Is My Beardie Eating Enough?

[MissHiggles]

Hi all! I'm a first time beardie owner and I'm having so much fun with my little Tad Cooper but I am a little worried about his eating habits. I know this is a question that gets asked a lot on here but there is so much differing info on how to feed dragons and I don't know who to believe.

To start, Tad Coops is in a 40 gallon tank with a basking spot that sits around 95-100 degrees, a middle spot that's around 80-90 and a cooler area 80-70 degrees. He's got a substrate that he can't eat so I'm not worried about impaction. He seems healthy otherwise, very active, friendly, loves to be pet, falls asleep on us when we watch tv, his coloring is normal and he doesn't wobble.

However, I've read places that baby dragons can/should be eating anywhere from 8-10 crickets a day, other places saying he should eat 30-100. Tad Cooper didn't love crickets when we tried to feed them to him- hunting them freaked him out - but he loves meal worms. He will eat 3-5 meal worms a day. He's spoiled so he'll eat one or two on his own in the morning, and then we can hand feed him two or three more throughout the day. He also gets fruit puree, veggie puree and greens that he can pick at throughout the day, which he rarely does. The worms are calcium dusted and he does also like to eat the nonliving worms in a Can o Worms. The worms aren't huge or too big to be safe for him but are substantial.

I'm going to try reintroducing crickets and feed him them with tweezers tomorrow and see what happens and I will be getting a scale to monitor how he's gaining, but I am terrified of accidentally neglecting him. But the pet store gives me one recommendation, reddit gives me another, and I just want someone who truly knows what's up to let me know if Tad Cooper is starving or doing ok.

 

[KarrieRee]

I would lay off all those meal worms - the little ones should not be eating them at this time - the shell is too hard for them to digest-- if he is not eating the crickets you can try dubia roaches-- you can find them in your privately owned pet stores that sell reptiles or order them on line - google dubia roaches and there will be lots of people who you can purchase from - at this time I am ordering them from dubiaroaches.com - they are fast and offer alot of stuff for beardies to eat--- I dont know what pet store your talking about like Petco or Pet Smart but those people dont have a clue -- if your talking to a breeder of beardies then they usually should know -- you can get a lot of good advice and info on this website starting w / the articles on the right side of this page-- I recommend dubias as they are easy to keep and they dont smell! You can feed them carrots providing them w/ nutrients and water among other food like fruit etc........ w/ all those meal worms I am sure he is not starving but the shell on those worms are too hard for him to digest-- I would continue to offer him greens - and if hes eating the baby food that is good - I never fed Hiccup baby food when I got him and he was around 3 months old-- he ate crickets and then I switched him over to dubias as he was starting to not eat the crickets and liked the rocahes better

hope this helps

Karrie