Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My beadrie's eggs are supposed to hatch in one week, so I'm super excited, but stressed out about feeding them all. Asuming that each one can(and will) eat 100 crix a day, it will cost me about $600 to feed them just until they are old enough to sell(six weeks). Which may not seem so bad, but I don't have a job.
So, I'm looking for cheaper ways to feed my babies, when they come. My mom suggested that I catch crickets, but even if I could garentee that they were parasite free, who wants to catch 1000 crix each day? So, I thought maybe tent caterpillars? Noboby wants them anyway. They're easy to get, and collect. My only concerns are that they may be harmful because of spines(or are they fuzzy?) or that they may be toxic. I didn't find anything that said that they were toxic, unless they are on cherry trees, which are easy enough to avoid.I know that some birds eat them, like grackles. And dosn't some company make canned caterpillars for lizards? If they're ok for my babies, they would not be the only souce of food, they would mainly get crickets, some small superworms, and veggies. I just wanted to know what everybody thinks about maybe feeding tent caterpillars to beardies?
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"Let us step out into the night and pursue that mighty temptress, adventure." (Albus Dumbledore)

My menagerie
2.1 Ball Pythons 1.0 Amazon Tree Boa 1.0 Corn Snake 1.0 Dumeril's Boa 1.2 Bearded Dragons(and 11 eggs!) 2.1 Crested Geckos 1.0 Sudan Plated Lizards 2.0 Eastern Painted Turtles 1.1.5 Eastern Box Turtles 1.1 Eastern Red-spotted Newts 1.0 Northern Mockingbird 0.3 Chickens 2.0 Cats 1.1 Ferrets plus lots of mice goldfish and feeder insects

I read somewhere sometime that they weren't good to feed to beardies, but can't remember what the source was. Take it for what it's worth. Hopefully someone here has better information.

The good thing is that beardies rarely eat 100 crickets per day. If they eat that many then you should move them to the next karger size cricket. Mine usually average more towards 50 a day and I am conservative on food size.

I am pretty sure tent caterpillars are toxic to many animals including reptiles, so I wouldn't risk feeding them to your dragons. Some animals do eat tent caterpillars.

Feeding baby dragons is expensive, but as BDLvr indicates, not all babies will eat 100 crickets a day, average will be more around 20-60 a day. Research mail order crickets...find those closest to you, to get better prices on shipping. Maybe they are close enough you can drive and pick up your cricket orders yourself...compare cost of shipping to cost of gas to drive and pick up the order yourself.
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PHLdyPayne

I think they are toxic to. You should look around at cost. Buy in .bulk. I know i buy about 1000 at a time and pay about 20 bucks so you can make it cost less
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Tom
1.2.0 Leopard Gecko (dot, spot, leo)
0.0.1 California King Snake (booboo)
0.1.0 Sulcata Tortoise (tank)
0.0.2 Russian Tortoise (tito and lulu)
0.0.2 Red Ear Sliders (bernie and ernie)
0.0.3 Painted Turtles (larry, curly and moe)
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (marshmellow)
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor (beef)
1.0.0 Peachfront Conure (kermit)
0.1.0 Australian Shepheard (layla)
2.1.0 Crazy Cats (babe, sabastian, tinkerbell)
0.1.0 Lion Head Rabbit (daisy)
0.1.0 Ferret (jordan)
0.2.0 Guinea Pigs (lilly and petunia)
0.0.1 White Tree Frog (dumpy jr.)
0.0.2 Fire Belly Newts (spork and blaze)
0.0.1 Fire Belly Toad (ferdinan)
0.0.1 Red Spotted Newt ( red)
0.0.2 Bull Frogs (goliath and tubby)
0.0.1 Rainbow Ameive (jack)
0.0.1 Spectacled caiman (wilbert)
0.0.3 Green Anoles
1.0.0 Bahama Anole
0.0.1 Long Tail Grass Lizard
Lots Of Fish

thank-you everyone for your input! I beleive that only tent caterpillars on cherry trees are toxic, but that's the only kind of tree I've seen them on anyway. But, the fuzz on the caterpillars might irritate their mouths. I'm not going to use them, its not worth the risk. It's a huge comfort that they may only eat 20 crix a day! I've found that LLLreptile is the cheapest. its about $25 for 200 crix, anysize, including shipping! They're where I get most my reptile supplies from, they tend to always have the lowest prices. Thanks again, one more week til the hatch day!
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"Let us step out into the night and pursue that mighty temptress, adventure." (Albus Dumbledore)

My menagerie
2.1 Ball Pythons 1.0 Amazon Tree Boa 1.0 Corn Snake 1.0 Dumeril's Boa 1.2 Bearded Dragons(and 11 eggs!) 2.1 Crested Geckos (and 2 eggs!) 1.0 Sudan Plated Lizards 2.0 Eastern Painted Turtles 1.1.5 Eastern Box Turtles 1.1 Eastern Red-spotted Newts 1.0 Northern Mockingbird 0.3 Chickens 2.0 Cats 1.1 Ferrets plus lots of mice, goldfish, and feeder insects

$25 for 200?????? You can buy them at a pet store for .10 each which would be $20 for 200. Do you mean 2,000?

yes i hope you mea 2000 because as i said i go to the one pet store by me and when they order their crickets every week i have them order a box of 1000 for me and its 20 bucks.
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Tom
1.2.0 Leopard Gecko (dot, spot, leo)
0.0.1 California King Snake (booboo)
0.1.0 Sulcata Tortoise (tank)
0.0.2 Russian Tortoise (tito and lulu)
0.0.2 Red Ear Sliders (bernie and ernie)
0.0.3 Painted Turtles (larry, curly and moe)
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (marshmellow)
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor (beef)
1.0.0 Peachfront Conure (kermit)
0.1.0 Australian Shepheard (layla)
2.1.0 Crazy Cats (babe, sabastian, tinkerbell)
0.1.0 Lion Head Rabbit (daisy)
0.1.0 Ferret (jordan)
0.2.0 Guinea Pigs (lilly and petunia)
0.0.1 White Tree Frog (dumpy jr.)
0.0.2 Fire Belly Newts (spork and blaze)
0.0.1 Fire Belly Toad (ferdinan)
0.0.1 Red Spotted Newt ( red)
0.0.2 Bull Frogs (goliath and tubby)
0.0.1 Rainbow Ameive (jack)
0.0.1 Spectacled caiman (wilbert)
0.0.3 Green Anoles
1.0.0 Bahama Anole
0.0.1 Long Tail Grass Lizard
Lots Of Fish

typo!
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"Let us step out into the night and pursue that mighty temptress, adventure." (Albus Dumbledore)

My menagerie
2.1 Ball Pythons 1.0 Amazon Tree Boa 1.0 Corn Snake 1.0 Dumeril's Boa 1.2 Bearded Dragons(and 11 eggs!) 2.1 Crested Geckos (and 2 eggs!) 1.0 Sudan Plated Lizards 2.0 Eastern Painted Turtles 1.1.5 Eastern Box Turtles 1.1 Eastern Red-spotted Newts 1.0 Northern Mockingbird 0.3 Chickens 2.0 Cats 1.1 Ferrets plus lots of mice, goldfish, and feeder insects