So confused about my Paarthurnax's diet..

[Ronni1123]

Paarthurnax is about 5 months old, I think.. (If you know anything about age, try to age him if you can. I'll post a photo)
Okay, so I feed him 10 crickets a day, and only dust them 4/7 days a week.
I just ordered some Butterworms, and can't seem to find small silkworms for a good price.
Should I feed him Phoenix worms if I'm giving him crickets dusted with calcium, or would that be too much calcium? Is there such thing as too much calcium for him?
I got a calcium supplement with D3 in it, and don't have a vitamin supplement yet... should I get him some?

Please tell me everything you know about diet.

 

[luissandoval87]

I'm no expert with calcium, but I know a couple of things I've read from other users:

1. Beardies can have too much calcium, and it can cause dehydration and high blood calcium. Calcium is not water soluble and excess
cannot be passed the way that vitamin C can. It will build up in their system.
2. Most people recommend to use calcium without D3 because you're already supposed to have a UVB which is supposed to give them
calcium.
3. Dust food 1X per day, 5X a week when they're babies. for the other two days you can use multivitamins. Mon-Fri=Calcium,
Sat+Sun=vitamins
4. You don't have to dust pheonix worms because already have a high calcium level.

Your dragon looks a little small. I highly doubt he's 5 months old, at most I'd say 2 months depending on how big he is, and that's if he's been taken care of appropriately.

Hope that helps

 

[snazzyglasses]

Paarth is young & still growing, so he should actually be eating a ton more. Dragons his age need as many appropriately-sized (meaning not anything bigger than the space between his eyes) live feeders as they can eat in a 10-15 minute period, 2 or 3 times per day. At his age he may not be interested in greens yet, but it's a good idea to offer him a "salad" daily so that he'll hopefully get used to his veggies. This chart is awesome and is color-coded by what you can feed daily/sometimes/never- http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Like the above poster said, 1 of the daily bug feedings should be dusted with calcium, 5 times a week. And 1 of the daily bug feedings should be dusted with a multivitamin/multimineral on the other 2 days of the week. A lot of people use the Herptivite brand of vitamins and they work well.

As for the Vitamin D3 thing, there's a bit of debate out there on whether or not bearded dragons can actually absorb the D3 in their calcium supplement. Personally, I use calcium without D3. Both of the adults that we got in August were raised their entire lives on calcium without D3 and good UVB, and they're healthy as horses!

Having the right UVB wavelengths means a dragon's body can make Vitamin D3 and absorb calcium, which is needed for bones, nerves, and muscles. So, another thing that's essential to a dragon's health and survival is UVB lighting. There are quite a few brands/bulb shapes out there, but the only UVB sources that are safe for bearded dragons are the Arcadia 12% tube, or ReptiSun 10.0 tube (not ReptiGlo, not ReptiSun 5.0, not a coil or compact shape bulb). Any other brands or bulb shapes won't give off the right wavelengths of UVB that dragons need, and will eventually cause health problems and have also been known to cause eye problems. (Sorry if you already knew about the ReptiSun 10.0 and Arcadia 12%. It's super important so I always feel compelled to add it just in case, lol)

Make sure that your temps are in the right ranges and you're measuring them with a good thermometer too, so he can properly digest all those yummy bugs!

 

[mommisgurl]

Hello!
I pretty much agree with what has been said! Alot of great info!
The only thing that I do different is that I use calcium WITH d3 for his feedings..and I've him since he was a little past a month and a half old. I have him in a 40gal with a 24' reptisun and a 100w basking bulb..Never been healthier! There are numerous ways to take care of a bearded dragon..Their are surprisingly resiliant! But many people do things different,and get just as good as result. It all depends on what you want to do.
Reptar is now almost 7 months old (Dec. 5th) and decided at around 5 months old to stop eating as much protein as he did when he was a baby...but decided to munch down on his greens like they would be gone tommrw! After talking to the breeder he came from,he now gets a huge bowl of greens and veggies everyday and then his protein every other day..Almost like that of an adult. Though I wouldn't suggest doing this,as the young ones need alot of protein,Reptar used all the feeders he got as a baby to aid in his huge growth.His record is 350 crickets in a day! At 520g and 18' long,he doesn't need as much. On the days he gets his live feeders,they get dusted with calcium. On Fridays,he gets a vitamin on his salad.

 

[snazzyglasses]

mommisgurl- Reptar sounds huge! :shock: That's impressive
Ronni- I forgot to mention that if you're undecided about D3 or worried about D3 toxicity (I think it's hard to OD on D3, but still possible :study, some companies also offer calcium with a "low dose" of D3. Or you could purchase both, and use calcium with a regular level of D3 for 2 or 3 days of the week, and non-D3 calcium the other 2 or 3 days for a total of 5 calcium days each week
And sorry, I just noticed your other question about dusting! If you feed both Phoenix worms and another type of bug at the same time, you only need to dust the non-Phoenix bugs

 

[mommisgurl]

mommisgurl- Reptar sounds huge! :shock: That's impressive
Ronni- I forgot to mention that if you're undecided about D3 or worried about D3 toxicity (I think it's hard to OD on D3, but still possible :study, some companies also offer calcium with a "low dose" of D3. Or you could purchase both, and use calcium with a regular level of D3 for 2 or 3 days of the week, and non-D3 calcium the other 2 or 3 days for a total of 5 calcium days each week
And sorry, I just noticed your other question about dusting! If you feed both Phoenix worms and another type of bug at the same time, you only need to dust the non-Phoenix bugs

LOL thank you! When he was young,he would eat me out of house and home..going through 1,500 crickets a week easy! But he is so worth the money! I knew what I was getting myself into,and I was prepared for the wallet to be going broke! Now that he went through all those guys,he doesn't need alot to keep him going..pretty much all greens! Brian at JabberwockeyDragons breeds some hefty babies!

 

[Ronni1123]

Okay, I will stick to D3, and stick to wax worms as treats, and crickets and butterworms as his meats.

Someone else had told me that I shouldn't have greens in his cage at all, so I just took them out. I will start putting them back in. He isn't eating as much as yours do.. but then again, it could just be the lack of choices.
He doesn't eat many crickets.
He will eat probably 5 that I put in there at a time, and then the rest will run around.
Is that normal?

 

[sweetpea1981]

My baby didn't like his crixs that much either he would eat a few then lose interest in them, he didn't like chasing down his food much, I just switched to the phoenix worms and he will have gone through 600 of them in a week! A HUGE improvement from his lackluster eating of crixs. He loves his feeding time and he gets soooo excited when he sees me dropping worms into his food bowl.

 

[Falconeer999]

My beardie just turned 4 months yesterday and sounds a lot like the original poster's. She'll eat 8-13 crickets once a day but the rest of the day if I offer them, she'll just close her eyes and pretend they aren't there. Every now and then I'll see her nibbling on her veggies (collards, green peppers, yellow squash with a little cantaloupe thrown in). Also, she won't chase the crickets - I offer her to them using tweezers and she'll eat them off that, and if I drop them within 5 steps or so she'll grab them, otherwise she'll just wait for them to come to her. But, if I offer crickets more than once a day, she just closes her eyes at them.

She just had a full body shed 2 days ago so I know she's growing some. From nose to tail she's probably 11-12" (I had planned on measuring her tonight to get an accurate length).

Temps are 108-110 at basking spot (measured with an infrared heat gun) and 80-85 on cool end (she never goes there except for water/nibble at her greens - to cool down, she'll hide under her basking spot or just move out of the area of the basking lamp) with a reptisun 10.0.