Newbie with Diet Question

[Taxman0720]

Hello. I am going to get my first bearded dragon soon. I am doing all my research right now. I plan to get a subadult/adult and want to know if I have to feed him crickets or cockroaches. Can I just feed the less fatty worms and fresh greens and vegetables? Is there a commercial food that acts like a replacement for crickets (I know there are foods out there for the vegetable part). Of course I plan to do the proper dusting with supplements. I just want to make sure my new friend will be well taken care of and hope I can avoid the smell and basic annoyance of crickets and cockroaches.

Thanks for any help or advice!

Tony

 

[Hdrydr31]

Welcome to the forum! Glad to hear you doing research beforehand..
Live is ALWAYS best and recommended/needed. Our job is to provide the best nutrition for them. They will get the moisture they need from live bugs and greens. Dubia roaches really are easy and don't smell, don't make noise, can't reproduce or live long enough outside their "enclosure". Offer tons of benefits to our dragons, easy to gut load, long GI tract so nutrients stay in them longer and they are a well balanced food item. Supers are good staples however they are fatty and dragon's love them so they will become picky and only want them if given the chance...Avoid commercial dry foods as you really don't know what's going into them and they take the moisture from your dragon that they need just to digest them... As well as you just can't beat fresh greens/veggies/bugs.
Good supplements are key as well, like Dandelion powder, alfalfa powder, bee pollen, calcium with and without D3, probiotic powder, multi vit
If you take a look at the links below my comment click on the link for general info for new comers that will take you to a thread we have put together that has everything you may need to get things going in the best way... we are always adding info
hope that helps

 

[Taxman0720]

Wow..thank you for all the information. My plan was to feed fresh greens, I was just hoping there was a commercial that provided an alternative to the bug part of the diet. I kinda wanted to make a greens and bug salad

I will do some research about the Dubia roaches and what to do to keep alive and properly gut load them. Question, from what I read, the food should not be any bigger than the distance between the eyes of the beardie. These roaches are that small? If I bought a large quantity, will they grow too quick and become to big to feed?

 

[Ron G]

I feed my adult Bearded Dragon Hornworms instead of the Crickets. I couldn't stand taking care of the crickets. I usually get one order a month from Great Lake Hornworms and rotate them with his salad. They are more expensive than crickets but way easier to take care of and my Dragon loves them. They are soft and he eats them way bigger than the space between the eyes. I didn't start feeding him the Hornworms until he was at least over 1 year old.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hdrydr31]

Wow..thank you for all the information. My plan was to feed fresh greens, I was just hoping there was a commercial that provided an alternative to the bug part of the diet. I kinda wanted to make a greens and bug salad

I will do some research about the Dubia roaches and what to do to keep alive and properly gut load them. Question, from what I read, the food should not be any bigger than the distance between the eyes of the beardie. These roaches are that small? If I bought a large quantity, will they grow too quick and become to big to feed?

You can buy nymphs (babies) which would be the smallest and those are the size of a pea some smaller..on up to adults.. If you get an juv or an adult dragon they would be able to eat all sizes but you may find that he/she may turn their nose up to ones that are too small.. dubia are edible at all stages and are very meaty. Dragon's will for the most part chew them really well..You just need to watch them to see what/how they eat..
There are quite a few bugs they can eat..
If you take a look in the general info we've put together info link and I've written info up on dubia care. and we've added in ton's of info for new comers.

 

[Taxman0720]

Thank you your help and links. I have a lot of reading to do and it looks like this forum is the place to go.

 

[PatsyB]

I used superworms as my staple bug for a long time and mixed in other worms like hornworms, silk worms, and Phoenix worms and butter worms. Hornworms are full of hydration and if they eat too many of them they will have runny poop. My oldest girl is on a hornworm diet right now because they are easy to inject her supplements into and her poops are soft.

Just so you know I am TERRIFIED of dubia but I bought small ones, even though my animals are all adults. The small ones are less scary to us and remind us more of water bugs.