Weird eating (Worms vs Crickets)

[trickyspark]

For some reason my dragon will eat live meal worms or dry ones, he will not however eat crickets. I tried dry ones and he ate a small piece or two, appearing disgusted by the taste. I bought some of the canned, cooked crickets and he stuck his tongue to one and walked away. I went outside to see if a live cricket might make a difference and wound up only finding a small brown grasshopper. He saw and ate that.

Is there any reason he'll eat other insects that are dried, cooked, or alive, but only eat crickets if alive? It seemed more like a reflex when he saw it move than an actual desire to eat it.

My wife asked me if we could feed the adult mealworms to him after they became beetles (darkling beetles). My thinking was the shell was too hard, although I wasn't sure so I figured I'd ask that here too. We have a bed of meal worms that we use to feed my turtle, so I have lots of live ones, big and small.

Also, since meal worms aren't that nutritious and he won't really go for crickets, is there another insect (besides roaches) that I could try? Or maybe another, more nutritious type of worm?

 

[warnisha]

Have you tried superworms? Mini ones? and Reptiworms are great (pricey) but mine love them! hmmm....silks, horns, butters? I don't know about the beetles but I do give mine the aliens of the mealworms....the white ones.

 

[trickyspark]

Nope, haven't tried anything insect wise except meal worms and crickets. I heard some were bad to feed because of high fat content, some hard to digest and low nutrition (meal worms), some are to big, etc.

The reptiworms are the phoenix worms right? I had thought about giving those a try, was a little worried I'd wind up with a ton of flies in the house :lol:

 

[randommonks]

Darwin will only eat things that move. If I put a bunch of roaches in his bowl, he'll watch them for a bit and only eat the ones that move. Mealworms do not make a good staple feeder for beardies. I wouldn't worry about the flies, I have not yet so far heard of people ending up with a fly infestation from soldier fly larvae. Normally they get eaten long before that happens. I have read that a 1000 tub of reptiworms lasts only about a week for some with voracious eaters. If you plan on feeding worms only, it might get a little expensive. Crickets are cheaper, but a lot more annoying to have. Try going to a pet store and get some appropriately sized, live crickets for your beardie to try.

 

[trickyspark]

Sadly the nearest pet store is about 2 hours away (one way).

I agree on the crickets being annoying. I had one solitary cricket that somehow got into the area under my bathtub and chirped all night. It was all I could hear in my bedroom, *CHIRP CHIRP CHIRRRRP CHIRP CHIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRP CHIRP*. I'd throw something at the wall and the noise would quit for about 10 minutes at most. I would up sleeping with a fan on high blowing in my face and toilet paper stuffed in my ears. I think that cricket was about the size of a small dog.

 

[randommonks]

Lol if you have a baby beardie, you can order the small crickets. It takes them a few weeks I believe to reach adulthood, and they make no noise...just smell bleh

 

[Beardeddragon3]

For some reason my dragon will eat live meal worms or dry ones, he will not however eat crickets. I tried dry ones and he ate a small piece or two, appearing disgusted by the taste. I bought some of the canned, cooked crickets and he stuck his tongue to one and walked away. I went outside to see if a live cricket might make a difference and wound up only finding a small brown grasshopper. He saw and ate that.

Is there any reason he'll eat other insects that are dried, cooked, or alive, but only eat crickets if alive? It seemed more like a reflex when he saw it move than an actual desire to eat it.

My wife asked me if we could feed the adult mealworms to him after they became beetles (darkling beetles). My thinking was the shell was too hard, although I wasn't sure so I figured I'd ask that here too. We have a bed of meal worms that we use to feed my turtle, so I have lots of live ones, big and small.

Also, since meal worms aren't that nutritious and he won't really go for crickets, is there another insect (besides roaches) that I could try? Or maybe another, more nutritious type of worm?

If you I've him food from outside he could get parasites! Also try supers.