how much to feed a bearded dragon?

[newb]

hi was just wondering how much people pay weekly (food)for their beardies? i hate crickets i was thinking about locusts? i know lots of you have loads of reps how do you afford it? thanks

[Neonius]

Depends on the age of your beardie. My girl is over 2 1/2 years old and i feed her half a box of X large locust (normally 4) every 3 days and offer her a bowl of salad everyday.

I will sometimes buy a box of Morios which will last me near 3-4 weeks.

Younger beardies will need to be fed more livefood and crickets are far more cost efficient - my girl just despises and refuses to eat crickets as the shop i got her from had almost always fed her on locusts.

[BecciBoo]

I buy a bulk bag of around 1000 crickets to last a month, costs about £10 including delivery. Then I buy a bag of fresh spring greens and a squash + other fruits and veg (i vary it each week) weekly...about £4/5! I also buy a box of hoppers or mealworms/waxworms every few weeks as a treat...£2.50 a box!

[newb]

how many boxes of locusts would a baby get through a week? sorry for being thick but what are marios?

[BecciBoo]

Originally Posted by newb

how many boxes of locusts would a baby get through a week? sorry for being thick but what are marios?

That depends...with babys you should feed them as many as they will eat in 10mins twice a day, everyday! and then they need veg daily on top of that!

marios are large mealworms

[Neonius]

Originally Posted by newb

how many boxes of locusts would a baby get through a week? sorry for being thick but what are marios?

They are basically large mealworms, just under half the size of your keyboards space bar (lol, couldnt think of exact size)

But you shouldn't feed morios or mealworms to younger beardies very often. For adults they only act as a suplementary diet and should never be fed as a base diet for adult beardies or young beardies either.

They are relatively fattening and their shells contain chittin which can be harmful to beardies digestive systems in large amounts - has a similar effect that impaction has i think (correct me if i'm wrong)

[HadesDragons]

A lot of my beardies are now eating roaches that I breed myself, either as a staple food, or as part of a locust-based diet. The rest of the adults / juveniles are on locusts / sub-adult black crickets, and all get their diets supplemented with Morios. I buy everything in bulk, which makes it a lot cheaper (it's still fairly expensive though...) Adult beardies should eat 75% greens, which makes things a lot cheaper - watercress / spring greens / squash is fairly inexpensive, and then I just add in whatever else happens to be in the house for meals etc. Breeding your own food is fairly easy to do, and really cuts the food bill!

Andy

[Johnny_Beard]

as a guide its only £5 a week for me and my Beardie is jst over 3 months old and took 2 weeks to settle in.

Since Friday he has eaten nearly 3 boxes of locusts as the shop has run out of crickets and i get 30 in a box so he is eatng nearly 30 a day at the moment, about 10 in the morning and around 15 - 20 at night but it dose vary every day.

I cant belive i was worried at first that he was not eating lol

J & Scooby

[newb]

thanks everyone not as bad as i thought dont fancy breeding my own though wish i was a little less squemish!

[mikeyh]

seethis is my problem as i start work at 8am leave about 7.30am
so my bd`s dont get fed until teat time.

so is there anyway of feeding them really early?.
i do leave greens in the viv all day but no hoppers or crix.