Live Feeder Equivalents?

[XtinaBeardieMom]

Hey guys, this may sound like a dumb question but I've never used worms as a staple feeder before so I was wondering how the heck I'm supposed to know how many horn, silk, phoenix, etc. worms my girls will eat in each feeding versus the dubias they're getting now. I have no intention of ever feeding them crickets, but I'm sure those equivalents would be helpful to others as well. My girls are adults, one is 16" & 325g and the other is 17.5" & 400g... both a bit underweight, I know - but they're rescues I just brought home a couple months ago so we're working on it. They get live feeders once every 3 days and usually eat about 20 medium dubias each. Can anyone provide a conversion such as...

20 medium crickets = _____ silkworms, horn worms, phoenix worms, etc.
20 medium dubias = _____ silkworms, horn worms, phoenix worms, etc.

You get the point... any help would be greatly appreciated, as I have no idea how many worms to order but I need to do it soon b/c my girls are getting really tired of eating the same feeders over and over again, and they're losing interest in their food.

 

[Goodtruant]

Purely based on what my dragon eats per feeding....He's about 4 months old, and we recently switch from small to medium crickets.

15 small crickets = 10 medium crickets = 25 phoenix worms

I almost bought some silk and horn worms this weekend, but decided to wait until Draper was bigger. He can handle smaller horns and silks, but didn't want to invest money on worms that would out grow him. I was guessing that he would eat 2 medium crickets per 1 silk or horn worm. Not sure if this is true though.

 

[XtinaBeardieMom]

Thanks, that's great information for those who feed their beardies crickets! Does anyone have some equivalent ideas for dubias VS horn worms, silk worms, etc?

 

[aussiefreak101]

It's about 1 dubia to every 3 crickets so if eating 15 crickets then would eat about 5 dubia. Some eat more some eat less, it's just a rough estimate of course. So plug in to her equation of if 10 appropriately sized crickets equals 25 pheonix worms then about 4 dubia=10 pheonix worms...if going by needing about 2.5x more worms than crickets or dubia.. However, that's not to say that worms are as nutrient dense as dubia so you may still need the original 25.

 

[Goodtruant]

Is a 1/2" dubia equiv to a 1/2" cricket....masswise?

 

[aussiefreak101]

I would believe that since you need less dubia for a beardie to feel full than crickets, and because of their harder shell, that dubia have slightly more mass than crickets of the same size.

 

[XtinaBeardieMom]

Great info, keep it coming if anyone else has experience with different amounts of different feeders their beardies will eat! Thanks everyone