Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Rick, I have a question for you about Pete. What were you feeding him? I feed my male adult dragons (3 yrs old, 500 and 525 grams) every other day or so. I give them rat pinkies or fuzzy mice twice a week, and crickets, silkies and mealworms once or twice per week. Or it depends what critters I have on hand.

Do you have any personal recommendations about how many rodents a cwd should be allowed to eat per week?

my opinion on feeding is this, feed them as much as they will eat when they are in their first year, they will put all the calories they get towards growing. When they reach adult size, which can happen in less then two years if fed enough, feed them less, alot less. Pete as an adult ate on average three to five pinkies or fuzzies every two weeks, basically I would let him gorge himself on fuzzies every payday. Ocassionally he was given other foods zoophobas, hissing roaches, silkworms, these were primarily snacks.I am not saying that mice are the best food for them, but fed correctly they can be a good staple diet. I often would go a month without feeding him if he started to look fat. A healthy adult can go several months without eating, and fasting them at least once a year is good practice. I usually did this in the winter as part of seasonal cycle. Many people people feel that insects are more natural, that is true, but in the wild they eat a variety of insects, feeding them only one or two types in captivity is not natural. Most insects are not better then mice as a sole food. If you feed insects, I recommend silkworms, zoophobas, and hissing roaches as staples and then whatever else you can add. Also you need to feed them much more often when on a diet of insects, at least weekly if not bi-weekly. It also makes a huge difference when you raise your own food. Gutloading doesn't really amount to much of an improvement, a zoophoba that has been force to eat newpaper for the last month in a petstore is not going to provide much nutrition even if you feed him a carrot before offering him to your lizards, however, a zoophoba raised on carrots and collard greens is going to be 100% better. You'll see the difference.