Important Beardie Questions

I just need some ideas of feeding schedules for young beardies and adult beardies.

What/when do you feed your beardies?

Also, I know I need the calcium powder, do I need a specific kind?

Do I need miner-all? what is it?

do I need herppitivite?

If I need herppitivite, calcium, and minoral can someone please describe when and how they apply them?

What is beardie diet? I guess I need it?

For greens are collard, mustard, and dandylions best for young beardies?

Lastly, I think I want a rock for my beardie cage. Can I get a rock from a creek? If so what do I do to it, bake? What temp for how long?

Thanks for your help/advice.

Hi There!

First, I think you need to tell us how old, how many, and what your viv setup is for your beardies. That will tell us what you need to change/improve/implement in your husbandry and or feeding. :wavey:

Well then, just one juvie beardie in a 24x17x14" homemade cage.

I didn't see it in your post, but you MUST have UV lighting with UVA and UVB. This is very important at all stages of growth, as without it they can develop MBD(metallic bone disease?SP).
Crickets should be no more in size than the space between their eyes, otherwise they can become impacted. I feed mine crickets and silkworms. As said previously by JTGoff69, much more info is needed to help you. These guys need a MUCH bigger cage than you would initially think. My lone male has a cage 4'long x 2'deepx2'high.(won't need one that big for a baby, but eventually they need a large space.)
Never have beardies of varying sizes together and NEVER put 2 males in the same cage. Really, I would suggest housing all animals individually, but if you must have more than one, make sure it is females. I wouldn't suggest a pair in the same cage, as they might breed too early...so one dragon per cage is good.
They are a lot of maintenance compared to snakes, but I love my lil guy. He is the only reptile my wife allows in the house. He has a display cage in the living room and her and my 3 year old love to get him out to hang on their shirts.

OH, and for the rock, I soak mine in a bleach solution for a couple hours and rinse. I feed them salad in the morning and crickets at night, dusted with calcium. Miltivitamine once a week. The greens you have listed are great. Post a pic

johnbort2 said:

I didn't see it in your post, but you MUST have UV lighting with UVA and UVB. This is very important at all stages of growth, as without it they can develop MBD(metallic bone disease?SP).

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Metabolic Bone Disease - which is due to lack of properly metabolizing calcium.....which in turn, is usually due to lack of UVB and/or calcium supplementation. (UVA is needed, but not for metabolism).

Most corn snake owners on the forum recommend buying and reading a copy of Kathy Love's "Cornsnake Owners Manual". The Beardie version of this is "The Bearded Dragon Manual", by Philippe de Vosjoli & Robert Mailloux. It's indispensable.

regards,
jazz

lol..i should have looked it up. I knew MBD...but couldn't remember the "M"..heh

Yeah, caging size is no problem. Me and my dad build our own cages and I have a 5x2x3 for when its bigger.

Where is place I can get a UV with UVA and UVB for a good price? Any suggestions?

Thanks.

About the crickets being no larger than the space between their eyes...

All meal worms are relatively the same size, right? So would those be good for young dragons or only for older ones?

Chris Steele said:

All meal worms are relatively the same size, right? So would those be good for young dragons or only for older ones?

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I shy away from mealworms for young dragons - the worm's exoskeleton, chitin, can be tough on their digestive tract. I'll start using mealworms, and then only sparingly, when they get to about 6 inches in length from snout to vent (in other words, not including tail length).

Keep in mind that they'll grow like weeds in their first three months. Once they're decently sized - essentially subadults - I'll step them up to "superworms".

Just be sure to balance everything - crickets, greens, worms, etc.

regards,
jazz

How many crickets do young dragons eat per day?

Chris Steele said:

How many crickets do young dragons eat per day?

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You'd be amazed....

With a beardie's metabolism, the short, smart-aleck answer is "as many as you can throw at 'em"....for babies, you want to feed 2-3 times per day, as many as they can eat in ten minutes.

From my experience, this can vary from 24 to 80 3/8" crickets per day. (I think this is why I'm leaning more towards cornsnake breeding projects than beardie breeding projects. Once every 5 days is much easier than 2-3 times per day.)

regards,
jazz