Pellet foods?

[Bighead]

Do any of you use pellets for your beardies? It seems like a good idea as long as they are formulated correctly and you can get your beardies to eat them. What do you guys think?

[drewlowe]

I use rep-cal beardie pellets. I think thier great!!! I start all my baby beardies out on these also and the growth rate is even better than not feeding pellets. Now i'm not saying to only feed pellets, but they do make a great addition to thier diet.

My adults are a little pickier though, they will only eat the green ones, and if i put in the yellow or red colored pellets my boy will stomp through them. So the first thing i do when i get a bag (yes i said bag, i buy bulk) is go through and seperate the green from the yellow and red, place them in their specified tupperware containers. Then the green ones get feed to the beardies and the red and yellows i give to the crix i get in (along with veggies), so there is no waste.

[slitherchick]

i find that the repcal pellets are an awesome addition to their diet, especially whenever they're being picky little stinkers.
here's the analysis, just in case you were wondering:
crude protein (min)- 24%
crude fat (min)- 2%
crude fiber (max)- 13%
Moisture (max)- 12%

[Bighead]

Good to hear. I am in the process of trying to switch mine over. My male will eat anything I hold in front of him, but the female will only eat them occasionally. I haven't seen either of them eat from the bowl, but i guess this doesn't surprise me. I always hand feed them their crickets or mealworm, etc. so I think they've gotten a little spoiled. I also soak the pellets on a little water and put a little strawberry puree in it. Any other tips on getting them switched over? Thanks.

[drewlowe]

Bighead instead of putting water on them you can put apple jucie to moisten them up.

[slitherchick]

or you can be a sneaky one and wrap their favorite vegetable around a moistened pellet. rofl, the first time i did that, i got SUCH the evil look... he spit it out and rubbed his face on my pants to rid his mouth of the HORRID PELLET FOOD.

now he stomps through his veggies if he doesn't get pellets first.

[BigMatt]

can pellets replace crickets in a young bearded dragon?

[Bighead]

From what I understand it's perfectly fine as long as you're sure they are eating them. Since they are less likely to eat vegetables when young, it may be hard to get them on it 100%.

[nyrie]

What do you guys think about feeding small mealworms to young beardies? Mine's kinda spoiled and doesn't like to chase the crickets down so much.

[Bighead]

Mealworms are ok as treats but it can be very harmful if you feed them often. Beardies have difficulty digesting the hard exoskeleton and if they eat too many it can cause very serious problems. I would suggest holding off on mealworms for at least a month or so, so your beardies get used to crickets again. Many people never use them at all, which doesn't hurt either. Hope that helps.

[reptiguy123]

What other veggies/fruits/misc do they eat?

[beardiedragon]

I use the rep-cal pellets too. you can also try the t-rex VGF or VMF. It is used to dust salad or crix and is a complete meal with all the vit and min. It was tested by sandfire dragons and is used by them.