Questions on feeding?

[Zach7]

1) Young beardies are supposed to eat 50 crickets a day!? Do i buy crickets everyday!? My parents are still wondering how they will be able to buy crickets erveryday. I am still trying to convince them that I will feed them and they will buy them.

2) Can I feed them mealworms some days and crickets other days, and a small bowl of kale, or lettuce. If I do Buy crickets where do I keep them, just in a plastic crate or another small cage? Please, some tips.

 

[AHBD]

Hi Zach....you will save a lot of money if you buy them from a company in a quantity of 1,000. You might try Ghann's or Premium cricket. Shipping can be 2 day or overnight if it's cold where you are, but overnight shipping will increase the shipping price. Just check out the cricket prices online by Googling " cricket breeders ". Mealworms aren't good for babies, but you can get a colony going for when he's older if you want. They don't have much nutritional value so many people won't use them, but they can come in handy in a pinch , like if you can't get an order of crickets for some reason. Baby dragons shouldn't be fed mealies, they can easily become impacted from eating them, so don't make the mistake. There is info on keeping crickets in the " feedrers" forum, so you'll find some good tips there. Sizewise, a 6" beardie would require 1/4" crickets. Some stores mistakenly call 1/4 crix " pinheads ", but you don't want to order pinheads from a company because they are as small as fruit flies [ if not smaller ] and a waste of money. If your beardie is about 8-9", you can go with 1/2" crix. The best greens are turnip, mustard, collard and dandelion. You can just buy a portion instead of a large bunch at the grocery store, just tear some off from a large bunch and bag it up.

 

[Zach7]

So are crickets essential to the health of a baby dragon in addition to a daily bowl of greenies? BTW: If I buy that many crickets where do I keep them, and do they make much noise?

 

[Mediabandit]

Protein is in fact an essentials part of a Beardies diet, especially when they are young. The rule is to let him eat as many as he wants for 10-15mins 3 times a day, also offering him the salad daily as well.
As for keeping the crickets, you can store them in a rubbermaid bin with eggcrates and feed them the fluker's cricket feed and fluker's water. You can also give them any leftover salad your Beardie does not eat. And yes they are loud once they start to mature. Also remember to dust the feeders 5 times a week with Calcium (1 feeding per day) and dust with Vitamin supplements 2 feedings per week.
Other then that, AHBD covered everything else perfectly and there is no need of reiterating what he said.
Feel free to click the link at the bottom of my signature to read about how Havoc is cared for.

 

[newmommybeardie]

So are crickets essential to the health of a baby dragon in addition to a daily bowl of greenies? BTW: If I buy that many crickets where do I keep them, and do they make much noise?

Feed your Beardie the size of crickets that fit between his/her eyes. Keep them in either a tote or tank with screen lid on tank and screen and drilled holes in tote dont forget you need some egg crates. NO small crickets dont make any noise not sure wether the full grown crickets make any noise. I would say yes to feeding crickets is essential to Beardies but thats what i have been told.

 

[Zach7]

Why not worms some days and crickets others, because Crickets are too much of a hassle to feed them, because you have to buy them everyday in small quantities. I am very confused on what are some good food habits to feed them, because my parents don't want to buy crickets everyday.

 

[newmommybeardie]

Why not worms some days and crickets others, because Crickets are too much of a hassle to feed them, because you have to buy them everyday in small quantities. I am very confused on what are some good food habits to feed them, because my parents don't want to buy crickets everyday.

Well your parents dont have to buy the crickets everyday. I buy 1000 Crickets they last me about 2-3 weeks. I put them in a tote box with egg crates and cricket food and cricket gel water. Well you can give worms some times but Beardies need variety in there diet so feeding worms some days and crickets other are not bad but they need Crickets in there regular daily diet unless you change them to Phoenixworms can be a staple but you would still need Crickets. Well what i do to feed my Beardie her Crickets is i put her in a 5 gallon tank (for now till shes to big for the 5 gal tank) and give her about 6 crickets at a timetill she full in the 15 minutes. Its not as much of a pain as trying to catch crickets in there home enclosure. As you cant leave any crickets in there home enclosure as they will hurass and bite your Beardie. I wake my Beardie up at 9:00 am feed her greens/veggies at 9:30 am, feed her Worms at about 1:30 pm and Crickets at 6:00 pm and her bath at 7:00 pm and lights out at 9:00 pm winter hours and 11:00 pm summer hours. Have any other questions just ask and i will try to answer.

