Hey everyone, new to the forum and also I should let you know I have not yet purchased my reptilian companion.
I'm looking to getting a baby bearded dragon and where neither my fiancee or myself have owned anything that eats live animals, etc.
We have however owned rodents and dogs, so although this is a completely new world I am more than confident we will be capable.
The only thing we are unsure of is keeping crickets. Now, it may not be as bad as we are thinking, part of me is debating trying it especially with little ones that make less noise and not keeping too many at a time.
However, an alternative seems to be what the missus would be after.
Truth be told this is a "My pet" scenario that I am working to be reasonable. We live in a one bedroom apt. so there is no way the reptile will not live in a common area, which is fine, but I don't think she likes the idea of such a capable bug in our common area.
I found Phoenix Worms, Repti-worms, soldier grubs, or black soldier fly larvae to be an interesting alternative, and also not such a costly alternative as say a silkworm seems to be, but I can't seem to find anything nearby. I don't want its staple protein to be something I have to order constantly, treats are one thing but I mean imagine if you couldn't just get up and go to the grocery store for your food, imagine if you had to order online everytime you had to do your grocery shopping.
There is a specialty reptile store very close to me, I feel very fortunate to say. The owner has been breeding reptiles for over 15 years and seems to know quite alot about them. Its a relief to find someone like this as the girl at petsmart who tried to talk me into buying one on the spot for the commission appeared to know so much about them until it later turned out she only knew so much because she was interested in buying one, yet had never actually been able to. All of her factual "pen on paper" information seemed to go straight out the window once it became apparent she knew everything about them from the moment they get there to the age they leave.
So this specialty store owner has told me depending on the size of baby I get mealworms should be an appropriate alternative protein source to crickets, and they also have a similar cost to the crickets there. I had pretty much wrote off mealworms after all I had read, atleast as a staple but now this guy has me thinking, as he has clearly owned more than I have and I know what you read needs to be taken with a grain of salt. I'm now wondering if people who have had problems with mealworms in the past either had a reptile that was too small, or gave worms that were too big. The worms too big theory is even more solidified with the knowledge of Morio mealworms and ones that have either been given steroids or have been given something that keeps them in their larval stage longer than normal allowing them to become larger than they naturally would be.
I'm really contemplating this mealworm thing. Might even be contemplating trying crickets when I first get them and then just switching them as soon as I feel they would be large enough to take to the worms without being harmed.
Really interested in everyone's thoughts/views/personal accounts on this topic.
Thanks.
I'm looking to getting a baby bearded dragon and where neither my fiancee or myself have owned anything that eats live animals, etc.
We have however owned rodents and dogs, so although this is a completely new world I am more than confident we will be capable.
The only thing we are unsure of is keeping crickets. Now, it may not be as bad as we are thinking, part of me is debating trying it especially with little ones that make less noise and not keeping too many at a time.
However, an alternative seems to be what the missus would be after.
Truth be told this is a "My pet" scenario that I am working to be reasonable. We live in a one bedroom apt. so there is no way the reptile will not live in a common area, which is fine, but I don't think she likes the idea of such a capable bug in our common area.
I found Phoenix Worms, Repti-worms, soldier grubs, or black soldier fly larvae to be an interesting alternative, and also not such a costly alternative as say a silkworm seems to be, but I can't seem to find anything nearby. I don't want its staple protein to be something I have to order constantly, treats are one thing but I mean imagine if you couldn't just get up and go to the grocery store for your food, imagine if you had to order online everytime you had to do your grocery shopping.
There is a specialty reptile store very close to me, I feel very fortunate to say. The owner has been breeding reptiles for over 15 years and seems to know quite alot about them. Its a relief to find someone like this as the girl at petsmart who tried to talk me into buying one on the spot for the commission appeared to know so much about them until it later turned out she only knew so much because she was interested in buying one, yet had never actually been able to. All of her factual "pen on paper" information seemed to go straight out the window once it became apparent she knew everything about them from the moment they get there to the age they leave.
So this specialty store owner has told me depending on the size of baby I get mealworms should be an appropriate alternative protein source to crickets, and they also have a similar cost to the crickets there. I had pretty much wrote off mealworms after all I had read, atleast as a staple but now this guy has me thinking, as he has clearly owned more than I have and I know what you read needs to be taken with a grain of salt. I'm now wondering if people who have had problems with mealworms in the past either had a reptile that was too small, or gave worms that were too big. The worms too big theory is even more solidified with the knowledge of Morio mealworms and ones that have either been given steroids or have been given something that keeps them in their larval stage longer than normal allowing them to become larger than they naturally would be.
I'm really contemplating this mealworm thing. Might even be contemplating trying crickets when I first get them and then just switching them as soon as I feel they would be large enough to take to the worms without being harmed.
Really interested in everyone's thoughts/views/personal accounts on this topic.
Thanks.
