Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What kind of worms are best? I keep hearing about silkworms, but as of yet, I've never seen them available around here. I don't really want to pay S/H for a couple small cases of worms either...but I will if I have to.

Readily available to me are: mealworms (reg, giant, and super), waxworms, and earthworms (petsmart is supposed to carry them, but they are usually out).

Food as of now is free choice fruits and veggies. He's got a bowl full of red leaf romaine lettuce topped off with cut up pieces of grapes and an apple. I got one of those multi compartment food holder things and cut up some different things so I can just cut things up once a week or so - if it keeps - and reach in there for food every day. Other things on my feeding list would be: cucumber and other types of lettuce. Maybe buy a bag of the mixed garden salad with carrots and things I don't even know the names of?

Does this sound ok?

Oh, and I went ahead and put him on the playsand from lowes. The smell went away instantly as soon as I got rid of that nasty green liner thing. I'm still semi worried about impaction problems, but we'll see. I haven't heard anyone mention the blocks of dirt (ecoearth and forest bedding) from petstores - is that stuff any good? The LPS uses it in a lot of their herp cage and their animals are in fantastic health.

I will also be ordering him one of the UVB lights from that online place (can someone *please* link me again??). One of his lights is the zoomed one that claims to have UVB/UVA rays in it, but I don't know how strong it is. Should I also be dusting his veggies with reptical powder? Or is there a better powder I should be using? I saw bearded dragon specific ones, but I use the other one for my mali already, so...

At 15 inches, how often should I be feeding him crickets and how many?

Oh, and he frequently sits under his basking light and has his mouth partially open. I know this means he's "panting," but he only does it when under the light. If he's hot, why not just move to another area? I don't see him do it anywhere else, so I know the cage temp is ok.

I think that's it for now...I must be a full time job for you guys! Thanks in advance.
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1 Thoroughbred
1 Mali Uromastyx
1 Bearded Dragon
1 Corn Snake
1 Milk Snake
2 German Shepherd's (w/3rd on the way!)
2 Birds (Conure and Cockatiel)
2 Rabbits
4 Fish tanks (SW and FW)

Silkies you'll probably have to order in (their food also), pet stores don't carry them usually. I don't use them because of the cost of getting them and their food and breeding them is supposed to be a big pain in the butt. Mealworms aren't good for beardies, the shells are too hard to digest properly. Superworms aren't mealworms, they are different and can be fed to your beardie but not as a staple (too fatty). I'd avoid earthworms also, they're filthy and have a reputation to be full of parasites. Remember NOTHING larger than the space between your beardies eyes. Check out www.beautifuldragons.com she has a complete list of foods and how often to feed them. Eco Earth is coconut husk, from what I've heard it digests ok but it does have its own problems also. It retains moisture horribly which can lead to RI, it is also hard to really keep clean and disinfected. Yes you should be dusting food with calcium (once a day) and vitamins both (vitamins 1-2 times a week). Repcal is fine as long as you've got it. At 15 inches I'd still feed crickets daily but he should be eating salad by now also, maybe 50/50. Don't sweat the gaping under the light, I don't know why they don't move, just not real bright I guess lol.

Sean
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Heart Mountain Herps

you need to give him better greens than what you have been providing so far. Red leaf lettuce, romaine and apples should not be a regular stable. The greens have little to no nutritional value and apples can have too much pospherous in them. Grapes are ok as occaisonal treats as well. For a stable, you should give dandelion greens, collard greens, endive, escaroli and other dark leafy greens (no spinach at all and kale only occaisonally) mixed with these greens you can offer cucumbers, string beans (cooked), carrots (shreaded), and other vegetables sprinkled on top. Strawberries, blue berries and melons can be added as occaisonal treats as well.

The Zoo-med bulb you mentioned, is it the repti-sun coil bulbs? A good UVB bulb certainly is a must and it should be changed once every 6-9 months. Calcium powder with D3 by rep-cal is a good dust for insects 2-3 times a week along with a reptile multivitamin.

Silkworms are great insect stables for bearded dragons as are butterworms. Silkworms are costly to ship (as are butterworms) but are not that difficult to breed. They just take awhile. Order twice as many as you need in a month and let them grow up and coccoon. Put the coccoons in a dry container at room temperature and leave them. In several weeks the moths will come out and if there are males and females, they will find eachother and mate. The female will then lay eggs. It's good ideal to remove the moths as soon as they come out of the coccon and find a mate into another smaller container lined with wax paper. As soon as the male separates from the female, you can either drop him in with another female if no other males are available, or give him to your dragon. Let the female lay her eggs and as soon as she is done or is dead, fed her off as well. Leave the eggs be till they turn purple (takes 3-5 days if I recall) and put them into the fridge for 3-4 months. After that just take out a sheet and put it in a tray at room temperature. If it's really dry in your house, a damp paper towel can be placed underneath the wax paper to provide some humidity but you don't want alot. In about 10 days the eggs should hatch into tiny black worms barely 1/4" long. Using a fine cheeze grater, grate some silkworm chow near or ontop of the silkworms, once a day. When possible pick out the dry uneaten food every day but make sure there are no silkworms still on it before throwing it away (look underneath too).

