Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, Can reptiworms be used as a stable diet for babys and adults instead of crickets? I'm 16 and my mom doesn't want crickets in the house. I want to start breeding dragons but I won't be able to breed crickets to feed them. Would reptiworms be any good?

Thanks, Brandyn

Hi, these are just the larvae of the Black soldier fly (aka Phoenix worms), yes, you can feed them the babies and adult dragons.
The babies will need a bigger percentage of insects (protein), to help with growth, so a ratio of approx 80% insects to 20% vegs for the first 6 months or so. The adults require more vegs in their diet; approx 80% vegs etc, to 20% insects.
Is this your first lizard?

Reptiworms could be used as a staple for babies though I still recommend crickets, as they are cheaper and more easy to get. Also, to feed even a single clutch of hungry baby bearded dragons, you are going to need alot of these worms.

They are more expensive than crickets and no more bulky than crickets either so pretty much have to feed pretty much the same amount of the appropriate sized reptiworms/phoenix worms as you would crickets. For hatchling babies, this can be anywhere between 20-80 per dragon, per day.

As you are young, are you able to cover the costs of breeding dragons and feeding/housing babies till they are old enough to find new homes? Remember bearded dragons can have anywhere between 15-30 eggs per clutch and anywhere between 3-6 clutches per season, for a single female. That is quite a bit of mouths to feed. Also, the bearded dragon market, especially for the more commonly available morphs, is pretty flooded. Most people don't want to pay very much for an average looking dragon these days.

Just as a cost comparison...thinking strictly cost of feeding..for a single 15 baby clutch...you will need around $480 to feed them for 6 weeks total. (15 babies, average 40 worms per day per dragon, pricing $80 for 5000 worms per week (including shipping..which may very)) This of course is assuming after 6 weeks, all babies are sold. If not, then you have to continue to feed them...and other clutches will be hatching in the mean time.

breeding any animal is a responsibility...and I know its quite exciting to breed an animal and see babies etc. However, to just get the 'thrill' of breeding that one or two times just to see what its like..I don't recommend bearded dragons as a choice. They are prolific, and unless you want to be culling eggs to limit how many you incubate, it can quickly get overwhelming. Geckos are much more appropriate to use to just breed once or twice...as they have much smaller number of eggs, typically 2/clutch.
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PHLdyPayne

Forum Princess

And all this time I thought Phoenix worms are the only ones that you can use without dusting.... Hmmm...