New to community,have a few questions.

[Caramell]

Hey everyone, I'm glad to finally be a part of this site after lurking around for months!
I've always wanted a beardie and got my first one a little bit over a month ago after intense research and preparation. I'm new to beardies, but not to reptiles.
My dragon is around 9 inches from snout to tail tip and eats its crickets, squash,mustard greens and kale well(I also offer dried grasshoppers), and its slowly starting to get used to eating the pelleted food with everything else. I use herptivite once a week and calcium everyday.
I want to know if it's possible to have the diet made completely made up of just the pelleted food at this size/age(I've read a few times that it was fine and also good for the dragons since it had all the nutrients they need, but want to make sure)? I would give dried grasshoppers often to still have insects in the mix. EDIT: Oh, and I would still give veggies!

And I also wanted to know if you could tell what sex it is now? I'm leaning towards female, but it still may be too early to tell(at least for me).

And here's the rest of the darling:

 

[babyelvissocute]

Hi and welcome,
First, s/he is a cutie (I think its too early to tell, usually its around a year old I think) but I dont know if freeze-dried grasshoppers are a good meat source for dragons, ecspeccially that young. I would let him eat live baby crickets or phoenix worms. Also, what UVB and calciums are you using? And for the pellets, you could feed them just that, I guess, if they would actually eat them. I have a friend who feeds his beardie just pellets and crickets. His eats the pellets. Mine would never touch them. But I think your dragon would like his food better if there was a variety, and also fresh things.

 

[kimmie]

Mine doesn't touch those pellets and I've even tried putting apple juice on them. So I feed them to the crickets which in turn get fed to the beardie! Win win situation!

 

[mickeysmomma]

Both of mine love the freeze dried grasshoppers! They are just fine for them..I put them in with their pellet food that they nibble on every now and then.

 

[Caramell]

I would let him eat live baby crickets or phoenix worms. Also, what UVB and calciums are you using?

The reason I want to feed a no-live-food diet is so I can cut down on the amount of crickets bought, since the rest of my reptiles have switched from crickets to mealworms but I can't have the dragon eat mealies,and because crickets die quickly and have a high chance of getting all over the house. I use ReptiGlo 10.0 UVB and Fluker's phosphorous free calcium with D3.

Also, on a different forum, TheWolfmanTom suggested that the beardie is a "probable female." Does anyone else agree?

 

[spyder79]

Freeze dried insects lose a ton of nutrients in the process. Also, beardies need live food for the mental stimuli of hunting. 3rd bad thing about prekilled insects is you have no way of knowing how healthy or sick the insects were prior to being killed (and unhealthy chemicals are used to preserve the insects).

Pellets are a fine addition to a beardies diet but also should not be used as a staple due to not containing all the neccessary nutrients needed for a well rounded diet.

Have you considered starting a dubia colony? They are easy to keep, very hearty, very healthy, and will not infest your home (like crix can). If you want dubia I would suggest http://www.theroachguy.com

And to your final question, I am looking at this on my cell phone so I can not guaruntee this answer but there appears to be two distinct bumps at the base of the tail, telling me that there is a hemipenis present. But I may be wrong as it is very tiny on my phone haha (and please forgive any typos as I am typing with thumbs only lol)

Brian
Cryptic Dragons

 

[Caramell]

Freeze dried insects lose a ton of nutrients in the process. Also, beardies need live food for the mental stimuli of hunting. 3rd bad thing about prekilled insects is you have no way of knowing how healthy or sick the insects were prior to being killed (and unhealthy chemicals are used to preserve the insects).

Pellets are a fine addition to a beardies diet but also should not be used as a staple due to not containing all the neccessary nutrients needed for a well rounded diet.

Have you considered starting a dubia colony? They are easy to keep, very hearty, very healthy, and will not infest your home (like crix can). If you want dubia I would suggest http://www.theroachguy.com

And to your final question, I am looking at this on my cell phone so I can not guaruntee this answer but there appears to be two distinct bumps at the base of the tail, telling me that there is a hemipenis present. But I may be wrong as it is very tiny on my phone haha (and please forgive any typos as I am typing with thumbs only lol)

Brian
Cryptic Dragons

I guess I'll have to stick to crickets then, since my mother is absolutely terrified of roaches and I've asked her before if we could use dubias. I've read of people feeding their beardies mealworms, and was wondering if I could switch to those when s/he gets bigger(if yes, then at what size)? I wouldn't do it right now though, I need assurance.

With the hemipenal bumps, those are very weird photos because I'm thinking the pattern on the bottom of the tail is what makes it look like there are shadows there. I'll just wait it out.

 

[TheDeac]

You may want to consider silk worms I feed primarily silkies more calcium more protein more everything they even rank higher then dubias but also luckily I have 3 GIANT mulberry trees so I can raise my own you can also order them from mulberryfarms.com but they don't stink or die as easily as crix and my mom didn't freak Luke she did with the dubias lol and were I live they are cheaper to. Order 300 small than yo buy 200 small crix

 

[Caramell]

You may want to consider silk worms I feed primarily silkies more calcium more protein more everything they even rank higher then dubias but also luckily I have 3 GIANT mulberry trees so I can raise my own you can also order them from mulberryfarms.com but they don't stink or die as easily as crix and my mom didn't freak Luke she did with the dubias lol and were I live they are cheaper to. Order 300 small than yo buy 200 small crix

Oh we tried silkworms, but I think 50 dollars for 100 silkworms which lasted only 4 days was a bit too expensive. We really have no other options, I've even tried looking up exotic pet stores in our area and found there were none.

 

[TheDeac]

Wow I paid 32 with tax, shopping, and 300 silks and 200 meals and thats all I needed to start my colony of silks

 

[Elijahsmom]

I get my silkworms and my phoenix worms from this website: http://www.silkwormshop.com/index.html
Give it a try, they are in CA so if your near that area you should be able to get them quickly, I live in VA and I've gotten my order in about 3 days.

 

[Caramell]

I get my silkworms and my phoenix worms from this website: http://www.silkwormshop.com/index.html
Give it a try, they are in CA so if your near that area you should be able to get them quickly, I live in VA and I've gotten my order in about 3 days.

I got my silkworms from there. It took two days since I live in Pennsylvania, but its just WAY too expensive! :shock:

 

[TheDeac]

Dude I use mulberryfarms and it was way cheap

 

[Elijahsmom]

Alright I'll given Mulberry a try next time I need worms. Thanks for the input.

 

[TheDeac]

i raise my own now....NOW lol its super easy/super cheap and if u have mulberry trees its great!!