He snubs the crickets...

[Savannah]

Welp. My new guy, Loki, got here yesterday. All I had on hand at the moment were waxworms, so I gave him ten of those (since then I've gotten crix and reptiworms; waxworms were just an emergency staple). He gobbled them all up, nevertheless. Same day I picked up my reptiworms at the post office but since I'd gotten crix as well, I held off on giving him the worms and put a few crix in his cage.

Consensus; this boy has been spoiled rotten xD. He did not look thrilled about the crix, but nevertheless I left him alone for about 15 minutes and when I came back I BELIEVE some of the little guys had been eaten and he was on the ground... Put his salad in today (added a bit of plum and basil to try and make it more enticing...the little dude isn't fooled xD) and I will try crix again when I get home. If he doesn't eat 'em though, I suppose I'll be shelling out for reptiworms. He LOVES those things. If my calculations are correct, he'd be eating about 30/feeding, but it might be more or less depending on the crix. I do plan on putting some worms in his salad after the crix...just to try to trick him to eat a bit of it. If he's as clever as he's shown to be thus far, though, I don't think he'll fall for it xD.

Anyway, has anyone had any success of making their cricket snob a cricket lover? I even tried sticking a couple of worms in the same bowl as the crix and he just avoided them and grabbed the worms xD

 

[Bushmaster11B]

Your BD is acclimating and may be shy to eat non-worm prey. Give him 10-14 days to acclimate and I'm sure he will eat so many crickets it will make your head spin. Wax worms should not be a part of a staple diet but I can't say I never used them before in your situation. #1 thing you need to realize is your BD will eat crix when he gets hungry enough. When I first relieved my BD and he was acclimating, he didn't eat for 2 1/2 days. They his stomach spoke for him and he ate. Hope this helps.

 

[Savannah]

Aw okay...this makes me feel a bit better. He only ate maybe a few worms this evening, but he did have a pretty big breakfast... Just as long as he doesn't starve himself out xD

 

[Bushmaster11B]

One type of feeder that helped me out with his appetite when mixed with crickets was Phoenix Worms. If you go to the for sale part of BDF, you can fin another member who sells 1200 for I think $20. Which is a steal. They are packed with much needed calcium and they have good protein to fat ratio also.

 

[Ron G]

When my Troy was a few months old he started getting freaked out with the crickets. He stopped hunting them so to make it easier for him I I put them in the fridge to slow them down. This helped for a little while until he wanted no parts of crickets. I then started with Phoenix Worms, then Silk Worms and occasionally Hornworms. He is almost a year now and totally sick of the Silkworms and I stopped with the Phoenix Worms months ago. Just this week I went back to the Crickets which I didn't think I would ever do. The only problem is he will only eat the crickets right from my hand. He still can't stand them running around his cage. Does everybody go through this with their Bearded Dragon getting sick of eating the same live prey all the time?

 

[Bushmaster11B]

I'm my 2 month experience with Aries (6 weeks to 14 weeks), he has shunned crickets and now he is on Dubias Roaches. Funny you say that about Silkworms, mine has somewhat an attitude with Silkworms. He attacks them, shakes his head like he is killing them and then chomps on it for a good 15 seconds real real fast. I personally think it's the juices that rush in his mouth that triggers him. He never runs up for them like Wax Worms, which he can spot a mile away! LOL. So yes, it seems like they do get picky at time. However, I did try Crix today and he ate them up real quick. So I don't know what their beef is.

 

[Savannah]

Right now he's on phoenix worms. If I had a wine cooler, I'd totally look for cheaper bulk, but at the moment I can only buy as much as I can feed off within two to three weeks I'm starting my discoid roach colony, but there's no way I can feed out of it for quite a while. His breeder says he was eating crix, dubias, and superworms before he came to me. I have no clue why a 10" baby was on superworms, but alas, there's nothing I can do about it now. Anywho. He loves worms. He hunted crix for me this morning and ate 10 before refusing anything but worms. He DID have 10 crix, and almost 30 worms this morning so maybe he was just not hungry. I am trying not to be the paranoid mommy XD. I kinda did hand feed him a couple of crix...I thought it was cute...but for the future I am going to stop because I don't want him to become picky about HOW he is fed. Let's just hope he has a big appetite tomorrow though!

