Wanted to give heads up about water crystals and the bugs..

[Sherri]

Hi,
As I was tapping the small dubias off of the toilet paper cardboard roll I use in my feeder bin I just caught a glimpse of something *glisten like*. I took a closer look, picked it up and it was a piece of a water crystal that had stuck to one of the dubia.

It was a tad larger than the head of a pin, but that is certainly large enough to not want it eaten by our beardies.

Thanks to Gail, I know that the water crystals can be very harmful to our beardies (especially a baby like mine) so I knew to get rid of it and look in the dish for more. There were not any others, but if I had been distracted and just fed him quickly, say while talking to someone and looking elsewhere I would not have noticed it today.

I don't know if anyone else has had this happen but I do use the crystals for a water source and they can stick to the bugs or whatever you use to scoop them up for feeding. I don't scoop, I just tap the tube so any dubia poop falls off but the dubia do not...then I tap them onto his plate.

I will always watch carefully when I feed to be sure there are no crystals on them...only takes a couple seconds

 

[MeganKacey]

Bump for this.
Thats interesting. I had no idea. Now I'm gonna be more cautious when feeding. Thank you.

 

[AHBD]

Very good observation and warning ! I've never crystals and find no reason to. Bugs get all the moisture and nutrients from veggies that are fed. In my cricket bin I place pieces of various greens, potato, carrot. I leave the greens kind of wet and put them on a plastic container lid and then I check daily to be sure nothing is old or molded. I at times have also bought beardie pellets and add water to them and the crix eat that right up, too. They really get gut - loaded that way, you can even see their body color change when they have a " belly full"

 

[Chair76]

wwhat are dubias? ive heard their good for beardies i would like to know more about these dubias? :help: :dontknow:

 

[Sherri]

wwhat are dubias? ive heard their good for beardies i would like to know more about these dubias? :help: :dontknow:

LOL...well, you asked for it! The are a type of cockroach :mrgreen: Before you go; eeeewwww yuck!
Remember the roaches we feed have never been outside where they eat and spend time in other animal fecal matter or molding foods, trash etc. etc. Keeping that in mind will help a lot

If you are someone who for whatever reason does not want to feed/deal with crickets it is an excellent choice for beardies (along with other worms etc for variety of course :mrgreen: )

If you type *dubia* into the seach field for the boards here you will find thousands of pages of discussion on them along with nutritional charts etc. somewhere amongst the posts LOL

I had planned to feed my guy Reptiworms as his staple but he hated them *sigh*. I had dubia, hornworms and silkworms on order for variety and he LOVES the dubia, but he LOVES the hornworms more . He will get a horn or 2 most days until I run out but dubia are his staple now.

I started a colony of my own of the dubia so that in a couple of months I won't have to buy his staple feeder anymore at all, save a ton of money that way. Many many people are doing their own colonies and you will find that when you do a search

 

[Chair76]

so. :shock: should i feed him dubias every now and then cause i got her on a staple of crickets and other stuff.

 

[m0mmy2010]

Very Interesting. I am a new beardie owner but spend hours a day on these forums and enjoy every minute of it ! I will definately take my water crystals out. I have been chopping up fresh collard greens, carrots and using "KayteeExact Bird Hand Feeding Formula with DHA Omega 3" as well as the Flunkers Water crystals. I also bought some mustard greens today and some oranges which I will be making a Huge salad and mix it all together today that way it is all put together so I can just pinch some out and give it to them instead of having to chop EVERY DAY !!! lol Whatever my Beardie eats, My crickets eat...

 

[AHBD]

Yes, well fed bugs make for well fed beardies. I would leave out any citrus fruit though....sppoils quickly and I've heard they're not good for beardies.

 

[m0mmy2010]

OK so leave the oranges out?

 

[Sherri]

OK so leave the oranges out?

Yep, it's a no for oranges or any other citrus. It is ok to feed them to the bugs because the acid that can hurt the beardies is no longer present when they eat the bugs which have eaten the fruit

My adult dubias eat up the oranges quickly, but I feed my feeders a little differently since they go into my beardie so quickly after eating LOL

My feeders get carrots, greens, bell shaped peppers...usually yellow and red, pears, lots of different squash, tropical fish flakes and ground up dry dog food (can have kitten food also). Basically anything I would directly feed my beardie

 

[ChinelleKitten]

One of my dragons ate a piece of a water gel when he was a baby :S It bounced out of the cricket bucket and he snapped it up before I could grab it. It took him 4 days to poop it out and it came out whole. Poor little guy had a heck of a few days . He's in good health now, but I wish I'd known to be more careful with the gels at the time. It scared the crud outta me.

 

[Sherri]

Yep, I have a gallon of them and they are tiny b/c they only carried *granuals* around here so they are not large like the orange cricket stuff you can get an Pet stores....they chew that down into tiny bits anyway however :/

I have decided to use my gels for plants now and not for my feeder or breeding bugs. Just not worth it.

They will get moisture from the fruits/veggies but I hear they do like water. I put a wet paper towel in the bin (have not had a problem with humitity as yet) and they get a little water that way.

If I notice they don't spend much time at the paper towel I will just stick with veggies/fruit for fluids.
Just does not seem worth the risk cuz those clear crystals could easily be missed LOL

 

[m0mmy2010]

OK so leave the oranges out?

Yep, it's a no for oranges or any other citrus. It is ok to feed them to the bugs because the acid that can hurt the beardies is no longer present when they eat the bugs which have eaten the fruit

My adult dubias eat up the oranges quickly, but I feed my feeders a little differently since they go into my beardie so quickly after eating LOL

My feeders get carrots, greens, bell shaped peppers...usually yellow and red, pears, lots of different squash, tropical fish flakes and ground up dry dog food (can have kitten food also). Basically anything I would directly feed my beardie

Ohhhh yeaa i've only been feeding the crickets oranges.. not Bud

 

[Sherri]

Oops, no I do not feed Razz dry dog food LOL Missed that one, but it's good for the dubias

I would however give Razz Critical Care dog food if he needed it due to illness or not eating well...