of 2000 crickets... Lets just say it was grab them or they would be all over the house lol I want roaches really bad so i dont have to spend all the extra money on buying feeders. If only my family would let me lol I did the papertowl and toliet paper roll trick myself its awsome.

 

[twyliteskyz]

you are going to be around bugs one way or anouther, they do have other bugs, like hornworms,phoenix worms, etc. but they are still bugs. crickets sound weird and look yucky. but besides a smell if you dont keep they cage clean in between shipments they are ok. they dont bite or have any sharp parts that might stick you. theyre harmless you just have to force yourself and its easy thereafter. or go with anouther staple bug. bug note you have to research, some bugs are better staple then others, and some are best only as treats

 

[pimmsoclock87]

well my beardie won't eat crickets or locusts at all! so i am now feeding him dubia roaches.

He loves them and they are alot easier,not smelly and quiet. and sometimes phoenix worms.

 

[veronicainpsycholand]

Thank you guys for the replies, it was really helpful.

 

[herpfreak]

Honestly, dubia roaches are the way to go. Crickets smell, make a racket, escape, jump, poo, and then die before you get a chance to feed them off. Dubia don't do anything.

Even for a beardie over 16", I would worry about superworms as a staple. They are high in chitin (the hard exoskeleton) which can cause impaction in beardies. Phoenix worms and silk worms are much higher in nutritional content and do not present any risk of impaction.

 

[bluesoda025]

Haha, I was (and still am!) scared of crickets too. When I first bought my dragon, I didn't really have any choice other than to feed crickets, since it was really the easiest option at the time. So I ordered 500 of them from the breeder and when I saw the box, I was like "... Great." Not to mention, they were pretty big, definitely bigger than the 1/2" I ordered. Good thing my bf was with me when I picked up my stuff, so I had him dump the crickets into the bin instead, LOL. I didn't even dare open the box myself with bare hands at the time.
But of course, I did have to deal with them myself eventually.. so what I did was place a paper towel tube inside the bin. My cricket bin is near one of our heating vents, so I put the tube near the warmest area of the bin and many, many crickets will go into the tube since it's warm. When it's feeding time, I just pick up the tube (after making sure there're no crickets on the outside -_- and then shake some into a tall deli container that also has some supplements inside. When they're in there you can just easily shake them out, however many of them you need. So with that method, I never had to touch a cricket, ever! (Except for those rare occasions when a cricket jumped out of the wrong end of the tube towards me, which really, really startled me...!)

I don't use crickets as feeders anymore though.. I really do not like them -- they stink real bad, make too much noise, grow too quickly and die off randomly. Not to mention, they commonly carry pinworms and I suspect my beardie got those from the crickets, which I just finished treating her for. Now I use silkworms as feeders, and I really like them a whole lot more. They are way, way more work than crickets to care for, especially if you hatch them from eggs and breed them like I do, but they are worth it. One of the most nutritious feeders, and they don't make noise, don't stink, don't bite, and I personally think they're just cute little caterpillars, not scary at all. I could go on and on about them, but this post is getting too long, sorry..!