Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[herp_boi]

Hello i have a male bearded dragon around 5-6 mths old.
He is feeding on crix mealies locusts veg ect.
I was wondering because my beardie prefers (smallish) mealies more thatn crix.
will it harm him to eat more mealies than crix.He eats around 10-15 crix
and around 15 mealies.
Will the chetin (i don't know if that is the name of the shells ) do any harm to him?

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2.1 Heterodon Nasicus
1.1 Eryx colubrinus
1.1 Elaphe obsoleta linheimeri leucistic
1.1 Varanus acanthurus
0.1 Python Regius
0.0.10 varanus acanthurus eggs.
0.0.31 Heterodon nasicus eggs.
http://www.freewebs.com/njbherps/index.htm

[lol93]

They won't do him any harm as long as they're not used exclusively as a staple. Try getting him interested in a variety of different foods. One of my lizards was very fussy and would only take morios and crix until I got her some lobster roaches. Earthworms, waxies and silkworms are all good alternatives.
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[cass]

some people tend to call mealies beardie candy as they do get fond of them and get addicted , if fed far to many i suppose the chilten could be an issue i tend to feed a nice selection like lol said , crixs , locusts , silkworms and roaches go down a treat with ernie oh and waxies r his monthy treat
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http://www.beardieboard.com/

[herplover212]

I would have to agree with some of the comments and strongly disagree with some of the comments.

I agree that offering alternatives is always a plus. My boys love silks, roaches, crix waxies and supers. I feed mostly greens now to the two older boys, as they are both nearing 18-24 months of of age. (One will be two in April and one will be two in August.) I don't feed supers or waxies as regularity as the roaches, silks or crix. For "Shrimpy" - my six month old male - I still feed a higher percentage of protein then greens; he gets crix, small superworms, roaches, waxies and silks as well. Again, he gets supers and waxies a couple times a week at most, and they all only get a few at a time. Never as a staple, such as 50-100 crix or roaches that they consume per day. Thank God the two older boys are weening themselves off protein. :)

As for mealies and earthworms, I would strongly disagree with feeding either. One might be able to persuade me to go with feeding mealies in a bind, or a few times a month as a change-up. Sure. Especially with an older dragon (min. of 6 months old) and not on any particle substrate. It's just risking a potentially lethal combo, and that I am not willing to risk with any of my scaly kids.

Earthworms, IMO, are just not at all smart to feed dragons. I feed them to my salamanders, and that is it. Earthworms have known to be high risk carriers of parasites. Not only that, earthworms are very high in calcium - which is ok, but there is no balance of phosphorus. Too much calcium is as harmful as too little. MBD can appear with too little and toxicity can occur with too much (as with vitamins too). This applies more to the dragons then say ... the sals ... because the dragons are diurnal and utilize calcium differently.

I don't know about where you all are from, but here in the US (WI to be exact, where I am at) ... waxies, crawlers and earthworms are sold commercially as fish bait. As are superworms - though not as common. With that said, many companies use chemicals that act as steroids or other chemical alterations to enhance size, color and shelf life of the product. This could be devastating to a beardie.

The only safe way would be to order from a site or person(s) that are selling it for herps, so it is not treated or enhanced in any way. That would potentially eliminate that problem, as well as lessen the chance of exposure to pesticides, etc that are a huge danger when feeding wild caught prey.

Sorry to have rattled on and on, but I just wanted to share my two-cents worth. Of course, I believe all feeders should be gut loaded and common sense used to avoid any obvious problematic situations thay could arise.

Thanks for listening .... errrr, reading! :) I hope it made some sort of sense.

-Shanna
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*Yes, I am the chick in the pic!" ;)

[cass]

thanks for that shanna very interesting read
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http://www.beardieboard.com/

[lol93]

That is interesting. It's good to hear other people's experiences!
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[Nelson]

I personally have no problems feeding mealworms to either adult or baby BDs.

From my own experiances with breeding and feeding babies from day 1 on mealworms amoungst other things, thier health is down to a balanced diet (including suppliments) not "dont feed mealworms because of the chitin". All my Dragons have been fed mealworms from day 1 under my ownership/birth and some are really getting on now (read grumpy old codgers )

*This is not directed at anyone, just a grumble*

I do get the feeling that sometimes people, rather than taking resposibility for themselves when things go wrong would rather blame mealworms, sand etc than realise/admit their husbandry is incorrect.
The 'net has alot to answer for, hear say becomes fact, people with (in real terms) no knowledge of the subject (genrally kids with their first dragon) think, because they've read it, it must be true.

Herp boi, Seperate the wheat from the huge amount of chaff that can be found on the 'net. At the end of the day its up to you what you feel is right for you.