 

[Bushmaster11B]

I'm sure he will. You will be fine, so will your BD

 

[Mrs. LuLu]

Mine started on crickets, but after eating his first Dubia Roach, he wouldn't touch the crickets. He actually goes off the roaches for weeks at a time now, but always eats his salad every day. I still offer him the roaches twice a week, even if he hasn't eaten them for a few weeks. Just last week, he started eating them again. This used to really stress me out, but I've come to trust him. He will eat his roaches when he's ready, and as long as he's still eating his salad, active, and not losing weight, I don't worry about him.

 

[Savannah]

Thanks for the response! Since I've posted this he decided to make a liar out of me. He loves hunting the crickets and gobbles them up. So now I give him about 10-15 crickets, 15 phoenix worms, and if he is still hungry, he gets all the crickets he can eat. I still hate crickets. And I really hope he eventually will be able to switch completely to roaches once I get my colony going.

Speaking of roaches; is it common for mortality to go up mid-molt for discoids? I've had one mid-molt death so far...it was really sad I am about as paranoid about the health of my roaches as I am about Loki XD

 

[Mrs. LuLu]

I honestly don't know. Aside from feeding, watering, and cleaning them out, I don't pay much attention to what goes on in there.

 

[Bushmaster11B]

BD's love roaches. And there are people here in BDF that sell roaches privately that have very good prices. I absolutely love roaches vs. crix. Roaches have way more meat and your BD will get fuller faster with them.... which in hand, saves you money. I was buying 750 crix a month for my 1 BD. About 250 would die off during 1 month and he ate 500 easy. This costs me about $40 a month on top of his greens, treats and Phoenix worms at the time. So I switched to Dubia Roaches and now that he has a bigger size meal per each bug, he is stuffed at about 180 roaches a month. I buy 200 Dubias per month now, the other approx. 20 that live are kept alive to grow and breed a few months down the road. If I keep doing this, and pick out the adult males to level out a ratio of male to female Dubias, I will eventually have my own colony. The few adult females I have now are producing about 10 babies this first month. Not a lot yet but getting there slowly.

Crix have so much shell, you have to feed the heck out of your BD for him to get full. They also stink. Plus I ALWAYS had escapees when trying to transport them from bin to my dusting shoebox. How big is your BD? I don't recall seeing it. I would switch to roaches completely like you want. The main reason why I switched was because the money costs. My BD is growing an inch per week right now for the last 2 months I have owned him. I would say my husbandry is very good because I recently checked in with my breeder to see if there was any feedback from Aries' clutch siblings and they mainly reported 10-12" BD's from the same clutch. And the only time my BD had any stress marks were after shipping and a few days of acclimation.

When my dubias molt, they never die. What temp is your bin set at? It should be around 80 degrees if possible. They seem to enjoy that temp in my bin. Also, I keep my Dubias in a shallow glass bowl with a piece of slate in it and it stays in the enclosure so Aries has a chance to hunt them. I only hand feed treats and silkworms now.

 

[Savannah]

Well the thing is, I can't have dubias. I live in Florida and they are illegal here. It seems like almost everyone who has Discoid roaches are either out or they are regrowing their colony so they won't have any available for months, so I don't have the option of buying roaches monthly. My Discoids are currently out in the garage, which gets in the 90s. I've heard they like it quite warm. There's very little humidity in their tub. They're getting Fluker's Cricket Gutload and Flukers Water gel, however I ordered a roach specific meal that should be coming tomorrow or tuesday. I've posted wanted ads for Discoids here and contacted every company that will ship them for Florida. I managed to get 100 from a guy doing me a favor at Coastal Silk Worms and 100 more from another guy doing me a favor at The Roach Crossing. It just seems everyones switched over to dubias and its really frustrating for me. I guess it will be a lot easier once I move out of florida next year.

 

[Bushmaster11B]

That's right, my bad.