Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I have a single 6 week baby dragon and Im feeding him/her with greens, mealworms and very small crickets of course, but I have some questions:
I read that crickets left in the cage can bite and hurt the baby dragons, so what is best? feed him/her in the cage and then collect the ones not eaten? What is the best way to collect the crickets without killing them, considering their small size? Or maybe it is best to put the dragon in other small cage just for feeding? Would this be stressfull to the baby dragon?
Thanks for any help

Crickets left in the cage overnight can attack and injury a sleeping dragon. Many crickets will bite around eyes, looking for moisture, nibble on any exposed areas and over time cause sores that can become infected and eventually lead to the death of your dragon. Normally this won't happen over night, unless you have a large amount of crickets in the cage over night.

For small crickets, i find it is best to just put them in a ceramic bowl with sides high enough for the crickets not to be able to jump out but low enough for your dragon to get over to reach the crickets. A 6wk old dragon should be able to eat 1/4" crickets, which are not too hard to pick up.

When I remove uneaten crickets, I just use my hands but my crickets are big enough to easily pick up or scoop out with my fingers. Smaller crickets are probably easier to just squish against the paper towel and left till cage is cleaned the following day. I typically do the cricket cleaning about an hour after lights out, this way the dragon is asleep and less likely to get panicky or stressed...she does wake up and watch me but takes to real objection to my arms moving around her sleeping area. Also, at night the crickets come out of hiding so you can see if there are any around. I also pat down all over the paper towel substrate for the crickets hiding underneath or within folds.

If you are not sure if crickets are still in the cage, leaving some fresh chopped greens in the cage over night will solve the problem of the crickets eating your dragon. They prefer the fresh greens as both a water and food source.
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PHLdyPayne

Thank you for your kind reply, because Im worried about this one.
Yesterday, I cleaned the cage before turning off the lights and didnt see anything wrong, but 2 hours late I decided to check out the baby dragon and there was one small cricket on him/her, another one around and, believe me, a mosquito on the baby! I had to clean everything again.
But I have another question on this subject:
Would be a good idea to feed the baby by removing him/her from the cage and put him/her in a large and open tuppeware just for this task? Or this would cause much stress?

It can be stressful to move them into a 'feeding' cage but some dragons get used to it and there are no problems. I normally don't recommend it with young dragons, as they do need to eat regularly and can stress pretty easily compared to adults.
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PHLdyPayne

Ok!
I will keep the feeding in his/her cage!
Thanks