Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok - like I said in an earlier post, as a juvi my beardie used to love his crickets. When he got older, I occassionally would give him king worms as a treat. Then I guess he became spoiled because doesn't really care about crix anymore.

Here's the question - Since I feed him salad and pellets at every meal (I also add supplement powder to his veggies), would it hurt to give him king worms on a regular basis?

If it would be a bad thing, how can I get him excited about crickets again? He's 2 1/2 and kinda set in his ways.

If it would be ok, then how often is ok?

Just looking for some advice & opinions. I can't trust my local pet stores.

p.s. - Did you know there's a company that sells heat rocks with the packaging featuring beardies on the rocks? Saw it at a local pet store.

Are you talking about King Mealworms or Superworms?

King Mealworms are hormone treated mealworms that were actually designed to create a larger fishing bait than regular mealworms. Personally, I wouldn't risk giving them to a pet as food.

Superworms, however, are a completely different species of beetle and are safe in moderation if your beardy is large enough.

I wouldn't worry about reintroducing crickets. We've got a male here that just turned 2 in October, he hasn't touched a cricket since he was 6 months old. He's over 19" long, and over 400g in weight, so it hasn't hindered him at all.

He eats his salads & pellets pretty good, and has a few superworms every couple of days. Most of our adults usually get 3-5 superworms every 2 or 3 days (depending on how much of everything else they've eaten). As the adults aren't growing any more (or at least, nowhere near the amount that the babies are), they don't need to take in as much to sustain them, and they can become fat.

I recently saw a photo of an 18" male that was over 600g in weight. It didn't look too good to say the least.

So, just keep an eye on the weight, if your guy is eating veggies & pellets good, give him 3 or 4 superworms every couple of days. If he starts putting on a lot of weight, make it one or two less worms per feeding, or go an extra day in between feeding supers.
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Axe
The Reptile Rooms

I am using. I buy them at a local pet store (they recommended them *sigh*) and call them king worms.

How would I find out which they are? They are about 2 inches long and brown.

I would hope they would not sell me something harmful for my bd, but as I said, I can't completely trust the pet stores, either.

super worms are also commonly known as king worms.

So I'm assuming they are ok. And I don't keep them in the fridge like all the sites say to do with mealworms.

Link to nutritional info on some common insect foods:
Insect nutritional info

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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
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