Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was curious how often a day i should offer fresh frut and vegetbales as well as crickets for my 8 month old beardie... thanks

At that age I like to feed as much as it wants to eat. I serve salad everyday in the morning and feed crickets later around 4 or 5 as much as she wants to eat. You will find that reptiles will not overeat like dogs and humans do. They will stop when they are not hungry, so overfeeding isn't a concern. Their appetite will start tapering off as they get older and you will find you will feed it crickets less and less. However, they won't overeat doesn't mean they can't get fat in captivity. In captivity they don't have to roam around to find food, so just sitting in the cage waiting for food can make them fat. It depends on the individual reptiles also. I have two leopard gecko that will eat as much as they want and never get fat; however, I have other one that will eat and eat and she got quite chubby, so I put her on a diet. Just keep a close eye on your dragon weight when he is older and feed according to weight, but for now I wouldn't worry much because he is still growing and need all the calories he can get for growing. Hope this help!

thanks so much. your advice helped a lot. I noticed today that he did not touch his food, but the pet store said that might because i just got him. It has not been a full day yet. ALso when I give circkets, should i leave them in there over night or take them out?

Thanks again.

You should take it out. The crickets will stress him out and they have a tendency to chew on your dragon when they are hungry. You don't want any damage eyelids or anything like that.

thanks again. Should I wait maybe 20-30 min? I have him in a 75 gallon.

Yes, you can wait 20-30 minutes.

thank you. I just finished feeding him, he ate pretty good and I noticed he had some greens as well.

An 8 month old dragon should get insects once or twice a day and a salad available all day for him to eat. They should get roughly 50/50 insects/greens at this age. Oh and a note on fruit, make sure you only give a very small amount, no more than 5% of his total greens/veggies. Fruit is really just a treat for dragons.

for insects, pretty much offer as much as he will eat in a 5 minute period, removing any uneaten ones. At his age crickets that are full grown are fine. You can also provide superworms, silkworms, butterworms, hornworms and some species of roaches, if available.

I always feel a variety of insects is just as important as variety of greens.
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PHLdyPayne