Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My beardie is a year old and for the last few weeks he hasnt been eating his crickets.Is their anything other than crickets and silkworms that I can feed as a staple.How many times should I feed a week.I also heard about somthing called a "MiniMealworms" dark mealworms how abot those.

Sorry,about all the questions.

Well it could possibly have parasites and be losing its appetite I recommend taking it to the vet.Have you been feeding it vegetables?

A 1 year old beardie should be eating 80% veges and only 20% crickets. only feed meal worms/super worms as a treat about once a week, as they are high in fat and thats not healthy for adult dragons. you should probably have a fecal done to be on the safe side.

Mine refused crix when he was 1 1/2 years old and would only eat veggies! He loved clover and "Spring Green Mix" with some dandelion flowers and daisies thrown in.

He even refused being fed everyday...he would only eat about 2-3 times a week. I still offerred it, but he would just look at it. I would offer super worms (or crix...he liked the canned variety) about every other meal. He stopped eating live crix all together.

Afer about 9 months of this he just died one day (I don't know why....it was the day after my 5 year olds birthday party and he was UPSET the whole time). He didn't lose weight or anything...he had never looked so good. He was good in color and size.

So what do I know.

I suggest getting your animal looked at by a vet. If I thought something was wrong, I would have taken him in...I was ignorant that there was a problem...I read that sometimes adult dragons do that sort of thing...then others have told me that they don't...
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Hangin with the Herps
ZZ

An adult dragon should get insects a couple times a week, with all he can eat greens every day. Never heard of the mini-mealworms but don't see any real value in getting something smaller than a regular mealworm when regular mealworms are not that great for dragons.

Silkworms are a very good stable insect as are butterworms, various species of cockroach such as lobster, hissing, deathshead and madacascar (though I think these are the hissing roaches, can't remember off hand).

Other than not eating his crickets, has he been eating his greens and is active? What are his poos like? Are they nicely formed without being excessively smelly or runny? Is he lathargic at all or does he seem to go to bed earlier than normal?

More details of his behaviour now and what he was like a few weeks ago, will make it easier to determine what is wrong. It isn't unnatural for dragons who reach a year old to slow down eating insects. He may even stop eating crickets knowing you have more tastier insects available, like silkworms or superworms.