wow!

[saulANDcharlie]

wow my new juvenile is a food monster! I got $5 worth of crickets(the right size for her... they're $.10 a cricket) 2 days ago and today she's eaten all but 2! I've never had a beardie eat so much!
She's not interested in any other food I try to give her.... just live food.

She only eats a couple at a time but WOW I thought those would last a little longer!

 

[beardie]

Yes. One thing about beardies, they can eat a LOT, especially when they're hitting growth spurts. You should be sure to feed them twice a day, as much as they are interested in within a 15 minute period or so. When my beardies were young, they would eat as much as 60-80 in a single day.

With this in mind, I strongly encourage you to find a bulk feeder source. I used to get 500 crickets for something like $25, I believe. It makes the cost far more manageable than buying at your local pet store. Beardies eat much more than many other lizards out there. That's one of the things that people often don't learn until after they get their beardie, and then freak out because of the cost.

Cheers,
-Alex

 

[Pushkin]

Yessss this is so true. When my beardies were younger, eating 80 crickets was no big thing...

 

[anwyn]

haha, Mort is like this too! Glad it's normal. I usually just let her eat until she stops chasing them. (I drop a few at a time and poke them with a stick for her to chase... she looks at me between crickets, so she has me well trained already!) But this last few days she's chomping 25-30 at a time instead of the usual 12-15.

I've started putting in some can o' crickets just to stretch out the live stuff if I worry about running out before my next delivery. I found rinsing them in water first helps and she'll eat them that way - they do have a strong different smell straight out of the tin otherwise.