Feeding Choices/Schedules?

[SerpentLust]

Just out of curiosity, what is everyone elses Beardie feeding schedule? I've been reading up to make sure mine are getting the best care and I've come across alot of breeders that are now taking out crickets, mealies, etc. and even greens and just feeding them pellets. Inquiring about opinions on that aswell...

Jenn

[Capital Dragons]

Hey Jenn,

Well I offer greens (collards, kale, swiss chard, graded carrots ect..) mixed with the new Exo-Terra BD food first thing in the morning along with a few Exo-Terra gut loaded crix. Then I offer crix again when I get home from work. However I’m feeding a few hundred dragons. If I only had a few I would totally try to cut out the crix from there diet once they were a few months old. Crix can be full of parasites and are escape artists. I hate them!!!

If you are looking to cut out the live food, the pellet food can work but not always. Some dragons just wont eat it. I would really try silk worms as the main live food source. They are (in my opinion) the best live food source. They can be expensive but a lot of people are raising their own and it really doesn’t sound that hard. If I had more time on my hands I’d give it a shot for sure.

Best of luck,
Tim

[paulsreef]

I feed collard greens and grated squash first thing in the morning. A half hour later I offer gut loaded crix dusted with vita-minerall. I've never tried a commercial pellet yet. I breed my own crix which takes up time and space. I sometimes have over 100 beardies to feed so I have no choice but to raise my own crix. I also hate it. I'm open to suggestions but will only switch to something new if it's a healthy choice.
Paul.

[drewlowe]

You can do a all pellet diet, the good side is no chance of parasites through food, it's cheaper and the bad side is they grow at a slower rate.

The breeder i got my beardies from swear by the all pellet diet and that's what they feed all of theirs.

I like to do as big as a variety as possible. They get either salads or pellets everyday and mabey once every 2 weeks or so they get some type of insect (crickets, waxworms (very rarely), silk worms, butterworms, and hornworms). All insects are gutloaded at for at least 24 hours before i feed them to any herp except the butterworms and waxworms.

My salads vary from week to week, i like switching it up for them. The greens i alternate are colard, mustard, kale, turnip, swiss chard, endive, and bok choy, Veggies are carrots greenbeans, snowpeas, red and green bell peppers, sweet potato, yams, butternut acorn and yellow squash. Fruits pretty much all of them except the citrus fruits and apples there favorites are strawberries, blueberries, mango and kiwi. I'm positive i feed them more items but without a produce dept. in front of me i forget. I also only feed them fruits one week out of the month for only 2-4 days. For adults it should roughly around 80% salads, 5% fruits, and 15% insects.

I have 2 adults that i feed this way, but when they were babies and juvies the protein (insects) would be alot more than what they get now.

Jamie

**edit** I use Rep-cal food pellets but because my 2 are so damn picky i have to take out the yellow ones or else they will stomp through the food bowl, but i do use the yellow ones to gutload my crix.

[Adrian]

I agree, the pellet diet does cause a much slower growth! I started mine on it at three months old and it was only 8 inches at 7 months of age! Otherwise perfectly healthy but i started paniking that i wasn't feeding him right after beliving these "vet formulated" pellets where a better alternative. Iv since switched to gutloaded crickets, mealworms, waxworms(occaisonally) and the super worms. Hes now at 15 inches and just turned a year old. From what iv seen in my experience, mix the pellets with the salad when its offered but realistically, its the bugs they thrive on in the wild.