New here, please identify these beardies for me

[Vinser]

Got these 2 this weekend, just want to know what are they, I mean color or morph? Thanks!

[Vinser]

second one:

[Vinser]

Also, I got Rep-Cal pellets, which my local petshop told me is the daily food all they need, but so far they don't eat at all. Any trick to get them to eat? I know crix or mealies will work, I just don't like live bugs too much. Thanks all.

[Rebecca]

They eat veggies too.

[Bartman]

meal worms arnt even close to as bad as crix in my opinion. The mealies dont jump around and its almost impossible to have an escape. You can feed it collard greens and mealworms, silk worms every other day switch back and forth. Thats what i did with my old beardy and he is in good shape. I dont suggest those pellets, they dont look to good in my opinion. good luck with the two new additions, the make great pets.

[eyespy]

My vet friends have made an absolute fortune out of picking mealworms from beardie intestines. Beardies have very low acid digestive systems and don't tend to digest mealworms very well at all. Only their stomachs produce acid, the intestines are alkaline which does not break down the hardened proteinsin mealworms at all. Mealworm impactions are nearly as common as sand impactions and I see at least 5 cases a week in my little rescue.

I don't think they are at all an appropriate food. Not only are they difficult to digest, they have 9 times as much phosphorus as they do calcium and so are nearly impossible to effectively gutload and dust to right that balance. Because they are so challenging to digest, they also draw a lot of moisture out of the digestive system, triggering dehydration.

A nice mix of crickets, roaches, earthworms, silkworms, hornworms, superworms, Rep-cal pellets and salads is a great diet for beardies. They need a lot more variety than the pellets alone can provide. But the Rep-cal pellets are very good, much better than most of the other brands on the market.

Here's my favorite caresheet which discusses a wide variety of foods for beardies:

http://www.australianbeardies.com/care.htm

They look like a normal phase right now, but young beardies often take weeks of good quality UVB exposure to develop their colors so who knows? Unless you know the bloodline, it's very difficult to accurately identify the phases as there is so much variety even between clutchmates' coloring.

[drewlowe]

I agree with eyespy completely My guys and gals get a great variety of food. Various greens, sweet potatoes, carrots, snow peas, fresh greenbeens, and others, various fruits (as treats) not to many insects any more but my female LOVES butterworms, silkworms, waxworms (treats High in fat), along with rep-cal pellets. My baby beardies start out with food pellets. I agree with the mealworms part also my boyfriend had a pair of beardies before we got together and they died cause of mealie impactation so he will never feed them mealies again. He wouldn't let anyone get near them with meal worms.

Heres a trick that may help them eat thier food pellets. Try softening them with applejuice. The smell may lure them into eating them.

As far as color goes i agree again with eyespy i have a pair of orange glow beardies that just had their first clutch of eggs hatch and they all have a variety of colors some are lighter all over while some are darker with more orange on the sides of the face and body. But i'm sure they will change as they get older just like their parents did.

Congrats on your new addition. Beardies are great!!!!

[Vinser]

Thanks all for the replys. This forum rocks!

For substrate, I am now using yesterday's new, they are good but a bit larger IMHO. Has anyone ever considered rice? They are food, small grained, white, and actually low cost (I saw $4-5 for 20lbs).

[eyespy]

All the starch in rice is a terrific medium for mold growth and beardies are very sensitive to fungal infections. I wouldn't recommend rice.