Morning feeding

[Mirandor]

How important is it to wait an hour or two after lights on before feeding? I ask because before now I was using Phoenix worms as a staple, so I could put them in his dish for him to eat when he was ready (which was usually right when I put them in his cage about 15 minutes after I turned his lights on) but I just ordered crickets for the first time and I can't just leave them in a dish to feed him if he needs to wait and heat up and I leave too early to wait an hour or so to feed him after he wakes up. So how important is this? Should I try to get him on an earlier schedule so he can wait an hour, or just leave it alone and feed him if he wants to eat? Thanks ahead of time!

 

[w0554096]

Hello,

Every beardie is different. It's good to let them warm up first, which only takes about 20 minutes or so. Some beardies will not eat until they've basked for awhile, while others are pretty much good to go as soon as their lights are on.
You can try feeding him as soon as he warms up, and if he doesn't want to eat then, you'll have to try feeding him again in an hour or two, or leave a dish of worms in there for him.

It's more important to make sure that they don't get fed too late in the evening, than too early simply because they need 2+ hours to bask in order to digest their food. In the morning, their lights will be on all day, so that's not an issue.

Hopefully he will eat for you. Are you still using the phoenix worms, or just completely switching over to crickets?
You could always do phoenix worms in the morning that he can eat when he's ready, and crickets in the afternoon when you're home. If you're switching entirely to crickets, some people maim their back legs so they can't escape from a container, and place the container in the enclousre.