Pellet food/dead food vs. live food

[xMissMae]

Hey everybody,
Quick question here:
Meeko isn't even touching his salad, pellet, dead crickets, or wet baby beardie food. He refuses to eat anything but live crickets, I've wiggled dead crickies on flat tooth picks and such, even covered them with a powder that you mix with a bit of water to help it out. Still, he won't even touch anything that isn't alive. Will he grow out of this? He's only four and a half weeks now, so there's plenty of time for him to get his salads. Any suggestions?

 

[Claudiusx]

Feed him live.

-Brandon

 

[cybercat]

Live food only and try collard greens. Calciworm or phoenix worms with silk worms would be great.

 

[Chirple]

To save money on live food, buy in bulk on-line.

You can keep 2,000 crickets or mid-size dubia in a 10 gallon rubbermaid ! At such a young age, I'm sure you could fit even more of the tiny, tiny dubia in the same container - they eat a LOT when they're babies !

I've never kept crickets, but dubia are super easy.

I know 2,000 is a big number, but babies eat an OBSCENE amount and it's possible that 2,000 wouldn't last you a month !

 

[kjinxx2]

Yeah, you absolutely have to feed live - they are omnivorous predators but primarily carnivorous as juveniles to support their enormous growth rate. My guy is only about 8 months old and EASILY eats 45 - 60 (1/2" - 3/4") dubia per day! Thats a minimum of 1,350 dubia per month. He grows nearly 1/2" per week right now.

TLDR: They really need their protein, feed live.

 

[dangit12]

that is true they need 100 if baby but then when there adult they will eat less live insects

 

[xMissMae]

My only problem with keeping crickets or any feeders in bulk like that bust mostly crickets is their short life span. I buy around 100 a week for my two guys, sometimes more sometimes less. I feed them until they won't eat anymore twice a day. But anyways, quite a few of those crickets die by the end of the week or whenever. I'm losing money now on that but will I be losing more buying in bulk like that? 2000 crickets is a lot when they won't eat more than 50 between the two of them in a couple days.

 

[carlisv]

Your crickets should be living longer than that. They usually live 6-8 weeks. The little bitty ones you would feed to a baby beardie should have a month or more left in them. Do you keep them in a rubbermaid container or cricket keeper with decent circulation, and feed them at night with the same veggies you would feed your dragons (collards, turnip/mustard/dandelion greens, squash), provide cricket chow (homemade or store-bought), and either fresh orange slices or cricket gel for water? It's super simple to keep large numbers of crickets, so they should last several weeks, not die off on you like that. Also, crickets are VERY susceptible to vapors and scents. If you spray air freshener, cleaning products, cologne, hair products, etc., in their general area it will kill them.

Maybe they're not dying as quickly as you think, and those are just cast-off shells from molting instead of dead ones. Here's a test - scoop some up in a plastic spoon (I know, ick). Hold the spoon over the toilet and blow on them. Dead ones stay in the spoon 'cos they're heavier, but the shed skins blow away (ideally, into the toilet) because they're hollow and extremely light.

You might consider Phoenix worms/calciworms (same critter, different supplier). They're odorless, don't eat, and fit in a pint container. 1000 cost about $35, so they're more than bulk crickets, but you won't have to buy calcium dust any more 'cos they have enough natural calcium in them. They're easier for the beardies to catch, and if one or two get away in the viv, no biggie - they'll either die or turn into a harmless black soldier fly, which beardies can also eat.

 

[xMissMae]

As far as the feeding of the crickets and such I do. I give them salad, Beardie pellet food, cricket food, cricket water gel things, and the like. Perhaps it is just the shells, I'll have to check on that with this new batch of 1oo crickies I got today. The roaches sound like they're a good thing. The problem with the worms is that they need to be moving a lot or Meeks and Fax won't go for them. They're too picky and they want to run after them, haha.

 

[Kristen623]

I haven't even thought of pellet food. I see them and the dried food all the time at the Pet Stores but have wondered about the nutrition value. My beardie loves collards, squash, live mealworms & crickets. I give him mango as a special treat every couple days. I recently limited the amount of mealworms because of the reviews I've read on this site, but he just wants to devour the whole container. He tries to claw through the glass to get to the mealworm container on the counter! This morning I ordered some butterworms & phoenixworms. I'm sure he will be loving them. I have a cricket keeper & use Fluker's Orange Cube cricket diet to feed them. Per the bottle it says it provides food, water, and vitamins. I also have a repti-cal powder that I sprinkle over them every couple days before feeding them to Rango. Is there another form of gutload I should be using or are the cubes enough?

 

[LLLReptile]

We feed the beardies in the stores pelleted and canned foods, there's nothing wrong with them. Many staff members also feed their beardies at home these diets as well, with great success. One staff member produces several hundred babies a year, and routinely offers his adults canned grasshoppers and the ZooMed and Rep Cal pelleted diets. His adults are beautiful, healthy, and quite productive. The canned insects are the exact same as live ones, the only difference being that they are retorted (cooked in the can), and as such you can't gutload them, but they're still a neat way to add variety to the diet.

I feel that no feeder is bad in moderation, when used to add variety to the diet, and that any chance to offer your pet an additional prey item should be jumped at. Wild beardies eat dozens, if not hundreds of different kinds of prey items and plant matter. Captive animals are often offered fewer than 10 different food items, total, including greens. Why not jump at the opportunity to provide variety? Not every single prey item has the full range of nutrients, and that should not be expected of prey items. That's why you offer a variety!

Lastly, 4 and 1/2 weeks old is super young for a beardie to try non moving prey items. Stuff his little face with live prey, and as he gets older incorporate more and more into the diet.

-Jen