Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all

I have what I hope is not a silly question:

When I took in the beardie, it had been a week since she had eaten. She ate alot of crickets the morning after I got her.
The last couple days I have taken advice and fed her salad before giving any crickets. Yesterday she had really no interest in the crickets and again today not much interest. I left about 3 in her cage which I hope she ate. Today her salad had turnip & mustard greens, turnips, green peppers and cantalope and she finished it all. Now finally here is my question. Should I not give salad everyday so she will eat her crickets? My 2nd question is: Should I just put them in there in the morning and let it go or should I supervise to make sure crickets are not jumping all over her if not eaten?

Thanks in advance again
Linda

I like to alternate food days for adults. Salad one day, bugs the next. You could leave a few crickets in if you like, as long as you remove them before it's time to sleep.

I generally put them in and then recollect them in 15 minutes or so. The dragons seen to get used to this and it keeps the crickets from pooping all over the cage and from eating dragon poop before getting eaten by the dragon.

Great advice. Thank you I will alternate.

Linda

for adult dragons I just use superworms, silkworms, hornworms and butterworms instead of crickets. Crickets are such a pain and though they are better for babies, I rather not have large crickets in the house if i can help it.

When I do feed crickets, I usually just hand feed them, this way I know none escape to drive me batty with their chirping. (then again I always feed off the males first, to ensure they don't drive me batty).

I typically toss 3-6 worms ontop of a salad and most of the time my dragon eats half the salad before she can get to the worms, especially superworms, as they have managed to borrow to the bottom of the bowl of greens.

Oh I want to mention to be careful with fruit...I rarely give fruit to my dragon, and when I do, its only a very small piece or two. Too much fruit can lead to runny stools and its not too nutritionally good for them. But as an occasional treat, or a very small percentage of her total salad (ie less than 5%) once a week, is fine.
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PHLdyPayne