Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok first off lemme introduce myself:

my name is brian and i work at petco...
i have a leopard gecko, baby veiled cham, a golden gecko, a northern leopard tree frog, a quaker parakeet, 2 hermit crabs, a dog a cat and a kitten.... and as of today i have a bouncing sub-adult beardie (yay!)..

ok so heres my question:
i got my new beardie today.. he looked a bit thin.. maybe not fed enough by breeder, idk? anywho.. i got maybe like 12-24 small crickets (idk the exact # because i asked for 12 but there were deffinetly more than that, being someone who bags crix on a daily basis i know that just dont know the exact... most likley closer to 24!) i dusted them and tossed em in, i keep my crix well fed and gut loaded so im not worried about throwing too many in... but my dragon went ape **** like he had never eaten anything in his life!!!!!!!!!!!! he proceeded to hunt down and eat ever single cricket that he could find...

as far as i cant tell he got em all!!!! is this normal? for a sub adult to eat roughly 24 sm crix in less than 2 mins... i mean he prolly ate his weight in crix!!?!?!?! now hes got a buddah belly and hes basking trying to digest it all. he looks fine and no worries.. just wondering ive been looking online for like an hour now to find out approx how many crix to feed at a time and how often?

in short: how many crix at a time and how often do you feed bearded dragons? also can you over feed?

and last but not least my buddy feeds his beardies eeder fish now again...is this ok? i was thinking about doing it as i tend to feel bad for the fuzzies..and have no remorse for fish..he throws a minoe or two in the water dish for the dragon to fish out at his liesure. any one ever heard of this and is i t ok?

thanx for all your help... sorry its so long....

Feeder fish and pinkies are both a no-no. Feeder fish because of the risk of parasites and pinkies (unless frozen/thawed) also for parasites and because they are very high in fat and hard to digest.

How old do you mean when you say "sub-adult"? From what I understand, up until about a year of age beardie's should be given as many crickets as they can eat in a 10-minute period twice per day. My 4- month old beardie easily eats 50-75 crickets per day - sometimes up to 100 .

HTH.
Melissa

congrats on your new beardie!

and yup, it's normal for them to eat that much at a time, just make sure the basking temp is 100F (but at the same time keeping the cooler end at 80F) and keeping him well hydrated so he can digest everything. also, i believe the older they get, the more greens and veggies they should be eating (I USE THIS SHEET).

for pinkies, i've read people using this as a treat once a month to adult beardies and pregnant beardies, but i wouldn't recommend it because of parasites like what celeste said. but no feeder fish!

make sure all the food is the size of the width b/w the beardie's eyes... so if you want, you can give some mealies, wax worms AS TREATS ONLY, superworms, silkworms the best, andddd.... i dont know if i'm missing anything... lol
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0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Cookie Monster)
1.0.0 Crested Gecko (Vas-D)
0.0.2 Fire Bellied Toads (Norman & Forman)
0.0.2 Goldfish (Lenny & Carl)
1.0.0 Black Lab / Pit Bull (Mikey)

wow 100 crix a day thats insano! good thing i work a petco an have an endless supply.lol. so no fish. no prob i was just curious. and i thought pinkies were alright on occassion just not on a regular basis? im not exactly sure of the age or sex... i believe it to be female and its about...4-5" head to tip of tail give or take... maybe a month or two...not really sure.. ill try to post some pix soon and you can tell me what you think..thanx for all the help though!

4-5 inches from the head to the tail? that seems like a pretty young beardie.

i've read about different ages and sizes of beardies for sexing them, but this site says 7-8 inches. the site also shows pictures of how you can tell the different sexes : click here to check sexing

pinkies you can give on occassion - rare occassions or pregnant ones... but there's a chance you can get parasites. also, it's very fatty so you shouldn't give it often. and no fish got that right

good luck with your new beardie, i'm happy 4 ya! mine's taking hours 2 eat, even though i think he may have started eating some veggies coz they're kinda spilled over and he either ate the crickets or they're hiding somewhere under the paper towel~
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0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Cookie Monster)
1.0.0 Crested Gecko (Vas-D)
0.0.2 Fire Bellied Toads (Norman & Forman)
0.0.2 Goldfish (Lenny & Carl)
1.0.0 Black Lab / Pit Bull (Mikey)

ok maybe not 4-5" ill measure maybe im justa bad judge. lol. it was funny i ran outta crix and the petco i work at wont get more til tomorow.. i noticed my dragon wont eat mealworms so i busted out my bamboo tongs and he was wolfin em down like mad! it was awsome you could hear him crunchin into them like potato chips... then i tried to feed him a wax worm.. and he seemed deathly affraid of it. it was hilarious he ran and hid behind a log and was looking at it all funny and if i tried to approach him with it he ran.. it was cute and funny but dude i know hes big enough but he was scarred! lol.

hahaha aww that's really cute. i never thought of using the tongs to feed my beardie, i'll head to the pet store today to buy a pair since i'll be there to get a new reptisun bulb.

also, i read that mealies should be fed occassionally but not too often especially with younger beardies UNLESS the mealies just shed and are soft N white. if you feed them the brown ones that haven't shed yet, then the skin might be too hard and cause impaction if they have too much. and the wax worms should be fed occassionally also coz they're fatty. but wow yours eats like a beast! LOL! i can't wait til my new baby starts eating like that - it must be a blast to watch! that was a really cute story though got any pictures?
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0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Cookie Monster)
1.0.0 Crested Gecko (Vas-D)
0.0.2 Fire Bellied Toads (Norman & Forman)
0.0.2 Goldfish (Lenny & Carl)
1.0.0 Black Lab / Pit Bull (Mikey)

well i only fed mealies cuz i was outta crix he ate about 15 or so and about 5-6 were white.. so i think hell be ok... the others were yellow so none of em were really crunchy. and i figured the wax worm would be good cuz he seemed thin and malnurished when i got him so he could use some wieght...but that wont work cuz hes scarred...it was hilarious. but yeah the tongs worked great... try to go with the longer bamboo ones if you can find em. i was suprised how much he ate off the tongs... i mean he normally dosent eat mealies but if they are fed on tongs then hell eat em. i think its because mealies normally dont move all all that much but the squirm alot on the end of tongs! lol!