5 week old beardie problem with crickets

[GemmyLou]

Hi i bred my beardies and have had 100% success as all lived, but one of them came out with its egg wrapped around its belly.. i managed to cut it off and he is doing really well apart from eating crickets and salads /: he will eat mealworms but crickets he is scared of.. even if they are dead what else can i do?
Iv attached a picture of when he first hatched and what he is like now
I have had to seperate him from the rest of the babies he was in with as he is alot smaller and it seemed that they started to pick on him!

 

[Bill]

NO mealworms way too young for them ..He will eat crickets when he gets hungry what size are they and how many are you putting in with him at that age they need to be small. For a clutch of babies we feed close to 400 +or- a day of crickets the size of the crickets should be no bigger then the space between their eyes.

 

[Jp]

At this age the babies have a hard time digesting the harder shells of mealies & supers. Try roach nymphs, phoenix worms & occasional silkworms(Very Fatty).

 

[Dragons Dynasty]

I have found that when a baby hatches and does not absorb th yolk sak they need more vitamins to survive. I have never cut on though so I don't know how this will affect it. Dust food with vitamins 5 days a week and calcium two days a week. At this point soft food such as small pheonix worms, silk worms, or hornworms are it's best options. Before increasing vitamins for these babies they would die in their third week and then I started giving vitamins 5x a week and have not lost one since.
Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[GemmyLou]

Ok thank you.
My vet advised me to give him mealworms /: my local pet shop cant get in any of those worms from his supplier is there any where i can order any online?
I feed them small black but the other day he had a small brown by himself so im wondering if he is scared of the black ones.
Thanks again for your help

 

[richard]

the vitamin thing is good to know. most beardie owners cringe when you say mealworms. is your vet an exotic vet?

 

[GemmyLou]

My local pet store do not do those worms is there any website in the uk that do does anyone know?

 

[Jp]

This link should help out..Livefood UK Crickets Locusts Mealworms Reptile vivarium ...

 

[GemmyLou]

Thank you

 

[Jp]

ur welcome.

 

[SxDx1986]

kudos to whoever recommended not giving mealworms.theyre generally not good for bearded dragons and other reptiles anyway bc the shells hard to digest.ive only seen pheonix worms available online but when you get them theyre a pain in the ass so make sure your beardie eats every single one,one by one to ensure they dont crawl awal and hide somewhere.they turn into flys that look like a breed of wasp.also the worms feast on anything rotting(including dead animals) and with nothing else in the enclosure id make sure they werent running free with the beardie around.aside from the bad containment issue pheonix worms have a natural anti coccidea agent in them and are very high in calcium despite their small size.also theyre low in fat and high in protein as well.

 

[GemmyLou]

Yeh i get my beardies out to give them worms as i hate the thought of them getting out with them and biting them!
Thanks for the advice