 

[carlisv]

Baby beardie's will also love black soldier fly larvae, known as Phoenix worms, calci worms, or Repti worms. They're all the same thing - just have different names depending on where you get them. They're very soft so won't cause impaction, and have lots of calcium so you won't need to add any. I buy 1000 at a time. You don't feed them, just make sure they're kept at 50-60 degrees (this time of year in Kansas I keep them in the garage). I also get butterworms, which are also soft and calcium-rich. You don't feed those either, but they do need to be in the fridge. Lots of options for babies - crickets definitely aren't the only game in town!

 

[Zach7]

Thank you guys for answering I will gather more information and everything so I get me beardie

 

[Zach7]

Protein is in fact an essentials part of a Beardies diet, especially when they are young. The rule is to let him eat as many as he wants for 10-15mins 3 times a day, also offering him the salad daily as well.
As for keeping the crickets, you can store them in a rubbermaid bin with eggcrates and feed them the fluker's cricket feed and fluker's water. You can also give them any leftover salad your Beardie does not eat. And yes they are loud once they start to mature. Also remember to dust the feeders 5 times a week with Calcium (1 feeding per day) and dust with Vitamin supplements 2 feedings per week.
Other then that, AHBD covered everything else perfectly and there is no need of reiterating what he said.
Feel free to click the link at the bottom of my signature to read about how Havoc is cared for.

Thank you I will check Havoc's Thread

 

[TeachersPetDragon]

I have only cared for one young bearded dragon, but my experience with crickets was that they die a lot, and they smell a lot. I gave them egg crates, water, and food, and cleaned them out daily from any dead ones, but they still smelled and died. I now feed him roach nymphs, meal worms, and mixed greens. At this point I would not buy any more crickets. The adults make noise, and they die and smell as well. I don't get many roach or meal worm deaths, and they don't smell nearly as much as crickets.

Also, buy water crystals online. You can buy like 5 gallons of water crystals for the price of one container of Fluker's Cricket Quencher.

 

[newmommybeardie]

I have only cared for one young bearded dragon, but my experience with crickets was that they die a lot, and they smell a lot. I gave them egg crates, water, and food, and cleaned them out daily from any dead ones, but they still smelled and died. I now feed him roach nymphs, meal worms, and mixed greens. At this point I would not buy any more crickets. The adults make noise, and they die and smell as well. I don't get many roach or meal worm deaths, and they don't smell nearly as much as crickets.

Also, buy water crystals online. You can buy like 5 gallons of water crystals for the price of one container of Fluker's Cricket Quencher.

Yes but depends on were you live Canada DOES NOT allow roaches into the country inless for zoo's ans such.So thats out of the question here. Were do you get 1000 Phoenix worms from and how much. I havent gotten to the large size crickets yet im still buying 1/4" for my just about 5 month old Beardie

 

[snazzyglasses]

Yep! Bugs are essential for a young dragon's growth. And babies are like little garbage disposals for crickets/phoenix worms/dubia roaches/etc! (mealworms aren't recommended though because they aren't very nutritious and their exoskeletons have been known to cause impaction ) Babies and juveniles need a diet of at least 80% protein and 20% veggies. Once they hit adulthood that'll change to 80% veggies and 20% bugs though.
I also noticed you mentioned lettuce and kale. Neither of those are too great for dragons, but here's a list of fruits and veggies that you can feed daily/occasionally/never (I keep a copy by my big guy's tank )- http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html
There's a ton of good info about substrates, lighting, UVB, and temps in the Care Sheets and Articles section of this page also!

 

[Zach7]

Yep! Bugs are essential for a young dragon's growth. And babies are like little garbage disposals for crickets/phoenix worms/dubia roaches/etc! (mealworms aren't recommended though because they aren't very nutritious and their exoskeletons have been known to cause impaction ) Babies and juveniles need a diet of at least 80% protein and 20% veggies. Once they hit adulthood that'll change to 80% veggies and 20% bugs though.
I also noticed you mentioned lettuce and kale. Neither of those are too great for dragons, but here's a list of fruits and veggies that you can feed daily/occasionally/never (I keep a copy by my big guy's tank )- http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html
There's a ton of good info about substrates, lighting, UVB, and temps in the Care Sheets and Articles section of this page also!

What about phoenix worms a lot and crickets on some days with greenies everyday?

 

[snazzyglasses]

What about phoenix worms a lot and crickets on some days with greenies everyday?

Sounds good to me!
Edit: I forgot to mention- if your parents are worried about buying a lot of bugs, you could also consider adopting an adult. They eat 35 to 50 large-sized feeders per week, instead of hundreds of small size per week