Silkworm question

[Omunall]

Got my shipment of silks today from costalsilkworms, very nice place to pick them up. I have an issue though; i've been feeding crickets (it's an infant dragon, usually eats 6-8 crickets a day) but i switched to the silks, and she has only eaten 4 of them. She jumps on them much faster than the crickets, but seems more interested in moving around than the next feeding. Do the silks fill the dragon up more so than crickets?

Also, is the appetite healthy? She seems to eat as much as another reptile i had owned, about the same size (though the other one was an adult leopard gecko, both about 5")

 

[Claudiusx]

6-8 crickets a day for a 6 inch beardie seems way to low. Babys that small should be getting to eat as much as they can in a 10 minute time span, maybe even twice a day. I've seen, and its not unusual, babys eating around 30-50 crickets a feeding. Are the crickets your feeding very large? They shouldn't be much bigger then the space between the beardies eyes.

Silks might fill up dragons a bit more but that still seems way to little for a little baby.

How is your husbandry?

-Brandon

 

[Omunall]

I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm not quite sure what to do about it though. Everything looks good, temps are running well, i take it out in the light during the day for about 20 min, but it just won't seem to want to eat much. We feed at 8am, as soon as the dragon wakes, and it eats a bit, but just wants to go back to it's perch. The second feeding is usually more of less, but i think the dragon may be nothing more than three weeks old. (Far from 6", it may be 4 1/2" but i just put 5" for an over estimate). I offer a lot of food, but it will pounce on two or three, and then loose interest (even if i sit for an hour, within a ten min period i'm lucky to see more than two or three bites before it's just trying to run back or get out of the feeding area) Specific temps are 105-110 for basking area, around 89-92 for all others during the day, and a shaded area that goes to around 79-85. I thought it may have been a night time issue, so i checked the temos inside. I keep the pet wrapped lighting with a blanket, and the area it seems to lay down at (before i wrap) is usually 74 at night. I tried warm baths to help move along it's bowels as well.

I'm seeing an increase in appetite, however. I have seen this behavior in an older reptile i owned (panther chameleon) and from the same situation. I picked up a very young one, and took it home. Set up a nice place for it, and had everything from dripping water to imported forest moss. It wouldn't eat anything for the first week, and had stress marks all over it.

This one seems to be the same, but it's a different species so i'm not sure about it. Could it just be settling in? The food it had at the pet store looked to be these little pellets, looked to me like captain crunch. I don't know if it's just really young, and has yet to settle into it's enclosure, making it want to eat less. It's hydrated well, and it's behavior is normal and healthy (basks with head up, sometimes tail curls, etc.) but i'm just not sure if it's got an issue or if this is normal for very young dragons. As i said, it can't be more than a month old, but if it is no way more than two. It spends most of it's time basking, but when outside it pants more often (which it does not do inside) though i live in the desert so it's just s hot if not more outside in the day.

 

[Claudiusx]

Oh you didn't tell me that you just got the beardie? If you've had it for less than a month the appetite is most likely because of relocation stress? How long have you had it?

-Brandon

 

[Jabberwocky]

That's most likely the "problem". My beardie ate NOTHING the entire first 10 day we had him and had very dark stress cirlcles. As the circles got lighter his appetite got bigger. He still won't eat greens though.

 

[kimmie]

Hang in there on the greens eating issue! They do come around. Angus never seemed to like them until one day he just starting munching on them! I give him chopped collard greens and sometimes I put shredded carrots on top or pieces of watermelon (OH MY GOD did he love watermelon). I put shredded butternut squash on his salad yesterday - didn't touch the stuff! I'm hoping to try again to see if he'll come around on the squash

 

[Jabberwocky]

How old is Angus?

 

[kimmie]

How old is Angus?

Guestimating he's about 5 months (give or take). He was between 5" - 6" when we got him at the petstore and that was 3 months ago. He's about 16" now (he's spoiled).

Ok ...I have another silkworm question. I got my shipment from Coastal today as well. I know, they are silkworms, but do they always have to have those webs? EEWWW seperating them from that and the poo ...is daunting when you add to the fact I do NOT like to touch them! Even DD (who loves touching the hornworms) said she'd NOT touch these things.

I gave some to Angus already though - he likees! Poor guy is going thru a MAJOR body shed right now too!

 

[gogga]

Her are some ratios of different feeders

Babies/Juveniles up to 1 yr (80% live feeders and 20% salads) Calcium dusting 6days a week, multivit dusting 1 day on the day you dont use calcium
Crics approx 75, Roaches approx 25 and silks approx 37 DAILY

Adults 1-2 yrs (20% live feeders and 80% salads) Calcium dusting 2days a week, multivit dusting 1 day on the day you dont use calcium
Crics approx 7, Roaches approx 2-3 and silks approx 3 DAILY

Adults 2yrs + (20% live feeders and 80% salads) Calcium dusting 2days a week, multivit dusting 1 day on the day you dont use calcium
Crics approx 3, Roaches approx 1-2 and silks approx 2 DAILY