Need To Put On Some Weight

[LucisAbsentia]

Hey! So, without going into a lot of unnecessary detail, I've come to the conclusion that Gabriel could stand to put on a bit of weight now that he's finally fully come out of brumation a few weeks back. Usually, my go to choice would be wax worms, I like how small they are and how high in fat content they are (I get very skittish about bigger worms - a while back, one of my darlings, a full grown, large beardie, did not properly chew a hornworm and had an incredibly bad experience with it). But I did still want some other people's opinons: I'm going to be using these worms for the purpose of putting a little bit of weight on Gabriel. So should I stick with the wax worms, or should I get something like superworms? I've heard those are good as well. And where do you like to get yours that's cost-effective and good quality?

 

[CooperDragon]

I'd stick to protein and lots of veges for adding weight. It will happen without putting on too much fat but it takes a bit of time. A nice wide variety of veges in a salad every day along with a handful of bugs should do the job nicely. If you can get some silk worms those are a great option to add into the mix. Supers are OK but I don't like to offer more than a couple at a time because they're not the best nutritionally. Black soldier fly larvae are a good choice and pretty popular but they're really small so it's a bit of a pain to fish them out of their substrate and feed them off. I order mine from Lindasgonebuggie and have good luck.

 

[Lenimph]

I don't recommend Superworms. They are really good for putting on weight but my beardie suffered some constipation issues because of their high chitin content.

I recently started feeding her BSF larvae and my beardie has been filled with so much more energy and I find them super duper easy to take care off and I don't mind finding them in their substrate at all. It's way easier then catching and dusting crickets IMO. I can't recommend them enough, especially the phoenix brand ones. I get mine from rainbowmealworms.net

 

[LucisAbsentia]

I never replied to this, but thank you both! I will definitely check out those BSF larvae then, they sound good, and Gabriel could use some variation to spice up his diet, he mostly just gets crickets for his insects.

 

[AHBD]

Do you have pics of him, and is he really underweight ? Even if you're trying to help him put on weight you can feed him a normal diet and his weight will return with his appetite. Silkworms get bigger than bsfl....it would take a whole lot of those tiny things to really fill up an adult dragon but of course if money is no concern and you have the means to keep them stored [ without turning in to flies ] then that's fine. Superworms are no problem with healthy, well hydrated dragons. I've never had a problem with feeding those. You can get 500 or 1,000 from Great Lakes hornworms or Armstrong crickets [ both have excellent products + service ] shipped to you [overnight if you like] and set them up easily in a medium plastic tote or sweater box uncovered [ they can't get out ] with a box of oatmea and/or bran dumped in and add veggies like large leaf + stem of collards or other greens and a few slices of sweet potato. They will last for months , you just check the veggies to make sure nothing gets moldy.

 

[LucisAbsentia]

I don't have pics of him on me currently, but no, he's not severely underweight. I honestly wouldn't even say he's underweight at all, I would just say he would benefit from having a few more pounds on him.

As for hornworms, I tend to stay away from them. I used to love them, and then one of my beardies had an incredibly bad experience with one, and now I'm gun shy. I do order crickets by the 1000 from reptilefood.com. I wasn't going to feed him BSF larvae alone, just looking to add something to his diet.

 

[AHBD]

A few more pounds ? I know, you meant grams. And I was referring Great Lakes hornworms for buying your superworms, they sell crix, horns + superworms there.

 

[LucisAbsentia]

ahahahaha yes, I definitely meant grams XD and ohhh okay, yes, that's a good company, I can check them out for things.

 

[cchubs]

Ours go crazy for butterworms. Good source of fat and calcium.