Nervous to feed bearded dragon live prey again

[SevzLight]

My bearded dragon went through a 400 dollar struggle to get rid of coccidia and pinworms with multiple trips to the vet. This included a very expensive medication for coccidia and a cheaper medicine for pinworm treatments and a few checkups and fecal exams from the vet. He finally looks better and I have been feeding him reptiboost for over a month. Easy to say this is all extremely annoying feeding your dragon with a syringe. So my dragons finally feeling better and I'm not sure if he will eat on his own yet because I'm simply too nervous to feed him insects now. I don't want him to get sick anymore and I'm not sure if the problems will come back.

Is there a good place to buy clean insects that have the least possibility of having parasites?
Because Petsmarts superworms were the cause of this.

 

[Taterbug]

I've never gotten a live tub of superworms from a Petstore, they are always dead and nasty :/ I buy superworms from rainbow mealworm on eBay.

Ordering online or breeding your own feeders will help ensure they are clean and healthy, but your husbandry/hygene will play a big roll in keeping your dragon healthy.

 

[jarich]

What leads you to believe that these superworms were the cause of that? Coccidia can be passed on via feeders but is found in most dragons, and usually isnt problematic until some other issue compromises the immune system. I do not believe that pinworms can be passed on by superworms at all. Its more likely that if the Petsmart had reptiles, that they were the source of the introduction, which is why its usually better to buy online from a invert breeder specifically. Feeders are usually only infectious after being around reptiles, so if you buy from somewhere that they only breed bugs you are less likely to have to worry about it.