Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My son has been looking into the pelleted food on
the market to replace crickets.

Has anyone tried this with Beardies? If so, how did
it work out health/eating habits etc.?

Thanks

I don't think anyone would recommend replacing live food with the pellets. They can be a great supplement to the diet if your dragon will eat them. Personally I have never had much luck with them, even if they're mixed in the salad my guys tend to eat around them! There are many other sources of live food for your dragon other than the crickets. Silkworms or Roaches are excellent staples, and if you're interested it is very easy to maintain your own colonies or hatch your own silkworms. For a little variety try superworms, hornworms, waxworms, or butterworms. Mine go nuts for the hornworms!!!

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2.1 Chavez, Lou, Lucy

Thanks both of you for your responses.

My concern with live food is the odor. Both
sons really want to add beardies to our care
list, but from what I've heard the reps that
eat live stuff always seem to carry an odor.

Is this true? If so, how can combat the odor
so that these guys can be kept in our home?

They have a chance to get two new hatchlings
for free. I really don't want to tell them no.
But 'if' we let them care for the beardies this
is a long time commitment and I'm not one to tolorate
the odor. Please, tell if there is a way to deal
with this besides giving them the pellets.

Thanks
Michael

I've supplemented all of my dragons food from hatchlings to adults with repcal juvie and I've done it for years now. I still feed bugs and salad also though (roaches, crix and the occasional super) but can save about 30% of my bug bill this way with no noticable side effects. I think they work great as a filler food but the only one I've found to be anywhere near complete dietary wise is the repcal juvie formula.
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Heart Mountain Herps

I too use repcal pellets. Juvi pellets for babies and sub adults and adult pellets for the adults. All of my dragons eat the pellets. I do know of some breeders who use just the pellets and greens, no bugs. The dragons tend to grow a little slower with this diet but are healthy other wise. I suppliment my dragons with the pellets. They still get crickets, roachs, silkworms and hornworms. But they always have a bowl of pellets in the cage incase they get hungry.

peace,
nate

Zilla eats crickets, greens, and sometimes pellets. He'll eat them from my hand.

I use the shelf liner as a substrate. I notice no odor, from the dragon, or the crickets. I think if you take care of cleanliness, odor is not a problem.

Maleea

I keep my crickets in a cricket keeper with oatmeal on the bottom with gel water. It keeps the smell down and the crickets eat the oatmeal and the gel doesn't dry out fast.