What time of day should/can I feed?

[twinim]

Hi all,

I am about to get a beardie this week and just have a feeding question, specifically regarding live food. I know that they should be fed live food(crickets, dubia, etc) 2-3 times a day as much as they can eat in 10-15 minutes. I am also aware that the little one will need some time to warm up in the morning. My issue is that I leave for work at about 6:30 in the AM and can usually get home around 2:30. My question is, should I have the lights come on early, say 5:30 or so in the morning so I can try to feed before I leave, or should I have the first live feeding when I can get home in the afternoon? Then I can have another feeding a couple of hours prior to lights out.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Spikey92]

I think Spikey would kill me if I wake her up at 5.30 but of course every beardie is different.

You could make a salad in the morning, put it in the viv,then when u come home u can feed him and then later on again. I dont have the time to feed spikey 3x a day so Ive been feeding her 2x a day and shes a healthy little girl.
You could also get one of those metal cat bowls and place some
Phoenixworms or little dubias in there as theyre not good climbers.

 

[beardieparents7780]

I only feed mine 2x a day live feeders and keep a good bowl of greens for them. It works out ok don't wife and I. She gets up and leaves for work around 7:30-8:00 so she gets the lights on. I wake up shortly after and give them their crickets. Then before I leave for work I make their salads. Put the salads in and also normally leave a bowl each of some worms . Then at night it's crickets or roaches again. It works great both are healthy and growing like crazy.

 

[beardieparents7780]

Not don't sorry meant my wife

 

[twinim]

I am also curious as to how many I should buy at a time. I was thinking of just getting 1000, but afraid that it would take too long for a baby to go through those before they either die or grow too big. Any thoughts? Should I just try and do Phoenix worms instead?

 

[beardieparents7780]

You can get 1000 put them in a bin or med garbage can. Just gut load them and keep a water source for them. Here's a pick of my bin I keep 500-1000 at a time usually.

 

[beardieparents7780]

It's cheaper to buy 1000 opposed to spending 10-12 cents each at a Petco or petsmart.

 

[twinim]

Yeah, it is definitely cheaper to buy online in bulk. Do you have any experience with premiumcrickets.com? Is there another place you could recommend to buy them? I currently have a 35 gal tub I am going to use to keep them, is that too big in your experience? I bought the bigger bin in hopes that I would eventually be able to start a dubia colony, but of course my wife does not know that yet, lol.

 

[beardieparents7780]

I'm not sure about the online vendor. I get my crickets from a local pet store and if you buy 1000 they give you a decent price. I pay 2.5 cents a cricket so that's not too bad. I buy roaches for them which is kinda costly. I think I'm going to start a colony. Crickets make a lot of noise and make more of a mess. I get 1000 and go through about 80-100 a day but two are eating them.Luckily right now the weather is good enough by me to keep the crickets outside. Lol The bin you have will work just fine. I'll have to inquire with the local pet store next time I go in and see which online seller is the best. I'll post the info when I get it.

 

[beardieparents7780]

Also roaches are easier to breed then crickets. That's also a plus.

 

[Dookieshoot]

I started breeding my own crickets and find it neither messy or noisy! I used hard pink insulation to make a box out of which keeps the heat and noise inside. My colony is out of control huge, I just toss handfuls of crickets now in Moses's tank! Been at it six weeks to get to this point, but well worth it.


Now breeding wax worms....yup that stinks. But very easy to do, almost no maintence.

 

[twinim]

Hi,

Would you mind sharing the info you have on starting/maintaining a colony, or is there a good website? I have done some searches, but you never know which are going to give you good results.

Thanks

 

[Dookieshoot]

I got most of my info from YouTube. A google search will yield lots of info. Take pieces of info from all sources to devise your own plan that will suit your needs the best. I will tell you not to expect over night miracles. It takes a couple weeks to get things going.


Good luck.