New Beardie

[BeardedSpike]

Hi, I am getting a Beardie from my local PetsMart in about a week, He his around 4-5 inches in length. Could anyone tell me what i should feed him and when? I was thinking of purchasing some collard greens, and 1000 of the smallest crickets available on the Flukers Farm website. Would that be good? If so where would I keep all the crickets? I was thinking of just making a cricket keeper, as I am in Wood Tech.. Thanks so much!

 

[MrWhite]

I currently have two 6" dragons and I can tell you what I feed them:

I always offer fresh salad every day, he may or may not eat it. I finely chop collards, another type of green(mustard/turnup/kale/dandilions/..), and butternut squash. I mist the salad to keep it from drying out too fast. I leave the salad in all day.

I use 3/8" crickets, I dust about 10 of them with calcium or vitamins and feed them about 1 hour after lights on (they probably only eat about 5 or 6 of them right off the bat. When I get home from work, put in about 10 more un-dusted crickets. right before lights out, I pull out any uneaten crickets.

I also leave a bowl of medium reptiworms(about 15) for them to snack on all day while I'm away. for the most part, worms and crickets are usually all gone before lights out.

I keep all my crickets in a sterilite bin with holes cut in the top for ventilation. I also supply my crickets with food and water crystals. For food, I usually only use sliced(length wise) carrots and/or flukers hi-calcium cricket food. for water, I use plain ole water crystals but remove the water crystals if I notice condensation on the inside of the bin.

 

[BeardedDragonCo]

You probably won't need to buy 1000 crickets for a 5" dragon, it will only eat maybe 10 at a time, two or three times per day.

 

[BeardedSpike]

True but they are really really cheap..

 

[omahadragon]

The problem with crickets is they die off very fast so for that small of a dragon isn't really sensible. Do not feed mealworms... id stick with roaches, crickets, silkworms, calci worms. Occasionally wax worms. Collard and mustard greens are the best staples for veggies too. Make sure you get reptisun 10.0 for lighting, and all the proper heating elements are correct.

 

[BeardedSpike]

Okay so would 500 be more reasonable? And I'm getting the repti sun 10.0 wednesday, thanks for you help!

 

[omahadragon]

500 should be ok, just keep the cricket enclosure clean, I like to feed them collards and fruit in a dish and they'll be good to go.