Diet Change

[unscattered]

We just purchased our bearded dragon and she's been eating crickets and fruits/veggies. I cannot keep crickets in the house and can't really buy them every time I need them. I have superworms and picked up some pellets of food to try and swtch her over to that. She's currently showing little interest in the pellets, although she has eaten a few. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do that? I will be also feeding either superworms or dubia roaches and fruits/veggies to supplement the pellets. Which are easier to keep- worms or roaches? And how does one go about setting up a roach colony? Our friend who has a dragon also has a colony, and that would be the most cost effective option for us.

 

[PatsyB]

@Hdrydr31 could help you with the roaches. I would feed both roaches and super worms, more roaches than supers. You could also feed, silk, horn or butter, and phoenix worms. The pellet food doesn't really offer any nutrition it's just like processed food for us.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Sure thing: yes Roaches are WAY easy to keep and super good for them and that would be the way I would go..I personally feed both of mine Dubia and supers with the occasional butterworm, waxworms, phoenix worms.
If your able to get a starter colony that is great! just make sure you get enough feeders that you keep in a separate tub so your not disturbing your colony every time you need to feed. As that will slow them down. You want a 3:1 ratio female to male. a nymph (baby) will take about 6 months to become of age to turn into a breeder. However adults will live for 1 1/2 years to 2 years so once you got a productive group you won't have to buy roaches again except to get some "fresh" new to the colony roaches.
If you have any questions feel free!

 

[jmoo2kids]

I don't have an answer, but would like to piggy back off of your question. We just got Apollo, our handsome 8 month old little guy. My question is how do we transition him to a new diet? The lady we got him from fed him 40 crickets every 3-4 days and romaine lettuce everyday. We want to transition him to a more stable and healthy diet. So far he shows no interest in mustard greens or turnip greens. He seems a little stubborn about wanting just romaine lettuce. He did eat some fresh green beans. And shouldn't he eat crickets or mealworms (ect) everyday?

 

[Hdrydr31]

I don't have an answer, but would like to piggy back off of your question. We just got Apollo, our handsome 8 month old little guy. My question is how do we transition him to a new diet? The lady we got him from fed him 40 crickets every 3-4 days and romaine lettuce everyday. We want to transition him to a more stable and healthy diet. So far he shows no interest in mustard greens or turnip greens. He seems a little stubborn about wanting just romaine lettuce. He did eat some fresh green beans. And shouldn't he eat crickets or mealworms (ect) everyday?

If you haven't already take a look at the links below several of our comments, we've put together info for new comers. In there you will find 2 food item links. I would just keep trying items on the list to see what your dragon will eat. One thing to remember they won't starve themselves so you can tough love it to a degree. You can add bee pollen to the salads and that has gotten some to eat their salads as it gives it a sweet taste and it's super good for them.
Crickets are an ok feeder if that's all you have access to, dubia roaches, superworms, silkworms, phoenix worms are good staples and treats waxworms, hornworms, butterworms.. Crickets are prone to carry pin worms, mealworms really shouldn't be fed as their shells contain high amounts of chitlin which is really hard for them to digest and can lead to impactions.

 

[jmoo2kids]

Thank you so much! We ordered some superworms for him. He ended up eating the greens I left for him so, tough love did work. I have been looking in the forums, I just wanted to make sure we do things right with him. He's a happy little guy.