Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought some superworms for my beardies recently but they didn't seem overly interested in eating them. Likewise, they seem to have a somewhat indifferent response to both silkworms and the minimeals. I've read a lot on this board about the claims made by the producers of minimeals so I guess we can leave that issue alone. But is there a reason my dragons seem to show so little interest in mealworms, superworms, silkworms and minimeals? Do they just get full enough on crickets to not really care about anything else? How much diversity should you give them? In the interest of good heatlh, I often offer them several things to eat at once: minimeals, greens, mealworms, superworms and crickets. Should I just give them one thing at a time (besides making sure they always have greens)?
Also, do your dragons drink from a bowl? I've noticed my doing it on several occasions, which I thought was rare.
Last question: is there any negative implications to your dragons letting their mouthes gape open for periods of time? That is, are they signaling distress or is this normal?
Thanks!

First off how old is your beardie? I feed mine one type of insect at a time. I try to use a different insect every month or so. Both of mine have gobbled up any type of insect that I've put in there. Oh, I would not use Superworms they have too much chitin (hard exoskeleton) could cause impaction. I've personally never used them because I was warned about them from people on this forum.
My female will drink from a bowl once in a while, but my male won’t have anything to do with it. If your dragon is gaping under the basking spot then it’s just cooling off & I would not worry about it. If it's doing it everywhere else then it might be a problem.

Hope this helps

Lance
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1 male bearded dragon named Lenny
1 femal bearded dragon named Jewels
1 male or female mali uro named Milo or molly (not sure anymore)

I have been using superworms for my adult beardies for about 3 years no and I have never had an impaction... ever. The only thing I'd say is start them on a few at a time and slowly increase the % of supers in their diet because I have found switching cold turkey on them with supers causes stomach upset and regurgitation, especially if they eat alot at a time. The same time will happen though when you switch from supers to crickets.

You should not have problems with chitin impaction if you have a well hydrated dragon. A dragon who is drinking water and eating fresh greens shouldn't have a problem at all.

Impactions due to poorly digestable food stuffs in any animal is typically due to too little water intake and not the food stuff itself... same holds for rabbits, guinea pigs, horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, cats, etc. etc. However I would NOT feed supers to any dragon under 11 inches, just because they are a lot of bug to handle.

Also - chitin isn't undigestable, once you gradually add supers to your dragon's diet it's GI tract will adapt to digesting this protein like any other.

I have also given my beardie superworms for almost 3 years now. His birthday is in February. I have never had impaction problems either. A lot of people confuse superworms with mealworms because they look almost the same. Mealworms are bad, very bad. Superworms do have a lot of fat, though, so my vet recommended them as treats and not daily nutrition. I've read that a lot of fat is really bad on bd kidneys. Superworms also don't have as much protein as crickets do.