When to start on pellets?

[Grimias]

So I picked up some Zoo med natural juvenile bearded dragon food and I was just wondering when is the ideal time to start Malice on pellets? He hasn't really taken an interest in crickets as he only eats 2-3 a day so I was wondering whether or not the pellets would be a viable replacement?

 

[fez09]

The pellets can be used in addition to live feeders but the bugs are the best source of nutrition. You could add some to his daily salads though. If he's small, you may want to soften the pellets with a small amount of water but if you do that be sure to remove them each day so they don't get moldy.

 

[DragonMomSandy]

Personally, I don't care for the dry pellet food. It really doesn't have enough nutritional value and lacks the moisture dragons get from their veggies and feeders. Fresh veg and live feeders are always going to be healthier for a young dragon. As Fez mentioned, IF you use them, moisten them and add them to his daily salad, but keep offering feeders-they need the protein. If he's not big on crickets, look into dubia roaches (Creepy, but the best feeder nutritionally, better than crickets!), silkworms, butterworms and even small hornworms are really good sources of protein as well. Look into starting a colony of dubia roaches, you won't regret it and, after the intitial cost of starting a colony, you won't be spending tons of money for feeders. If your dragon is very young, it can take a few weeks to really get them to eating a larger volume of feeders. For young dragons offer feeders twice a day and as many as he will eat in 15 minutes. Also, keep feeders to the correct size-no longer that the distance between your dragons eyes. I would also make sure your temps are correct: 105F in the hot spot and 85 in the cool area. Proper basking temps stimulate appetite and help their digestive tracts work correctly. You also want to make sure that your uvb source is the correct type and distance from your dragon (he should be able to get within 12 inches of a Reptisun 10.0 uvb flourescent strip). UVB is essential not only for Vit d production, but here again, it stimulates appetite and digestion.