AboutJedediah Expertise I can answer questions concerning frogs (especially Poison Arrow Frogs), lizards such as geckos and bearded dragons, insects and invertebrates such as millipedes or land hermit crabs. I can give advice on housing, feeding, behaviour, breeding ect. I cannot answer questions about medical problems. If you suspect that your pet is sick, please see a herp vet with it ASAP.
Experience I keep various frogs, bearded dragons and a number of invertebrates. I am especially interested in the proper care of land hermit crabs and I'm always glad to give advice on this topic.
Question QUESTION: My wife has just bought me a 6 week old bearded dragon and was told the best insect for it would be a small locust, please could you tell me if this is correct and how many a day I should be feeding it and how often I should be feeding it greens/vegitables. Thanks
ANSWER: Dear Andy,
thank you for your question.
You can offer a variety of insects, as long as the insect is smaller than the distance between the dragon's eyes, as a rule of thumb. Crickets, locusts, roaches (Blaptica dubia for example), mealworms, waxworms (both very fatty, shouldn't be fed too often), silkworms ect. Some dragons will eat woodlice (rolypolys) or earthworms, both are high in calcium.
A juvenile dragon should get about 70-80% insects and 20-30% vegetables and leafy greens, for aduts it's the other way around.Offer vegetables all the time so that the dragon gets used to them, it can be very hard to get an adult dragon to eat greens if it hasn't been offered them as a juvemile. A juvenile needs to be fed insects several times a day, offer about 10-15 crickets/locusts per feeding. It's best to feed the insects with vegetables and fruit for at least a week before offering them to the dragon to make them more nutritious and they should also be dusted with a calcium-vitamin supplement at every other feeding.
QUESTION: The pet shop that the bearded dragon was bought from said to feed it one insect four times a day, I take it from reading your reply that, that info is way off the mark and I have ended up under feeding it for the last few days
Answer A juvenile dragon needs a lot mroe food than that. With adults, you have to be careful about not overfeeding them , they can grow fat, which can cause serious health problems, but juveniles need that much food for growing - the dragon will reach adult size in less than a year, after all. It's probably a good idea to check any other information the pet shop gave you, sadly they very often don't have a clue what they are talking about.
