Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This topic probably has been beat to death, but chirping crickets drive me crazy! I'm getting a 3 month old bearded early next month and would really prefer to skip the cricket phase. Some questions on alternative feeders:

- Which type of roaches or worms are appropriate size for a 3 month baby (~8" long)?
- Which type are most convenient to keep? (i.e., Which ones don't climb glass, stink and won't infest my house if they escape?)
- Which are relatively inexpensive?

Or is there really no avoiding crickets at this stage in my dragon's life?

Thanks again, everyone. Happy holidays to you!

Are bearded dragon pellets any good? Can you use them exclusively instead of insects?

Pellets cannot replace live food. I am extremely skeptical about them except as maybe an occasional supplemental food. As far as live food I'd stick with crickets. You can feed silkworms which are soft bodied, but caterpillars have a lot of moisture and if you use them as primary food your dragon will have very very loose stools. I keep Blaptika Dubia roaches but wouldn't feed them even small ones until a dragon is at least 300 grams. They have a pretty good shell. The softer shelled smaller roaches like Lobster roaches climb.

My suggestion would be to go with the crickets for 6 months or until he is full grown and then you can change over to mostly superworms. When he's 12" you can start adding some supers to reduce your cricket use.

Crickets are really the best feeder for baby and juvenile dragons in my opinion. The main reason why is you can effectively gut load them. Something you can't really do well with worms.

I really appreciate your help. You are doing a great service to this community and dragons in general. Thanks again!

You're welcome. "Blushing" lol. Didn't think you'd like my answer. Have a great holiday!

I certainly understand your hatred of crickets, they are a pain. However, with smaller dragons, you shouldn't have to worry about chirping crickets, only adult male crickets will chirp. Buy smaller crickets that are no bigger than the space between your dragon's eyes.

if you have the patience, you can feed off all the male crickets first, so you are left with only females. By the time the crickets are about a quarter or third inch in size, you can tell the males and females apart. Females will have a dark colored central 'horn' coming out of their backsides. Males will just have two hair like projections coming off their backsides. Females have the additional one in the center, this is the ovipositor which females use to lay eggs once they are adult. This will be as long or longer than their adult body length once the female reaches full adulthood.

Males are a bit smaller in body as adults, and lack that long dark ovipositor and they are the only ones that chirp.
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PHLdyPayne

I'll give your strategy a whirl. Hopefully crickets will only be a temporary hassle as I migrate to superworms and other items.

Thanks again!

dude would u prefer to be chewing on a roach in the middle of the night or would u rather deal wit and eventually get used to chirping crickets? at three months they can have anyone but i stick to worms and crickets, cuz i dont feel like ducking and screaming like a [bleep] everytime a roach flies or crawls by. waxworms and mealworms for now supers and horned worms later when it can fit it in it's mouth. right now though start with the Greens Salads or ur gonna have a [bleep] of a time gettin ur beardie to eat salad later on. but yah u cant avoid the cricket they are the cheapest i know of, they dont climb glass (unless it dirty), and u pretty much will find them really kwik if a few got out. there is a reason roaches are called pests.

we have four giant 5 month old beardies biggest one being 17.5 inches.
three basilisks.
and soon one tegu