Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi-
I have a 4-month old Beardie and he eats like crazy. I have read every care sheet on every web page, but I'm not sure how often to feed him. When we got him (1 week ago), he would eat about 10-12 crickets (and 1-2 wax wormd)per day as we were told to feed him and a small arrangement of greens. I have decreased that amount to about 6 crickets. Anyway, when we bring out the crickets to feed him, he goes crazy (jumping all over the cage trying to get them) before we even get them out. I fed him fresh green bean leaves yesterday and he ran to the dish before I could get it down to him. Am I not feeding him enough because he acts as though he is starving? I just want to know the proper amount so I don't over feed or under feed. Your comments are appreciated.

Thanks.

I am new myself but I was told to let them eat as much as they want. In the beginning I tried feeding them salad items but they did not want nothing to do with it, just crickets they wanted. That is not good. So I weaned them off and one morning when I gave them the salad, they started eating it. I put the meal worms in there also. They go crazy for them too. I will give them crickets but only as a treat, just like the worms. I give them a big salad in the morning and one at night and they seem content. They love blueberries!
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Cheryl

my little dragon i had for 6 months,hes shed 4 times already he went from 6 inches to 9 inches already.when they are young the eat about 80% crickets,20% greens,i would say feed 2 times a day i do before i leave for work and when i come home.i usually give 8-10 crickets each feeding and leave greens in their while im gone,dont forget to shake and bake your crickets with vitamins and calcium powder,they are 2 seperate powders needed esp. for youngsters.anyone else wanna put a comment? dont forget not to put too big of crickets they will go for it.and then can get impaction,mine stated twitching (legs,arms),hes alot bigger now.
good luck.

Thank you for the info. Also, I have housing for my crickets, I purchase 24 (small) at a time and they seem to grow very quickly. Some are too large for him already, I know he cannot have the larger ones. What do I do with them when they become so big? Is it the food I put in with the crickets? By the way, awesome photo of your dragon Viper. Thanks.

Thank you for your quick reply. I think he is not old enough for mealworms yet, he is still young. I am going to go shopping today and get more vegetable items and I do grow some veggies at home. I was told that crickets should be continued at this age because he requires a lot of protein before he becomes an adult and I add vitamins to them. You are probably right about feeding him as much as he wants because he always seems hungry. It is just confusing as so many people offer different feeding advice, so I wanted to be certain I'm doing it the right way. Thank you again for you reply. This is a great site, I can learn everyday by reading everyone's posts.

For a 4 month old bearded dragon you need to feed them all they can eat in a 5-10 min period, twice per day. Insects to feed young dragons are crickets, silkworms, butterworms, several species of cockroaches. Of course all insects have to be the appropriate size. Mixed greens (collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, and other dark leafy greens (except spinach or kale due to high oxate or phosphate content, see
www.beautifuldragons.com for info on save greens/vegies to give dragons))

I noticed you buy two dozen crickets at a store for him every day, it would be better to mail order 100-500 crickets of an appropriate size (or one size smaller, this way they won't grow too big before you can use them all). this way you can properly gut load the crickets before feeding them to your dragon. (feed same greens to crickets as you would the dragon, plus either a store bought gut load, crushed low fast cat food, fish flakes etc).

baby dragons need alot of protein to grow. They have to go from about 4" (at hatching) up to 18" or more in about 12 months. That's alot of growing to do.
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PHLdyPayne

I like the "how much they can eat in 5-10 minute" theory. That will work great. I have been to the Beautiful Dragons web page, that is a great site and I did use the color-coded chart which is a blessing.

Thank you to everyone.