M'kay, maybe she was constipated or a little impacted. Don't know for sure.
Not at all. Like I said, people have raised beardies from babies on only superworms. As long as you're not challenging 6 inch babies to take down 2 inch superworms every day, you shouldn't have any problems.
Well, most importantly, the advice has to be correct, not just a parroted list of things that the poster heard was bad and has convinced him/herself to abide by it religiously.
What if a bunch of people said something bad about Dubias? Did you know that Dubias can secrete a defensive chemical in their bodies that increases reptiles' rate of liver failure? Something like that, which someone might read, then parrot, then get it spreading as a thing. It's about as solid as someone making up a 1 year threshold for when beardies can eat superworms.
Thanks, i just didnt know about supers.
It’s fact all over the Internet as well for your info/knowledge. Mealworms are horrible for them; it’s cheap/impacts them. Supers are high in Fat, but good to feed alongside other proteins like crickets & Dubias. Hornworms are to be fed as a treat here and there. What is wrong with crickets & Dubias along with supers? They are very very good protein feeders for your info. I feed mine out of a huge ziplock bag after sprinkling the calcium and they eat out of it; it keeps the tank clean and avoids crickets roaming in the tank. Attached is a synopsis from the Net as well.
Here’s another Artcile about Mealworms. High in Fat, Unhealthy, can be addictive & bad for them.
There are many incorrect rumors on the internet. And that people can raise healthy beardies is evidence to disprove those rumors. You need to know the difference between a claim and evidence. No matter how many times you or anyone makes a claim, it doesn't become stronger. Only evidence can make a claim stronger. When there is evidence to the contrary, every person in the world can make the same claim but it is still wrong. That's why I search for evidence; I don't just tally the number of people who parrot a claim.
First of all, cheap is good. You want to spend less, not more to achieve the same effect of feeding your beardie. You can always offer to spend more for mealworms and I'm sure no one would refuse your money.
They are fatter than mealworms actually, if you reference the chart in my original post. They are good to feed as a staple and that is proven by many people's experience here.
Interesting rule you made up there. They are usually fed sparingly due to high cost but there is no evidence that using them as a staple has any negative effects. I have used silkworms as staple prey without ill effects.
Nothing's wrong; I'm not trying to stop people from feeding them. I know they're good but I would like to see if I can reduce hassle and cost while providing bearded dragons ample nutrients nonetheless. Crickets are notoriously smelly, loud, can die off in quickly, and often carry parasites. Dubias, unless you have a running colony, are a very expensive feeder.
That's fine, but not the only way that works and not the only feeder that is healthy to feed.
That's a screenshot from a random website with no scientific qualifications. It has no value.
Just like the last one, there is no scientific qualification or data presented, just a claim. Aside from that, it is not logical. We can see that the source claims that mealworms are low in protein but referring to the chart I posted in the thread-starter, the protein content of mealworms is on par with crickets and superior to that in superworms. Then we visit the claim that mealworms are too fat. From that chart, we see that mealworms contain less fat than superworms and are just over double the protein to fat ratio. Personally, if something is 20 grams protein, 13 grams fat, I consider that healthy for me. There is no scientifically established fat to protein ratio that is considered healthy for bearded dragons as far as I know so just saying that something is fat lacks meaning in this case. Being addictive is wonderful; I want my beardy to love his food. And with that, the "unhealthy" is already debunked.
Those are most certainly mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) in the video of the thread-starter. The morio worms you speak of are Zophobas morio, called superworms in the US, and those can easily grow to over 2", which no mealworm could ever naturally come close to. The color is also different as morio worms are tan throughout but very dark brown near the head and tail tip while mealworms are a golden brown all over.
Yeah, everybody says something different. I think most of them are just people trying to sound intelligent and educated ratting off a bunch of rules to show that they know something, but if you think about a bearded dragon's natural diet, these rules make no sense.
Because there are so many rumors and people willing to accept rumors as fact without scrutinization, we have this terrible situation. Generally, you have to fact-check by asking if this rumor makes sense with how a bearded dragon lives in the wild and whether people have raised healthy bearded dragons while not following the rumor.
There is definitely truth, but it is buried in false rumors.
Maybe this will be helpful. It is a scientific paper published in a peer-reviewed journal. It is much more trustworthy than random website claims. Table 1 compares the nutritional content among crickets, mealworms, superworms (morio worms) and waxworms. It makes mealworms look like quite a good feeder nutrition-wise but I would still be careful in choosing the proper size and amount to feed to smaller or weak dragons as I cannot outright dismiss rumors of impaction either. When feeding healthy full-sized adults, I wouldn't worry.
