10-15 min

[mama]

So why is it recommended to offer an unlimited/large amount of feeders for your BD to eat in a 10-15 min time period and then remove them? How is this better then feeders being available all day?

Just curious. I haven't been able to locate the reasons why.

 

[Germ]

The all it will eat 10-15 minute rule of thumb is just that, a ball park figure to give an idea, so as not to overfeed or underfeed. To give an idea how much to offer per feeding. It is not written in stone.

Some BDs, particularly younger ones, may & sometimes do, seem to be intimidated when a large amount of feeders is introduced at once, this applies more so, to feeders that are loose & are not in a bowl as worms might be. Common Sense has to be used. If your BD does not eat all that is offered in that period of time, it is not necessary to remove them during the day, giving it the opportunity to nibble on the unwary prey throughout the day, but gives you an idea as to how many to feed next time. All left over feeders should be found & removed a couple of hours prior to lights out, to avoid your BD eating too many just before sleep time, so there is not enough time for the digestion process to begin. Some hiding or left over nocturnal feeders, such as Crix, will come out at night & bother your BDs sleep, possibly nibbling on your BD while it sleeps, in severe cases, cause sores or lesions.

If your BD eats all that is offered in like, say 5 minutes, generally more can be added, or more offered per feeding in the future. I always limited mine to 30-35 appropriate sized crix per day, if they wanted that many, different BDs have different appetites, but that limit seemed to work, for me & mine.

On the flip side, if a keeper offers, say 20 crix at once & the BD pigs out, devours them in 4-5 minutes, so 20 more are added & it also devours them in a matter of minutes, then more added & so on for 15 minutes. Then a little later that day or the next, the BD is puking them back up or regurgitating them, because it gorged itself, then obviously the rule of thumb is not working for that particular BD. Once again, it is just an average figure to be used as a reference, not a hard & fast rule & common sense has to be used. You have to read your own particular BD & adjust accordingly.

When feeding worms, care has to be taken, quite often a BD will pig out & eat more than it should. I do not recommend staple worm diets, no matter what type it is, particularly unrestricted ones, the majority of worms are considerably fattier in content. For instance there is one particular BD that is often displayed on the forum, was brought up on a staple worm diet, to me it appears to be obese & think future issues may be in store for it. In my opinion, it may shorten it's overall expected life span. Every one likes a larger, jolly, outgoing individual, but they generally do not live as long, usually directly related to their size & diet, this applies to almost any species. There is a big difference in having an overall larger, healthy BD & a 'Fat' one.

Unsure if that makes any sense, but is the best I can come up with, to explain it right now.

 

[mama]

Thank you so much Germ! I just was curious as to why that seemed to be what the majority did. I like 'common sense'

As soon as I put roaches into Worf's bowl the most he'll eat is 5-6 at once and then he goes to his basking spot. Half hour or so later he'll run back down to his bowl and eat 3-4, nibble on some greens (one bite) and bask and do his BD thing until 4:30-5 (because i am at work during the day there are maybe 5-6 roaches in his bowl while I am gone), 3-4 will have been eaten by the time I get home. When I get home I put some more roaches in his bowl and freshen his salad. In about 10 or so minutes he'll run back to the bowl and eat about 4 or so roaches and he calls it good for the night.

The longer he is with us the more he is eating per day He is active and enjoys watching us. We are just finishing his 2nd week with us ;-)

Thank you again!! Always great information.

 

[Josh]

Great question and great answer. I like this thread!