Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Do you feed your dragons crickets in there home or in a seprate pplace like a tub or something, also how offten do you feed them crickets.

can the dragons eat broccoli rabe and spinage?

as a bedding can oatmeal be used? i have heard that you can use bran, so was curious about oatmeal. I was thinking of using tile of some sort but have heard that they like to dig.

For babies and juvies less than 10 inches it is best to not use a particulate substrate. Papertowels, newspaper or non-adhesive shelf-liner (Duck brand)--my personal preference even with adults.

There is a lot of debate on the safety of particulate substrate in captive beardies. Most adult beardies seem to do fine on washed/sifted playsand--like you get from Home Depot or WalMart. There will always be a slight risk of impaction...NEVER use calcium based sands like many pet stores offer. These cause impaction and are NOT safe--no matter what the bag says.

I have 2 adults and use the Duck Brand shelf liner on one side of the tank--feeding/pooing side and offer a sand box in the other side. The shelf liner is very easy to clean and keep sanitary. Both beardies like to sleep in the sand box (both sand boxes are under caves).

As far as feeding crickets. When our male was a baby I would take out the tank decorations before putting crickets in. Later we found that putting the dusted crickets in a plastic cup and tilting it towards the beardie was an easy way to feed without the crickets going all over the place. Hand feeding is another option. I switched to silkworms over a year ago and I'm glad I don't have to chase crickets anymore.
***It is important that you do not leave any uneaten crickets in your tank overnight--they will munch on your beardie and can cause a lot of damage!

A good list of healthy foods to offer is at www.beautifuldragons.com look under Nutritional content.

I know some people like bran as a substrate but it molds very easily if it gets wet...you can scoop out the big chunks of poo but the moisture part will contaminate the bran. Oatmeal is way too dusty to use and will mold easier. Mold can be a deadly thing to a beardie!

Happy researching !
DM