Those are most certainly mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) in the video of the thread-starter. The morio worms are Zophobas morio, called superworms in the US and those can grow to over 2", which no mealworm could ever naturally attain. The color is also different as morio worms are tan throughout but very dark brown near the head and tail tip while mealworms are a golden brown all over.
Yeah, everybody says something different.
Because there are so many rumors and people willing to accept rumors as fact without scrutinization, we have this terrible situation. Generally, you have to fact-check by asking if this rumor makes sense with how a bearded dragon lives in the wild and whether people have raised healthy bearded dragons while not following the rumor.
There is definitely truth, but it is buried in false rumors.
Maybe this will be helpful. It is a scientific paper published after peer-review. It is much more trustworthy than random website claims. Table 1 compared the nutritional content among crickets, mealworms, superworms (morio worms) and waxworms. It makes mealworms look like quite a good feeder nutrition-wise but I would still be careful in choosing the proper size and amount to feed to smaller or weak dragons as I cannot outright dismiss rumors of impaction either. When feeding healthy full-sized adults, I wouldn't worry.
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I think it's universally recognized that mustard greens and collard greens are excellent staple vegetables. As for other vegetables, generally, if people say it can be fed in moderation, it's totally fine to feed it for weeks if not forever. I assume you'll want to switch the veggie after a week or 2 anyway since you won't want to just eat the same thing with your beardie forever either. For the veggies that people recommend avoiding, the main concern is calcium-binding so I would dust them better and remember that metabolic bone disease is a chronic issue that is completely reversible when identified early so you'll have plenty of notice from your beardie's behaviors before things go bad.
I've heard that the UK is always rainy and wet so I don't know about over there but here in the US, you generally don't need to worry about it. If the humidity gets too high, your dragon could encounter respiratory infection, though. The main culprit for excess humidity is a water bowl in the enclosure, which you don't need and most beardies will not drink from. They get all the water they need from their food and an occasional bath.
Superworms are kinda fat but locusts, I would think not, and the information that you are providing (if correct) does confirm them as the leanest feeder. If you balance superworms with locusts, it seems to be a great way to go. That said, I will tell you that I have been feeding my adult beardy with morio worms, as much as he will eat every day for months and although he did gain weight, he is not exhibiting signs of obesity (belly dragging on ground when walking) and I have known people to raise perfectly healthy bearded dragons from baby to adult feeding only morio worms as thier protein (plus celtuce leaves) and no vitamin supplementation! So really, with your morio worm+locust diet, unless you're seeing undigested chunks of locust in his feces (since they seen kinda hard and chitinous to me) I wouldn't change a thing.
See I got told that not having a water bowl in there is illegal. They need a water bowl regardless if they drink much or not. I'd rather have humidity a couple % more than her not having an option to drink. I feel from what I got told that the middle is 40-60% for humidity with a small but of leeway on each side.
Illegal? LOL. Many people don't use water bowls for beardies because they've just never seen him/her drink from it. Other times, people have reported beardies getting sick because they defecated into the water bowl and then drank from it. For me, my beardie is trained to only go in a warm bath every day so I never come home to the smell of bulb-baked poop smeared all over the enclosure by the beardie walking over it. He gets a 20 min bath every day. There is no reason at all for me to have a water bowl for him.
I don't know the exact range but if your indoors also gets close to 100% humidity for a prolonged time, I would think that that is not good.
I like that idea.
Yeah, that bold part is what I don't agree with because I am seeing examples of people raising healthy bearded dragons feeding them appropriately sized mealworms in appropriate amounts. That is stand-alone evidence to debunk that mealworms cause impaction. Maybe they are an impaction risk in very weak rescue dragons at death's door when overfed, or in small/young dragons starved for days set loose on a buffet of full sized mealworms, but I see no evidence that healthy adult bearded dragons get impacted by regular amounts of mealworms. I've seen these lizards eat 3" locusts, fuzzy mice and quail chicks; I've seen baby dragons eat 2" New York cockroaches that took them minutes to swallow, none of which got them impacted, so what sense does it make that these 1" mealworms are especially deadly? None to me.
As you say and I fully agree with regards to mealworms. I feed my beardies whatever I feel like giving them and I'm speaking about all sizes of beardies. I breed Dubias, Turks (red runners I think they're called in the US), mealworms, silkworms, Hissing roaches and Supers. Some say that Supers are no good but I choose to ignore the hearsay.
I. Find this very educational. I'm new here and just got a obese dragon yesterday. Thank you for all that are helping each other out.
