Need some feeding advice

[DaveW]

So I have been looking around and reading that people feed their beardie anywhere from 20 to 100 crickets a day. I was wondering if feeding mine about four to six crickets a day is under feeding him. I know they are suppose to eat as much as they want in a 15 minute time frame. The problem is that my local pet store usually runs out of crickets pretty fast so I have to portion the amount that I can get which is usually about two dozen. So my question is should I been feeding my beardie more crickets or can I supplement them with something else like more greens and the beardie dragon food that I get from the pet store (http://www.repcal.com/BDragon.htm)?

 

[MALIBUSMOM]

Sorry to say....Feeding only six live feeders a day is underfeeding.
You can order crickets and live feeders cheaper online in bulk....just get your self a 10 gallon tank or large rubbermade bin ...add feeders and a couple pieces of potatoe....egg carton..newspaper crumbled.
depending on the age of your beardie supers are great if its over one years of age.

 

[ClydesGirl]

I would definitely recommend buying crickets online. I get mine from Ghann's Cricket Farm in quantities of 500 at a time (you can get as few as 250 and as many as 2000), which costs me about $20 including shipping. I keep them in a KricketKeeper like this that I bought at Pet Smart for $20, but you can also make your own enclosures for them using a Rubbermade bin and some screen material. I prefer the KricketKeeper, because I LOVE the tubes for dispensing the crickets. The crickets will crawl up into the tubes because they like dark places, then you can just pull out the tube and shake as many as you want into your dusting bag/cup without having to handle them at all.

I feed them Fluker's High Calcium Cricket Feed and Fluker's Cricket Quencher to keep them hydrated. I do have quite a few die on me, but an order of 500 crickets lasts me about 10 days. Clyde, my beardie, is 2-3 months old and eats 30-40 crickets a day right now. I also plan to start supplementing his diet with Phoenix Worms so he doesn't get too bored with the crickets.

 

[DaveW]

Guys thank you so much for the advice. The website you recommended seems very reputable (it was featured on dirty jobs). I put in an order for 500 and I am going to start increasing the amount I feed to my beardie. I would have been feeding him more but I thought the repcal food would be the main staple and you could offer the crickets as treats as the label says.

 

[ClydesGirl]

Guys thank you so much for the advice. The website you recommended seems very reputable (it was featured on dirty jobs). I put in an order for 500 and I am going to start increasing the amount I feed to my beardie. I would have been feeding him more but I thought the repcal food would be the main staple and you could offer the crickets as treats as the label says.

Just another note: make sure you are dusting your crickets with Calcium and Multi-vitamin regularly. The most recommended brand is Rep-Cal. They make calcium powder with and without D3 depending on your UVB lighting (use the kind with D3 if you are using a fluorescent for UVB and the kind without D3 if you are using a mercury vapor bulb). They also make a multi-vitamin called Herptivite that is recommended because it has Beta Carotene vs. Vitamin A (which is what you'll find in other brands like Reptivite). Near the top of this page is a chart that shows how frequently you should dust with each type of powder based on your beardie's age.

PS: You can watch parts of that Dirty Jobs episode on YouTube if you search for something like "Dirty Jobs Cricket Farm". It's really fascinating stuff!

 

[Paradon]

Yeah! That is way too little.... You need feed a lot more! Bearded dragons have very fast metabolism...despite people calling them cold blooded. The term cold blooded is really not accurate. They are called ectotherms because they raise their body temperature up to the preferred optimal temperature so they can carry on life functions. The chuckwallas can bask in the sun and raise their body temperature up so high that it would kill most mammals.

 

[kimmie]

OH my that is too little! As others have posted, let him/her eat as many in a 10 min span. Dust them first with calcium also.

I'll have to check that youtube of Dirty Jobs, I'm SURE my DD would love it! She LOVES handling the crickets (mind you with a surgical glove on), she likes holding a handful of the large ones - says it feels "Cool" That's why SHE gets the job of cleaning the bins!

 

[DaveW]

****UPDATE*****

Got my shipment of live crickets today. Oh man was it an adventure. I brought the box in my house and not thinking I opened the top to inspect the shipment. Crickets started going everywhere. I hurried outside with the box and dump all the crickets into this large tupperware container I got to hold them (yes it has holes in it for breathing). As for the crickets that got out of the box (i am not sure how many) I have been spotting them around my house. I have been following my beardie around the house watching him dispose of them. So far the kill count is up to about 30. While I was able to contain a majority of them there are still some wandering around. My beardie doesn't seem to mind though because its like an all you can eat buffet for him. It shouldnt be to bad as I am estimating no more than about fifty got away.

 

[ClydesGirl]

That is too funny! I got a shipment from Ghann's last week and went to pick it up off my porch and say a lot of little crickets crawling around the outside of it. There was a dent in one corner and it had caused the box to deform enough that there wasa small gap between the screen and the box. Some of the smaller ones were about to get out and they scared the bejeezes out of me! I don't *think* too many of them managed to get into the house, thankfully. Those suckers are FAST though. Any time I have any escapees while feeding Clyde they are away and under the furniture before I even have time to react.