Will he start to eat crickets again?

[tignish99]

A few weeks ago my beardie decided that he did not like crickets anymore. He eats a handful a day if at all. Of course that was right after I bought 1000 crickets. He has been eating his veggies, superworms, hornworms as a treat, silks, and he also had some phoenix worms. I do try to give him a variety, but for accessibility and affordability reasons, I would like to make his main staple bug the cricket for now with the others as additional treats for variety. My question is, should I stay stubborn and just keep offering crickets, and just crickets for now (and veggies of course), until he gets hungry enough to eat them or will he starve himself?

Thank you

 

[w0554096]

How old is he?
Some beardies decide they don't like crickets anymore, and will never touch one again. Other just become bored and like some variety. Depending on his age, you can try the stubborn approach, and hold out on other feeders until he takes crickets.
You could also try doing crickets every other day or so, or mixed in with his other feeders.

 

[tignish99]

He is about 9 months old and about 17.5 inches. His heating, tank, environment, all are fine and have not changed.

 

[w0554096]

At 9 months old you could try just offering crickets, and hold off on other feeders until he bites.
As I've mentionned though, some beardies just decide one day that they don't like crickets anymore. He's around the age that he may also be starting to slow down with his feeder insects.
Is it just crickets that he seems uninterested in?

Superworms can be a decent staple insect, especially with other feeders mixed in. You may want to consider (once he's gone through these crickets) to switch to supers if he doesn't get some interest back in crickets.

For right now though, with the 1000 that you've got, there's a few things you can try.
Option 1. Holding off on any other insects until he likes crickets. It can however be difficult, as some beardies are stubborn and will simply refused to eat them, and you don't want him going weeks with no protein intake.
Option 2. Alternating between crickets and another feeder, say superworms. You could try every other day, and see if that keeps his interest up in the crickets.
Option 3. You can trying maiming the crickets by breaking their back legs. It could be that after experiencing worms he's not interested in chasing down crickets anymore. SO, break their back legs and put them in a bowl that they can't escape from in his tank, and see if he bites.
Option 4. You can also try mixing up some maimed crickets and superworms in a bowl and see if he eats more of them that way.

That's pretty much it for my ideas. Maybe someone else will jump in with some more.
Good luck.

 

[tignish99]

He is just not interested in crickets. I have no issues changing to superworms if that is what he wants after he is done these crickets, actually I like supers better because they are less fuss and smell less. I am trying to start a superworm colony. I also give him the other worms once or twice a week, but the store is in another town. I worry about buying too many horns or silks at once because I am concerned they will die if I do not provide them with proper food. How long can I realistically keep them alive if I just give them a potato or a carrot for moisture?

 

[w0554096]

Do you mean keep the supers, horworms, or silkies alive?

 

[tignish99]

Supers are easy to keep alive. I mean horns and silkies. How long can I realistically keep horns and silkies alive?

 

[w0554096]

Silkworms can live up to a month or more, or until they start spinning their cocoons. The difficult thing with silkworms is that they tend to only eat mulberry leaves, or the prepared silkworm diet, which I believe is rendered from mulberry leaves. They can go up to a week without food, though they will dehydrate after a few days, so if you don't want them to grow, or don't want to feed them, they will generally last around a week, sometimes a bit more. Often times though when they go a 3-4 days without food they start to deflate, as their bodies are eating their fat stores, and they're not quite as nutritious.

Hornworms are pretty similar in that mostly what they do in the catapiler stage is eat. They eat, grow, and eat some more. They are difficult to keep on hand, as they grow extremely large very quickly. Even if you buy baby hornworms, you'll only have possibly 2 weeks before they're huge and start to pupate. Unlike silkworms, there really isn't anyway to suspend their growth.

 

[w0554096]

I forgot to add;
Depending on where you get your feeders from, some suppliers will include enough food for travel + a few days.
When I buy hornworms from my local pet store there's enough food in there to last probably about 4 days or so. I tend to feed my dragons the hornworms quickly, and I usually end up throwing most of the food out.

 

[tignish99]

So with just carrots or potatoes, I could probably keep them going for few days? Do horns need the hornworm chow or can they live off of fruit and veggies? The reason I am asking, is that if I can order them in bulk, I could save quite a bit of money instead of buying them a couple at a time.

 

[w0554096]

I have read mixed reviews with feeding hornworms anything other than prepared show. I believe that the general consensus is that they can survive on leafy greens and things like grated squash and carrots, so basically what you're putting in your dragons salads, but they will not thrive so it is best to feed them off quickly.

I did once see a post made by Linda from Lindasgonebuggie.com. She said that once the hornworms reach their adult size that you can take them out of their cup and place them into a paper bag with newpaper in it to double insulate and you can keep them in the fridge for upto two weeks. Apparently they will go dormant, and when you're ready to feed them you take them out and let them warm up to room temperature.

I have never tried this, and I don't know if you'd have any die-offs, but you could try it with one or two I guess and see how it works out.

I do not reccomend that you feed your silkworms anything other than mulberry leaves or silkworm chow. It is my understanding that they may eat other foods like carrots, but that it will kill them. If anyone has any other experiences with this, hopefully they will chime in. My reccomendation would be that since you are planning to buy in bulk, that you order some silkworm food. You don't need to feed them everyday, maybe every few days so that they're not growing like crazy, but that is most likely your best bet for keeping them

I'm beginning to get sick of buying silkworms and having to feed them off fairly quickly, but I'm not interested in having moths in my house.
I've been considering buy silkworm eggs and hatching batches of them off when I begin to run out. That may be something you want to consider. Silkworm eggs are kept in the fridge, so it is a plausible idea. Unless someone knows why it wouldn't be?
The feeder site that I order from sells 1000 silkworm eggs for 10 dollars.
Anyways, something to consider.

 

[tignish99]

Thank you for taking the time to write all this information.

The only thing that has been stopping me from buying silkworm eggs is having to keep them warm. I do not really have a good way to do that. I can get them for $10 for a thousand plus shipping.

 

[w0554096]

Do you mean the eggs, or the silkworms?

I was worried about that as well..But then I thought, for the price of the eggs, maybe I should try it. I have access to two mulberry tress in the summer months as well, which may come in handy if I decide to go for it.
My house is usually pretty warm as well, generally sitting around 80 or so anyways.

 

[tignish99]

I worry about keeping the worms warm enough once they hatch, and the eggs for that matter. I am not sure if we have mulberry trees in Canada. As for keeping the house warm, we tend to keep it a bit on the cool side and they are calling for a snow storm tomorrow.

 

[w0554096]

We have them in Ontario. I don't think they occur naturally very often anymore, but there was a few planted on my parents property whent they bought their house in the country 10 years ago.

We're expecting a snowstorm on Friday, which totally sucks as it's been getting warmer. I was having delusions of being able to take my dragons outside in a few weeks.
The eggs can be kept in the fridge until you want to hatch them.
I was thinking of pulling 10 or so out to give it a shot after I've ordered them. I may also see if Recorp brings any to the Expo in May..At least I won't have to pay shipping that way. Hehe.

My other thought had been using a heat pad. Some people reccomend placing the hatching dish onto of the dragon tank to keep them warm, but I have stacked units,so that won't work. I was thinking of a tub or 5 gallon tank with a heat pad on in the bottom of the tank, and the eggs/worms sitting on top. I think that would produce sufficient heat without ever getting too warm, but I'm going to try them at room temperture first since him house is so hot all the time.
I'll probably post a thread if it does work, and what I found best. Or if you decide to give it a shot, I''ll be checking out your methods.