Overwhelmed by feeders!!

[Hopefulresearch]

I'm new to Beardies but I know about crickets. I never knew that all these different bugs could be fed to them. Here's my question. Which staple food is the most "worth it". I read that crickets need to be a meal often,their loud, and somewhat expensive. I think that breeding my own would be the way to go, but roaches and silkworms, do they Beardies eat less because their bigger? I just want to get my money's worth! Thanks Everyone!!!

 

[emilybortz]

How old is your dragon? The older it is, the less feeders it will need, in favor of a more vegetable based diet.
From what I hear, worms are the way to go. Phoenix worms, super worms, and silk worms all look to be very high in calcium, and I know for a fact that phoenix worms don't need to be dusted as crickets do.
I just ordered my first shipment of phoenix worms(been using crickets for 9 years) and I'm excited. Crickets can be loud, and very smelly in the house. And no matter how hard I try, a few always seem to escape and roam around the house.
I've heard that roaches are very good as well, but I think that I'm done using crawly things
Its all about preference to what both you and your beardie like. With less calcium-filled things, such as crickets, its good to gutload and dust them, as beardies need loooots of calcium, but they can easily overdose as well.
There are a lot of super knowledgeable people here, so I'm sure you'll find a good answer. I'm merely a mom

 

[Hopefulresearch]

I don't have a Beardie right now. Hoping to convince my parents. Just researching(my user name!!) But i don't want to feed them 60+ crickets a day!!!

 

[clear]

Get a nice start colony of dubia before you get the beardie. It will save you a lot of time/hassle/money! Beardies as you have read eat a lot as babies and do tend to eat less dubia than crickets I have noticed.

 

[spyder86]

I did the cricket thing first and the smell horrible, and die easy. I would encourage you to get a roach colony going. There are several people you can order from, I suggest either theroachguy.com or theroachranch.com. I would go the Ian at theroachranch.com for you first order because the roaches he ships are much larger than that Jason ath theroachguy.com ships. I have ordered from both and like both orders but Ian's product was much more mature and I started seeing a large number of babies within a couple of weeks of ordering. Ian may be a little more expensive but it is worth it to get your colony jumpstarted.