Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of my customers told me that she has a small BD that accidently had some crix left in the tank overnight. The next morning all the toes but one on one of his back feet were chewed off! Could crix do that much damage?
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

I've never seen it personally but I've heard that can happen. I've also seen pics of eyelids chewed up by crix.
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Rob Talkington

I saw it in a pet shop, you would think they would know better, when the Beardie was small and crix were big. Small babies need protection.

young dragons stomach. It was posted one time on the collared forum, a friend posted and told us to be careful about leaving them in the tank.

Unfortunitly their baby dragon died.

CRICKETS ARE CANNIBALS!!

I remember someone on this forum posting a pic of the skeleton of a baby dragon after being basically eaten by crix. They had been hiding in a plant in the cage and she didn't know it. It was gruesome. Anybody else remember that?
Take care,
Karen

If you seen those pics how could you forget it.. The little baby skeletons. One of the main reasons why I ever even thought of using something like a shelf liner. Was afraid because the crickets where hiding under their reptile carpets. That and I hated trying to spot clean cages daily, and never getting them fully clean. But yeah crickets can do some major damage over night.
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Mystical Dragons webshots pictures
Mystical-Dragons Website

I hear ya, about never forgetting those pics.
I'm going to start with the shelf liner too. I switched over to paper because I just knew the sand habored all kinds of nasties. I don't like the paper because the dragons slide around on it too much. I'm going to try and find shelf paper that might be able to give better footing. Sorry this is a little off topic.

Sounds like they were feeding too large and too many crickets and not making sure they were all out of the enclosure. Bummer the baby had to pay for their mistake. (You are sure they only have one beardie in the enclosure right?)
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Stacey

Sorry about the baby. That's too sad. I hope they will care for it properly so all will heal well.
Take care,
Karen

That's sad and I would die if that happened to my Dragons.

I'm using paper towels right now until my 2 have their next Vet visit and those darn crickets run right under the paper if the Dragons aren't fast enough. I end up helping them by either chasing the crickets back out into the open or smashing them under the paper with feeding tongs then "hand feeding" the crushed bugs to them.

Frankly, I don't like live crickets -at all- and I'm thinking about either using another cage with -no- cricket hiding places for feedings or using freeze dried crickets.
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0.0.2 Bearded Dragons(Ziggy and Stardust)

People may think I work for DUCK brad, but I am loving the non-adhesive, rubber-like shelf liner from Wal Mart. It sort of sticks to the bottom so crickets can't get under it is easy to clean , looks good, and no risk of ingestion.

Also I have switched to silkworms. I hate crickets too. They are stinky and they jump. The silkworms come in a wide variety of sizes. They took some getting used to because you have to feed them everyday but no smell, no jumping, no escapees!
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Stacey

>>People may think I work for DUCK brad, but I am loving the non-adhesive, rubber-like shelf liner from Wal Mart. It sort of sticks to the bottom so crickets can't get under it is easy to clean , looks good, and no risk of ingestion.
>>
>>Also I have switched to silkworms. I hate crickets too. They are stinky and they jump. The silkworms come in a wide variety of sizes. They took some getting used to because you have to feed them everyday but no smell, no jumping, no escapees!
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>>Stacey

Yeah, I'm very close to going with shelf liner or something like it.

As far as the crickets...

To be honest, I think we all have little part of us that loves to see Dragons perk up and chase those crickets down and eat them. I'll miss that but I'll look into Silkworms as an alternative.
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0.0.2 Bearded Dragons(Ziggy and Stardust)

when they are not with you anymore it is upsetting.

This did remind me of something I noticed a few days ago, I put four good size finger carrots(about the size of my thrub) in a cricket bin with about 100 1/2 grown crickets one night, the next morning there was no trace of any carrots and it struck me as how fast they can eat fat little carrots like that.

Some baby dragons go into such a deep sleep, we can move them from one tank to another and they never wake, they are probably one of the harder sleeper animals I know of and rarely wake for anything or noise unless a light is turned on.
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www.reptilerooms.com

Someone told me Mealworms can live inside a dragon's gut if the head isn't crushed while chewing. They also -claimed- they saw pics of dragons who got chewed on internally this way.

Has anyone heard of this?
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0.0.2 Bearded Dragons(Ziggy and Stardust)

someone that saw a picture of this happening, but never themselves. Dragons crew, then digestive juices that are really acid hit the prey..... not like that they can survive more than a few seconds at best.

Drop a mealworm or super in a dish with just a puddle of water, its dead within seconds.
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www.reptilerooms.com

I suspect it would have been alot more than 'some' crickets left over n ight. Most likely the crickets were in that tank for several days or she was feeding the dragon starving crickets who attacked the poor thing as soon as he fell asleep.