Mealworms ok?

[xmonkeycsx]

I have a baby beardie roughly 3 months old. about 4-5 days ago i was letting her walk around my bed and i decided to give her a few mealworms(small)... well a few turned into about 7-8 of them and now she doesnt want to eat anything else. she went from eating 20 or so crickets a day down to like 2-3. she just doesnt seem interested in them anymore. is it ok to let her eat just mealworms? or is there some other "worm type" food baby beardies can eat. i recently adopted a juvinile red beardie as well, the baby beardie doesnt seem to be too fond of him. she can see him from her tank and i noticed shes been doing ALOT of handwaving, head bobbing, and a little while ago she puffed up (holding her breath) and showed her beard at him. it doesnt seem to bother him at all he doesnt do any of ther back to her. any ideas on helping her accept him? they do everything together like bathe, wander around my bed, sun bathe in my back yard etc, and this is DAILY but she still doesnt seem to like him lol and help would be appreciated thanks

 

[herpgirl2510]

I would skip the mealworms they are not very good for your beardie. Order some repit worms my guys love them and they have a high calcium content so you do not have to dust them with calcium. I have not been sucessful with crickets with my guys which is fine with me I feed repti worms as their staple.

 

[randommonks]

As for the beard puffing and head bobbing, it's because she's stressed to see another dragon. Try to keep their enclosures out of sight of each other, and when you do allow them time together, make sure it's closely supervised by you.

 

[blue11]

AGREED on the REPTI-WOMRS!! mealworms have a tougher chitin that isnt easy to digest and they just arent a good food dor your beardie all around.
I think, well what i use, like the other post, are repti-worms (probably the best staple b/c of their amazing calcium:nutrient ratio) and you can get small supers for you beardie too, which i use in conjuction with repti-worms. she loves both of them

i get my rept-worms in bulk from
http://www.reptiworms.com/
there you can see the actualy sizes too, and get the right size for your beardie. they are great! small supers are too when Blue was a teeny baby i used pinhead crix, but crix to me were a hassle, to some people they arent, its like a "thing" with me and crix, lol...and they smell icky.

 

[xmonkeycsx]

AGREED on the REPTI-WOMRS!! mealworms have a tougher chitin that isnt easy to digest and they just arent a good food dor your beardie all around.
I think, well what i use, like the other post, are repti-worms (probably the best staple b/c of their amazing calcium:nutrient ratio) and you can get small supers for you beardie too, which i use in conjuction with repti-worms. she loves both of them

i get my rept-worms in bulk from
http://www.reptiworms.com/
there you can see the actualy sizes too, and get the right size for your beardie. they are great! small supers are too when Blue was a teeny baby i used pinhead crix, but crix to me were a hassle, to some people they arent, its like a "thing" with me and crix, lol...and they smell icky.

Thanks for the help, i actually recently decided to just breed my own crickets, superworms, mealworms, and wax worms. she's been doing ok with the superworms (i cut off the heads) i think it has alot to do with the new beardie addition. i have since turned her cage around where she cant see the new beardie and she seems to be happy. thanks again.

 

[Beardednoob]

AGREED on the REPTI-WOMRS!! mealworms have a tougher chitin that isnt easy to digest and they just arent a good food dor your beardie all around.
I think, well what i use, like the other post, are repti-worms (probably the best staple b/c of their amazing calcium:nutrient ratio) and you can get small supers for you beardie too, which i use in conjuction with repti-worms. she loves both of them

i get my rept-worms in bulk from
http://www.reptiworms.com/
there you can see the actualy sizes too, and get the right size for your beardie. they are great! small supers are too when Blue was a teeny baby i used pinhead crix, but crix to me were a hassle, to some people they arent, its like a "thing" with me and crix, lol...and they smell icky.

Thanks for the help, i actually recently decided to just breed my own crickets, superworms, mealworms, and wax worms. she's been doing ok with the superworms (i cut off the heads) i think it has alot to do with the new beardie addition. i have since turned her cage around where she cant see the new beardie and she seems to be happy. thanks again.

Before a dragon hits ~16 inches in total length they have a natural kink in their digestive tract. This make digesting superworms difficult (with or without their heads, mealworms too). It is best to play it safe and not to feed these types of feeders before 16 inches. Thinking about it, this will give you good time to get a colony thriving before hand too. Mealworms on the other hand are best left for geckos, they hold little nutritional value to a dragon and what is there is some what blocked from being absorbed during the digestion process due to their chitin shell. My minds eye says, do not feed mealworms. :wink:

 

[FBradshaw]

As mentioned meal worms have very little nutritional value and far too much chitin in their shell making it difficult for smaller beardies to digest them properly and could cause an impaction. Super worms also shouldn't be fed until your dragon is around 16" in total length or longer and then start with just a couple a day to make sure he or she is passing them properly.