Trying to figure out staple insects for new adult dragon

[awkwardpossum]

Hello everyone. You may have seen me on a few of the other boards. I'm just gonna copy and paste my beardie's back story for some context:

The beardie in question is named Dog. What her previous name was, I don't know; the owner never gave me one. He also didn't know what sex it was, but near as I can tell it is a female dragon. She is between 4-5 years old and a bit sickly from a long term lack of UVB (which I have corrected) but I am very smitten with her already. She was in way too small of a tank on red-dyed sand (which has stained her feet), and according to the owner he'd been feeding her mainly lettuce and mealworms.

I'm trying to figure out what kind of staple insect to give Dog, that strikes a good balance between nutrition and cost. I thought I'd be set with phoenix worms but I didn't realize just how pricey they are and I'm a bit tight on cash, so if there's a relatively healthy but cheaper alternative that would be ideal. I was giving her superworms for a few days but she's just under 16" and I fear they are too big for her and might risk impaction. I've been trying to avoid keeping crickets because I've had some bad experiencing wrangling those guys with my previous lizard.

So I guess, to summarize: 4-5 year old female dragon, about 15.75" long from snout to tip of tail, on the skinny side. What would you guys recommend in terms of a good health/cost balance? Also, how often should she be getting insects? Once a day? a few times a week?? She eats her greens just fine.

(another question: being in such a small tank for so long before I got her, she seems to be on the small side for her age. Is it likely that she will start growing again now that she's in better conditions, or is she always going to be on the smaller side? Just out of curiosity.)

 

[CooperDragon]

It's good that she eats her salad. That should be the main part of the diet for an adult. As for feeders, the most cost effective solution would probably be a dubia colony but those take time to get started (or are expensive). I prefer them over crickets by a long shot though. Much easier to maintain. You could sub in some silk worms or some butter worms but they aren't really a staple (could get expensive to use them that way, just as with Phoenix Worms). I wouldn't worry too much about the supers if she's an adult. I wouldn't use them as an every day feeder though. I offer bugs once a day but every couple few days is probably OK for an adult as long as she always has a fresh salad available. As far as growth goes, she's probably done growing but can fill out and build up to the proper mass.

 

[awkwardpossum]

So I should probably either shell out for some phoenix worms, or, just feed her supers every other day or so and make sure she has fresh salad? I think I should be able to do that.

 

[Creepella]

I would avoid superworms unless you know the dragon is eating all of them or you can immediately remove any uneaten worms. They're destructive and can chew through anything - including your pet. I've seen them kill smaller animals (geckos, tarantulas) by chewing holes in their flesh. One of them chewed through my inch-thick styrofoam Exo Terra tank background. Also they're full of indigestible chitin.

I use medium or large crickets. I'm in Canada, we can't get Dubia roaches here or I'd use them. I hate wrangling them as well, but I've come up with a couple of shortcuts. First of all I have the Kritter Keepers which are designed for crickets. They contain two tubes where all the crickets go to hide. To dispense crickets you just pull a tube out, and tap it where you want to dispense them. They're great for putting crickets in a ziploc bag for dusting. To keep the crickets alive I just drop in slices of carrot or other firm raw vegetable. This gives them moisture and food and avoids messy water bowls full of dead crix.

When feeding the crickets to my dragon, I put the ziploc bag into the fridge for 5 minutes. This puts the crickets to sleep and makes it easier to dispense them without escapes. They wake up again once they warm up. I put the crickets in his dish with his salad, and this encourages him to eat his greens. He'd eat nothing but crickets otherwise.

Speaking of wrangling crickets - a week ago I accidentally dropped an open tub containing 1000 pinhead crickets. I dropped it in my bedroom (where I keep my tarantulas) late at night. You can imagine the chaos that ensued, especially since I live in an apartment and was petrified that these little bugs would end up in my neighbours' apartments! So yeah, crickets aren't my favourite feeder but they're better for me than the alternatives.

 

[awkwardpossum]

I just ordered a bunch more phoenix worms so I'll probably go with that for a while, and then maybe switch to crickets.

 

[Creepella]

Yes phoenix worms sound like a good idea. We can't get them locally in shops, but I recently found an online dealer in Quebec who sells pretty much every feeder except Dubias, and also isopods, springtails, earthworms etc.

 

[AndyHarp94]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of crickets. They smell bad, jump everywhere, have a fairly poor shell to meat ratio, and they can bite your beardie. The go-to for my guy is Dubia Roaches. Their nutrition levels are much better than crickets, they can't climb smooth surfaces, they're pretty slow, and they don't smell all that bad! Honestly supers are fine if you put them in a little food bowl they can't climb out of. That being said, I usually don't use bowls for whatever I'm feeding. My Spyro is pretty spoiled and gets all of his roaches worms dropped right in front of him one by one. I order mine from http://www.dubideli.com/

They have good prices and good customer service.