Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My guy is about 9 inches with tail and he eats around 20 superworms every day but he still looks around and begs for food!

Should I feed him till he's not hungry?

Superworms should not be a staple diet, but used as an occasional treat. Plus, I believe that supers are too large for a young BD and the chitin in the worms are hard to digest potentially causing impaction. Crickets or silkworms are the only insects I am aware of that have the nutritional content a young growing beardie needs to thrive. At that age BD's should be offered as much as they can eat in a 10 min period feeding twice a day and should always have access to fresh greens. Hope this helps, and please consider switching your BD's diet. Good Luck

I agree 100% with BigFil. He should be offered as many CRICKETS as he wants to eat in a 10 min. period, not worms. Just in case this wasn't clear.

I cannot feed crickets. Dont ask I just can't. Im only feeding worms until I get my roaches to sufficient size. I have about 100 roaches and half of them babies.

The worms are dusted in RepCal and his poops are healthy looking--no undigested clumps.

He wont eat greens unless I wrap the worms in them like burritos. He will pick at his pellets though.

roaches are a good insect food for dragons but deffinitely switch over to mostly roaches once your colony gets going. The superworms can be big for a small dragon, and the chitin can be difficult to pass. Too many superworms sometimes cause dragons to throw them back up. I would use freshly molted superworms, maybe even cutting them in half instead of feeding them whole. Wrapping in greens is a good ideal, or just drop them ontop of greens. If he will eat worms cut in half, that would be even better. I had no trouble getting my dragon to eat crickets that were cut in half, I think they recognize what they look and smell like so don't need them running around to want to eat them.

Another thing to add is that Bearded Dragon powder meal replacement T-Rex puts out. It can be sprinkled right on greens and has everything they need to be healthy.

If you can't deal with crickets, which is understandable since they are nasty things, try ordering some silkworms which are as good if not better than crix.

Just becuase you havn't had any problems yet with the supers doesn't mean your dragon can't get imapcted at any time. It's like playing Russian roulett, pulling the trigger the first time with no shot, then saying "well I havn't had seen any problems associated with pulling the trigger yet".

Agreed. Silkworms are a great staple, much healthier and safer for a juv than superworms, and much easier and cleaner than crickets. They are a little more expensive, but since you only need them for a short time until your roaches are big enough, it's a great alternitive.
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1.0.1 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

roaches can take 6 months to mature and 6 months to have babies. If you need info on roaches feel free to contact me
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com