Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone ever try feeding these to their beardies? I live kind of far from a pet store so it's kind of hard to go there all the time to get crickets. How would you get them to eat the crickets anyway?

hi
i freez them til they just stop moving and then if i drop them in they come alive afer 5 min .
you can also buy crickets and gutload them wel and then freez them in.
i never doing that for me its easy to go to a store.
btw can you not order them online??
byeeeeee

I've never tried it for my beardie. But I do it all the time for my hedgehog and he seems to love it. They keep pretty well in the freezer.
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~*~.. Nikki ..~*~

Huntington (Long Island), New York

I am assuming you mean the canned freezed dried crickets. Personally I don't recommend using these except as an occaisonal treat or in emergencies (ie can't get to a petstore, car broke down etc.)

If petstores are far from you and you don't want to be getting crickets from there (wind up paying more anyway for less healthy crickets) the best thing to do is mail order crickets. Most deliver right to your door using over night shipping (some places may only ship on certain days and when the weather isn't extreme (hot or cold)).

Baby dragons eat alot so mail ordering is the best way to go. A cricket bin is easy to setup and maintain and you can keep crickets for several weeks before needing more, depending on how many dragons you have and what size they need to eat and what sizes you are able to get. I recommend buying one size smaller than you need, thus they have room to grow before getting too big for your dragon. As a baby can eat as much as 60 crickets a day, ordering 500 or 1000 every week or every two weeks, is best. Dragons that are over 6 months but not yet 14 months eat less but larger crickets (500 once or twice a month, depending on the appitite of your dragon). Once your dragon is over 14 months, they only need a few insects a day or a meal of insects 2-3 times a week (in addition to daily greens of course) so ordering 100 crickets once a month should be fine, but I recommend not getting adult size, as once adults crickets don't live long...nor are they quiet LOL.

Other insect foods you could get, if you are tired of crickets or as a change from crickets (variety of insects is very good for your dragon, and hedgie for that matter) are silkworms, butterworms, superworms (feed to adults), various species of roaches and other feeder insects (waxworms could be given as treats but not often, maybe a couple a month or a feeding or two per month at the most due to high fat content. Same with pinky mice...though pinky mice and wax worms are not necessary at all except for breeding females or underweight dragons).

One advantages of silkworms, is they are easy to keep, noiseless and practically odorless and very easy to breed/hatch/raise. Most roches are also easy to keep and breed.
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PHLdyPayne