BD food question

[drgnfly2265]

Hello everyone! I have a question about BD food. Not about the veggie part of it (he is getting plenty of his greens), but its about the protien part.

At the time I am feeding my 4 month old BD crickets and he loves them. I have been reading and have been wondering if I should feed him mealworms. I seen that someone said that Superworms are better and was considering using those. What do you all think? I know a lot of you all love using roaches, but they give me the willies *shiver*.

Can I feed him the superworms instead of crickets? Or is there another critter I can use?

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Jamie

1 Sulcata (Bowser)
1 Bearded Dragon (Dante)
1 Shih-tzu/Llasa Apso (Suki)

 

[Floof]

Nooo. After my experience with mealworms/superworms, I cannot in good conscience recommend them. My poor beardie boy ended up constipated and almost impacted once by their high chitin (exoskeleton) content (my rookie mistake for giving him too many, too often, but still), and may have even gotten pinworms from them (unless that was the crickets--not too sure on that one). Not to mention they don't have a good nutritional content... Other than just plain not being nutritious, if I remember right, they are also quite fatty and very low calcium/high phosphorous. So, no, it would NOT be a good idea to feed mealworms. Maybe as a very occasional treat, but nothing more.

Other good feeders include roaches (of course), silkworms, pheonix worms, and hornworms (though I've heard hornworms are best as just a treat). For an occasional treat, butterworms are fatty, like waxworms, but, unlike waxworms, are nutritious and have a relatively high calcium content. FWIW, Mulberry Farms (http://mulberryfarms.com) is a good source for feeders. I've had nothing but good experiences with them.

I know roaches give you the willies, but think about it like this. Crickets jump. They stink. They die for no reason. They cannibalize. If you leave them in the tank, they will nibble on your beardie (aka eat your beardie's flesh).They tend to carry parasites, which they then pass on to your beardie... And then you have mealworms. Poor nutrition, lots of chitin, they turn into flying beetles if you don't feed them off fast enough, and they BITE (or, at least, I have been bitten by them. Don't know if that's normal, or just my luck!).

Dubia Roaches don't fly, climb, jump, stink, cannibalize, or die off for no real reason; have relatively long lifespans (something like 2 years to a cricket's few weeks), are easy-peasy to breed, and don't move too terribly fast. They're easy to grab with tweezers, or to just shake into a cup from paper towel rolls or egg crates. They are also SO much more nutritious, and have a much lower chitin content than crickets and mealworms. Any bug gives me the willies, even harmless caterpillars like silkworms and butterworms. The only reason I sucked it up and got roaches was because I knew it was the best thing for my beardie boy (considering he doesn't like silkworms). Luckily, they're pretty easy to deal with without having to touch them, and are very benign.. I can almost touch one without screaming now, LOL!

Anyway, silkworms are a very nutritious, soft-bodied option, but they are expensive and their availability is sometimes pretty iffy--one day they're everywhere; the next day you're lucky to get a couple dozen newly hatched ones. However, if you can afford them and your beardie likes them, silkworms are a great staple.

This is a chart that outlines the nutritional content of foods and whether or not "this" or "that" is good to feed and how often. It includes greens, veggies, fruits, and insect prey (though not roaches, unfortunately). It's a good read. Actually, the whole site is a pretty good care sheet for bearded dragons.. http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

 

[drgnfly2265]

Cool, thank you so much for all the info. The roaches do have a lot of possitives about them, and the crickets are really starting to get smelly.

I went to the Mullberryfarm website, but they dont send roaches to Florida Do you know of another site that does? I have been looking around and cant find one.

_____________________________________________________

Jamie

1 Sulcata (Bowser)
1 Bearded Dragon (Dante)
1 Shih-tzu/Llasa Apso (Suki)

 

[Tom]

Taylor, Excellent post! I agree 100%

 

[Floof]

I went to the Mullberryfarm website, but they dont send roaches to Florida Do you know of another site that does? I have been looking around and cant find one.

You're in Florida? In that case, you need to track down your state and local laws about roaches. I'm not sure about other species, but Dubia roaches are illegal to keep in the state of Florida--among others, I'm sure. The idea is they don't want to risk them escaping/being released and establishing themselves, since areas of Florida have the right climate to support Dubias and other tropical roach species. It sucks, but that's Florida for ya.

The people over at the http://beardeddragon.org forums (good to join, anyway; TFO for beardies, lol) may be able to help you find a legal-to-keep species. For that matter, maybe Tom knows of a Florida-native species that would make a good alternative?

 

[drgnfly2265]

Awsome, I will check out that site and see what they say. Thank you

Yeah, gotta love Florida and the laws, lol

_____________________________________________________

Jamie

1 Sulcata (Bowser)
1 Bearded Dragon (Dante)
1 Shih-tzu/Llasa Apso (Suki)

 

[Motara's Mom]

I hate feeding crickets, and when I gave my frilled dragon his first roach there was no going back! I DO NOT touch them because they freak me out, but we have those long feeder tweezer things to feed one of our snakes because he gets a little rough during feeding time. I use those to pick up the roaches and put them in the food bowl and it works just fine. I think they were around $10 give or take and worth every penny.