Though it takes several weeks to get large enough silkworms to feed your dragons, you can keep them going for some time if you keep enough eggs in the fridge, let enough worms grow up to lay more eggs and still feed your dragons.

I got 100 juvenile (2-4 cm) silkworms and some food for them from silkwormfarm.com for $11 shipped. Best price I've seen for them anywhere.

>>you need to give him better greens than what you have been providing so far. Red leaf lettuce, romaine and apples should not be a regular stable. The greens have little to no nutritional value and apples can have too much pospherous in them. Grapes are ok as occaisonal treats as well. For a stable, you should give dandelion greens, collard greens, endive, escaroli and other dark leafy greens (no spinach at all and kale only occaisonally) mixed with these greens you can offer cucumbers, string beans (cooked), carrots (shreaded), and other vegetables sprinkled on top. Strawberries, blue berries and melons can be added as occaisonal treats as well.
>>
>>The Zoo-med bulb you mentioned, is it the repti-sun coil bulbs? A good UVB bulb certainly is a must and it should be changed once every 6-9 months. Calcium powder with D3 by rep-cal is a good dust for insects 2-3 times a week along with a reptile multivitamin.
>>
>>Silkworms are great insect stables for bearded dragons as are butterworms. Silkworms are costly to ship (as are butterworms) but are not that difficult to breed. They just take awhile. Order twice as many as you need in a month and let them grow up and coccoon. Put the coccoons in a dry container at room temperature and leave them. In several weeks the moths will come out and if there are males and females, they will find eachother and mate. The female will then lay eggs. It's good ideal to remove the moths as soon as they come out of the coccon and find a mate into another smaller container lined with wax paper. As soon as the male separates from the female, you can either drop him in with another female if no other males are available, or give him to your dragon. Let the female lay her eggs and as soon as she is done or is dead, fed her off as well. Leave the eggs be till they turn purple (takes 3-5 days if I recall) and put them into the fridge for 3-4 months. After that just take out a sheet and put it in a tray at room temperature. If it's really dry in your house, a damp paper towel can be placed underneath the wax paper to provide some humidity but you don't want alot. In about 10 days the eggs should hatch into tiny black worms barely 1/4" long. Using a fine cheeze grater, grate some silkworm chow near or ontop of the silkworms, once a day. When possible pick out the dry uneaten food every day but make sure there are no silkworms still on it before throwing it away (look underneath too).
>>
>>Though it takes several weeks to get large enough silkworms to feed your dragons, you can keep them going for some time if you keep enough eggs in the fridge, let enough worms grow up to lay more eggs and still feed your dragons.
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Tim W. My Pictures
0.1.0 Dumeril Boas
0.1.0 Kittens
0.0.1 Leopard Geckos

It rubs the lotion on it's skin. It rubs the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again.
Bleach and Ammonia make Ammonium Chloride = Dead you

Thanks for the advice on growing silkworms - I do however feel bad you typed all that because I'm absolutly not hatching bugs and moths in my house.

Roaches are out too. I don't know how you people sleep at night! I mean, no offense, but what happens if some of the little suckers get loose??
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1 Thoroughbred
1 Mali Uromastyx
1 Bearded Dragon
1 Corn Snake
1 Milk Snake
2 German Shepherd's (w/3rd on the way!)
2 Birds (Conure and Cockatiel)
2 Rabbits
4 Fish tanks (SW and FW)

Maybe just let the pets loose around the house for a day and they can find the escaped roaches
I'm just kidding, I wouldn't do that with my pets (except cat)

>>Thanks for the advice on growing silkworms - I do however feel bad you typed all that because I'm absolutly not hatching bugs and moths in my house.
>>
>>Roaches are out too. I don't know how you people sleep at night! I mean, no offense, but what happens if some of the little suckers get loose??
>>-----
>>1 Thoroughbred
>>1 Mali Uromastyx
>>1 Bearded Dragon
>>1 Corn Snake
>>1 Milk Snake
>>2 German Shepherd's (w/3rd on the way!)
>>2 Birds (Conure and Cockatiel)
>>2 Rabbits
>>4 Fish tanks (SW and FW)
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**********************************
Tim W. My Pictures
0.1.0 Dumeril Boas
0.1.0 Kittens
0.0.1 Leopard Geckos

It rubs the lotion on it's skin. It rubs the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again.
Bleach and Ammonia make Ammonium Chloride = Dead you