Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if anyone could answer a superworm question for me. I have been feeding my dragons, Isis and Osiris crickets and I wanted to switch to lettuce and superworms instead (like 5 worms a day and a heaping bowl of lettuce). They are about a year old. I was reading the bearded dragon manual, put out by AVS, and it said that it is ok to give adult dragons crickets and/or superworms everyday, along with greens. Does anyone think that's its ok to mainly feed them superworms and give them crickets maybe once a week. What are all your thoughts on this?

I personally feed my beardies supers as staple insect once they are 12 months or so old. I know some people disagree with this but they love em!! I also know a few breeders who use supers as staple insect diet and have done for years. I feed supers (maybe a dozen at most) every 3 days or so. The rest of the time they have fresh veggies. They always have fresh veggies available. I dust the supers too but not the veg.
I have never had impaction problems with my beardies but they do eat a lot of veg.
Pic is of a superworm lover!! she loves supers!!!

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AndyD

0.0.1 Mexican Kingsnake
0.1.0 Bearded Dragon
0.1.0 Bearded Dragon (Hypo-Green)
0.1.0 Bearded Dragon (Red Phase)
0.1.0 Bearded Dragon (Hypo Red X Purple Tiger)
1.0.0 Egyptian Uromastyx
0.0.1 Frilled Dragon

You can't have any pudding if you don't eat your meat!!

Thank you so much for that intellegent answer. I have had many critics towards this, but I work for a well known petstore, and have done alot of research on beardies, and I don't see a problem with this at all. They love the superworms! THe only problem is that one of my beardies does not really eat too much lettuce, the other does. I plan on giving them crickets a few times a week, with working at a pet store I have access to them all the time! THank you so much

I don't know what to say about the superworms except that I believe that we should be providing a wide variety of insects for our dragons.

Also...there are lots of more nutritious greens than lettuce to feed to our dragons...like dandelion greens, kale, collards, endive, turnip greens, etc....and veggies like carrot, squash, sweet red pepper, sweet potato, zucchini, etc.

How healthy would you be if you only ate two things?

Well I have 3.3 dragons and very seldomly will i feed them mealworms of any kind.I guess its personal fear the they may become impacted.I do feed various sized crickets and i'm tring to breed my own hissers to feed to them.The whole reason I replied to this message was to say that lettuce is not very nutritional for your dragons unless dusted very well with a triple calcium supplement.Then usually they wont eat it because it smells funny. So I just feed them a salad consisting of kale,spinach,sweet peas, shoestringed carrots,and yellow squash.
They usually eat it all but they seem to favor the sweet peas and spinach.All of which gives them the nutrition that they need and keep the dusting on the insects.

feeding them regularly to an adult should be fine as long as they are getting their veggies. compaction can happen from too many supers but not ofter. this usually happeneds more in younger dragons. its due to the hardness of their outter skin. hard for a small dragon to digest. but like the other poster said a variety of insects is better. i prefer roaches as my main source of insects. 2-4 adult roaches are the same as 20-30 crickets or supers. they are bit more expensive at once but worth it and very easy to breed.
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Beach Beardies

3.3.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

When I said lettuce, I really meant that I give my dragons spring mix, which consists of kale, spinach, romaine (lettuce), escarole, red and green leaf lettuces. But I do know that giving too many things like kale and spinach will lead to calcium deficinces, and it is not the best thing to give them. DO you use a UV light?

You shouldnt really be feeding romaine lettuce or spinach.Here's a really good nutrition food list for your bearded dragons.
Link

unless you are raising beardies outside where they get natural sunlight, a UVB light is a MUST!!!!! i use reptisun 10.0 and also take my dragons out to get natural sunlight 1-2 times a week
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Beach Beardies

3.4.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

Oh yeah, i only trust using a UVB bulb, although I know many people that don't. It is dangerous if you don't use one

Superworms are fine to give to an adult dragon 2-3 times a week. However, as many posters have already stated, variety is the best thing to give your dragon. Crickets, superworms, silkworms, roaches, hornworms, etc as well as a wide assortment of greens (collard greens, dandelion greens, endive, escaroli, mustard greens, bell peppers, zuccini, string beans, corn, peas, squash, pansey flowers, hispiscis (or however it's spelled), dandelion flowers, mangos etc. THe website provided by another poster has a great nutrition chart to use)

Spinach, though high in iron and calcium is dangerous to feed to dragons. It contains a high amount of oxates which bind with calcium and make it unusable to the dragon. The high iron content can cause problems too, I beleive. Thus it is safer to just leave it out of the dragon's diet completely.

Kale, also very high in calcium is a little too high in phospherous which can cause problems in dragons. However small amounts of kale is a good addition to the dragon's diet but should not be used as a stable green. (ie fed every day)

Collard greens, dandelion greens, endive, escaroli, mustard greens, these are great every day greens to use. You don't need to use all of them every day, but using 2 or more daily (you can rotate amoung them ever week etc, to keep things interesting for your dragon and help keep them from getting picky). Of course two greens isn't enough but that is when you add the other greens, vegetables/fruit/flowers to 'spice it up'. Just keep the stable green about 50-60% of the total salad.

The main reason a variety should be offered to all pets that are not food restricted (ie can only eat one or two kinds of food, such as snakes (many will only eat rodents, some only other reptiles, insects, fish, birds, eggs etc), horned toads (almost all are exclusively ant eaters), etc. Being omnivorous bearded dragons need that variety of food stuff, to ensure they are getting good nutrition in the quantities they need. Of course we can help balance 'bad diet' with multivitamins and calcium powders but it is very difficult to know how much is too much and how little is too little. (what I mean by 'bad diet' is not what we actually feed them but because we, here in North American and other areas outside of Australia cannot get or accurately replicate what bearded dragons eat in their native habitat). But all we can really do is do our best to give as much variety as possible.
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PHLdyPayne